decoded_text stringlengths 4.18k 47.6k |
|---|
to launder money.
(Read More: After Government Raid, Jittery Future for Bitcoin)
But the argument against bitcoin based on criminal activity is hyped, said Charlie Shrem, founder and CEO of BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange that Winklevoss is invested in.
"When bitcoin first came out it was like the wild west," Shrem said. "Who are the first people who are going to use any kind of new technology? The ones who need it the most. Who are the ones who need to use any financial system the most? The ones being pushed out of the current financial system. So obviously, when the first software comes out, these are going to be the first ones who run to it."Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo, the central bank’s dominant voice on financial regulation, has submitted his resignation and will leave his post on April 5.
Tarullo’s exit will create a third opening on the Fed’s board of governors. He had served on the Fed’s board since January 2009.
"Dan led the Fed's work to craft a new framework for ensuring the safety and soundness of our financial system following the financial crisis and made invaluable contributions across the entire range of the Fed's responsibilities," Chairwoman Janet Yellen said. "My colleagues and I will truly miss his deep expertise, impeccable judgment, wise insight, and strategic counsel."
ADVERTISEMENT
Tarullo was a central figure for the Fed in crafting and implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and his departure makes clear that the Trump administration will soon dictate the direction of regulation at the agency going forward.
In his brief resignation letter, Tarullo said it was a “great privilege to work with former Chairman Bernanke and Chair Yellen during such a challenging period for the nation’s economy and financial system.”
Tarullo’s exit came days after the Fed’s longtime general counsel, Scott Alvarez, also announced he was planning to leave the institution. Both were key figures in helping the Fed navigate its broad new powers to monitor the financial system following the financial crisis.
With Tarullo’s exit, President Trump will have the opportunity to fill three vacancies at the seven-member Federal Reserve Board. He also has the ability to name a vice chair for supervision at the Fed. That position, created by Dodd-Frank, is meant to serve as the point person for all regulatory matters at the central bank. However, such a role was effectively filled by Tarullo, and President Obama never named someone to that post.
Tarullo's exit does not come as a major surprise, although his term as governor did not expire until the end of 2022.Since October 2007, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been dying at a faster rate in at home than in combat, according to government figures.
For example, 113 veterans of the two wars died in the U.S. in May 2010, while only six soldiers were killed in Iraq and 34 in Afghanistan during the same month.
From September 2001 to June 2010, 5,518 active duty military personnel were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the same period, 4,194 veterans died after leaving the military, with more than half perishing within two years of discharge. About 1,200 were receiving disability compensation for a mental health condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and almost 1,000 died before reaching their 25th birthday.
In California alone, 1,000 veterans younger than 35 died from 2005 to 2008—three times the number killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same period, according to an investigation by The Bay Citizen.
-Noel BrinkerhoffVideo: Texas Women Sue After Public Body Cavity Search
Photo: Texas Department of Public Safety
Two North Texas women have filed suit against the Texas Department of Public Safety, saying they were molested during a traffic stop last July.
Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece Ashley, 24, say they were driving to Oklahoma at night when they were pulled over by State Trooper David Farrell. Farrell told the women he saw them toss a cigarette out of the car. But instead of a citation (littering is a Class C misdemeanor in Texas, punishable by a fine of up to $500), they were subjected to a body cavity search, conducted on the side of the highway by a female state trooper, Kelley Helleson.
[Daily Mail UK]
The suit alleges that neither woman consented to the body cavity search, which involved vaginal and anal penetration by Helleson. It also says that Helleson used the same gloves on both women, and in searching Angel Dobbs, Helleson caused her pain by irritating a cyst. Meanwhile, Farrell searched the women's car, but found no marijuana, only two bottles of prescription drugs--synthetic thyroid hormone and hydrocodone, which Dobbs said she took for migraines. The bottle of hydrocodone later went missing, and the suit notes that Farrell was the last person to handle it. The conclusion of the video is almost as infuriating as it is disturbing: When Angel Dobbs tells Farrell, "I was totally violated," he says only, "Well, someone is a daily smoker in that car, and you can attribute [the search] to that." The conclusion of the video is almost as infuriating as it is disturbing: When Angel Dobbs tells Farrell, "I was totally violated," he says only, "Well, someone is a daily smoker in that car, and you can attribute [the search] to that." The lawsuit names Farrell, Helleson, and the director of the Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, as defendants. McCraw is included in the suit because, ABC affiliate WFAA The lawsuit names Farrell, Helleson, and the director of the Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, as defendants. McCraw is included in the suit because, ABC affiliate WFAA reports, he was allegedly aware of a "long standing pattern of police misconduct involving unlawful strip searches, cavity searches and the like, yet failed to take corrective action." The Dobbses are suing for compensatory and punitive damages. The case is expected to go before a grand jury in January.
The incident was captured on the trooper's vehicle dash-cam, which also shows the initial encounter with Farrell. Farrell tells the two women that he's going to write them a citation for littering and returns to his car--where he radios Helleson for assistance, saying he smelled marijuana in the car, and that "I might use your help to search a couple of females." What follows is, well, surreal (: Graphic Video):J.K. Adams: A 2nd-Generation, Family-Owned Company
Kitchen storage solutions by J.K. Adams make it easy to save on valuable kitchen space while enjoying the best of USA-made craftsmanship. The family-owned company provides everything from pot hooks and spice bottles to wooden spice carousels, kitchen-knife blocks, bread boxes, wine racks, pot racks, and more. J.K. Adams' wooden kitchen items feature renewable and sustainable wood in Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Alder, Ash, or Hickory varieties. A thoughtful choice for gift giving, the high-quality kitchen items provide sleek designs and convenient functionality for year after year of everyday convenience.
Innovative Kitchen-Storage Solutions
In the late-1970's, when the gourmet-chef-tools market in the U.S. was still in its infancy, J.K. Adams owner Malcolm Cooper, Sr. conceived of the first slanted knife block. His goal was to create a cutlery organizer that would hold knives at a low enough angle that they could be easily removed from the block when it was pushed back under a cabinet overhang. The J.K. Adams Kangaroo knife block was launched in 1980--the first-ever slanted knife block, and still the best.
Recognizing the many opportunities to improve kitchen storage, J.K. Adams introduced the revolving "carousel" spice rack in 1982 followed by countless other well-designed storage products in the years since, including the popular in-drawer knife tray in 1994, a space-saving alternative to the knife block that offers the same safety and blade protection.
In 2011, J.K. Adams takes cutlery storage to a new level once again with the new Universal knife block. For over 30 years, J.K. Adams has continued to lead and inspire the kitchen storage market with their innovative designs, superior hardwoods, and exemplary craftsmanship.
Today, J.K. Adams continues to provide innovative designs, superior hardwoods, and high-quality craftsmanship. J.K. Adams: Over 65 Years of New England Yankee Craftsmanship
Some of the world's finest woodworkers can be found in New England. The rich heritage and folklore of the great Yankee Woodworker is as well known today as it was hundreds of years ago, and the craft has been handed down through the generations. J.K. Adams' success is certainly attributable to the early Vermonters employed by the company while in its infancy who brought forth the techniques and quality craftsmanship that could only come from generations of shared knowledge and experience.
The J.K. Adams factory has been at the same location since the beginning. As many as three generations of families have relied on J.K. Adams to provide for their families. Located in a rural area of Vermont, J.K. Adams remains one of the largest employers in the area and is an important pillar of support for the local community.
J.K. Adams has always used the creativity and skill of their workforce in developing new products, and today J.K. Adams continues its New England craftsmanship with a wide variety of cutting boards, as well as wooden salad bowls, kitchen islands, and slate serving trays. And at the J.K. Adams factory, you'll find future generations of woodworkers building upon the traditions begun over 65 years ago.
Cutting boards and other products by J.K Adams are made in the North America.
About J.K. Adams' Logo
In colonial New England, three strokes of a broad ax were used to mark the finest trees in the forest for the Queens' Navy shipmasts. The broad arrow was adopted as our logo because it symbolizes the exceptional quality of wood that goes into our products.
Started over 65 years ago in a small garage in Dorset, Vermont
Cooper family purchased business from founder Josiah K. Adams in 1949
Began with the Speedy Racer toy, and then followed by manufacturing drafting and surveying tables, Kiwi shoe groomers, gifts, and furniture
Now the leading supplier of wooden storage and food preparation products for the specialty housewares industry
Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Alder, Ash, and Hickory
Either from New England or other North American sources
Renewable and sustainable
Hard and durable, yet forgiving to knife edges
Prized for look and longest wear
Identifiable by small pieces put together
Board usually thick and heavy
Many pieces, lots of glue joints, cracking can be a problem
Most common in cutting boards
Moderate grain pattern
Stable with minimum glue joints
J.K. Adams' Company HistoryOur WoodWood Grains End GrainEdge GrainWhy Choose a Wood Cutting Board?
Wood is naturally anti-bacterial, and any bacteria left on the board will actually lessen in time versus multiplying on a plastic cutting board. A wooden board will also be more gentle on your knife's edge, and it just feels and sounds better under a knife.
Caring for Your J.K. Adams Cutting Board
Wash by hand in warm soapy water and dry thoroughly, and oil frequently with mineral oil to help give it an optimal appearance. Do not soak, microwave, freeze, or put in the dishwasher. For removing stains, you can use a weak bleach-and-water solution or a combination of lemon juice and salt. Be sure to rinse and wipe with mineral oil afterward. Additionally, the surface can be sanded to make the board look like new--although a board with wear will add character to your kitchen. For storage, keep the board away from strong sunlight as avoiding UV rays will reduce the risk of fading.
We only purchase lumber from a select few suppliers who we are confident practice sustainable forestry practices
Vermont forests are growing faster than they are being harvested
J.K. Adams has been awarded the Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence
Environmental ResponsibilitiesEver since I became a metalhead at 14 I’ve loved Halloween. Back then it was because I could deck my room out with cheap Poundland accessories with skulls and anything black (not just for the season you understand, this was year round bedroom decor) but now I just love the atmosphere. I know people complain about it becoming Americanised, but I love that it’s becoming a big deal here, I love the colder nights, the darkness, the cool outfits. Now as I’ve mentioned on the blog before I have a goth side of me so this is the perfect time of year to bring my two fashion influences together, and I’ve fond a dress that lets me do just that.
Dress: Vampiress by Hell Bunny
Cat Necklace, Similar here
Fascinator, old Etsy First up a little note about these pictures. I live in a bungalow that apparently doesn’t have one inch of spare wall with enough space to take pics in front of, hence why these are portrait and have my Mother’s interesting choice of patterned curtains in the background. I’ve picked up some new lights for winter shooting so I’ve played around with those and some different poses, I feel like the theme allows for it!
it has pockets! This dress is a serious player in my favourite dress stakes. You might recognise this dress although in a slightly different form my Disney Fashion Competition post almost exactly a year ago. I finally decided to jump in and get it last week and it’s my first piece of Hell Bunny I’ve bought in ages, if you know me at all you’ll know this is a big deal. I was Hell Bunny obsessed but with other players like Lindy Bop coming on to the market I am starting to leave them behind, but I just love the design of this dress. It’s good quality material too which is good as I’ve had some bad experiences with Hell Bunny’s new thin material in recent years. As it is a bit colder I decided to go with the longer version instead of the mini dress one I featured last time but truthfully I would happily have both! I love the colour contrast between the black and green ( I am very into green in the autumn). I love the fit, I love the puff sleeves, I love the neckline and the collar, and! This dress is a serious player in my favourite dress stakes.
I decided to do something I’ve not done for years and pair this dress with a petticoat, with this dress it just feels right. The petticoat is the cheap one I got for my Alice in Wonderland cosplay and the thing is, it’s actually pretty perfect shape-wise. The reason I stopped wearing my old Hell Bunny petticoat was because it just made me look bigger where as this adds volume in the right places. So much so I am actually selling my Hell Bunny one and just using this for now on.
I’m not wearing any shoes in this simply because I didn’t have anything that screamed out at me (hey at least I’m honest) but I have paired the dress with this cute cat necklace I was gifted at London Edge last year (which is actually backwards in all my full-length pics, good going Kariss!) and this little fascinator I picked up on Etsy years ago in a post-Halloween sale (seriously the best time for goths!).
Makeup wise I decided to try something new and go for a strong contour with no blusher. It’s what all the young people are doing I hear and it’s not normally a look I would go for but the spooky effect works well here I think. Both these eyeliners (black and green) are Kohl Soap and Glory and are amazing. Seriously the texture is fabulous and they just glide on. The lipstick is one of the £1 Atomic collection ones from Makeup Revolution. Not the best quality and needs layering but for £1 you can’t really complain. In an ideal world I would have done an ombre lip but I’ve tried that before and I cannot get it right, not even close.
Overall I love this look, I feel really vampy which gives my confidence a boost. It doesn’t look too much like you are going to a fancy dress ball (I wore it to work today without makeup/ accessories no problem) but yet if you paired it with a hat you could totally do a witchy look!
What are you wearing for Haloween?'We were so confident in Alberto, we didn't have a Plan B. Then Plan A went out the window'
With six tough climbs preceding a first-category mountain-top finish to La Planches des Belles Filles, today was to be the day my Tinkoff-Saxo team turned the Tour de France on its head.
On the team bus this morning, the stage plan was to let breaks go in the early part and then simply ride flat out over the last three climbs and break up the race.
We were all confident that our team leader Alberto Contador would be very close to taking the yellow jersey of race leader at the end of the stage. That was Plan A.
In fact, we were so confident in Alberto's chances of winning this Tour, we didn't have a Plan B. But on the descent of the second climb of the day, the first-category Petit Ballon, Plan A went out the window.
We were riding close to the front of the peloton, doing about 70kph in the wet, on a really long straight bit of road, when Alberto reached into the pocket in the back of his jersey for some food and hit a hole in the road.
Unable to control his bike with one hand, his front wheel went from under him and he went head first, bounced off the road and slid into the grass verge. Riding a few places behind him in the group, I locked up my wheels and threw myself to the side to try and stop. With the speed I was going though, I only came to a halt about 50 metres after him.
I jumped off my bike and ran back up to where he was lying in shock on the grass at the side of the road.
As I helped Alberto up, I noticed his bike was broken and there was a stream of blood coming from a gash just under his right knee. His wound looked pretty bad but as a rider, my natural instinct was to simply hand him my bike and encourage him to keep going.
"Take my bike Alberto! Go, go, go!"
"Nico, I don't know if I can," he said as he hobbled out onto the road.
"Go and see. Try it, just jump on the bike!"
As Alberto took off gingerly on my bike, I waited at the side of the road watching what seemed like everybody in the race pass me by. There were cars and groups of dropped riders everywhere, so I held Alberto's broken bike in one hand and waved the other one frantically in the air, afraid the team car would drive past in the chaos.
Soon, a surprised Bjarne Riis pulled up in the car and the mechanic handed me my spare bike. They hadn't heard me on the radio and didn't know anything about Alberto's crash.
As I chased back through the cars, I came across Alberto stopped again, this time with the medical car at the side of the road about 2km later. The car had blocked half the road, so with nowhere to stop safely, I rode a few hundred metres further before pulling in and waiting for my team leader to get patched up and rejoin the race.
With my team-mates Michael Morkov and Daniele Bennati stopped alongside me, at first I took advantage of the situation and went for a much-needed pee but as the minutes ticked past I began to get worried.
HURT
I knew that if Alberto wasn't badly hurt and just needed a bandage and a change onto his spare bike, there was a chance that his climbing ability could see him drop us in an effort to get back into the peloton.
On the other hand, if he had abandoned the race, there was a risk that with 100km and five climbs still to go, that if we didn't regain contact with the peloton, we could all finish outside the daily time limit and be eliminated from the Tour.
But Tinkoff-Saxo is a team. Alberto is our captain so we were always going to wait and give him as much support as we could. After almost four minutes at the side of the road, we were told on the radio that Alberto was continuing.
At that point we were the last riders in the race, nine minutes behind the leaders on the stage and four minutes behind the peloton. I brought Alberto up to Sergio Paulhino, who had also dropped back to help and the two of us rode with him. Although he was clearly in pain, Alberto wanted to see if he could regain contact with the peloton so we rode at a pretty good tempo, overtaking a large group containing our other two team-mates Michael Rogers and Rafal Majka on the climb.
With the pressure on, we soon dropped 'Benna' and Michael but our priority at the time was to get Alberto back into contention. Often, when you crash, you get a rush of adrenalin that kind of numbs the pain and you can ride pretty hard for a while after. But as that adrenalin rush subsides you get the hammer, and we knew there was something wrong when Alberto could not hold the wheels about 10km later.
We began to take it a bit easier in the hope that he would come around and at least be able to finish the stage but what we didn't know at the time was that he was riding those 15km or so with a broken tibia.
Eventually, the pain was too much and Alberto shook hands with Michael Rogers, threw an arm around him, pulled over to the side of the road and abandoned this Tour de France.
By then, we were already 14 minutes down and with about 80km to go, we knew it would be a bit of a challenge to finish before the time limit. Our best bet was to just stick together and keep a steady tempo. Riding in team time trial formation the five of us began to catch group after group and we eventually finished 28 minutes down on stage winner and race leader Vincenzo Nibali.
As soon as we passed the finish line the media jumped on us but I was in no mood for interviews today. Apart from the fact that we had just lost our team leader and a real hope of winning, it had been a really tough stage and I was absolutely wrecked.
We had ridden most of the stage with five riders, trying to beat the time cut. The team car guys calculated that the stage time limit would be roughly 35 minutes after the winner, so it was worse than being in a breakaway.
The time limit was 38 minutes and Benna and Michael, who were in the group behind, only made it by five minutes, while Tiago Machado of NetApp Endura, who had crashed earlier but bravely continued, was cruelly eliminated when he crossed the line on his own 43 minutes down.
After we got changed, we all cycled down to the bus to find Alberto sitting with his leg in a brace. He had been to the X-ray bus at the finish and had found out that he had broken his right tibia, just under his knee. He's already had stitches but will probably need surgery in a couple of days.
As you can imagine, team morale is pretty low at the moment. As a team, all our hopes and dreams have fallen apart today. Personally, one of my dreams was to ride into Paris with my team leader as winner and this year we all believed it could be Alberto.
It will take time to get over the disappointment, but the Tour goes on and we have a really strong group here. We will pull ourselves together on the rest day tomorrow.
Irish IndependentDAILYKENN.com -- All local authorities have to take their own responsibility for housing migrants, according to Sweden’s Minister for Home affairs.
What's worse, asylum seekers who fail to qualify will be allowed to stay in Sweden for years before they will be expelled.
Worse yet is the failed asylum seekers will receive financial aid from Sweden's taxpayers.
The announcement leaves the impression that the government in Sweden is intentionally attempting to attract Islamic insurgents and plans to keep those who should be deported indefinitely.
It appears to be akin to the USA's amnesty program: Once an illegal alien steps foot on our soil, they are virtually guaranteed de facto citizenship.
I call it global Marxism and its objective is to alleviate the economic disparity that exists between Western nations and third-world countries.
The economic disparity is the effect of an intelligence disparity. Inhabitants of Third-world countries typically have average IQs ranging from 70 in some sub-Saharan African regions to about 85 in many Muslim nations. In the aggregate they simply can't compete with Western nations.
The solution — from a global Marxism perspective — is to colonize Western nations with low-IQ Third-worlders, thereby dampening the intelligence disparity and ultimately the economic disparity.
The outcome will be a decrease in the quality of life for all humanity as the Western-culture infrastructure is weakened.
Marxists care little about quality of life. They are solely concerned about equality of life; themselves, of course, excepted.
Officials in Sweden say they plan to deport 80,000 recently arrived asylum seekers.
Anastasia Levchenko — Failed asylum seekers facing deportation from Sweden will stay in special facilities and receive financial aid for several years before being expelled to the countries of origin, press secretary to Sweden’s Minister for Home affairs Anders Ygeman told Sputnik Thursday.
On Wednesday, Anders Ygeman revealed Sweden's plans to expel up to 80,000 failed asylum seekers. He mentioned that deporting migrants would take several years, and charter aircrafts would be used for these purposes. — sputniknews.com
▼ SHARE if you think Sweden should expel all Muslims ▼
More racist hate crime reports at AbateTheHate.com
Comment ▼▼▼
Owner: Columbus Marketing Group, Inc.
Permission is granted to use the material in this article providing (1) the byline is included
in an obvious manner
crediting DailyKenn.com as the author, (2) a link to this page is included and (3) no changes are made either by deletion, addition or annotation. Original compositions at DailyKenn.com are sometimes seeded with decoy data, such as hidden acronyms, to detect unauthorized use and plagiarism.
Comments at DailyKenn.com are unmoderated. Comments containing obscenities, pejoratives, slurs, etc., do not constitute an endorsement of this site, its contributors or its advertisors. Offensive comments may be deleted without notice.
Comment ▼
Image credit: sputniknews.comPlease do not submit comments containing obscene, racist, or otherwise offensive language. Although comments are not routinely monitored, offending comments will be summarily zapped if discovered to be unduly gauche.DailyKenn.com is a family-friendly web site.Advertisement
IllustratIon: Dan Page
The newspaper, that daily chronicle of human events, is undergoing the most momentous transformation in its centuries-old history. The familiar pulp-paper product still shows up on newsstands and porches every morning, but online versions are proliferating, attracting young readers and generally carving out a sizable swath of the news business. In the United States alone, 34 million people have made a daily habit of reading an online newspaper, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
It’s just the beginning. Online news will inevitably grow at the expense of its traditional counterpart because the Web not only lowers production and distribution costs, it also opens up newspapers to entirely new formats. Even run-of-the mill Web servers with access to a reasonable supply of news stories can generate thousands of different versions of a newspaper. Yet so far, few newspaper sites look different from the pulp-and-ink papers that spawned them. Editors still manually choose and lay out news stories. Often, the front page changes only once a day, just like the print version, and it shows the same news to all readers.
There’s no need for that uniformity. Every time a Web server generates a news page, for example, in response to a reader’s clicking on a link, it can create that page from scratch. An online news site can change minute by minute. And it can even generate different front pages, essentially producing millions of distinct editions, each one targeting just one person—you. Unless and until they do so, online newspapers will become increasingly irrelevant as the stories that are important to you get buried in an Internet already filled with absurdly more information than any one person can use.
The most interesting and important way to customize a site is to create a page of stories based on your unique interests culled from information about your past reading behavior. There’s already a model for that—the recommendation systems used by Amazon, TiVo, and Netflix. Using information on past purchases, movie ratings, or items viewed, these systems steer consumers to items from among the thousands or millions they have on offer. Newspapers can and should borrow this idea.
It could transform the industry. Based on articles viewed, these systems could highlight the ones they think a reader would find most interesting, even presenting them in order, with the most interesting article first. No longer would readers have to skim pages of news to find what they needed. No longer would reporters have to battle for the limited space on the front page.
In their uphill battle to stay relevant, newspapers will first have to catch up with other news sites that already customize their front pages in one way or another. Aggregators such as Google News, My Yahoo, and Netvibes allow a reader to configure the layout of his or her personal page so that it highlights the most popular or highly regarded news. These sites also cluster news by topic or category and let readers focus on the articles that interest them the most. Such innovations are useful, but they still fall short of what’s needed. My Yahoo, for example, requires users to configure the page themselves and to make changes when their interests do, instead of accurately inferring those changes from whatever has attracted the user’s attention lately.
Google News is the best of the bunch, a popular news site that does use software to automate the prioritizing and laying out of stories. It changes rapidly, clusters stories that focus on the same event, allows users to customize the site, and recommends news based on past reading habits. But news sites could do even better by automatically learning what news stories each reader wants and using that knowledge to “print” millions of personalized editions of the newspaper.
Such features aren’t far off—they were actually part of a news aggregation Web site called Findory.com, which I ran between 2004 and 2007. Findory built a unique, personalized front page for each reader, based on what he or she had read in the past. In so doing it showed a way by which newspapers could recommend information much as Amazon recommends books.
Newspapers constitute a US $55 billion business in the United States, yet that business is invariably described as troubled. Many readers still feel loyalty to their hometown newspaper and know it is likely to contain news relevant to them, but they are increasingly reluctant to wade through all its articles to find the few that matter to them. Personalized news recommendations can be a lifesaver to newspapers that are drowning in the sea of information that washes over us all.
IT MAY SEEM A SMALL STEP from recommending products to recommending information. In fact, doing so is actually quite complex. Stand at the entrance of a Wal-Mart or look at Amazon’s home page and the shiny world of each one’s wares seems limitless. But it’s not. It is firmly bounded by the constraints of time and warehouse space. A sprawling Wal-Mart store typically has about 100 000 items; Amazon carries a few million. The world of information, on the other hand, is measured in billions of pages and petabytes of data. Processing data on this scale can require a supercomputer-scale infrastructure well beyond the means of a city newspaper.
Recommender systems also face what is known as the cold-start problem, which stems from the difficulty of rating any item that either has not yet attracted the notice of recommenders or has attracted only those about whom nothing is known. For example, before a new movie is previewed by critics, no one at all has seen it, so no one can recommend it. Within weeks, though, enough people will have contributed opinions to help many others decide whether to see it. But a news article doesn’t have weeks to attract attention, only hours. Often, by the time a fair number of people have read the article, it may well have faded into irrelevance. As we’ll see, one of Findory’s goals was to ameliorate the cold-start problem.
To understand how a really successful recommendation system for news might work, first consider those being used now at sites like Amazon and Netflix. One of the fundamental characteristics of these systems is that they learn not just from your behavior but also from that of other customers. The underlying assumption is that there are other people out there who are like you and that those people have found and enjoyed things you haven’t yet seen. These algorithms search over Web-site logs, ratings, and purchase transactions to discover people with interests similar to your own. Then the algorithms look up the items those people liked and recommend them to you.
Suppose that many people who buy the textbook Managing Gigabytes also buy Lucene in Action; the algorithm will conclude that the books may be similar, particularly if the people who buy Managing Gigabytes buy Lucene in Action much more frequently than the general population does. Even if the books are on different topics and the texts of the books are not similar, purchases in common reveal books with similar appeal. People who buy books on information technology may, for instance, also tend to buy science fiction.
More generally, if the recommendation system can find users who have bought many things you have bought, then it will bring to your attention things these other people have bought that you have not. This kind of algorithm is often referred to as collaborative or social filtering because it uses the preferences of like-minded people in the community to filter and prioritize what you see.
Because it’s so difficult to apply recommendation algorithms to information, sites have tried to personalize news in other ways. One of the largest customizable news sites, My Yahoo, launched in July of 1996. A user chooses from hundreds of modules—including news, weather, sports scores, and stock prices—and picks the layout of these modules on the page. User-customized sites are simple to build, easy for readers to understand, and take advantage of the ability of online news sites to show a different front page to each reader. By customizing, readers can emphasize the news most important to them.
Unfortunately, most readers don’t. Research at Yahoo has found that most users do not customize their front pages and that most who do don’t bother to update those pages to reflect their changing interests.
GOOGLE NEWS, arguably the leading site when it comes to personalized news, goes several steps further, automating things as much as possible. For example, it uses a technique called implicit personalization to recommend different content to each reader, based on the reader’s past behavior. It’s an innovation that suggests a way forward for the news business. But first, consider how Google News accomplishes two other seemingly simple automation chores: ranking and clustering stories.
Google is, of course, famous for its method of ranking search results. In the case of news, it forms an understanding of which stories are generally the most interesting and important and continually updates a reader’s personal home page with that in mind. Google News collects millions of articles from thousands of sources, so it would be out of the question to use a staff of editors to lay out the front page, as most news sites do. Krishna Bharat, who led the development of Google News, says that its algorithm ranks stories according to the authority of the news source, the timeliness of the article, whether the article is an original piece, where the article was originally placed by the editors on the source Web site, the apparent scope and impact on readers, and the popularity of the article.
To cluster news stories, we have to define “same event”—an ill-defined, surprisingly hard problem
Google News also clusters stories on the same news event. Clustering gives readers the benefit of diversity, which is particularly useful to readers of international news. For example, a French paper might take a profarmer stance when covering a trade dispute on European Union farming subsidies, while a British newspaper might have a very different view. Another advantage of clustering is that it can either eliminate or call explicit attention to duplicate articles, such as when two newspapers run the same Associated Press wire story.
But the task of clustering news stories on the same event encompasses several subchores, some of them fairly difficult. One of them is simply defining what we mean by “same event”—an ill-defined, surprisingly hard problem. For instance, stories about the escape of a tiger from the San Francisco Zoo last December included articles on how the animal may have gotten free, how it killed a visitor, how it mauled two other people, how it was itself killed by police officers. Are they all the same event?
Google News tackles this problem by using a technique called hierarchical agglomerative clustering. Basically, it puts news articles with similar phrasing together into distinct piles. It starts by analyzing the content of articles to find those that share keywords or key phrases; articles that have enough language in common are assumed to be covering similar topics. The articles in each pile are connected based on the strength of their similarity. To visualize these connections, imagine a treelike structure where the articles are the leaves. If we grab a branch from the tree, the many leaves on that branch are all similar articles—that is, articles about the same general event. Thus a group of leaves near one another on a branch of the tree constitutes a cluster.
This tree is constantly changing. As more and more stories accrue on a general event, the threshold for determining whether any two of those stories are about the same aspect of that event becomes higher. The clusters may shift, with articles jumping out to new groups or old groups that are splitting or combining. The groupings adapt to the news available, which is always changing.
If the ideal result is a newspaper featuring the news you want to see, these clustering and ranking strategies can take you only so far. They can determine whether a new development in a story you’ve been following is something that might interest you. But they can’t make a logical leap—for example, recognizing from your previous interest in articles on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence that you would be fascinated by the discovery of an Earth-like planet in another solar system.
To make this kind of inference requires figuring out an individual reader’s interests and accurately recommending new articles based on those interests, just as Amazon and Netflix recommend books and movies. Toward this end, rather than showing top stories of general interest, the Google News recommendation engine attempts to figure out what each reader’s top stories should be. The recommender analyzes the past clicks of all readers, the past clicks of |
ever made, is dismissed as naive. Yet this neglect of work-related life is absurd when most adults of working age devote more than half their waking hours to their jobs – especially if we include the time spent in commuting and, increasingly, out-of-hours work. We simply cannot ignore this when judging how well we are doing.
If we are to deal with the "general living crisis" we need to radically change our perspectives on what is a good life. We need to accept that consumption is not the end goal of our life, and stop measuring our wellbeing simply on the basis of earnings. We need to explicitly take the quality of our work-related life into account in judging our wellbeing. Let's start taking work seriously.Every now and then, former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters rises like a ghost from the depths of his own depravity to spew his blatant Jew-hatred shamelessly across the airwaves. He can’t help it.
Like a belch that cannot be suppressed, Waters’s dislike of Jews consumes his being and cannot be held down. Like Haley’s comet with hair gel, he seems to take another pass at our attention every time we, understandably, forget that he exists.
Waters’s musical talent was long ago surpassed in the public mind by his antisemitism. And in terms of keeping him in the public conversation, it works.
This time, he found a new way to attack the Jewish State: its supposedly Nazi-like use of ‘propaganda.’
In an hour long Q&A session with Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) founder Omar Barghouti, Waters admitted that when thinking about the situation in Israel, he finds it “hard not to go back to [Joseph] Goebbels,” the Nazi propaganda minister. “[Israel’s] tactic is to tell the big lie as often as possible over and over and over again.”
Goebbels, of course, rallied a nation to commit the greatest slaughter in the history of mankind, thereby enabling it, and did so by enforcing an iron grip over an entirely state-governed press. Israel has a free press that never hesitates to criticize its government, and is the only full democracy in the entire Middle East. Somehow, one reminds Waters of the other.
As preposterous as his comparisons are, however, they aren’t new. In 2013, Waters compared Israel and its Rabbinate to the Nazis, saying they believed that all non-Jews are “sub human” and that the “parallels with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are … crushingly obvious.” He also compared artists who perform in Israel to those who performed in Berlin during the Second World War.
His abominable hatred for the Jewish people has also gone far beyond his words. In 2013 Waters masqueraded as a Nazi in one of his concerts. Flanked by long draping banners, Waters’s outfit was complete with a slick leather jacket, a red arm-band, and an MP40 Schmeisser — the iconic Nazi machine gun used extensively by Axis powers throughout WWII. To resolve any doubts as to the performer’s clear antisemitism, at the very same concert, the audience found itself orbited by a massive balloon in the shape of a pig and stamped with a Star-of-David. These schemes were featured at Waters’s concerts in Belgium and the Netherlands, countries where over 130,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
I am writing this column from a five-nation Holocaust education tour with my family.
We are currently in Austria, where we just saw the birthplace of Adolf Hitler in Branau-an-Inn. The Austrian government is debating whether or not to destroy the landmark. Witnessing the places where my people were annihilated has been an excruciating but necessary journey, made all the more poignant by the existence of people like Waters in the year 2017. That a music icon can be so consumed with hatred of the Jewish people that he would compare them to the Germans who murdered six million Jews during the Second World War gives you an idea of the level of uncontrollable loathing that has gripped this man.
Waters has limited his concern for human rights only to Israel. Indeed, he is a full-on collaborator with the serial human rights propagandists in China, who just allowed a Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in captivity.
China is an oppressive state that is estimated to have executed more people in 2016 than the rest of the world combined. Censorship and state-sponsored propaganda are a part of daily life, with China named by Freedom House as “one of the world’s most restrictive media environments.” China has also been occupying Tibet for sixty-seven years, brutalizing both the people and their sacred landscape, which has been torn apart in recent years by China’s mad campaign of mineral mining. When the people of Tibet tried to protest the desecration of their holy sites for gold extraction in October 2013, they were fired upon by mining officials, with four murdered and over fifty injured.
Of course, none of that stopped Roger Waters from cashing in on the Chinese mega-market. Not only does Waters not interfere with other artists’ performances in China, he played there himself in in 2007.
In an act of astounding hypocrisy, Waters has even actively joined forces with Chinese propaganda institutions. In 2007, just months before Waters’ Shanghai concert, the National Ballet of China put on its first modern-themed dance show, “The Pink Floyd Ballet.” The ballet, produced by Waters, the rest of his band, and French Choreographer Roland Petite in 1972, became an official piece of a renowned Chinese avenue for propaganda.
For those who don’t know, the National Ballet was run in its early years by Madame Mao, the wife of the Chairman, and was one of her favorite methods of Marxist indoctrination. Throughout the Cultural Revolution, the dance troupe repeatedly played eight Marxist-themed shows, the most famous being The Red Detachment of Women, which depicts the brutal shooting of a “tyrant: by a platoon of Communist women — all through interpretive dance. The National Ballet had a monopoly on Chinese musical theatre, and its eight shows were the only presentations allowed in a nation of eight hundred million people. These shows weren’t just permitted, but were also propaganda, forced into the minds of the Chinese. According to Joan Acocella of the New Yorker, “When [the Chinese people] turned on the radio, this was the music they heard. When they went outside, this was what was coming out of the loudspeakers in the streets.”
These plays are still performed by the Ballet for the people of China and are recommended for anyone who wants to see ballerinas leap across the stage in military uniforms, equipped with rifles. They also serve the express intent of the Chinese government to glamorize the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s for today’s Chinese audiences, when it was in fact a repressive campaign that saw the deaths of up to two million Chinese, the persecution of tens of millions, and even 137 cases of cannibalism on the part of communist activists.
It is pretty clear that the Chinese National Ballet is a perfect case study of government propaganda. Not only does Waters fail to oppose them, he offers them full collaboration.
Waters has performed shows in countries run by some more of the world’s most criminal regimes. Russia, too, is ranked as one of the countries with the least freedom of the press, and political dissidents are regularly shot dead in the streets of Moscow, one just a block from the Kremlin. Waters’s response to this injustice: sold-out shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg, grossing nearly three-and-a-half million dollars in revenue.
He also performed in Turkey in 2006 and 2013, in the United Arab Emirates in 2007, and in Venezuela in 2002, while Hugo Chavez was still in power.
Waters follows in a long tradition of antisemites who espouse vile hatred of the Jewish people,while cashing in on their hypocrisy and stamping on human rights.
For all that, those who attend his concerts and enrich this hater ought to perhaps embrace what he calls for against Israel: a boycott of a man whose hatred long ago consumed any artistic talent.
Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom the Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America,” is founder of The World Values Network and is the international best-selling author of 31 books. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.June 18, 1986 OBITUARY Kate Smith, All-American Singer, Dies At 79 By FRANK G. PRIAL Kate Smith, whose vibrant voice made ''God Bless America'' an unofficial national anthem and was one of the most popular singers of the century, died yesterday afternoon at Raleigh (N.C.) Community Hospital. She was 79 years old and lived in Raleigh. President Reagan expressed sorrow over her death, saying: ''Kate Smith was a patriot in every sense of the word. She thrilled us all with her stirring rendition of 'God Bless America' and sang with a passion which left few eyes dry.'' Miss Smith had been in poor health since 1976, when she suffered brain damage as a result of a diabetic coma. In January, her right leg was amputated because of circulatory problems associated with her diabetes, and on May 9, she underwent a mastectomy. But it was the robust and joyful young singer who never took a formal music lesson whose voice became one of the most listened-to by a nation struggling through the Great Depression and World War, still holding fast to an optimism for the future. Everything about Kate Smith was outsized, including Miss Smith herself. She recorded almost 3,000 songs -more than any other popular performer. She introduced more songs than any other performer - over a thousand, of which 600 or so made the hit parade. She made more than 15,000 radio broadcasts and, over the years, received more than 25 million fan letters. At the height of her career, during World War II, she repeatedly was named one of the three or four most popular women in America. No single show-business figure even approached her as a seller of War Bonds during World War II. In one 18-hour stint on the CBS radio network, Miss Smith sold $107 million worth of War Bonds, which were issued by the United States Government to finance the war effort. Her total for a series of marathon broadcasts was over $600 million. President Roosevelt once introduced her to King George VI of England, saying: ''This is Kate Smith. Miss Smith is America.'' Kate Smith had been a national singing star almost from the outset of her broadcasting career in 1931. But her identification with patriotism and patriotic themes dates from the night of Nov. 11, 1938, when, on her regular radio program, she introduced a new song written expressly for her by Irving Berlin - ''God Bless America.'' In a short time, the song supplanted ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' as the nation's most popular patriotic song. There were attempts - all unsuccessful - to adopt it formally as the national anthem. For a time, Kate Smith had exclusive rights to perform ''God Bless America'' in public. She relinquished that right when it became apparent the song had achieved a significance beyond that of just another new pop tune. Mr. Berlin and Miss Smith waived all royalties from performances of ''God Bless America.'' The royalties continue to be turned over to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America. ''God Bless America'' became a standard in the repertory but both the song and Miss Smith experienced a curious resurgence of popularity beginning in 1969 when the Philadelphia Flyers professional hockey team began to substitute her recording of the song for ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' before games. The team began to win on nights the song was played. As the team improved, the record was reserved for crucial games and, at the end of the 1975-76 playing season the Flyers' record was 41 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie on nights Kate Smith sang ''God Bless America,'' either on record or in person. The first three of the five or so times she appeared in person, the Flyers' opponents were scoreless. Sang for Troops During World War II Kathryn Elizabeth Smith was born May 1, 1909, in Greenville, Va., and grew up in Washington, D.C. Her father was a wholesale magazine distributor. As a baby, she failed to talk until she was 4 years old. But a year later she was singing in church socials and by the time she was 8 she was singing for the troops at Army camps in the Washington area during World War I. Alarmed by his daughter's evident penchant for the stage, William Smith made her take up nursing at George Washington University Hospital. She stuck it out a few months, quit and got herself on the bill at Keith's Theater as a singer. Heading the bill was the actor and producer Eddie Dowling who signed up the young singer for a revue he was preparing. It was called ''Honeymoon Lane,'' and it opened in Atlantic City on Aug. 29, 1926. A month later it moved to Broadway. A review in The New York Times on Oct. 31, 1926, under the heading ''A Sophie Tucker Rival,'' said: ''A 19-year-old girl, weighing in the immediate neighborhood of 200 pounds, is one of the discoveries of the season for those whose interests run to syncopators and singers of what in the varieties and nightclubs are known as 'hot' songs. Kate Smith is the newcomer's not uncommon name.'' She was actually only 17 at the time. From ''Honeymoon Lane,'' Miss Smith went into the road company of Vincent Youmans's ''Hit the Deck,'' where she won acclaim singing ''Hallelujah!'' Back in New York she took the company lead in George White's ''Flying High,'' which opened at the Apollo Theater on March 3, 1930, and ran for 122 performances. As Pansy Sparks, Miss Smith's role was to be the butt of Bert Lahr's often cruel jibes about her girth. She said later that she often wept with humiliation in her dressing room after the show. One evening, Ted Collins, a representative for Columbia Records, saw the show and heard Kate Smith sing for the first time. He sent a note backstage and asked her to see him in his office. When she appeared a few days later, it marked the beginning of a show-business association that lasted 34 years, ending with Mr. Collins's death in 1964. Made Radio Debut On 22d Birthday Mr. Collins advised the successful but unhappy girl to take advantage of her good voice and to forget about comedy. The first booking he got for her was the Palace, where she lasted 11 weeks, setting a new record for a single performer. In 1931, radio had overcome its early self-consciousness and was coming into its own as an entertainment medium. Mr. Collins arranged for a 15-minute nightly show for his client and she made her radio debut on May 1, her 22d birthday. The young singer, billed as Kate Smith and her Swanee Music, made her debut one week after another singer, the coloratura soprano Lily Pons, began her radio career. For her first show, Miss Smith chose as her theme the song that was to become her trademark, ''When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain.'' She also used for the first time her opening, ''Hello, everybody!'' and her closing, ''Thanks for listening.'' Within six months, the young star had a sponsor, La Palina cigars, a long-term contract and a four-figure salary. In 1938, the year she introduced ''God Bless America,'' Miss Smith began a daytime radio program of down-home philosophy, comments on current events and women's affairs. The show was an immediate success, but it did prompt some of the harshest criticism Miss Smith ever received. The barbs came from The Daily Worker, the newspaper of the American Communist Party, in 1949. After noting that most of the program was devoted to inconsequential pap, The Daily Worker said Miss Smith and Mr. Collins devoted a few minutes to the problems of the Roman Catholic Church under a repressive Government in Czechoslovakia. The Worker went on to call Miss Smith ''Kate, the red-baiter, Kate the distorter of Communist policy, Kate the apologist for interventionists in Eastern Europe.'' The article concluded: ''This is the real Kate.'' The Worker's criticism had no noticeable effect on her career, which branched into television the following year, 1950, with ''The Kate Smith Variety Hour.'' The show lasted five years. When it was dropped in May 1955, the network received 400,000 protest letters. Later that year, she returned as a guest on the Ed Sullivan show. The public response led to a contract for five more appearances, but Mr. Collins suffered a heart attack and Miss Smith canceled all her activities until he had recovered. In January, 1960, she returned with a new television variety show on CBS. It received high critical acclaim but low ratings and was dropped after six months. Lived in New York And Virginia The death of her mother, Charlotte Yarnell Smith, in 1962, followed by the death of Mr. Collins two years later, threw Miss Smith into a period of depression that ended in July 1965, when she announced she would return to television that fall. Over the next decade she performed regularly on variety shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Andy Williams and others. During her long career, Miss Smith rented various apartments in New York, most recently a three-bedroom suite in the Sheraton Motor Inn at 42nd Street and the Hudson River. She once told an interviewer that she had no interest in traveling abroad but loved to watch the ocean liners coming in and out from the motel roof. For 40 years, she kept a summer home on a small island in Lake Placid, N.Y. She also had a home in Arlington, Va. She lived modestly but was estimated at one time to have amassed some $35 million during her working life. Two autobiographical books were published under her name: ''Living in a Great Big Way'' in 1938, and ''Upon My Lips a Song'' in 1960. She also wrote the ''Company's Coming Cookbook,'' in 1958. Miss Smith was, not surprisingly, a prodigious eater and a good cook. She gave her weight variously as 215, 225 or 235 pounds, but usually with a wink or a booming laugh because it obviously was higher. Under Mr. Collins' tutelage she had come to terms with her figure. At one point in the 1960's, she shed 90 pounds over a four-year period, bleached her hair, and discarded the dignified dark dresses she had worn for years. But, she later declared, she was uncomfortable that way and went back happily to ''real chocolate fudge sundaes.'' Because of their long and close business relationship, Miss Smith and Mr. Collins were thought to be married. They were not, and a form letter was sent to anyone who inquired. It read: ''Miss Smith is not married. Mr. Collins is married, has one daughter and two grandchildren.'' In 1965, after attending Roman Catholic services for 25 years, Miss Smith was baptized into that religion at the local church in Lake Placid. She was baptized by the same priest who had administered the last rites to Mr. Collins." Post-truth politics," "alternative facts," "fake news": how disdainfully the phrases drop from leftist lips. As the liberal writer Wes Williams puts it, "Right-wing media use 'alternative facts' on an almost daily basis."
In fact, all human beings subconsciously seek out data that sustain their prejudices. We see what we want to see, even in the most literal sense: In tests where words are slowly illuminated on a screen, we see the nice words before the ugly ones.
Think of any contentious situation — for example, a white police officer shooting an unarmed black man. Most people's responses will be subliminally influenced by what they expect. If they start from the proposition that cops are good people doing a hard job, they will likely conclude that the case is one of justifiable self-defense, or at the very least of excusable error. If their assumption is that the police prop up a racist system, they will probably think the cop was guilty.
Either way, they won't be aware of their partiality. In their own minds, they will have drawn the only reasonable inference from the facts. They will therefore believe that those who don't see what they do, despite being presented with identical evidence, are either fools or liars.
Both sides think they are deploying cold logic; neither is aware that it is being selective. The people who fume about the way their opponents deny "the scientific consensus" on global warming are themselves often prepared to defy "the scientific consensus" when it comes to, say, the heritability of IQ.
Consider the example of wealth distribution. Global poverty has fallen by two-thirds over the past three decades, and global inequality is also dropping. Most leftists, though, refuse to believe it — and, in fairness, not only leftists. Two-thirds of Americans believe that global poverty has risen over the past 30 years. This is partly a response to seeing charity appeals, reports of disasters and so on. But it is also a classic case of what liberals call "post-truth politics."
When confronted by hard data showing that incomes in developing countries are rising, that malnutrition is being eliminated, that disease is becoming rarer, that infant mortality is at an all-time low, people will often respond by saying "Tell that to X" — X being, say, "a Syrian refugee" or someone else currently in the news.
The belief that poverty is worsening is so intrinsic to leftists' worldview that they will cast around for any data, however flimsy, that prop up their prejudices. In the U.K., every measure shows a decline in poverty — both in absolute terms and in the relative terms that leftists generally favor. (The poverty lobby in Britain succeeded in getting the government officially to define a household as "poor" if its income is less than 60 percent of median household income. With pleasing karma, this the definition of poverty is now registering the steepest drop of all.)
Yet, as I type these words, I am looking at a front page headline in The Guardian, our main Left-wing newspaper, proclaiming that "Poverty Kills Children." Well, OK, it's still true that a child born to wealthy parents has better health prospects; but you'd never guess from the article that the gap is closing.
With every official metric showing poverty in decline, leftists point desperately to the increasing number of food-banks. Food banks are becoming more common for the same reason that smart-phones are: they didn't exist 20 years ago. They are not a measure of anything.
To repeat, we are all subject to self-serving biases, conservatives as well as liberals. What is peculiar to the Left is the self-righteousness, the determination to sacralize every argument: "Tell that to the people lining up at a food bank!"
There are plenty of instances of "fake news" that leftists eagerly promulgate. After the Brexit referendum, for example, all sorts of bogus stories about attacks on foreigners whizzed around social media, and a ludicrous figure about a 58 percent "rise in hate crimes" assumed almost canonical force. Something similar happened following the election of Donald Trump, with at least one Muslim "victim" later admitting she had made up a story about being harassed. But try questioning these stories at the time and see what rage you bring down on yourself.
No one has a monopoly on objectivity; all human beings are subject to what psychologists call "self-serving bias." So please, liberals, take a look in the mirror before you lecture the rest of us.
Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.It appears SwiftKey missed April 1 by a few days, as today the company has uploaded a new keyboard app with a difference: instead of using SwiftKey's predictive talents to figure out what your next word will be, it uses none other than William Shakespeare's own words. That's right, England's most famous playwright powers the 'KeyBard,' or rather his words do.
If you start typing a famous Shakespeare quote, such as, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," or, "Now is the winter of our discontent," the app will try and fill them in and complete the sentence. It doesn't always manage it, but it gets pretty close most of the time. Otherwise, the app will predict words that make sentences long, hard to understand, and generally quite Shakespearean. SwiftKey's top language experts analyzed many of Shakespeare's plays, such as MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest, to come with the language model, which like the normal SwiftKey keyboard, learns as you type.
SwiftKeys says users should start 'thou, thee, and thy-ing' to get in with the Shakespeare lingo, and recommends that sentences should be started with "O!" or "What ho!" for an 'authentic Shakespeare feel.' The app was developed by SwiftKey Greenhouse, SwiftKey's ideas lab, to coincide with the anniversary of the bard's death 400 years ago.
The app is available to download now on the Play Store. SwiftKey is encouraging users to share their best Shakespearean phrases on Twitter, using the hashtag #ShakeSpeak.ANAMOSA — The Anamosa State Penitentiary might not be at the top of the list of Christmas Day destinations, but Warden Bill Sperfslage was nothing but cheer Monday as he greeted staff and offenders alike with holiday wishes.
In the kitchen, a traditional meal was prepared, including turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls with butter, pumpkin pie with topping, relishes and milk.
Sperfslage said serving a special meal on the holidays has a long history in the more than 100-year-old prison.
“To me, it’s really important they recognize the holidays,” he said. “There’s some normalcy here... as much as we can, in 15 acres with stone walls around it, we try to create that normalcy.”
Kelly Fitzpatrick, food service coordinator, was helping prepare food trays in the kitchen. Workers slid trays through a slot into the dining hall, where a lone paper Christmas tree adorned the wall, with holiday greetings written in multiple languages, including English, Vietnamese and Arabic.
“This is actually a fun day to work. Everyone is in a good mood,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Iowa Department of Corrections has a master menu with a five-week rotation of meals served at all nine institutions, said Lisa Oswald, associate warden of administration at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.
“We’re allowed to do something a little special for offenders at the holidays,” Oswald said.
Special meals often are provided on Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Veterans Day and the Fourth of July.
“It doesn’t have to be really fancy, but something special out of the regular five-week schedule,” she said.
Once a year, the prison surveys inmates to get input on the menu. Favorite items include hamburgers, french fries, pizza, fried chicken and pancakes. Meals that were abandoned after scoring poorly with offenders were beef stew and beans and weenies, Oswald said.
The average cost per meal at Anamosa is $2.27. The facility has about 950 medium- and maximum-security offenders and about 320 staff, according to the Corrections Department website.
Sperfslage said he sometimes hears criticism about providing a special holiday meal to people serving time. He said it’s a small gesture — one he’s happy to provide.
“I think people often forget the one thing they don’t have is their freedom. That’s a really big loss.
“All the stuff we do is nice, but at the end of the day I’ll always argue the biggest thing you can have is your freedom.
“Those guys don’t have it,” Sperfslage said.
l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.comI’m looking for some advice. My husband recently injured himself at work. He drives a forklift. When he came in one morning, the seatbelt was broken, but he was told to drive it anyway. Then, of all things imaginable, someone drove another machine into his. He fell, broke his arm, and seriously bruised his pelvis.
We’ve talked to a lawyer about suing for his work injury, and the lawyer thinks we have a case. That’s great, because of his medical bills, but now we have another problem.
My husband’s doctor prescribed him some painkillers for his arm. We told him that my husband had addiction issues earlier in life, and he said he’d give a light dose to help avoid that and to be careful about taking the pills only when prescribed on the bottle.
We reluctantly agreed, and we took the pills with us. It hadn’t been three days, and already my husband was sneaking pills. He wasn’t being honest with me about it, but I kept a count and I kept a journal. I contacted his doctor, but the only advice he gave was to throw away the pills. When I asked for something else for the pain, he said he could give another prescription but that they all had some addictive qualities.
This, obviously, wasn’t much help. I confronted my husband about the pills, and he admitted it and apologized, but he said he still needed them, that he grew anxious without them, and that his arm hurt when it went more than two hours without taking some (the bottle says he should take two once every eight hours).
In the end, I took the bottle and flushed them down the toilet. My husband is having a tough time with all this. He’s been shivering on the couch for the last day, in a cold sweat. He says it’s worse than the last time he went through withdrawal years ago. He’s begged me to call the doctor and get more pills.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s an easy solution to any of this, but my question isn’t about my husband. It’s about lawsuits. Is there a case for medical malpractice because our doctor prescribed pills knowing my husband is a former addict? Our other lawyer doesn’t deal with medical issues, and the lawyer he recommended charges for consultations. Since my husband isn’t working right now, I don’t want to spend that money if the answer is no.
Does anybody have any idea if I should pursue this? I’ve looked at some lawyer sites, but I don’t see anything that is directly related. Perhaps improper treatment? Would that count? And how much would we be entitled to if we pursued this?
Please, if anyone has any advice let me know. I don’t know anything about the law, but I think this is a time-sensitive issue. And besides, I want to collect all the evidence I can if there’s a case to be made.As the sky glowered black and Stephanie Decker felt the monster tornado begin to suck her house into its vortex, she knew it would not hold and she had no choice but to shield her two young kids with her own body. She lost her legs in the process.
"I knew my leg was barely attached or it was severed. I didn't know which but I knew it was bad. If I didn't get help soon, I was going to bleed out," Decker told ABC News, which interviewed her Monday night from her hospital bed in Louisville, Ky.
Decker, 37, and her family were smack dab in the middle of a tornado outbreak Friday that included 140 reported twisters, 76 confirmed landings and 39 deaths.
"It was nothing I expected," the Henryville, Ind., woman said. "I never, ever thought in a million years my house would be blown away."
She was determined to keep her kids safe, and her actions saved them, but at a steep cost. Not only was her home lost, but both of her legs had to be amputated late Friday -- one just below the knee, the other just above it.
"I assumed I was safe and I heard the roar like a train, and I heard it behind me, and I knew it was coming," she recalled today. "And it was so loud that I knew that I needed to do something different. I knew staying put wasn't going to work."
So Decker acted. She dashed down into her home's basement with son Dominic, 8, and daughter Reese, 5. As the house began to disintegrate she tried to shield them with a comforter.
"My daughter said, 'Mommy, I don't like this,' and I said, 'I know honey,'" Decker said. "I could see the wind. I could see the window blew out and the house burst."
She was crushed under the cascade of debris.
"I remember the whole thing," she said. "I stayed conscious the whole time. I couldn't afford [to pass out]. They needed me. They had to have me, so I had to figure out what to do. And my son is a hero. He went to get help."
Both her legs were smashed. She'd also suffered a punctured lung.
Her children, however, were unscathed.
Next, it was her son's turn for heroism. He knew his mother was hurt and he crawled out from under his mother and dashed over to a neighbor's house.
"After... Dominic left," she said, "I realized I couldn't get out because I actually used the comforter I tied with them as a tourniquet. I knew I was cut."
Help soon came. Decker was evacuated to the hospital.
Overnight, her husband, Joe Decker, tearfully said that the flattened house on Henryville Road had been their dream house.
Stephanie Decker had told her husband she always wanted to have the children's handprints imprinted in the foundation's cement, because "we were never gonna leave here."
And there they are today. Small prints, with the "Reese," and "D" for Dominic scrawled in the concrete, an indelible testimony to a family still intact.
In the wake of her injuries, a benefit fund has been set up for Stephanie Decker at Fifth Third Bank, 392 S Indiana Ave, Sellersburg, IN, 47172.
ABC News' Michael S. James and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.House Speaker John Boehner says his Republican conference is having trouble coming up with a plan to avoid hitting the government's fast-approaching debt limit, suggesting that even heavenly intervention wouldn't help.
"We are still looking for the pieces to this puzzle," the Ohio lawmaker told reporters Thursday during his weekly news conference. “But we do not want to default on our debt, and we’re not going to default on our debt."
Republicans are opposed to a "clean" debt limit increase without conditions, as Democrats prefer. House Republican leaders reportedly have considered attaching favored GOP measures to a debt limit bill, such as a provision to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and a measure to eliminate so-called risk corridors in the Affordable Care Act. But despite those proposals, Boehner says he still doesn't have the 218 Republican votes needed to pass legislation without Democratic support.
"Mother Teresa is a saint now, but, you know, if the Congress wanted to make her a saint and attach that to the debt ceiling, we probably couldn't get 218 Republican votes," Boehner joked.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned that the federal government likely will exceed its self-imposed ability to borrow money, or "debt ceiling," by the end of February unless Congress acts. If that happens, the federal government will default on some of its loans, which economists say could trigger a recession, or worse.
"We've got time to do this," Boehner said. "We're going to continue to work at it. No decisions have been made."Investors always remember their worst trade or biggest mistake. Warren Buffett is no different. However, Buffett's biggest mistake might surprise you. In an interview with CNBC, the Oracle of Omaha admitted that the worst trade of his career was buying Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A). Imagine that. But if you dig deeper into his account of the story, you'll see that while his worst trade might have been buying Berkshire Hathaway, his biggest mistake was letting emotion get the better of him.
Embedded below is the video where Buffett talks about his worst trade in Berkshire Hathaway (email readers will have to come to the site to watch the video):
Extracting the transcript, here is the relevant commentary where Buffett tells his story:
"So I started buying the stock (Berkshire). And in 1964, we had quite a bit of stock. And I went back and visited the management, Mr. (Seabury) Stanton. And he looked at me and he said, 'Mr. Buffett. We've just sold some mills. We got some excess money. We're gonna have a tender offer. And at what price will you tender your stock?' And I said, '$11.50.' And he said, 'Do you promise me that you'll tender it $11.50?' And I said, 'Mr. Stanton, you have my word that if you do it here in the near future, that I will sell my stock at $11.50.'
I went back to Omaha. And a few weeks later, I opened the mail and here it is: a tender offer from Berkshire Hathaway- that's from 1964. And if you look carefully, you'll see the price is $11 and three-eighths. He chiseled me for an eighth. And if that letter had come through with $11 and a half, I would have tendered my stock. But this made me mad. So I went out and started buying the stock, and I bought control of the company, and fired Mr. Stanton. Now, that sounds like a great little morality tale at this point. But the truth is I had now committed a major amount of money to a terrible business."
So out of anger from being ripped off, Buffett made what at the time was perhaps an irrational decision in buying control of a fledgling textile company. While he eventually bought a good insurance company for Berkshire and altered his fate, things could have turned out much differently.
This just goes to show that when it comes to financial markets, you have to take emotion out of the equation. Human emotion and irrationality often lead to market folly as investors are driven by the typical fear and greed. Buffett's story, though, illustrates that other emotions not named fear or greed can take hold of an investor and lead to knee jerk reactions. Lucky for Buffett though, his emotional mistake didn't cost him dearly; he was able to turn a negative situation into a positive one.
The stock market is a game of mistakes. You make them, you pay for them, you learn from them, and you try not to make them again. Those who minimize the losses associated with their mistake(s) live to invest another day. Even the best investors in the world make mistakes and Buffett is |
in its path, before collecting again hours later in a pool several kilometers from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.
Days later, the ground is still stained a dark brown and giving off a nauseating acidic stench, more potent than a highly chlorinated swimming pool.
One section of the Ashalim riverbed is made up of narrow canyons, popular for hiking, but no one was around when the wastewater first gushed through.
Israel’s Ministry of Environment has opened a criminal investigation into the plant’s owner, Rotem Amfert, and its parent company Israel Chemicals (ICL), a leading potash and fertilizer producer with exclusive rights in Israel to mine the Dead Sea.
“All the plants and animals in the valley during the tsunami of acid were probably highly damaged, probably dead,” said Oded Netzer, an ecologist for the ministry. “In the long term, there will be soil damage and large functional ecological problems.”
He said weeks of intense clean-up work, including pumping out small pools of the wastewater that remain along the path, lay ahead, and complete rehabilitation would likely take years.
ICL has stopped using the series of reservoirs where the breech occurred. They contained a production by-product called phosphogypsum water.
Slideshow (2 Images)
The company declined to answer questions on the criminal investigation or about the impact the incident will have on its operations.
Shares in ICL fell almost 4 percent after the spill but partially recovered to trade 1.3 percent higher on Tuesday.
In a statement, Rotem Amfert said it was working “around the clock” in full coordination with authorities, and it would spare no resources to clean up the riverbed.A wheelchair user hurtles down a slope towards the waiting jaws of a crocodile. Someone was having a chuckle when they came up with that one, more at runaway political correctness than disabled people we hope. There are some seriously bizarre and funny signs tucked away in the zoos and wildlife parks of the world. Some are dumb, some are witty, some are cruel and some are silly. Some are graphically just plain weird, while others may as well have been written by the animals – who still find a way to have their say. Here’s our compilation of 20 of the best.
Small victory
Ignorance is bliss, eh? Unless that prairie dog, shot (not literally) in Twycross Zoo, England really does have the cheekiest sense of irony.
Can’t you read the sign?
If this bird can read, well it’s crowing disobedience of the most bird-brained kind. Photoshopped but still funny.
Beware of the splatter zone
Splatter zone! the full sign reads. Nice. Unless you didn’t heed the warning. Then not nice. Definitely not nice. A classic from Florida’s Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.
Hard habit to break
Never mind the fish, what’s the zoo keeper been smoking? If you want to ask him you’ll have to go to Capron Park Zoo in Massachusetts.
When you know someone’s not enjoying it
If you were attacked, not sure you’d see the funny side of this one. From somewhere in Hicksville.
Friendly warning
What is it about croc and gator keepers that bestows them with the sense of humour of that bullying older cousin you always hated? Unknown location.
Don’t dillydally
A bird’s most potent form of attack. Airborne poop hilarity from a sign in Adventure Aquarium in New Joisey.
Test of faith
Well it beats boring old ‘Beware of the Tiger’. Anyone know where this sign originates from?
If you encounter a mountain lion…
…Use small children as a human shield. The joke’s the photographer’s, who snapped this trail sign in Mountain View in California’s Bay Area.
Zoo keeper says…
“…If you sit on the fence you will fall in.” Taken in Wellington Zoo, New Zealand.
For the animals’ sake
Really, how could eating you harm an animal? As one commenter has it: “They could hurt a nail clawing your guts open or break a tooth eating your brain.” A sign of the times from The Wilds wildlife conservation center in Ohio.
Odour (ode to? give up – ed) a penguin
Aww, cutie little fish-stinking penguin. Thanks for the explanation, Omaha Zoo, Nebraska.
There was only one rule
Que? For those with the weirdest of beastly intentions. Then again, the notice was found in Petting Zoo in Victoria, British Columbia.
Resisting temptation
Taken in Philadelphia Zoo, a photo of another notice aimed at those unable to control their carnal urges faced when faced with the voluptuous beauty of uddered animals. Now where were we?
Just so we’re clear
That told us. We were just about to get stuck into a spot of ruffling. At Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, California.
Pidgin engrish
We’ll give the food all the monkey we want thank you very much. Any takers on where this was taken?
Fingers are bad for their health
Lost in translation or lost on us? Again, location unknown.
Don’t feed popcorn to the dog with one tooth
It’s the range of possible interpretation that could be attached to this graphic that makes it funny, as various commenters have pointed out. “Please do not mesmerize our animals with cheesy magic tricks,” says one. Another notes that “the stick figure hand only has four fingers – a result of feeding the animals?”
Blame Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle.
It must be the lip gloss…
…Or the stockings and suspenders. Or maybe it’s just those curves and the way it walks. Seriously, though, it’s a strange world we live in when the temperature of a tortoise shell warrants a warning. In Pittsburgh Zoo lies the original.
Meals on wheels
This one may be the inciest bit un-PC, but we found it via the website of a disabled person who finds humour – and finding humour in disability – “a great way to deal with life’s difficult moments”. In any case, it’s a South African sense of humour that’s responsible for the sign, the photo having been taken at a crocodile reservoir around St. Lucia National Park.Lukewarm Media’s episodic Walking with Dinosaurs-esque adventure Primal Carnage: Genesis made a big roar at last year’s Game Developers Conference, as the episodic escapade was one of the first indie titles announced for the PlayStation 4. Revealed around about a month after the machine itself, the company claimed that it was aiming to release the first instalment in the pre-historic affair alongside the next-gen system in November.
However, it’s been about a year since we last heard a snuffle from the studio, so we decided to reach out in an attempt to find out what’s going on. “Primal Carnage: Genesis isn't out of the picture entirely, but it has taken a bit of a back seat to the work that our team’s been doing to greatly improve the existing game,” founder Aaron Pollack told us in an email. The original Primal Carnage, which is a PC-based shooter, is set to receive a gigantic patch in the coming months.
Pollack continued that the firm may have news on its first console foray once it’s got through some of the “immediate work” on the update to its previous game, but we couldn’t help but notice that the release has been removed from the developer’s website. Moreover, it seems like the studio has splintered since last year’s announcement, with one Reddit poster pointing out that fellow founder Ashton Andersen has left the outfit.
In fact, we get the feeling that the split wasn’t overly amicable. “My team and I are no longer with Lukewarm Media,” he tweeted earlier in the year. “We left to start a new studio and project due to a bad partnership.” That developer is named Virtual Basement, but outside of the impressive logo on its website, there’s no word on what it’s actually working on. With regards to the Primal Carnage property, Andersen noted that the rights are “complicated”.
Still, during our correspondence, Pollack seemed confident that the title is still very much on the agenda, but given Lukewarm Media’s commitments to the PC version of Primal Carnage, and the fact that the developer has essentially broken up over the past few months, we can’t imagine that it’ll be releasing anytime soon. We're hopeful, however, that it will stomp onto the PS4 eventually, as there simply aren't enough dinosaur titles around these days.As you are most certainly aware, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump recently suggested that Muslims be banned from entering the United States for a while. In this country, that kind of talk is not illegal — we’re protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees our right to free speech, to give voice to whatever we might believe to be true or wise.
But Facebook is a private company, and it reserves the right to moderate, or censor, any speech on its platform that doesn’t adhere to its Community Standards. Users can flag content they think should be removed, and Facebook’s on-staff content managers will review the post in question and evaluate it, in theory, according to its guidelines.
I say “in theory” because the same rules don’t apply to everybody. When Trump uploaded video of himself suggesting his temporary Muslim ban, some people reported the post to Facebook as being offensive. It turns out the post did technically violate Facebook’s internal community standards, which prohibit language that calls “for violence, exclusion, or segregation” of people based on their ethnicity or religion, among other things.
My colleagues and I shared his video on our own accounts, along with status updates indicating endorsement of Trump’s message. Then we reported each other’s posts, and Facebook removed them. But Trump’s post remained.
Facebook, when asked about this inconsistency, said it’s out of respect for healthy political discourse — even if the message is one the social network’s own CEO doesn’t agree with. A cynical way to interpret the decision to leave Trump’s post up is that Facebook understandably wants to be the place where big names go direct to the world with their own stories, circumventing the traditional media and consequently driving more activity on its platform — censoring celebrities isn’t going to encourage other famous people to join in, right? Not to mention Facebook’s newly-launched play for political advertising…
But I can only speculate about all this; I don’t have the kind of insider information necessary to draw a conclusion about Facebook’s motives. (Though I have a lot of sympathy for the difficult position social networks find themselves in as they deal with Trump and online harassment and all sorts of complicated things. How do you protect free speech and also deal with hate? How do you retain your users if you don’t let the most voracious users speak? How do you retain your users if they’re being chased off your platform by sexists or racists? Could Zuckerberg possibly remove Trump’s video without making the GOP candidate seem more persecuted and brave in the eyes of his supporters?)
What I can say is this: Increasingly, regardless of how they wield it, platforms have the power to decide what gets heard and what does not get heard. After all, Facebook gets 968 million uniques a day; your website doesn’t. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon — Facebook’s News Feed has been algorithmically determined for years — but the trend is only going to become more impactful in 2016. Twitter has started testing its algorithmically-determined feed and already, with the “While You Were Away” or “Top Tweets” features, I find myself scrolling pretty far down the homescreen before I start seeing posts that the robot didn’t choose for me. But between platforms deciding what they will and won’t take down, determining what appears at the top of a news feed and what doesn’t appear at all, their increasing role as our content management systems, and Facebook’s aspirations to control Internet access itself in various parts of the world, it’s not overly paranoid to wonder what will and won’t be heard on social media in the coming years.
News organizations are concerned about all this because we rely on social networks to ensure our stories are seen, but it should also matter to all the sources who broadcast directly to their audiences on these platforms — and it should matter to “regular” people, too. What does it mean that Trump’s voice can be heard calling for the exclusion of Muslims at our borders, but yours can’t? What could that evolve into? Could it affect elections? What if the tables were turned, and voices being removed from Facebook were the ones saying Muslims should be allowed in the country? Meanwhile, as Twitter slowly enters its brave new world of algorithmic newsfeeding, it’s a bit like the company is up in a tree, testing each branch to determine whether it will bend or break before gingerly stepping forward — after all, many users (and many journalists) have decried the coming “ice bucket”-ing of Twitter as the demise of the platform itself. But look at Facebook: Its “ice bucket” feed does not seem to have hurt its growth at all.
For the record, I think it will bend. After this item publishes, I will post it to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Who knows who will see it, and who won’t.FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) said it would fight a $14 billion demand from the U.S. Department of Justice to settle claims it missold mortgage-backed securities, a shock bill that raises questions about the future of Germany’s largest lender.
The claim against Deutsche, which is likely to trigger several months of talks, far exceeds the bank’s expectations that the DoJ would be looking for a figure of only up to 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion).
The demand adds to the problems facing Deutsche Bank’s Chief Executive John Cryan, a Briton who has been in the job for a year.
The bank only scraped through European stress tests in July and has warned it may need deeper cost cuts to turn itself around after revenue fell sharply in the second quarter due to challenging markets and low interest rates.
Deutsche Bank shares, which have lost around half their value this year, tumbled 7.6 percent to 12.10 euros in Frankfurt on Friday, with analysts saying the bank may need to raise fresh funds from investors or sell assets to shore up its capital ratios.
The cost of insuring Deutsche Bank debt against default rose by around eight percent.
The bank, which employs around 100,000 people, said it regarded the DoJ demand as an opening shot.
“Deutsche Bank has no intent to settle these potential civil claims anywhere near the number cited,” it said in a statement.
“The negotiations are only just beginning. The bank expects that they will lead to an outcome similar to those of peer banks which have settled at materially lower amounts.”
Related Coverage Merkel declines comment on U.S. penalty for Deutsche Bank
Analysts said that even a hefty reduction in the bill was likely to weigh heavily on Deutsche Bank’s finances.
“If the final bill is at 5 billion euros or more Deutsche Bank will not be able to avoid a capital hike anymore,” said Ingo Frommen, banking analyst at LBBW.
POLITICAL BACKING?
Deutsche Bank’s problems are likely to alarm political leaders in Europe’s largest economy and the home to the European Central Bank.
The German finance ministry said on Friday that the government expected a “fair result” from the negotiations but that the talks were a matter for the bank and the American authorities.
Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble took the unusual step of voicing public support for the bank earlier this year and a senior opposition figure said he expected the government to step in as a last resort if needed.
“The question would be how much damage would it do to the economy if the bank were to topple,” said Green Party financial spokesman Gerhard Schick.
The DoJ has taken a tough stance in settlement negotiations with other banks, requesting sums higher than the eventual fine.
A recent European Union ruling that Apple (AAPL.O) must pay up to 13 billion euros in taxes to the Irish government and the forthcoming U.S. election could complicate Deutsche Bank’s efforts to whittle down the demand.
The headquarters of Germany's Deutsche Bank is photographed early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
One of Deutsche’s top 10 investors said he expected the bank to have to pay 4-5.5 billion euros for the mortgages case. “But because of the election campaign it may end up higher - at maybe 6 or 7 billion.”
In 2014, the DoJ asked Citigroup (C.N) to pay $12 billion to resolve an investigation into the sale of shoddy mortgage-backed securities, sources said. The fine eventually came in at $7 billion.
In a similar case, rival Goldman Sachs (GS.N) agreed in April to pay $5.06 billion to settle claims that it misled mortgage bond investors during the financial crisis.
Deutsche Bank’s settlement will comprise a different list of recipients from the Goldman case, a source close to the matter said, adding that the lender had already settled some claims three years ago.
In late 2013, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion to settle claims that it defrauded U.S. government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, America’s biggest providers of housing finance, into buying $14.2 billion in mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis.
LIST OF LEGAL PROBLEMS
A $14 billion fine, or even half that sum, would still rank among one of the largest paid by banks to U.S. authorities in recent years.
Deutsche Bank has not said what it has set aside in anticipation of a settlement over the sale and packaging of resident mortgage-backed securities before 2008.
Its overall legal provisions stood at 5.5 billion euros at the end of June, and according to a person close to the bank 2.5-3 billion of that had been reserved for the mortgages case.
Deutsche was once one of Europe’s most successful players on Wall Street. Like many of its peers, it has since faced a slew of lawsuits that often trace back to the boom years before the crash. Its litigation bill since 2012 has already hit more than 12 billion euros.
The Deutsche Bank headquarters are seen in Frankfurt, Germany October 29, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
Claims filed by individuals, companies and regulators against Deutsche, outlined in the bank’s 2015 annual report, relate to mis-selling of subprime loans and alleged manipulation of foreign exchange rates or gold and silver prices. Other lawsuits are for the rigging of borrowing benchmarks Libor and Euribor, used to set the price of mortgages and derivatives.
In July, Chief Executive Cryan said he hoped to close the four largest remaining litigation cases this year.
These are the mortgages and FX cases, an investigation into suspicious equities trades in Russia and allegations of money laundering.A week ago I received a letter explaining that the package was going to be late, the letter included an empty candy wrapper that my gifter said she enjoyed on my behalf.
This week I was out of town for work and knew that a package had arrived at my home for me. Anticipation is a b*tch. I got home and there it was but what was it.
The first thing was a little note/photo from Bryan James and his Mom; I think Bryan James is the name of my gifters dog.
Secondly a t-shirt, I love t-shirts but this t-shirt just may be one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. The screen print of the dude's face makes me feel like I have to take a shower.
Third and the home run hit, a squirrel head mask! I had been considering buying a horse head but this squirrel is awesome! Everyone one has a horse head, I haven't seen anybody with the squirrel head. And considering I didn't have any costume ideas/plans for this year this is being rocked.
Thank you gifter, the t-shirt will scare small children and the mask will terrify the neighborhood dogs.Billy Sharp has scored 16 goals for Sheffield United this season
Sheffield United eased to victory with a fine display against League One relegation strugglers Oldham Athletic.
The hosts took the lead when John Brayford volleyed home from the edge of the box before Ryan Flynn doubled the Blades' lead with a fine solo effort.
Curtis Main forced Blades keeper George Long into a fine save and then nearly scored with a shot that hit the bar.
The hosts wrapped up three points when Brayford played in Billy Sharp who fired a powerful effort home.
The Blades, who this week released defender Neill Collins so that he could join US side Tampa Bay Rowdies, remain in 11th place in the League One table and are now six points off the play-off places.
Oldham, meanwhile, lie in 22nd place, three points off safety but with two games in hand on their relegation rivals.
Oldham Athletic manager John Sheridan told BBC Radio Manchester:
Media playback is not supported on this device Sheridan on Sheffield United v Oldham
"We were flat. It's probably the flattest we've been since I came here. But I felt really good before the game because we've trained really well.
""I don't want to be on a downer too much. We've lost a game of football.
"We didn't deserve anything from it. It's a disappointing performance but hopefully it's a one-off."So we’re imagining ourselves as the really cool 10-year-old kids that we used to be, and we walk up to a house that has this animatronic mannequin sitting on it one Halloween night. “Yeah,” we’d say, “that’s just another stupid robot that’s going to light up and make a scary sound as we walk up to claim our rightful fun-sized candy.”
And then we would be robbed of our rightful fun-sized candy when this damn thing activates and comes flying at us and we run screaming in a perfectly understandable manner, because this thing should be made illegal. Take a look for yourself, and note that this sadistic creation retails at $2,240, so anybody who could afford it can also afford lots of candy and doesn’t need to be scaring kids off the porch just to get out of handing out some damn miniature Snickers bars.
Damn it. Seriously, screw whoever actually puts this thing out on Halloween. They’re getting egged, man…This past Saturday Kunming held its first-ever 'No-car day' in which private cars were not allowed in the city center. The event was the climax of Kunming's 'Urban Public Transport Week', promoting the city's bus system and other alternatives to driving private automobiles to get around town.
With only buses, taxis and bicycles on the road, major thoroughfares including Renmin Lu, Beijing Lu and Dongfeng Lu were surprisingly uncongested. From 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, the air within Kunming's ring road noticeably lacked the smell of exhaust that the city's streets typically carry.
Police, city employees and volunteers were strategically placed on Huancheng Bei Lu, Huancheng Dong Lu, Huancheng Nan Lu, Xichang Lu and Yieryi Da Jie and were successful at keeping the majority of private cars outside of the city center. There were drivers who refused to accept the downtown ban and attempted to enter the area, most of whom were stopped by police and fined.
Public reaction to the 12-hour ban on private cars downtown was mixed. Not surprisingly, people who don't own cars tended to view the experiment positively while car owners typically found it inconvenient.
"I understand the motivation behind it [the downtown car ban], but it created a lot of difficulty for many people," 35-year-old car owner Wang Kun said. "I hope this happens once a year at most."
The Kunming government estimated that the ban affected 200,000 private automobiles, or one-fourth of the city's total number of registered motorized vehicles.
© Copyright 2005-2019 GoKunming.com all rights reserved. This material may not be republished, rewritten or redistributed without permission.• Hoffenheim's bid for Babel believed to be in the region of €7m • Babel will now travel to Germany to discuss personal terms
Liverpool have accepted a bid from Hoffenheim for the Holland international Ryan Babel. The Bundesliga club have now been given permission to discuss personal terms with the player, who has travelled to Germany.
Babel had earlier expressed a desire to move away from Anfield in order to gain regular first-team football, suggesting that a move back to Ajax would help Liverpool in their pursuit of Luis Suárez, but it would now appear to Germany is his most likely destination, with newspaper Bild reporting the fee to be in the region of €7m (£5.8m).
"Following the departure of [Demba] Ba and the injury to [Chinedu] Obasi, we were in an emergency situation," Hoffenheim's owner, Dietmar Hopp, said. "Babel was one of the prime candidates who our general manager, Ernst Tanner, was most convinced about."
The 24-year-old could make his debut against St Pauli on Sunday, should the deal be completed in the next few days.
"For a player of my age it is important to be playing week in week out," Babel earlier told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "For the chance to play I am willing to settle for far less pay."
Babel joined Liverpool from Ajax in 2007 for £11.5m but throughout his time at Anfield his form has been inconsistent and he has struggled to hold down a first-team place.The recent standoff between India and China over the Doka La area is one of the many tactical attempts by China at a strategic containment of India. Within the larger regional picture, after having made inroads into Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh, China has now targeted Bhutan which appeared to be the last man standing in the immediate neighbourhood of India. It is not surprising, therefore, that China decided to unilaterally change the status of a disputed tri-junction; a move that is possibly intended to test the strength of India-Bhutan relations as well as to undermine the status of India as a second pole to China in South Asia.
China’s recently announced One Belt One Road (OBOR) programme is pitched as an economic initiative aimed at improving transport, communication and other infrastructural facilities in the South Asian region. The OBOR project, however, cannot be viewed in isolation, without taking into consideration the political motives attached to it.
A symbol of Chinese imperialism, OBOR is aimed at strengthening China president Xi Jinping’s position as the head of the ruling Communist Party of China, therefore, Jinping has attached his personal reputation to its success. Besides, the project also aims to achieve multiple foreign policy goals, including positioning China as a regional hegemon in Asia by stamping out any potential balancing efforts by countries like India and Japan. What is noteworthy here is that while Japan has indicated its willingness to cooperate with the Chinese on the OBOR project, it is India that has decided to boycott the project citing concerns relating to sovereignty and territorial integrity. Willingly or not, India’s position against the OBOR project has positioned it as a potential balancer to China’s hegemonic designs in the region. Jinping’s frustration at India’s firm stance on the issue, and the rise of India as a potential second pole in South Asia are, therefore, at the bottom of the recent face-off between the two countries in Doka La.
While the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is at the centre of this disagreement, it is also the inroads that China has been making into countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, that has set off alarm bells in India. The nature of Chinese investments in these countries has put a big question mark over the underlying intentions of Chinese designs in the region. The development of the Gwadar port in Pakistan, Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Kyaukpyu port in Myanmar are interesting cases in point. The trajectory of development of the three port projects and their ultimate end result is too similar for any of this to be a mere coincidence.
The Gwadar port was developed using Chinese assistance of more than $200 million. The project was then declared a commercial failure, following which, in April 2017, the port was leased out to a state run Chinese firm for 40 years.
The Hambantota port project in Sri Lanka saw a debt-equity swap under which the Chinese have been granted a shareholding of 80 percent. China is meanwhile demanding about 85 percent share in the Kyaukpyu project in Myanmar.
The economies of scale of each of these projects make them financially unviable and will eventually turn them into China’s strategic assets in the region.
With a strategic port each to the west, east and south of India, along with multiple other assets being created under the garb of OBOR, China’s strategic containment of India may not remain a far-fetched idea.
India is also acutely aware of China’s meddling into the political affairs of Nepal. While India’s mishandling of its bilateral relations with the country were fundamental in providing a foot in the door to the Chinese, the Chinese investments have now outpaced India’s contribution to Nepal.
Bhutan, on the other hand, remains the only country unaffected by the Chinese designs in the region and the recent conflict over Doka La was aimed at changing this status quo. By creating trouble on Bhutan’s borders, China has attempted to undermine India’s support for its immediate neighbours. Had India backed out of the situation, the move would have underlined the futility of India’s might, put a question mark over its status as a reliable partner and opened a door for the establishment of bilateral relations between Bhutan and China, thus completing the containment of India in its neighbourhood. Attempting to kill two birds with one stone, China’s moves in Doka La, therefore, have wider strategic connotations.
India’s response to the Doka La crisis must, therefore, take into consideration the larger dynamics of power play between the two countries in South Asia.
The manner, in which the Indian forces have been able to hold the Chinese for over a month now, already gives the Indian side a psychological edge. That India was able to stand up to a rising hegemon for the interest of its immediate neighbour lends greater credence to its position as a reliable partner. Besides, China’s threatening posturing in Doka La has been self-defeating at best, for its previous claims of 'peaceful rise' and 'benevolent hegemony' have come under scanner.
Not only did China violate its commitments made under the treaties of 1988-89 and 2012, it also served to threaten the territorial sovereignty of a tiny country by flexing its military muscles. This is similar to how China has operated in the South China Sea region, where its muscle flexing has endangered the sovereignty of other smaller countries in the region.
More than the battle of military forces, the recent stand-off between the two countries is a battle of narratives. While China has sought to play the victim in the face-off, the diplomatic posturing maintained by India over the issue, combined with the war mongering by the Chinese media has subtly highlighted the nefarious designs of Chinese hegemony in the region. To its credit, India has been able to successfully control the jingoism on its side.
Any further stretching of this face-off will weaken China’s position. While India will need to press firmly for a diplomatic resolution to the issue, any move to unilaterally back out will amount to a psychological victory for the Chinese. Not only will this encourage more such violations in the future, it will also position India as a permanent second fiddle to China. To effectively balance China in South Asia, India will, therefore, need to hold its ground this time. Otherwise, it will have to permanently live in the dragon’s shadow.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.The Radiant City: Elements for a doctrine
of urbanism for the machine age (1933)
Le Corbusier
The Main Auditorium: an audience of 15,000. Open-air platform: 50,000 people. And perfectly regulated acoustics. Small auditorium: 6,500 people. Huge crowds can move about at their case of the esplanade. Cars are on a lower level; the parking lot is beneath the auditoriums.
General ground-level plan: The natural declivities of the ground are left untouched. Automobiles are assigned a circuit on either side, in the open or underground. The circuit leads to the various entrances: an automatic classification of all visitors. Pedestrians never come into contact with cars. (There can be 25,000 people inside the Palace, and 50,000 more on the open-air platform).
Le Corbusier’s sketches of the Palais des Soviets
Interior to Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier – Palais des Soviets, Moscow, Russia (1930) Le Corbusier, variations on the design for the Palais des Soviets sketched between October 23 and November 22, 1931 Le Corbusier, variation on the design for the Palais des Soviets (November 1931) Le Corbusier, variation on the design for the Palais des Soviets (October 1931) Le Corbusier, variation on the design for the Palais des Soviets (November 1931)
1932: Project for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow
1928-1931 Moscow classified traffic system
The ground is devoted to movement: pedestrians, cars.
Everything above the ground (the buildings) is devoted to stability.
No similarity between the two. The ground beneath the buildings must be freed, for regular streams of cars and lakes of pedestrians. The streams flow directly to certain entrances; the pedestrians are widely scattered. This makes for a new economy of layout.
The streams of cars can flow in sunken beds or along elevated highways. Starting 5 meters above the ground, buildings take on definite shape. Distribution of traffic has been achieved below, on the ground.
Here, the dynamic functions: distribution of sorts of traffic.
(Pilotis on the ground level).
Here, the static function is expressed by offices, club, and auditorium. 1928. Palace of Light Industry (first called the Tsentrosoiuz) in Moscow. Now built.
Le Corbusier at a conference in Moscow, 1928
Le Corbusier in Moscow, with Andrei Burov and Aleksandr Vesnin (1928) Le Corbusier with the Vesnin brothers and Andrei Burov in Moscow (1928) Le Corbusier in Moscow, with Andrei Burov and others(1928) Le Corbusier sitting with Soviet modernist architect Andrei Burov (1928) Le Corbusier with Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Burov (1928)
.
Here, the dynamic functions: distribution of sorts of traffic.
(Pilotis on the ground level).
Here, the static function is expressed by offices, club, and auditorium. 1928. Palace of Light Industry (first called the Tsentrosoiuz) in Moscow. Now built.
Tsentrosoiuz: Plans, models, site visits
Le Corbusier, plan for Tsentrosoiuz (1928) Model of Nikolai Kolli and Le Corbusier’s Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow, 1928 Le Corbusier surveys the work site for the Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow (1931) Le Corbusier surveys the work site with workers for the Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow (1931) Le Corbusier, model of Tsentrosoiuz (1928) Corbusier’s Tsentrosoiuz building under construction in Moscow, 1931 Le Corbusier with Nikolai Kolli in front of the construction site for the Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow (March 1930) Le Corbusier sitting in front of the construction site for the Tsentrosoiuz building (March 1931)
Master plan for the urbanization of the city of Moscow
.
In 1931, Moscow officials sent me a questionnaire, admirably thought out, about the city’s reorganization. If only all cities would send out such questionnaires! Their lot would be improved.
The theoretical drawings of the “Radiant City” were made in order to answer this questionnaire. They form a theory of urbanization for modern times.
My “Answer to Moscow” caused an unexpected reaction: its technical aspects were hailed in flattering terms. But the cornerstone of my work was freedom of the individual, and this was held against me. Doctrinal vehemence prevented any worthwhile discussion. Capitalist? bourgeois? proletarian? My only answer is a term expressing my line of conduct and my ingrained revolutionary attitude: human. My professional duty, as architect and city planner, is to achieve what is human.
Charitable colleagues — Frenchmen, too, and far from being “Reds” — proclaimed to all who would listen or read, “that I wanted to destroy Moscow.” Whereas they themselves, if only they were called upon, would, etc.…
The plate which appears opposite (last in the “Radiant City” series), is not a program for Moscow’s destruction but on the contrary, for its construction. It shows zoning and axes of movement along which the city could gradualIy achieve a position of supple ease, expansion without difficulty, and so forth. This plate shows a specimen of urban biology.
So far, only the International Congress for Modem Architecture, the C.I.A.M. has required its members to seek the lines of vital communication which can bring a city into efficient contact with its surrounding region. (A task which will fall to the 5th Congress).
Corbu’s iconic model of the Palais des Soviets
Urbanistic overview of Le Corbusier’s plans for the Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier working with an assistant in modeling his Palace of the Soviets proposal (1930) Model of Le Corbusier’s proposal for the Palace of the Soviets competition (1931) Model of Le Corbusier’s proposal for the Palace of the Soviets (1931) Le Corbusier, model of the Palais des Soviets in Moscow, Russia (1932) Le Corbusier, model of the Palais des Soviets in Moscow, Russia (1932) Le Corbusier, model of the Palais des Soviets in Moscow, Russia (1932) Le Corbusier, model of the Palais des Soviets in Moscow, Russia (1932) Le Corbusier unveiling the model of his proposal for the Palace of the Soviets (1931)
Palace of |
help achieve its “Energiewende”, or shift from nuclear to green power, and Denmark wants a repeat of the 2020 three-goal formula, also including an energy savings requirement.
A committee in the European Parliament on Thursday backed three new targets for 2030, but the vote was not binding.
Those opposing triple targets say it is too soon to agree a new efficiency goal after difficult debate in 2012 on a law to enforce energy saving through measures, such as insulation. They also argue the renewables target has resulted in expensive subsidies that have raised energy costs for consumers.
Increased energy efficiency could also be a problem for the struggling EU carbon market, which at less than five euros per tonne is doing nothing to halt a rise in the burning of cheap coal, the most carbon-intensive source of power.
Energy savings would reduce demand for carbon allowances when the market is already oversupplied because of a collapse in demand caused by economic recession.
This week, EU officials backed a plan to remove surplus allowances from the market, which the Commission, the EU executive, has said could hopefully lead to a final decision by March, ending years of uncertainty.
The 2030 policy announcement this month is expected to include a legislative proposal on a supply adjustment mechanism, which would automatically remove surplus carbon permits in the event of a collapse in demand. Equally, permits could be added in the event of a boom.Several American rabbinical groups cancelled an annual Jewish high holidays call with President Trump because of his response to the Charlottesville protest, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. “The president’s words have given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia,” the organizations—the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism—wrote in a joint statement. “Responsibility for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, including the death of Heather Heyer, does not lie with many sides but with one side: the Nazis, alt-right and white supremacists who brought their hate to a peaceful community. They must be roundly condemned at all levels.” Rabbinical groups representing the reform, reconstructionist, and conservative Jewish movements organized a call before the holidays every year during the Obama presidency.Scientists at The University of Manchester have made a surprising finding after studying how tadpoles re-grow their tails which could have big implications for research into human healing and regeneration.
It is generally appreciated that frogs and salamanders have remarkable regenerative capacities, in contrast to mammals, including humans. For example, if a tadpole loses its tail a new one will regenerate within a week. For several years Professor Enrique Amaya and his team at The Healing Foundation Centre in the Faculty of Life Sciences have been trying to better understand the regeneration process, in the hope of eventually using this information to find new therapies that will improve the ability of humans to heal and regenerate better.
In an earlier study, Professor Amaya’s group identified which genes were activated during tail regeneration. Unexpectedly, that study showed that several genes that are involved in metabolism are activated, in particular those that are linked to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen. What was unusual about those findings is that ROS are commonly believed to be harmful to cells.
Professor Amaya and his group decided to follow up on this unexpected result and their new findings will be published in the next issue of Nature Cell Biology.
To examine ROS during tail regeneration, they measured the level of H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, a common reactive oxygen species in cells) using a fluorescent molecule that changes light emission properties in the presence of H2O2. Using this advanced form of imaging, Professor Amaya and his group were able to show that a marked increase in H2O2 occurs following tail amputation and interestingly, they showed that the H2O2 levels remained elevated during the entire tail regeneration process, which lasts several days.
Talking about the research Professor Amaya says: “We were very surprised to find these high levels of ROS during tail regeneration. Traditionally, ROS have been thought to have a negative impact on cells. But in this case they seemed to be having a positive impact on tail re-growth.”
To assess how vital the presence of ROS are in the regeneration process, Professor Amaya’s team limited ROS production using two methods. The first was by using chemicals, including an antioxidant, and the second was by removing a gene responsible for ROS production. In both cases the regeneration process was inhibited and the tadpole tail did not grow back.
Professor Amaya says: "When we decreased ROS levels, tissue growth and regeneration failed to occur. Our research suggests that ROS are essential to initiate and sustain the regeneration response. We also found that ROS production is essential to activate Wnt signalling, which has been implicated in essentially every studied regeneration system, including those found in humans. It was also striking that our study showed that antioxidants had such a negative impact on tissue regrowth, as we are often told that antioxidants should be beneficial to health."
The publication of Professor Amaya's study comes just days after a paper from the Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, James Watson, suggested antioxidants could be harmful to people in the later stages of cancer.
Professor Amaya comments: "It's very interesting that two papers suggesting that antioxidants may not always be beneficial have been published recently. Our findings and those of others are leading to a reversal in our thinking about the relative beneficial versus harmful effects that oxidants and antioxidants may have on human health, and indeed that oxidants, such as ROS, may play some important beneficial roles in healing and regeneration."
The next step for the team at the Healing Foundation Centre will be to study ROS and their role in the healing and regenerative processes more closely. With a better understanding, Professor Amaya and his team hope to apply their findings to human health to identify whether manipulating ROS levels in the body could improve our ability to heal and regenerate tissues better. Thus these findings have very important implications in regenerative medicine.
Notes for editors
Professor Amaya is available for interviews and can be arranged through the press office.
Images can also be obtained from the press office.
The paper “Amputation-induced reactive oxygen species are required for successful Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration” will be published in Nature on Sunday 13 January 2013.
The research work in this paper was supported by a Wellcome Trust Program Grant (E.A.), a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship (J.L.G.), a Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship (P.K.), and grants from the BBSRC (K.D.), The Healing Foundation (N.R.L., Y.C., E.A.) and The National Science Foundation (N.R.L.).
The Healing Foundation Centre represents a 25 year, £10 million commitment between The Healing Foundation and The University of Manchester to advance the understanding of wound healing and tissue regeneration. The ultimate goal of the centre is to identify treatments that will improve the lives of patients with disfigurements, either congenital, or following accident and disease.
For more information or for interview and image requests please contact:
Morwenna Grills
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 2111
Mob: 07920 087466
Email: Morwenna.Grills@manchester.ac.ukMicrosoft could be on the verge of a graphics card breakthrough with the arrival of DirectX 12, as the new API will allow PC users to combine GPUs from different manufacturers.
Presently, PC users who want to double the number of graphics cards attached to their motherboard are restricted by the manufacturer. So, two Nvidia GeForce cards of the same type would work via SLI, and two AMD Radeon cards can unite via Crossfire, but these cannot be mixed and matched.
However, Microsoft is preparing a major announcement at the Games Developers Conference, where it is expected to explain that DX12 can combine all the different graphics resources in a system and treat them as though they were a single card.
The rumour first emerged on Tom's Hardware earlier this week. A source connected to the matter, who asked not to be named, has since explained to GameSpot that the feature is genuine.
Microsoft is already preparing to bring many of its Xbox One games to PC
Key to the new process is how DirectX 12 will bind multiple GPUs together. According to Tom's Hardware, the tech then "treats the entire graphics subsystem as a single, more powerful graphics card. Thus, users get the robustness of a running a single GPU, but with multiple graphics cards."
Such a breakthrough could bring about new levels of convenience for PC enthusiasts and developers alike. For the first time, it will also mean that multiple GPUs can pool their memory. In theory, this means that installing two 2GB GPUs into a system will get the end user a useable 4GB of memory, unlike the current system, which would only give a user 2GB of memory.
Tom's Hardware notes that the API includes a "frame rendering method called SFR, which stands for Split Frame Rendering."
It explains: "Developers will be able to manually, or automatically, divide the texture and geometry data between the GPUs, and all of the GPUs can then work together to work on each frame. Each GPU will then work on a specific portion of the screen, with the number of portions being equivalent to the number of GPUs installed."
AMD's Mantle API, which similarly sits much closer to the hardware than DirectX 11, already allows for this feature, with Civilization: Beyond Earth being one of the most recent games to make use of it. Speaking to GameSpot, AMD's Game Scientist Richard Huddy confirmed that it's "possible" this technology can significantly reduce latency and allow for the pooling of memory, but emphasised that the onus is on developers to make use of it.
Microsoft first announced DirectX 12 in January during its Windows 10 media briefing. At the time, it surprised onlookers by suggesting that new graphics cards may not be necessary to take advantage of the API. This dual-GPU feature appears to explain why older cards could perform capably.Image copyright iStock Image caption This year's harvest is expected to reach 15 million tonnes
South Africa is expecting to harvest its biggest maize crop in four decades, a year after drought devastated output of the country's staple food.
Farmers are set to produce over 15 million tonnes which means the country will have a 50% surplus for the year, according to government figures.
The bumper harvest is a result of good rains in January and February.
The extra produce is expected to help to push food prices down, according to agricultural economists.
Food security is a concern for many and in South Africa rising food prices have made life more difficult particularly for the millions of poor and unemployed, says the BBC's Pumza Fihlani.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Maize is a staple food for many in South Africa and across the region
A drop in the cost of food would be a welcome relief for many households, our correspondent says.
South Africa, along with the rest of the region, is still recovering from the effects of last year's drought that was caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon and led to widespread food shortages.
But, according to the local weather services, the rainfall recorded in January and February this year was more than double the average.A security researcher kicked off a United Airlines flight last month after tweeting about security vulnerabilities in its system had previously taken control of an airplane and caused it to briefly fly sideways, according to an application for a search warrant filed by an FBI agent.
Chris Roberts, a security researcher with One World Labs, told the FBI agent during an interview in February that he had hacked the in-flight entertainment system, or IFE, on an airplane and overwrote code on the plane's Thrust Management Computer while aboard the flight. He was able to issue a climb command and make the plane briefly change course, the document states.
"He stated that he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights," FBI Special Agent Mark Hurley wrote in his warrant application (.pdf). "He also stated that he used Vortex software after comprising/exploiting or 'hacking' the airplane's networks. He used the software to monitor traffic from the cockpit system."
Hurley filed the search warrant application last month after Roberts was removed from a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Syracuse, New York, because he published a facetious tweet suggesting he might hack into the plane's network. Upon landing in Syracuse, two FBI agents and two local police officers escorted him from the plane and interrogated him for several hours. They also seized two laptop computers and several hard drives and USB sticks. Although the agents did not have a warrant when they seized the devices, they told Roberts a warrant was pending.
A media outlet in Canada obtained the application for the warrant today and published it online.
The information outlined in the warrant application reveals a far more serious situation than Roberts has previously disclosed.
Roberts had previously told WIRED that he caused a plane to climb during a simulated test on a virtual environment he and a colleague created, but he insisted then that he had not interfered with the operation of a plane while in flight.
He told WIRED that he did access in-flight networks about 15 times during various flights but had not done anything beyond explore the networks and observe data traffic crossing them. According to the FBI affidavit, however, when he mentioned this to agents last February he told them that he also had briefly commandeered a plane during one of those flights.
He told the FBI that the period in which he accessed the in-flight networks more than a dozen times occurred between 2011 and 2014. The affidavit, however, does not indicate exactly which flight he allegedly caused to turn to fly to the side.
He obtained physical access to the networks through the Seat Electronic Box, or SEB. These are installed two to a row, on each side of the aisle under passenger seats, on certain planes. After removing the cover to the SEB by "wiggling and Squeezing the box," Roberts told agents he attached a Cat6 ethernet cable, with a modified connector, to the box and to his laptop and then used default IDs and passwords to gain access to the inflight entertainment system. Once on that network, he was able to gain access to other systems on the planes.
Reaction in the security community to the new revelations in the affidavit have been harsh. Although Roberts hasn't been charged yet with any crime, and there are questions about whether his actions really did cause the plane to list to the side or he simply thought they did, a number of security researchers have expressed shock that he attempted to tamper with a plane during a flight.
"I find it really hard to believe but if that is the case he deserves going to jail," wrote Jaime Blasco, director of AlienVault Labs in a tweet.
Alex Stamos, chief information security officer of Yahoo, wrote in a tweet, "You cannot promote the (true) idea that security research benefits humanity while defending research that endangered hundreds of innocents."
Roberts, reached by phone after the FBI document was made public, told WIRED that he had already seen it last month but wasn't expecting it to go public today.
"My biggest concern is obviously with the multiple conversations that I had with the authorities," he said. "I’m obviously concerned those were held behind closed doors and apparently they’re no longer behind closed doors."
Although he wouldn't respond directly to questions about whether he had hacked that previous flight mentioned in the affidavit, he said the paragraph in the FBI document discussing this is out of context.
"That paragraph that’s in there is one paragraph out of a lot of discussions, so there is context that is obviously missing which obviously I can’t say anything about," he said. "It would appear from what I’ve seen that the federal guys took one paragraph out of a lot of discussions and a lot of meetings and notes and just chose that one as opposed to plenty of others."
History of Researching Planes
Roberts began investigating aviation security about six years ago after he and a research colleague got hold of publicly available flight manuals and wiring diagrams for various planes. The documents showed how inflight entertainment systems on some planes were connected to the passenger satellite phone network, which included functions for operating some cabin control systems. These systems were in turn connected to the plane avionics systems. They built a test lab using demo software obtained from infotainment vendors and others in order to explore what they could to the networks.
In 2010, Roberts gave a presentation about hacking planes and cars at the BSides security conference in Las Vegas. Another presentation followed two years later. He also spoke directly to airplane manufacturers about the problems with their systems. "We had conversations with two main airplane builders as well as with two of the top providers of infotainment systems and it never went anywhere," he told WIRED last month.
Last February, the FBI in Denver, where Roberts is based, requested a meeting. They discussed his research for an hour, and returned a couple weeks later for a discussion that lasted several more hours. They wanted to know what was possible and what exactly he and his colleague had done. Roberts disclosed that he and his colleague had sniffed the data traffic on more than a dozen flights after connecting their laptops to the infotainment networks.
"We researched further than that," he told WIRED last month. "We were within the fuel balancing system and the thrust control system. We watched the packets and data going across the network to see where it was going."
Eventually, Roberts and his research partner determined that it would take a convoluted set of hacks to seriously subvert an avionics system, but they believed it could be done. He insisted to WIRED last month, however, that they did not "mess around with that except on simulation systems." In simulations, for example, Roberts said they were able to turn the engine controls from cruise to climb, "which definitely had the desired effect on the system—the plane sped up and the nose of the airplane went up."
Today he would not respond to questions about the new allegations from the FBI that he also messed with the systems during a real flight.
The Tweet Heard Round the World
Roberts never heard from the FBI again after that February visit. His recent troubles began after he sent out a Tweet on April 15 while aboard a United Airlines flight from Denver to Chicago. After news broke about a report from the Government Accountability Office revealing that passenger Wi-Fi networks on some Boeing and Airbus planes could allow an attacker to gain access to avionics systems and commandeer a flight, Roberts published a Tweet that said, "Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM,? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? 'PASS OXYGEN ON' Anyone?" He punctuated the tweet with a smiley face.
The tweet was meant as a sarcastic joke; a reference to how he had tried for years to get Boeing and Airbus to heed warnings about security issues with their passenger communications systems. His tweet about the Engine Indicator Crew Alert System, or EICAS, was a reference to research he'd done years ago on vulnerabilities in inflight infotainment networks, vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to access cabin controls and deploy a plane's oxygen masks.
In response to his tweet, someone else tweeted to him "...aaaaaand you're in jail. :)"
Roberts responded with, "There IS a distinct possibility that the course of action laid out above would land me in an orange suite [sic] rather quickly :)"
When an employee with United Airlines' Cyber Security Intelligence Department became aware of the tweet, he contacted the FBI and told agents that Roberts would be on a second flight going from Chicago to Syracuse. Although the particular plane Roberts was on at the time the agents seized him in New York was not equipped with an inflight entertainment system like the kind he had previously told the FBI he had hacked, the plane he had flown earlier from Denver to Chicago did have the same system.
When an FBI agent later examined that Denver-to-Chicago plane after it landed in another city the same day, he found that the SEBs under the seats where Roberts had been sitting "showed signs of tampering," according to the affidavit. Roberts had been sitting in seat 3A and the SEB under 2A, the seat in front of him, "was damaged."
"The outer cover of the box was open approximately 1/2 inch and one of the retaining screws was not seated and was exposed," FBI Special Agent Hurley wrote in his affidavit.
During the interrogation in Syracuse, Roberts told the agents that he had not compromised the network on the United flight from Denver to Chicago. He advised them, however, that he was carrying thumb drives containing malware to compromise networks—malware that he told them was "nasty." Also on his laptop were schematics for the wiring systems of a number of airplane models. All of this would be standard, however, for a security researcher who conducts penetration-testing and research for a living.
Nonetheless, based on all of the information that agents had gleaned from their previous interview with Roberts in February as well as the Tweets he'd sent out that day and the apparent signs of tampering on the United flight, the FBI believed that Roberts "had the ability and the willingness to use the equipment then with him to access or attempt to access the IFE and possibly the flight control systems on any aircraft equipped with an IFE systems, and that it would endanger public safety to allow him to leave the Syracuse airport that evening with that equipment."
When asked by WIRED if he ever connected his laptop to the SEB on his flight from Denver to Chicago, Roberts said, "Nope I did not. That I’m happy to say and I’ll stand from the top of the tallest tower and yell that one."
He also questions the FBI's assessment that the boxes showed signs of tampering.
"Those boxes are underneath the seats. How many people shove luggage and all sorts of things under there?," he said. "I’d be interested if they looked at the boxes under all the other seats and if they looked like they had been tampered. How many of them are broken and cracked or have scuff marks? How many of those do the airlines replace because people shove things under there?"
Regardless of whether the authorities have a case against him, however, there has already been some fallout from the incident. Roberts told WIRED that today investors on the board of directors of One World Labs, a company he helped found, decided to withdraw their investments in the company. As a result, One World Labs had to lay off about a dozen employees today, half of its staff.
Roberts said there were other factors contributing to the board's decision but his legal situation "was probably the final straw."
"The board has deemed it a risk. So that was one factor in many that made their decision," he said. "Their decision was not to fund the organization any further."In a quarterly federal lobbying disclosure record report, it was discovered that MasterCard would be paying lobbying firm Peck Madigan Jones to focus on peer-to-peer decentralized digital currencies like bitcoin. Five of the firm’s lobbyists will centre on bitcoin and mobile payments as well as other issues, including overdraft fees, identity theft and interchange fees.
The federal disclosure records (LD-2 Disclosure Form) indicate that MasterCard is the very first corporation to officially lobby on the cryptocurrency. It should be noted, though, that it still remains unclear as to what the parties involved are lobbying for exactly.
MasterCard issued a statement to The Hill:
“[We are] gathering information in connection with recent congressional hearings to better understand the policy issues around virtual and anonymous currencies.”
There have been reports that Xapo is working on establishing a bitcoin debit card that utilizes the networks of MasterCard and Visa, but the former refuted the reports and confirmed that it does not have any partnership with the bitcoin company.
Here are the contents of the filing:
“Specific Lobbying Issues: Interchange fees, gift cards, overdraft fees, data breach, identity theft, Bitcoin and mobile payments. Implementation of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111-203), including debit interchange fee amendment. Mobile payments in general. Court decision regarding Federal Reserve’s interchange rule. S. 1193, Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2013. S. 1897, Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2014. S. 1927, Data Security Act of 2014. S. 1976, Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2014. S. 1995, Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2014.”
Bitcoin Goes to Washington
The digital currency has been a hot and controversial topic on the steps of Capitol Hill. Some elected officials view bitcoin in a positive light, while other representatives want a downright ban on the virtual currency.
Earlier this year, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin urged Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to issue prohibitive measures against bitcoin because he alleged that it could very well disrupt the United States economy.
In response to that, Colorado Democratic Congressman Jared Polis wrote an unsent letter to the same officials and demanded a ban on the U.S. dollar because it is prone to counterfeiting, instability and associations with criminal activities and illicit transactions.
“I write today to express my concerns about United States dollar bills,” wrote Polis. “The exchange of dollar bills, including high denomination bills, is currently unregulated and has allowed users to participate in illicit activity, while also being highly subject to forgery, theft, and loss.”
During a demonstration of a bitcoin ATM, Polis garnered headlines when he purchased $10 worth of bitcoins.
Last month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) classified bitcoin as a property and will now require bitcoiners to keep strict records of each transaction. The purpose of the measure is to attain taxes on any capital gains.
Texas Republican Congressman Steve Stockman is planning to introduce the Virtual Currency Tax Reform Act,which would prompt the IRS and other authorities to view bitcoin as a currency for federal tax purposes.
Congress has held a series of hearings regarding the matter and committees have sought the opinions of Yellen, who confirmed that the central bank does not have any legal authority to supervise or regulate bitcoin. The new Fed Chair did urge Congress, though, to take legislative action over concerns of money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Federal Election Commission is currently mulling over a policy that would permit voters to donate to political campaigns in bitcoins. Commissioners are considering a $100 maximum amount and will vote on the matter in the near future. This hasn’t stopped political candidates as several have already started accepting bitcoin contributions.
At the time of this writing, bitcoin is trading at around $450.
Update – Georgia Gonder from the Hatch AgencyBrisbane Roar has today confirmed Liam Miller’s departure from the club by mutual consent.
Miller, who joined the Queensland club in May 2013 and made 24 Hyundai A-League appearances for Brisbane Roar, has been granted an immediate release from the remainder of his contract to pursue other football opportunities.
Head Coach Mike Mulvey praised the Irishman’s contribution to the squad throughout the club’s Premiership and Championship-winning 2013/14 season.
“We brought Liam here to strengthen our squad and play good quality football – he was an integral part of our success as a squad last season and we thank him for his service to the club,” Mulvey said.
“It’s always disappointing to lose a player of Liam’s calibre but both player and club decided this was the best outcome. We wish him and his family all the best for his future.”
Miller scored three goals during his time with Brisbane Roar, including one against Melbourne Victory in January that was hailed as one of the best team goals ever seen in the Hyundai A-League.When Beer Goes Nano: Behind the Scenes with Night Shift Brewing
An industrial road on the outskirts of Boston winds its way deep into a mess of run-down factories and broken brick buildings. It’s a part of town you have no business going to without specific purpose, or a GPS that has led you horribly astray. Nevertheless, on this sunny Saturday in the dead heat of summer, I found myself standing at a crossroads amongst these factory buildings, trying to find my way to beer.
Not all breweries are what your mind has made them out to be. You paint a picture of gleaming steel fermenters and glorious bottling lines, row upon row of wooden barrels and full kegs as far as the eye can see. Maybe even a parking lot to leave your car whilst visiting said brewery. But the reality of the situation is that many of the upstart craft shops that have trickled into the market over the past year or two have had to start with the bare bones. With limited funding, these graduated homebrew-turned-nanobrew operations have set out to build the commercial basics that will allow them to establish a place in the local market and take a shot at the dream. Night Shift Brewing is one of these operations.
I first came upon Night Shift at a tasting back in the spring, just shortly after the brewery’s launch in March 2012. Their line of beers was bold, intriguing. Unlike most craft breweries, Night Shift skipped over the usual suspects – IPA, Pale Ale and the like – for a trio of offbeat brews with ingredients you’d sooner see on a food menu than on a beer label. Bee Tea is a wheat ale brewed with sweet orange peel and orange blossom honey, and aged on tea leaves – a surprisingly mellow and impressively restrained beer. Taza Stout is a mouth-watering flavor bomb brewed with chicory root and ginger and aged on cacao nibs from nearby Taza Chocolate. And their most popular release, Trifecta, is a Belgian-style pale ale fermented with three Trappist yeast strains and aged on vanilla beans.
Back at the industrial compound in Everett a metal door on a drab concrete building opens into a dark, shadowy hallway. Once a factory for World War II machinery, the building is now home to two small breweries (the other, Idle Hands) working side-by-side to pump out beer as quickly as they can. Night Shift’s facilities are indeed that of a fledgling start-up – somewhat manual, somewhat all over the place. But they’ve got the essentials to produce the impressive beers they’ve been putting out, and the chops to back it up.
Michael Oxton, Robert Burns and Mike O’Mara are the threesome behind Night Shift. Friends, roommates, and brewers, these beer-savvy young entrepreneurs have crafted their passion through years of home brewing and experimentation into the late hours of night (hence, Night Shift). They have a penchant for offbeat ingredients like rose hips and habanero and for making beers that go well with food. They have a sour room that stays at a summery 85 degrees and plays host to wild yeast fermentation and barrel-aging beers. Their latter two releases, a Belgian-style quad ale fermented with brown sugar and Shiraz and a Berliner Weisse style sour ale brewed with lemongrass and ginger show that not only can these guys come up with creative concepts but they can execute as well.
When I was at the brewery, Night Shift was in the process of bottling their fourth batch of Somer Weisse (personally, my favorite release by Night Shift). The last batch was scooped up by the beer-consuming public at impressive speed and had been out of stock everywhere in the Boston area. Clearly a sign that Night Shift is doing something right. Viva Habanera, the newest entry to the lineup, is currently available at retailers in the Boston area. It’s another impeccably balanced, flavorful beer with a touch of spicy heat to kick start the senses.
In the months to come, the craft beer industry will inevitably continue to grow and more home brewers will cast aside their day jobs in pursuit of the dream. If Night Shift tells a story of this new breed of nanobrewers, we, the beer drinking public, are truly in for a remarkable and exciting year ahead.Police have “peacefully” and “without further incident” resolved the standoff with an armed suspect at San Francisco's Civic Center with him giving up after six hours of negotiations. The incident led to the evacuation of the center and nearby UN Plaza.
Officer Carlos Manfredi tweeted an image of a half-naked suspect, who did not seem to resist arrest, being detained by police officers in full gear. Police removed a gun belt with a handgun from the man.
Code 4. Suspect surrendered peacefully without further incident. Good work Crisis Negotiators & everyone out at the scene. pic.twitter.com/n7UvLeXfj0 — Officer Manfredi (@OfficerManfredi) 25 сентября 2016 г.
According to police, the “suicidal” suspect called 911 on Saturday’s afternoon threatening to hurt himself and police if they try to approach.
He had previously threatened “suicide by cop," according to local CBS affiliate KPIX.
Video of the guy with a gun at civic center in San Francisco (from my rooftop). I hope this ends well! pic.twitter.com/h5kaY5Y4SX — Chris Williams (@PureForm) 24 сентября 2016 г.
Civic Center was “shut down” and the UN Plaza “cleared out" due to the incident. All motorists and pedestrians were also forced to leave the area.
BREAKING: S.F. Civic Center blocked off as police negotiate with armed man https://t.co/2AiKWouUskpic.twitter.com/gGWPv8HArf — SFChronicle (@sfchronicle) 24 сентября 2016 г.
A SWAT team was called to the scene to deal with what police described as a “critical incident," while a hostage negotiators were talking to the man for over four hours to help to end the standoff.Many of the Pakistani-Americans who live in ethnically diverse Jackson Heights, Queens, are saddened by the flooding in their homeland and even have relatives among the displaced.
But, despite family ties, many aren't giving to the relief effort because they simply don't trust the Pakistani government.
“The money might reach a quarter of the people who really need it,” says Mussarat Khan as he leaves a doctor’s office. “The doctor and I were discussing the flood, there is just so much corruption.”
Whether the corruption allegations are true or not, perceptions that money would be wasted is one reason relief organizations say contributions for flood victims are way down.
“There has been a tepid response, it is down significantly from other disasters of recent times,” says Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a Glen Rock, N.J., evaluator of charities. “There could be a host of different reasons – from donor fatigue to people not feeling comfortable because of their concerns about terrorism."
Mr. Berger says some of the problem could be related to the difficulty of media reaching the flooded areas. But, he says, giving could also be down because people are on summer vacation or simply because of the vast geographical distance between the US and Pakistan.
Although some people may not give because of their concerns about corruption, he says those same concerns existed for Haiti, where contributions after January's earthquake far outpaced the rate of giving in the aftermath of Pakistan’s flooding.
Whatever the reason, charities are feeling the affect.
At the Zakat Foundation of America in Chicago, Executive Director Halil Demir says giving has been “very slow,” with the charity not even raising 20 percent of what it raised to help Haitians. “This is very scary that the message is not getting through.”
It’s a similar situation at Concern Worldwide, a nonprofit that responds to such crisis, says Dominic MacSorley, the operations director.
“We are trying to reach 250,000 people and we have pledges of $8 million but our budget needs to double and double next week,” he says.
On Thursday, the slow giving is one reason why Hillary Clinton will visit the United Nations for a General Assembly plenary session on the humanitarian situation in Pakistan. Last week, the UN appealed for pledges of $460 million. The US responded with a pledge of $90 million but other nations have been slower, says Mr. MacSorley.
For example, MacSorely says 10 days after the earthquake hit Haiti, there were pledges equal to $495 for each person affected by the disaster. So far, he says there have been pledges of $3 for each person affected by the flooding.
The lack of response by international donors is perplexing, says Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Relief, the largest Muslim charity.
“In the past there was a lot more media coverage, more government officials and celebrities organizing benefits for those in need,” she says. “We don’t see that now.”
Islamic Relief has raised $2 million in cash and $22 million in donations of food, water, and clothing. But, the charity has now increased its appeal to raise $4 million.
“Our supporters have to dig deep,” says Ms. Ahmed, who adds that this is now the religious period of Ramadan, a time of giving.
Some of that money will come through grass-roots efforts such as one in Plainfield, Ind., where a local mosque will ask its members to give money for flood relief during an Iftar dinner. Iftar is the meal after the day-long Ramadan fast.
Some organizations are hopeful that in the next few days the pace of giving will pick up. For example, the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), which sent six doctors to Pakistan Aug. 14, is sending its members e-mails and appealing on its Facebook page for contributions. By Friday it also plans an appeal on ARY, a Dubai-based digital television station watched by many Pakistanis.
“When people donate to us, all the money goes to medical relief,” says Abida Haque, IMANA president in Houston. “Our physicians all travel at their own expense.”
She says there is a desperate need to vaccinate children, to treat wounds, and provide potable drinking water.
Organizations such as IMAMA, however, will have to win over people like Syed Irshad Bukhari, a Pakistani-American news dealer in Manhattan and Rizwan Hamid, manager of a restaurant in Queens.
Mr. Bukhari recalls giving money for earthquake relief in Pakistan and finding out corrupt officials took a generous amount for themselves. Now, he says, “If you are going to give help, you give it directly to relatives.”
And Mr. Hamid says he would give to only Humanity First, a charity that he knows and trusts. But, so far, he says he hasn’t given. Instead, if he knows a family that needs help, he would prefer to give them money directly.This means the Flash Crash Advisory Commission that met on Friday has a long way to go in restoring confidence to the point that will bring the individual investor back into a market still ruled by high frequency trading, exchange-traded funds and leveraged hedge funds.
The Yale School of Management since 1989 has asked wealthy individual investors monthly to give the “probability of a catastrophic stock market crash in the U.S. in the next six months.”
In the latest survey in December, almost 75 percent of respondents gave it at least a 10 percent chance of happening. That’s up from 68 percent who gave it a 10 percent probability last April, just before the events of May 6, 2010.
“Even though the market is firing on all cylinders, that fear of big losses still looms large for investors in |
urbanization, pollution in cities, light distribution, and so on. Imagine the game possibilities, too! You can read more about UrtheCast here.
BBCThis is a timeline of the history of rock band U2:
Contents 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
pre 1980 [ edit ]
Paul McGuiness (pictured in 2010) became manager of the band in 1978
1980 [ edit ]
1981 [ edit ]
24 January – 28 February: U2 play dates in the United Kingdom and play their first tour of continental Europe. [25]
U2 play dates in the United Kingdom and play their first tour of continental Europe. 3 March: Boy is released in the United States. [ citation needed ]
is released in the United States. 3 March – 31 May: U2 commence their first major tour of the United States playing almost 60 dates across the country largely in clubs. [26]
U2 commence their first major tour of the United States playing almost 60 dates across the country largely in clubs. 4 June: U2 make their American television debut on the Tomorrow Show to promote the Boy album. Bono and the Edge are interviewed briefly by host Tom Snyder and the band plays "I Will Follow" and an incomplete version of "Twilight" during the credits
U2 make their American television debut on the Tomorrow Show to promote the Boy album. Bono and the Edge are interviewed briefly by host Tom Snyder and the band plays "I Will Follow" and an incomplete version of "Twilight" during the credits July: The single "Fire" is released.
The single "Fire" is released. July – August: The band record their second album at Windmill Lane Studios, in Dublin. The sessions are complicated after the briefcase containing Bono's lyrics was lost earlier in the year during a show in Portland, Oregon.
The band record their second album at Windmill Lane Studios, in Dublin. The sessions are complicated after the briefcase containing Bono's lyrics was lost earlier in the year during a show in Portland, Oregon. 5 October: "Gloria" is released as a single and makes the UK charts. [27] The video for "Gloria" is directed by Meiert Avis and shot in the Canal Basin in Dublin.
"Gloria" is released as a single and makes the UK charts. The video for "Gloria" is directed by Meiert Avis and shot in the Canal Basin in Dublin. 12 October: The band's second album, October, is released.[28] During the album's recording sessions, Bono and The Edge left the band due to spiritual conflicts, and U2 ceased to exist for a brief period of time.[29] The album received mixed reviews and limited radio play. It enters the UK charts at number 11.[27]
1982 [ edit ]
March: The single "A Celebration" is released.
The single "A Celebration" is released. 21 August: Bono marries high school sweetheart, Alison Stewart, in Raheny, Dublin. They honeymoon in Jamaica where Bono reportedly works on the lyrics for the new album. [30]
Bono marries high school sweetheart, Alison Stewart, in Raheny, Dublin. They honeymoon in Jamaica where Bono reportedly works on the lyrics for the new album. 1 December: The pre-War Tour begins.[31][32]
1983 [ edit ]
Bono singing during a U2 performance at the Kalvøya Festival in Oslo Norway, near the end of the War Tour on 21 August 1983.
30 November: The War Tour ends.
The War Tour ends. December: U2 is voted "Band of the Year" in the Rolling Stone magazine writer's poll.[ citation needed ]
1984 [ edit ]
1985 [ edit ]
1986 [ edit ]
14–16 December: U2 travel around the Californian desert with photographer Anton Corbijn and designer Steve Averill shooting pictures in the desert landscape for the new album's cover. [55] On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn tells the band about Joshua Trees and suggests their use on the sleeve. The following day they find an unusual lone-standing tree, images of which are used for the album sleeve and the album is named The Joshua Tree. [57]
U2 travel around the Californian desert with photographer Anton Corbijn and designer Steve Averill shooting pictures in the desert landscape for the new album's cover. On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn tells the band about Joshua Trees and suggests their use on the sleeve. The following day they find an unusual lone-standing tree, images of which are used for the album sleeve and the album is named. late December: U2 call in Steve Lillywhite to remix a few of the new songs which he works on into the new year.[55]
1987 [ edit ]
1988 [ edit ]
February: U2 move to Los Angeles to work with Phil Joanou on the Rattle and Hum documentary. While in LA, they also record new songs at A&M Studios and STS Studios.[75]
1989 [ edit ]
April: "When Love Comes to Town" is released as Rattle and Hum's third single.
"When Love Comes to Town" is released as's third single. 10 May: Bono and Ali's first child, Jordan, is born on Bono's 29th birthday.
Bono and Ali's first child, Jordan, is born on Bono's 29th birthday. 13 June: "All I Want is You" is released as Rattle and Hum's fourth and final single. Its release in Australia is held off until October to coincide with the Lovetown Tour. It reaches number 1 on the Australian charts.
Adam Clayton
6 August: Clayton is arrested in Dublin on drug charges.
Clayton is arrested in Dublin on drug charges. 21 September: The Lovetown Tour starts in Australia.
The Lovetown Tour starts in Australia. 30 December: On one of the final shows of the Lovetown Tour, Bono says onstage in Dublin that "this is just the end of something for U2" and that "we have to go away and … and dream it all up again".
"It's your future. The only limits are the limits of your imagination. Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud. At high volume."" —Bono, 31 December 1989 [76]
31 December: At midnight, U2 open their final of four Dublin shows with "Where The Streets Have No Name" as the audience counts down the last seconds of the 1980s. The show is played live on radio throughout Europe.[77]
1990 [ edit ]
1991 [ edit ]
January: The band return to Berlin to finalise some recording work. [86]
The band return to Berlin to finalise some recording work. 9 February: U2 arrive in Tenerife for two weeks of photo and video shoots that the band hopes will change its image. The band dresses in masks and joins the crowds in the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and it is during this time that the famous photos of U2 in drag are taken. [86]
U2 arrive in Tenerife for two weeks of photo and video shoots that the band hopes will change its image. The band dresses in masks and joins the crowds in the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and it is during this time that the famous photos of U2 in drag are taken. late February/March – July: Back in Dublin, U2 rent the Dalkey seaside manor, "Elsinore House", to continue work on the new album. [87]
Back in Dublin, U2 rent the Dalkey seaside manor, "Elsinore House", to continue work on the new album. Easter: The Edge separates from his wife, Aislinn. The pain of the separation strongly influences the album material for which is being written. [82] [88] [89]
The Edge separates from his wife, Aislinn. The pain of the separation strongly influences the album material for which is being written. 17 March: U2 meet with Willie Williams to continue discussions on the band's next tour. [87]
U2 meet with Willie Williams to continue discussions on the band's next tour. April: Tapes from the album's earlier Berlin session's are leaked and bootlegged. [90]
Tapes from the album's earlier Berlin session's are leaked and bootlegged. May: U2 sue the Sunday Independent over an October 1990 article based on third-hand reports about U2 behaving badly in a Dublin restaurant. The matter is settled out of court including a printed apology from the paper which says the original article had "no foundation in fact". [91]
U2 sue the over an October 1990 article based on third-hand reports about U2 behaving badly in a Dublin restaurant. The matter is settled out of court including a printed apology from the paper which says the original article had "no foundation in fact". mid-May: Island Records advertises that it will pursue legal action against anyone selling U2's bootlegged studio tapes. In late May, authorities trace the tapes' distribution to Germany and a factory is shut down.[91]
1992 [ edit ]
7 August : After three weeks of stage erection and a week of rehearsals, U2 provide a public rehearsal. Morleigh Steinberg makes her debut as the belly dancer in "Mysterious Ways". [72]
: After three weeks of stage erection and a week of rehearsals, U2 provide a public rehearsal. Morleigh Steinberg makes her debut as the belly dancer in "Mysterious Ways". 12 August: The Outside Broadcast leg of the Zoo TV tour opens in New Jersey. [ citation needed ]
The Outside Broadcast leg of the Zoo TV tour opens in New Jersey. August: The fifth and final single from Achtung Baby, "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", is released.
The fifth and final single from, "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", is released. 28 August: During a New York interview with Rockline, US Presidential candidate Bill Clinton contacts U2 live on air.[75]
1993 [ edit ]
1994 [ edit ]
February: U2 issue a writ challenging the Performing Rights Society on their exclusive rights to collect songwriting royalties for song performances. [75]
U2 issue a writ challenging the Performing Rights Society on their exclusive rights to collect songwriting royalties for song performances. March: Zooropa wins "Best Alternative Album" award at the Grammy's.[ citation needed ]
"It was my idea to relocate to New York for the year off and start a new life as non-drinker, which is commonly known as 'doing the geographic'. It was surprisingly easy to stop but it was difficult to stay stopped." —Adam Clayton on quitting alcohol. [30]
1994: Clayton and Mullen move to New York City to study music. [30]
Clayton and Mullen move to New York City to study music. April: Mullen and Clayton record four tracks with Nanci Griffith for her Flyer album. [75]
Mullen and Clayton record four tracks with Nanci Griffith for her album. 5 April: The Zoo TV concert film, Zoo TV: Live from Sydney, is released in Europe and Australia.
The Zoo TV concert film,, is released in Europe and Australia. November: U2 and Brian Eno record new music over two weeks in a West London studio.[75]
1995 [ edit ]
"I love it, because it's so different to our normal work." —The Edge on Original Soundtracks 1[30]
7 November: The Passengers album Original Soundtracks 1 is released worldwide. "Miss Sarajevo" featuring Luciano Pavarotti was the only single from the release. On the same day, Tina Turner releases "Goldeneye", the theme for the new James Bond film of the same name, written by Bono and the Edge-on Capitol Records.[75]
1996 [ edit ]
January: U2 begin working on a new album in Dublin. [75]
U2 begin working on a new album in Dublin. April: The band move to Miami for further work on the album. [75]
The band move to Miami for further work on the album. 1 May: Clayton and Mullen release their version of the Mission: Impossible theme track. It enters the charts in the Top 10 in the US, the UK, and other countries. [75]
Clayton and Mullen release their version of the theme track. It enters the charts in the Top 10 in the US, the UK, and other countries. 11 May: Hot Press journalist Bill Graham dies at his home in Howth. The band fly back to Dublin from America to attend the funeral.[75]
1997 [ edit ]
3 February: "Discothèque" is released as the new album's first single.
"Discothèque" is released as the new album's first single. 4 March: U2 release Pop. The album debuts at number one in 35 countries and drew mainly positive reviews. [109] [110] Sales were poor compared to previous U2 releases. [111]
U2 release. The album debuts at number one in 35 countries and drew mainly positive reviews. Sales were poor compared to previous U2 releases. 15 April: "Staring at the Sun" is released as Pop's second single.
U2 stage designer Willie Williams and stage architect Mark Fisher developed the PopMart Tour.
1998 [ edit ]
1999 [ edit ]
17 August: Bono and wife Ali have a baby boy who is named Elijah Bob Patricious Guggi Q.
2000 [ edit ]
9 October: "Beautiful Day" is released as a single, debuting at No. 1 in Australia, Canada, the UK, and No. 21 in the US.
"Beautiful Day" is released as a single, debuting at No. 1 in Australia, Canada, the UK, and No. 21 in the US. 30 October: All That You Can't Leave Behind is released. For many of those not won over by the band's 1990s music, it was considered a return to grace;[115] Rolling Stone called it U2's "third masterpiece" alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.[116] The album debuted at number one in 22 countries.[117]
2001 [ edit ]
2002 [ edit ]
2003 [ edit ]
2004 [ edit ]
January: The single "Take Me to the Clouds Above", a house-pop collaboration by LMC vs U2, is released.
The single "Take Me to the Clouds Above", a house-pop collaboration by LMC vs U2, is released. 16 September: Bono is nominated a third time for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Bono is nominated a third time for the Nobel Peace Prize. 8 November: The new album's first single, "Vertigo", is released. It reaches number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, number 1 on the Billboard charts, and number 5 on the Australian charts.
23 November: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is released. The album debuted at number one in the U.S. where first week sales doubled that of All That You Can't Leave Behind and set a record for the band.[121] The same day, The Complete U2 digital box set is released by Apple Computer on the iTunes Store. It is the first major release of a purely digital online set by any artist. It contains the complete set of U2 albums and singles, and also contains live, rare and previously unreleased material from 1978 to 2004, with a total of 446 songs.[122] The release accompanies a U2 Special Edition iPod.
2005 [ edit ]
U2 performing at Vertigo Tour.
The band performing at Live8 concert.
2006 [ edit ]
2007 [ edit ]
1 January: The "Window in the Skies" single is released.
The "Window in the Skies" single is released. June: The band continue writing and recording for the album, this time with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno as co-writers and producers. A two-week trip to Fez, Morocco where the six recorded led to the band experimenting with North African influences.
The band continue writing and recording for the album, this time with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno as co-writers and producers. A two-week trip to Fez, Morocco where the six recorded led to the band experimenting with North African influences. 20 November: The Joshua Tree is re-released as a 20th anniversary triple album.
2008 [ edit ]
2009 [ edit ]
Bono and The Edge performing at the Lincoln Memorial
2010 [ edit ]
25 March: Artificial Horizon is released to subscribers of U2.com. [138]
is released to subscribers of U2.com. 21 May: Bono has emergency surgery on a back injury during tour preparations, and the band postpones the North American leg of the U2 360° Tour [139] [140] and their appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.
Bono has emergency surgery on a back injury during tour preparations, and the band postpones the North American leg of the U2 360° Tour and their appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. 26 June: The Edge makes a special guest appearance with Muse at Glastonbury to perform "Where the Streets Have No Name".
The Edge makes a special guest appearance with Muse at Glastonbury to perform "Where the Streets Have No Name". 13 July: U2 announce the rescheduled dates for the postponed North American leg of the U2 360° tour. [141]
U2 announce the rescheduled dates for the postponed North American leg of the U2 360° tour. 6 August: The second European leg of the U2 360° Tour starts on 6 August 2010 in Turin. It marks their first performance since Bono recovered from his back injury.
The second European leg of the U2 360° Tour starts on 6 August 2010 in Turin. It marks their first performance since Bono recovered from his back injury. 25 November: U2 begin their Australasian leg of the 360° tour in Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland.
2011 [ edit ]
31 January: Announces last date on their U2 360° tour to be in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Their first date ever in Atlantic Canada. [142]
Announces last date on their U2 360° tour to be in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Their first date ever in Atlantic Canada. 10 May: Duals is released to subscribers of U2.com. [143]
is released to subscribers of U2.com. 24 June: U2 headline the first night of the Glastonbury Festival.
U2 headline the first night of the Glastonbury Festival. 30 July: Last concert of the 360° tour held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Last concert of the 360° tour held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. 8 September: World premiere of U2 Documentary, "From the Sky Down", Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[144]
2012 [ edit ]
2013 [ edit ]
2014 [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]We assume everyone here will watch Notre Dame-Alabama. That's the final act of a great season, and the last time for about eight months we'll see a meaningful college football game.
And you'll probably watch games like the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. And maybe the Alamo Bowl and the Gator Bowl if you don't have anything going on those nights.
Scroll to continue with content Ad
But as we get further down our rankings of the 2012-13 bowl games is where we separate the people who like college football pretty well from those who might need to get their heads examined.
[Pat Forde: College football's bowl season a jumbled mess]
Are you setting the DVR for East Carolina vs. Louisiana-Lafayette in the New Orleans Bowl? How about canceling all plans with the significant other because you just can't miss Rice and Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl? Won't sit down to Christmas Eve dinner until the Hawaii Bowl between SMU and Fresno State is over? Well, we're with you.
Here are all 35 bowls, ranked from absolute must-see TV to must-see-a-psychiatrist if it's on your TV:
1. BCS Championship Game (Jan. 7, Miami): Notre Dame (12-0) vs. Alabama (12-1)
We're not going to lie: There's a good chance this isn't a shootout. But this should be a great game between two hard-nosed teams with great defenses, and there's a heck of a lot of history among the two programs, too.
2. Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 3, Glendale, Ariz.): Oregon (11-1) vs. Kansas State (11-1)
This is a game of old-school football vs. new-school football. Kansas State will try to pound the ball with quarterback Collin Klein while Oregon will use a bunch of different weapons to keep the Wildcats on their toes.
Story continues
3. Cotton Bowl (Jan. 4, Arlington, Texas): Texas A&M (10-2) vs. Oklahoma (10-2)
It's not A&M and Texas, but it's a matchup of former Big 12 rivals. In terms of quarterbacks, one team had a potential Heisman candidate and the other has this year's probable winner.
4. Chick-fil-A (Dec. 31, Atlanta): LSU (10-2) vs. Clemson (10-2)
These are two teams that could have been in BCS bowls were it not for ill-timed losses. Even though it's not a BCS bowl, it's still one of the best games on the docket. Clemson brings the offense while LSU brings the defense. This one should be fun.
5. Sugar Bowl (Jan. 2, New Orleans): Florida (11-1) vs. Louisville (10-2)
This could be a great matchup of agile quarterbacks, but if Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater isn't healthy, this game could be a blowout.
6. Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, Pasadena, Calif.): Stanford (11-2) vs. Wisconsin (8-5)
If you're a traditionalist, this game between the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions is gold. Wisconsin comes in after thrashing Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game, while Stanford has been consistently strong all season.
[Related: Oregon vs. Kansas State in Fiesta Bowl is intriguing]
7. Holiday (Dec. 27, San Diego): UCLA (9-4) vs. Baylor (7-5)
Pac-12 runner-up UCLA should have nice crowd support for this bowl, and it may be a wild game against a Baylor team that ranks first in FBS in total offense and 119th in total defense.
8. Alamo (Dec. 29, San Antonio): Texas (8-4) vs. Oregon State (9-3)
Oregon State had one of the best turnarounds in the country going from 3-9 to 9-3 and has been one of the most entertaining teams to watch this season. As for Texas, you never know what you're going to get or who's going to be quarterbacking it. Still, this could end up being a great, tightly contested game.
9. Capital One (Jan. 1, Orlando): Georgia (11-2) vs. Nebraska (10-3)
This game had the potential to be one of the best of the bowl season, but Nebraska's lackluster performance against Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship might have ruined it. Georgia expended a lot of energy in the SEC title game against Alabama and despite a fantastic season, has no BCS bowl to show for it. This is a poor substitute.
10. Outback (Jan. 1, Tampa): South Carolina (10-2) vs. Michigan (8-4)
Both teams had preseason Heisman Trophy candidates and neither worked out, but both programs remained solid despite adversity. Michigan's Denard Robinson is one of the more exciting players on the field this bowl season.
11. Orange Bowl (Jan. 1, Miami): Florida State (11-2) vs. Northern Illinois (12-1)
Many don't think NIU deserved a BCS bowl berth and they're probably right, but the Huskies might be more motivated to play the game than Florida State. Both teams will be missing a coach in this game -- NIU head coach Dave Doeren took the N.C. State job while FSU defensive coordinator Mark Stoops took the head-coaching job at Kentucky.
12. Gator (Jan. 1, Jacksonville, Fla.): Northwestern (9-3) vs. Mississippi State (8-4)
Northwestern is having an exceptional season while Mississippi State is trying to end on a high note. The Wildcats exceeded expectations and have a chance to win 10 games for the first time since 1995. Mississippi State started 7-0, but won just one game down the stretch.
13. Las Vegas (Dec. 22, Las Vegas): Boise State (10-2) vs. Washington (7-5)
Boise State, having narrowly missed out on a BCS bid, is going for a Las Vegas Bowl win for the third straight season against a Washington team that has wins against Stanford and Oregon State.
14. Idaho Potato (Dec. 15, Boise, Idaho): Utah State (10-2) vs. Toledo (9-3)
Utah State is a balanced, solid team that does just about everything well. Its only two losses came at Wisconsin and at BYU by five combined points. USU will face a Toledo team that lost two of its last three but is still potent.
15. Military (Dec. 27, Washington, D.C.): San Jose State (10-2) vs. Bowling Green (8-4)
San Jose State took Stanford to the wire in a three-point loss, a sign of things to come for the Spartans, and they get a tough test against Bowling Green, which ranks in the top 10 nationally in yards allowed and points allowed.
[Related: Wisconsin comes up Roses in Big Ten title game]
16. GoDaddy.com (Jan. 6. Mobile, Ala.): Kent State (11-2) vs. Arkansas State (9-3)
This is actually a good game if you like offense. Both of these teams can put points on the board early and often, and if you like running backs, Kent State's Dri Archer is one of the best.
17. Buffalo Wild Wings (Dec. 29, Tempe, Ariz.): TCU (7-5) vs. Michigan State (6-6)
TCU fared well for its first season in the Big 12 while Michigan State was a disappointment. Both of these teams had their worst seasons since 2007 and '09 respectively.
18. New Mexico (Dec. 15, Albuquerque, N.M.): Nevada (7-5) vs. Arizona (7-5)
The first matchup of the bowl season should be entertaining. Nevada is 105th in total defense in FBS, but that's still better than Arizona, which is 116th. Points will be plentiful.
19. Poinsettia (Dec. 20, San Diego): BYU (7-5) vs. San Diego State (9-3)
The meeting between a pair of old Mountain West rivals pits a BYU team that rode its strong defense to seven wins against an Aztecs team that won its last seven games.
20. Music City (Dec. 31, Nashville): N.C. State (7-5) vs. Vanderbilt (8-4)
Vanderbilt overachieved while N.C. State underachieved and ultimately fired its coach. A win would give Vandy nine wins for the first time since 1982.
21. Pinstripe (Dec. 29, Bronx, N.Y.): Syracuse (7-5) vs. West Virginia (7-5)
Both of these teams are among the best passing programs in the country and both play little defense. That should make for a high-scoring and highly entertaining game.
22. Liberty (Dec. 31, Memphis): Tulsa (10-3) vs. Iowa State (6-6)
These two teams played in the season opener and Iowa State came away with a 38-23 win. Tulsa should give the Cyclones a better game this time around.
23. Russell Athletic (Dec. 28, Orlando, Fla.): Rutgers (9-3) vs. Virginia Tech (6-6)
The Scarlet Knights are probably disappointed to land here after blowing a chance for a BCS game in the season finale, and Virginia Tech's whole season has been a disappointment with just six wins.
24. Kraft Fight Hunger (Dec. 29, San Francisco): Navy (7-4) vs. Arizona State (7-5)
These programs are moving in two different directions. ASU had a rough second half of the season while Navy thrived after a rough start. Arizona State will need the month to prepare for Navy's option.
[Related: Karl Malone rips Louisiana Tech's bowl snub]
25. Independence (Dec. 28, Shreveport, La.): Louisiana-Monroe (8-4) vs. Ohio (8-4)
Lousiana-Monroe, whose upset of Arkansas was a great story early this season, will play in a bowl for the first time in program history. It will face an Ohio team that was ranked for the first time since 1968 at midseason but lost its last three games, all by double digits.
26. Compass (Jan. 5, Birmingham, Ala.): Pittsburgh (6-6) vs. Ole Miss (6-6)
Both of these teams came on late to make a push to get to six wins and both will be eager to finish with a winning season in the first year for both Pittsburgh coach Paul Chryst and Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze.
27. Belk (Dec. 27, Charlotte, N.C.): Duke (6-6) vs. Cincinnati (9-3)
The Blue Devils are back in a bowl for the first time since 1994, but come in on a four-game losing streak and face a Bearcats team that is 12th in the nation in scoring defense.
28. Beef 'O' Brady's (Dec. 21, St. Petersburg, Fla.): Ball State (9-3) vs. UCF (9-4)
Ball State was 3-3 before an overtime win sparked a six-game winning streak, and it will face a UCF team that lost a shot at the C-USA title in a heartbreaking overtime loss to Tulsa on Saturday.
29. Hawaii (Dec. 24, Honolulu): SMU (6-6) vs. Fresno State (9-3)
Coach Tim DeRuyter's first season with the Bulldogs resulted in a share of the Mountain West title, and Fresno State will go against an SMU team that got a win in its season finale against Tulsa to get eligible.
30. Sun (Dec. 31, El Paso, Texas): USC (7-5) vs. Georgia Tech (6-7)
This is not where anyone expected USC to be at the end of the season and playing a team with a losing record is almost insult to injury. USC was supposed to be playing for the national title while Georgia Tech lost in its conference championship game and needed an exemption waiver by the NCAA.
31. Heart of Dallas (Jan. 1, Dallas): Purdue (6-6) vs. Oklahoma State (7-5)
Oklahoma State is unlike any team Purdue has faced this season with its up-tempo style and ability to put points on the board quickly. Purdue will be without its head coach Danny Hope, which might leave the Boilermakers uninspired.
32. Meineke Car Care of Texas (Dec. 28, Houston): Minnesota (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (7-5)
Texas Tech is second in the nation in passing offense, but its defense slipped after a great start to the season. Minnesota fattened up its record before conference play, then got bowl eligible despite going 2-6 in Big Ten play.
33. New Orleans (Dec. 22, New Orleans): East Carolina (8-4) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4)
East Carolina won five of its last six games, and will be going against a Louisiana-Lafayette team that beat San Diego State in last year's New Orleans Bowl on a field goal as time expired.
34. Armed Forces (Dec. 29, Fort Worth, Texas): Rice (6-6) vs. Air Force (6-6)
Air Force knows this bowl well, as it is the Falcons' fourth appearance in the game in six years, while Rice is in just its third bowl game since 1961. It's just hard to get too excited for a game between a pair of.500 teams.
35. Little Caesars Pizza (Dec. 26, Detroit): Western Kentucky (7-5) vs. Central Michigan (6-6)
Central Michigan was like the final at-large team to get into the NCAA tournament, with a 6-6 record after a 3-6 start. Western Kentucky was barely in the field, too, losing three straight before a one-point win against North Texas in the finale.
- - -
Got a tip for Dr. Saturday? Email us at dr.saturday@ymail.com. You can also connect with us via Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.
More news from the Yahoo! Sports Minute
Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• Victorious Chiefs make no effort to hide pain one day after tragic events
• 'Sheed ejected for yelling, 'Ball don't lie!'
• Brian Cashman, Bobby Valentine rappel down 22-story building
• Y! Shopping: Best holiday gifts under $20by Jason J. Brown - Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Outdoor retailer Gander Mountain will host NRA Weekend Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, giving customers the opportunity to purchase discounted NRA memberships and receive Gander Mountain gift cards.
Throughout the weekend event, store customers will be able to purchase NRA annual memberships for $30, and will receive a $25 Gander Mountain gift card in addition to the membership. NRA representatives will be on hand at all Gander Mountain stores nationwide to answer questions and process membership applications for new and renewing NRA members.
NRA’s legendary annual membership, which normally costs $40, includes a variety of extras, including one free NRA monthly magazine, $2,500 worth of insurance coverage for firearms, and a membership card granting them exclusive discounts and offers.
"Our customers look forward to hunting season all year long, and we're here to help them get the gear they need to get back outside," said Gander Mountain President Derek Siddons. "Gander Mountain is committed to providing responsible citizens with access to firearms and educational programs that promote proper use, care, safety and security through our partnership with NRA and our ongoing 'With Rights Comes Responsibility' campaign."
In promoting the NRA’s “gold standard” of firearms training, safety and education, NRA representatives will provide introductory firearms safety seminars, teaching participants the basics of safe firearms handling, proper storage means, and cleaning techniques. Additionally, the first 50 in-store customers each day will receive a free cable lock from the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Project ChildSafe program.
Even after NRA Weekend wraps up, Gander Mountain customers will be able to purchase NRA memberships in stores nationwide for $30 and receive a $10 Gander Mountain gift card and additional benefits.
"Gander Mountain is providing a convenient experience and great discount for the firearm community to purchase or renew their NRA membership," said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre. "We hope the community heads to Gander Mountain to enjoy a superior outdoor retail experience and to learn more about the NRA and our Second Amendment freedoms."
Minnesota-based Gander Mountain recently launched the “America’s Firearms Supercenter” initiative in conjunction with NRA and the NSSF. The retailer, who operates more than 150 retail locations across the U.S., offers the “largest selection of new and used guns” in the country, with experience and certified associations standing by in store and online to help customers find the right firearm for them.
Gander Mountain also offers a Best Price Plus+ price match program, matching the best available locally advertised price plus 10 percent of the difference on firearms, certified gunsmithing, firearms customization, safety training and more.
For more information, visit http://www.gandermountain.com.Re-election of the DSF Board: Call for candidates
Over the last 12 months, the Django Software Foundation (DSF) has been making efforts to improve transparency and accountability as an organisation. We've started publishing the minutes to DSF board meetings. We also published an annual report on the activities and financial state of the DSF.
The next step in this process is to improve the accountability of the board itself. Historically, board members have been elected by the DSF membership; however, once elected, the have sat on the board until they chose to stand down. To improve the accountability of the board, we're going to move to an annual re-election for board positions.
To that end, the DSF is calling for candidates to stand for election to the DSF board. With one exception, all of the current board members have indicated their interest in continuing to serve for the 2015 calendar year; however, the election is open to anyone who wishes to serve on the board.
What does a DSF board member do? DSF Board positions are unpaid volunteer positions. DSF board members are expected to participate in a monthly board teleconference, and follow up on any activities generated by that teleconference. Depending on the business presented to the board, this may result in additional work over the course of the month. The work will usually be administrative and organisational in nature -- for example, managing the financial affairs of the DSF, representing the board in legal discussions, or liaising with groups performing work on the DSF's behalf.
We |
often overlap as tactics and formations change from game to game or even within a game.Coaches and general managers and pundits talk of a “No. 10,” the playmaking hub around which the attack revolves, yet in many leagues around the world – including MLS – what was traditionally a passing position has broadened to include players who can score goals as well as consistently set them up.In the category of attacking midfielders there are those who are primarily passers such asandand, and those more inclined to get forward and finish a la. (Wide midfielders and wingers who take on much of a team’s attacking responsibility, likeof Montreal, are rated in separate categories.)Central mids can be box-to-box stalwarts -- as inand-- or a cagier, deep-lying maestro like. The holding or defensive mid is easier to identify and the importance of anincreases as the overall quality of the league improves and more is demanded than simply winning tackles.Here are the top 10 in each of the three midfield classifications for 2016:(NY Red Bulls)(Portland Timbers)(FC Dallas)(Sporting KC)(Orlando City)(New England Revolution)(D.C. United)(Vancouver Whitecaps)(New York City)(Real Salt Lake)In his second season back in MLS, Kljestan topped the league in assists (20) and key passes (3.3 per game) during the regular season. Like many of his teammates he didn’t quite come through in the playoffs but is clearly at the head of the class. Statistically, Valeri posted much better numbers in 2016 (14 goals, 7 assists) than he did in Portland’s championship season (2 goals, 8 assists), part of which he missed through injury. A key element in a Timbers’ revival will hinge on his performance in a re-shaped team. When an Achilles injury sidelined Diaz, FCD’s title hopes collapsed. Period.Feilhaber is clearly among the league’s elite players at his position yet he’ll be 32 in 2017 and it seems he and SKC need one more quality attacker --was a big loss -- to challenge for a title. Kaka slipped a notch in 2016 and with new, regional rival Atlanta making a big splash, the Lions need their Brazilian sharper and healthier. Nguyen led the Revs with 10 assists but three of them came in a 3-0 defeat of Orlando City and down the stretch he was blanked during a six-game winless streak. After a rocky start to his MLS career that included a sideline argument with head coach Ben Olsen, United converted Acosta’s loan into a transfer for a club-record fee of about $1.4 million. He led the team with 11 assists and at 22 he’s likely to improve greatly.A streaky, turbulent stay in MLS for Pedro Morales ended after three seasons. In 2016, he scored nine goals and recorded six assists, but started 13 straight games without an entry in either column before scoring three goals in the last four games. Lampard also terminated a contentious MLS tenure and his critics will ignore the 12 goals he scored on just 33 shots. Are RSL fans nervous that Javier Morales, their all-time assist leader (90, including playoffs), will haunt them in an FCD uniform next season if he signs as a free agent? Yes they are. The old guy (37 in 2017) still has game.(NY Red Bulls)(New York City)(Colorado Rapids)(Toronto FC)(Sporting KC)(D.C. United)(L.A. Galaxy)(Seattle Sounders)(Montreal Impact)(San Jose Earthquakes)As much as holding mid is a thankless task, usually life is even tougher for the No. 8, who must work back and forth in transition, hold the ball and keep possession as the attackers move into position, and pass the ball crisply as well as shake it loose and scoop it up. Felipe does all of this very well.Pirlo is nothing like Felipe, but he plays so deep he’s not an attacking midfielder in the modern parlance. He seldom tackles, either, so his graceful touches and elegant passes of any angle and distance fall into this category. Cronin, under-appreciated in Toronto and San Jose, embraced a fresh start and fully justified his role as captain.Osorio played the most games (30) and minutes (2,440) of his four-year career in the regular season and scored two goals in the playoffs. He’s on the brink of becoming a very good player. Espinoza set career marks for games (30), minutes (2,679), and assists (5) as well as fouls (65) and cautions (10), which neatly sums up the patchwork season it was for him and SKC. At 35, Sarvas tied for seventh with 3.4 tackles per game but he was also fourth in total fouls (67). Lletget flourished when moved into the middle -- he finished third on the team with eight assists -- and in his third MLS season will assume a lot of leadership as the Galaxy moves on after, etc.The Sounders’ incredible title run gave Roldan the proper platform to grow and mature into a reliable contributor. Bernier, 37, rebounded from a lackluster spell to empower the Impact's attack in October and November. Godoy has been one of the most underrated Panamanians in MLS and a more stable cast of teammates would showcase his abilities.(Seattle Sounders)(NY Red Bulls)(Toronto FC)(FC Dallas)(Vancouver Whitecaps)(Sporting KC)(Colorado Rapids)(Montreal Impact)(Real Salt Lake)(L.A. Galaxy)Of all the stirring sagas generated by Seattle, none are as poignant as that of Alonso, who left his homeland of Cuba to excel as a professional and celebrate his team’s first league title with his beloved father present. He also led the league in passing percentage (90.3). McCarty is the engine that drove the Red Bulls during an impressive regular season and sputtered a bit in the playoffs. Bradley averaged a fifth-best 3.5 tackles per game but his rank of 60th in passing percentage (82.2) triggers a lot of criticism even though he does attempt more long passes (8.8 per game) than any field player.Gruezo, who debuted for Ecuador two years ago at 19, started 28 of his 29 appearances and justified the trust of head coach Oscar Pareja by adjusting quickly to a new league and a new culture. Laba led all players with 4.1 tackles per game and his passing percentage of 85.2 ranked 20th. Mustivar struggled through a few inconsistent spells yet his stats of 2.6 tackles (19th) and 2.9 interceptions (25th) per game were solid.Donadel and Co. ran out of gas against TFC in the conference finals, which dulled a strong finish to the regular season and very good displays in the first three playoff games. Beckerman is not the imposing force he’s been for most of his MLS career and turns 35 in April, yet phasing him out won’t be easy. In an oft-muddled Galaxy midfield, Larentowicz provided some stability while starting 17 of 23 games and will give expansion entrant Atlanta United some valuable experience.This explainer was updated by Umair Irfan in December 2018 and draws heavily from a card stack written by Brad Plumer in 2015. Brian Resnick contributed the section on the Paris climate accord in 2017.
There’s a vast and growing gap between the urgency to fight climate change and the policies needed to combat it.
In 2018, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that it is possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, but the world may have as little as 12 years left to act. The US government’s National Climate Assessment, with input from NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pentagon, also reported that the consequences of climate change are already here, ranging from nuisance flooding to the spread of mosquito-borne viruses into what were once colder climates. Left unchecked, warming will cost the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars.
However, these facts have failed to register with the Trump administration, which is actively pushing policies that will increase the emissions of heat-trapping gases.
Ever since he took office, President Donald Trump has rejected or undermined President Barack Obama’s signature climate achievements: the Paris climate agreement; the Clean Power Plan, the main domestic policy for limiting greenhouse gas emissions; and fuel economy standards, which target transportation, the largest US source of greenhouse gases.
At the same time, the Trump administration has aggressively boosted fossil fuels: opening unprecedented swaths of public lands to mining and drilling, attempting to bail out foundering coal power plants, and promoting hydrocarbon exploitation at climate change conferences.
Trump has also appointed climate change skeptics to key positions. Quietly, officials at these and other science agencies have been removing the words “climate change” from government websites and press releases.
Yet the evidence for humanity’s role in changing the climate continues to mount, and its consequences are increasingly difficult to ignore. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations now top 408 parts per million, a threshold the planet hasn’t seen in millions of years. Greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2018. Disasters worsened by climate change have taken hundreds of lives, destroyed thousands of homes, and cost billions of dollars.
The big questions now are how these ongoing changes in the climate will reverberate throughout the rest of the world, and what we should do about them. The answers bridge decades of research across geology, economics, and social science, which have been confounded by uncertainty and obscured by jargon. That’s why it can be a bit daunting to join the discussion for the first time, or to revisit the conversation after a hiatus.
To help, we’ve provided answers to some fundamental questions about climate change you may have been afraid to ask.
1) What is global warming?
In short: The world is getting hotter, and humans are responsible.
Yes, the planet’s temperature has changed before, but it’s the rise in average temperature of the Earth's climate system since the late 19th century, the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, that’s important here. Temperatures over land and ocean have gone up 0.8° to 1° Celsius (1.4° to 1.8° Fahrenheit), on average, in that span:
Many people use the term “climate change” to describe this rise in temperatures and the associated effects on the Earth's climate. (The shift from the term “global warming” to “climate change” was also part of a deliberate messaging effort by a Republican pollster to undermine support for environmental regulations.)
Like detectives solving a murder, climate scientists have found humanity’s fingerprints all over the planet’s warming, with the overwhelming majority of the evidence pointing to the extra greenhouse gases humans have put into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat at the Earth’s surface, preventing that heat from escaping back out into space too quickly. When we burn coal, natural gas, or oil for energy, or when we cut down forests that usually soak up greenhouse gases, we add even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, so the planet warms up.
Global warming also refers to what scientists think will happen in the future if humans keep adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Though there is a steady stream of new studies on climate change, one of the most robust aggregations of the science remains the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report from 2013. The IPCC is convened by the United Nations, and the report draws on more than 800 expert authors. It projects that temperatures could rise at least 2°C (3.6°F) by the end of the century under many plausible scenarios — and possibly 4°C or more. A more recent study by scientists in the United Kingdom found a narrower range of expected temperatures if atmospheric carbon dioxide doubled, rising between 2.2°C and 3.4°C.
Many experts consider 2°C of warming to be unacceptably high, increasing the risk of deadly heat waves, droughts, flooding, and extinctions. Rising temperatures will drive up global sea levels as the world’s glaciers and ice sheets melt. Further global warming could affect everything from our ability to grow food to the spread of disease.
That’s why the IPCC put out another report in 2018 comparing 2°C of warming to a scenario with 1.5°C of warming. The researchers found that this half-degree difference is actually pretty important, since every bit of warming matters. Between the two outlooks, less warming means fewer people will have to move from coastal areas, natural weather events will be less severe, and economies will take a smaller hit.
However, limiting warming would likely require a complete overhaul of our energy system. Fossil fuels currently provide just over 80 percent of the world’s energy. To zero out emissions this century, we’d have to replace most of that with low-carbon sources like wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, or carbon capture.
Beyond that, we may have to electrify everything that uses energy and start pulling greenhouse gases straight from the air. And to get on track for 1.5°C of warming, the world would have to halve greenhouse gas emissions from current levels by 2030.
That’s a staggering task, and there are huge technological and political hurdles standing in the way. As such, the world's nations have been slow to act on global warming — many of the existing targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions are too weak, yet many countries are falling short of even these modest goals.
2) How do we know global warming is real?
The simplest way is through temperature measurements. Agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan have independently analyzed historical temperature data and reached the same conclusion: The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen roughly 0.8° Celsius (1.4° Fahrenheit) since the early 20th century.
But that’s not the only clue. Scientists have also noted that glaciers and ice sheets around the world are melting. Satellite observations since the 1970s have shown warming in the lower atmosphere. There’s more heat in the ocean, causing water to expand and sea levels to rise. Plants are flowering earlier in many parts of the world. There’s more humidity in the atmosphere. Here’s a summary from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
These are all signs that the Earth really is getting warmer — and that it’s not just a glitch in the thermometers. That explains why climate scientists say things like, “Warming in the climate system is unequivocal.” They’re really confident about this one.
3) How do we know humans are causing global warming?
Climate scientists say they are more than 95 percent certain that human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since 1950. They’re about as sure of this as they are that cigarette smoke causes cancer.
Why are they so confident? In part because they have a good grasp of how greenhouse gases can warm the planet, in part because the theory fits the available evidence, and in part because alternate theories have been ruled out. Let's break it down in six steps:
1) Scientists have long known that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — such as carbon dioxide, methane, or water vapor — absorb certain frequencies of infrared radiation and scatter them back toward the Earth. These gases essentially prevent heat from escaping too quickly back into space, trapping that radiation at the surface and keeping the planet warm.
2) Climate scientists also know that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have grown significantly since the Industrial Revolution. Carbon dioxide has risen 45 percent. Methane has risen more than 200 percent. Through some relatively straightforward chemistry and physics, scientists can trace these increases to human activities like burning oil, gas, and coal.
3) So it stands to reason that more greenhouse gases would lead to more heat. And indeed, satellite measurements have shown that less infrared radiation is escaping out into space over time and instead returning to the Earth’s surface. That’s strong evidence that the greenhouse effect is increasing.
4) There are other human fingerprints that suggest increased greenhouse gases are warming the planet. For instance, back in the 1960s, simple climate models predicted that global warming caused by more carbon dioxide would lead to cooling in the upper atmosphere (because the heat is getting trapped at the surface). Later satellite measurements confirmed exactly that. Here are a few other similar predictions that have also been confirmed.
5) Meanwhile, climate scientists have ruled out other explanations for the rise in average temperatures over the past century. To take one example: Solar activity can shift from year to year, affecting the Earth's climate. But satellite data shows that total solar irradiance has declined slightly in the past 35 years, even as the Earth has warmed.
6) More recent calculations have shown that it’s impossible to explain the temperature rise we’ve seen in the past century without taking the increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into account. Natural causes, like the sun or volcanoes, have an influence, but they’re not sufficient by themselves.
Ultimately, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that most of the warming since 1951 has been due to human activities. The Earth’s climate can certainly fluctuate from year to year due to natural forces (including oscillations in the Pacific Ocean, such as El Niño). But greenhouse gases are driving the larger upward trend in temperatures.
And as the Climate Science Special Report, released by 13 US federal agencies in November 2017, put it, “For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.”
More: This chart breaks down all the different factors affecting the Earth’s average temperature. And there’s much more detail in the IPCC’s report, particularly this section and this one.
4) How has global warming affected the world so far?
Here’s a list of ongoing changes that climate scientists have concluded are likely linked to global warming, as detailed by the IPCC here and here.
Higher temperatures: Every continent has warmed substantially since the 1950s. There are more hot days and fewer cold days, on average, and the hot days are hotter.
Heavier storms and floods: The world’s atmosphere can hold more moisture as it warms. As a result, the overall number of heavier storms has increased since the mid-20th century, particularly in North America and Europe (though there’s plenty of regional variation). Scientists reported in December that at least 18 percent of Hurricane Harvey’s record-setting rainfall over Houston in August was due to climate change.
Heat waves: Heat waves have become longer and more frequent around the world over the past 50 years, particularly in Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Shrinking sea ice: The extent of sea ice in the Arctic, always at its maximum in winter, has shrunk since 1979, by 3.3 percent per decade. Summer sea ice has dwindled even more rapidly, by 13.2 percent per decade. Antarctica has seen recent years with record growth in sea ice, but it’s a very different environment than the Arctic, and the losses in the north far exceed any gains at the South Pole, so total global sea ice is on the decline:
Global, Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Area Spiral February 2018 #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/gayoLFSJ5u — Kevin Pluck (@kevpluck) March 1, 2018
Shrinking glaciers and ice sheets: Glaciers around the world have, on average, been losing ice since the 1970s. In some areas, that is reducing the amount of available freshwater. The ice sheet on Greenland, which would raise global sea levels by 25 feet if it all melted, is declining, with some sections experiencing a sudden surge in the melt rate. The Antarctic ice sheet is also getting smaller, but at a much slower rate.
Sea level rise: Global sea levels rose 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) in the 19th and 20th centuries, after 2,000 years of relatively little change, and the pace is speeding up. Sea level rise is caused by both the thermal expansion of the oceans — as water warms up, it expands — and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets (but not sea ice).
Food supply: A hotter climate can be both good for crops (it lengthens the growing season, and more carbon dioxide can increase photosynthesis) and bad for crops (excess heat can damage plants). The IPCC found that global warming was currently benefiting crops in some high-latitude areas but that negative effects are becoming increasingly common worldwide. In areas like California, crop yields are estimated to decline 40 percent by 2050.
Shifting species: Many land and marine species have had to shift their geographic ranges in response to warmer temperatures. So far, several extinctions have been linked to global warming, such as certain frog species in Central America.
Warmer winters: In general, winters are warming faster than summers. Average low temperatures are rising all over the world. In some cases, these temperatures are climbing above the freezing point of water. We’re already seeing massive declines in snow accumulation in the United States, which can paradoxically increase flood, drought, and wildfire risk — as water that would ordinarily dispatch slowly over the course of a season instead flows through a region all at once.
Debated impacts
Here are a few other ways the Earth’s climate has been changing — but scientists are still debating whether and how they’re linked to global warming:
Droughts have become more frequent and more intense in some parts of the world — such as the American Southwest, Mediterranean Europe, and West Africa — though it’s hard to identify a clear global trend. In other parts of the world, such as the Midwestern United States and Northwestern Australia, droughts appear to have become less frequent. A recent study shows that, globally, the time between droughts is shrinking and more areas are affected by drought and taking longer to recover from them.
Hurricanes have clearly become more intense in the North Atlantic Ocean since 1970, the IPCC says. But it’s less clear whether global warming is driving this. 2017 was an exceptionally bad year for Atlantic hurricanes in terms of strength and damage. And while scientists are still uncertain whether they were a fluke or part of a trend, they are warning we should treat it as a baseline year. There doesn’t yet seem to be any clear trajectory for tropical cyclones worldwide.
5) What impacts will global warming have in the future?
It depends on how much the planet actually heats up. The changes associated with 4° Celsius (or 7.2° Fahrenheit) of warming are expected to be more dramatic than the changes associated with 2°C of warming.
Here’s a basic rundown of big impacts we can expect if global warming continues, via the IPCC (here and here).
Hotter temperatures: If emissions keep rising unchecked, then global average surface temperatures will be at least 2°C higher (3.6°F) than preindustrial levels by 2100 — and possibly 3°C or 4°C or more.
Higher sea level rise: The expert consensus is that global sea levels will rise somewhere between 0.2 and 2 meters by the end of the century if global warming continues unchecked (that’s between 0.6 and 6.6 feet). That’s a wide range, reflecting some of the uncertainties scientists have in how ice will melt. In specific regions like the Eastern United States, sea level rise could be even higher, and around the world, the rate of rise is accelerating.
Heat waves: A hotter planet will mean more frequent and severe heat waves.
Droughts and floods: Across the globe, wet seasons are expected to become wetter, and dry seasons drier. As the IPCC puts it, the world will see “more intense downpours, leading to more floods, yet longer dry periods between rain events, leading to more drought.”
Hurricanes: It’s not yet clear what impact global warming will have on tropical cyclones. The IPCC said it was likely that tropical cyclones would get stronger as the oceans heat up, with faster winds and heavier rainfall. But the overall number of hurricanes in many regions was likely to “either decrease or remain essentially unchanged.”
Heavier storm surges: Higher sea levels will increase the risk of storm surges and flooding when storms do hit.
Agriculture: In many parts of the world, the mix of increased heat and drought is expected to make food production more difficult. The IPCC concluded that global warming of 1°C or more could start hurting crop yields for wheat, corn, and rice by the 2030s, especially in the tropics. (This wouldn’t be uniform, however; some crops may benefit from mild warming, such as winter wheat in the United States.)
Extinctions: As the world warms, many plant and animal species will need to shift habitats at a rapid rate to maintain their current conditions. Some species will be able to keep up; others likely won’t. The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, may not be able to recover from major recent bleaching events linked to climate change. The National Research Council has estimated that a mass extinction event “could conceivably occur before the year 2100.”
Long-term changes: Most of the projected changes above will occur in the 21st century. But temperatures will keep rising after that if greenhouse gas levels aren’t stabilized. That increases the risk of more drastic longer-term shifts. One example: If West Antarctica’s ice sheet started crumbling, that could push sea levels up significantly. The National Research Council in 2013 deemed many of these rapid climate surprises unlikely this century but a real possibility further into the future.
6) What happens if the world heats up more drastically — say, 4°C?
The risks of climate change would rise considerably if temperatures rose 4° Celsius (7.2° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — something that’s possible if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising at their current rate.
The IPCC says 4°C of global warming could lead to “substantial species extinctions,” “large risks to global and regional food security,” and the risk of irreversibly destabilizing Greenland’s massive ice sheet.
One huge concern is food production: A growing number of studies suggest it would become significantly more difficult for the world to grow food with 3°C or 4°C of global warming. Countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam, and parts of Africa could see large tracts of farmland turn unusable due to rising seas. Scientists are also concerned about crops getting less nutritious due to rising CO2.
Humans could struggle to adapt to these conditions. Many people might think the impacts of 4°C of warming will simply be twice as bad as those of 2°C. But as a 2013 World Bank report argued, that’s not necessarily true. Impacts may interact with each other in unpredictable ways. Current agriculture models, for instance, don’t have a good sense of what will happen to crops if increased heat waves, droughts, new pests and diseases, and other changes all start to combine.
“Given that uncertainty remains about the full nature and scale of impacts,” the World Bank report said, “there is also no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible.” Its conclusion was blunt: “The projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur.”
7) What do climate models say about the warming that could actually happen in the coming decades?
That depends on your faith in humanity.
Climate models depend on not only complicated physics but the intricacies of human behavior over the entire planet.
Generally, the more greenhouse gases humanity pumps into the atmosphere, the warmer it will get. But scientists aren’t certain how sensitive the global climate system is to increases in greenhouse gases. And just how much we might emit over the coming decades remains an open question, depending on advances in technology and international efforts to cut emissions.
The IPCC groups these scenarios into four categories of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations known as Representative Concentration Pathways. They serve as standard benchmarks for evaluating climate models, but they also have some assumptions baked in.
RCP 2.6, also called RCP 3PD, is the scenario with very low greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It bets on declining oil use, a population of 9 billion by 2100, increasing energy efficiency, and emissions holding steady until 2020, at which point they’ll decline and even go negative by 2100. This is, to put it mildly, very optimistic.
The next tier up is RCP 4.5, which still banks on ambitious reductions in emissions but anticipates an inflection point in the emissions rate around 2040. RCP 6 expects emissions to increase 75 percent above today’s levels before peaking and declining around 2060 as the world continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels.
The highest tier, RCP 8.5, is the pessimistic business-as-usual scenario, anticipating no policy changes nor any technological advances. It expects a global population of 12 billion and triple the rate of carbon dioxide emissions compared to today by 2100.
Here’s how greenhouse gas emissions under each scenario stack up next to each other:
And here’s what that means for global average temperatures, assuming that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere leads to 3°C of warming:
As you can see, RCP 3PD is the only trajectory that keeps the planet below 2°C of warming. Recall what it would take to keep emissions in line with this pathway and you’ll understand the enormity of the challenge of meeting this goal.
8) How do we stop global warming?
The world’s nations would need to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by a lot. And even that wouldn’t stop all global warming.
For example, let’s say we wanted to limit global warming to below 2°C. To do that, the IPCC has calculated that annual greenhouse gas emissions would need to drop at least 40 to 70 percent by midcentury.
Emissions would then have to keep falling until humans were hardly emitting any extra greenhouse gases by the end of the century. We’d also have to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Cutting emissions that sharply is a daunting task. Right now, the world gets 87 percent of its primary energy from fossil fuels: oil, gas, and coal. By contrast, just 13 percent of the world’s primary energy is “low carbon”: a little bit of wind and solar power, some nuclear power plants, a bunch of hydroelectric dams. That’s one reason global emissions keep rising each year.
To stay below 2°C, that would all need to change radically. By 2050, the IPCC notes, the world would need to triple or even quadruple the share of clean energy it uses — and keep scaling it up thereafter. Second, we’d have to get dramatically more efficient at using energy in our homes, buildings, and cars. And stop cutting down forests. And reduce emissions from agriculture and from industrial processes like cement manufacturing.
The IPCC also notes that this task becomes even more difficult the longer we put it off, because carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will keep piling up in the atmosphere in the meantime, and the cuts necessary to stay below the 2°C limit become more severe.
9) What are we actually doing to fight climate change?
A global problem requires global action, but with climate change, there is a yawning gap between ambition and action.
The main international effort is the 2015 Paris climate accord, of which the United States is the only country in the world that wants out. The deal was hammered out over weeks of tense negotiations and weighs in at 31 pages. What it does is actually pretty simple.
The backbone is the global target of keeping global average temperatures from rising 2°C (compared to temperatures before the Industrial Revolution) by the end of the century. Beyond 2 degrees, we risk dramatically higher seas, changes in weather patterns, food and water crises, and an overall more hostile world.
Critics have argued that the 2-degree mark is arbitrary, or even too low, to make a difference. But it’s a starting point, a goal that, before Paris, the world was on track to wildly miss.
Paris is voluntary
To accomplish this 2-degree goal, the accord states that countries should strive to reach peak emissions “as soon as possible.” (Currently, we’re on track to hit peak emissions around 2030 or later, which will likely be too late.)
But the agreement doesn’t detail exactly how these countries should do that. Instead, it provides a framework for getting momentum going on greenhouse gas reduction, with some oversight and accountability. For the US, the pledge involves 26 to 28 percent reductions by 2025. (Under Trump’s current policies, that goal is impossible.)
There’s also no defined punishment for breaking it. The idea is to create a culture of accountability (and maybe some peer pressure) to get countries to step up their climate game.
In 2020, delegates are supposed to reconvene and provide updates about their emission pledges and report on how they’re becoming more aggressive on accomplishing the 2-degree goal.
However, many countries are already falling behind on their climate change commitments, and some, like Germany, are giving up on their near-term targets.
Paris asks richer countries to help out poorer countries
There’s a fundamental inequality when it comes to global emissions. Rich countries have plundered and burned huge amounts of fossil fuels and gotten rich from them. Poor countries seeking to grow their economies are now being admonished for using the same fuels. Many low-lying poor countries also will be among the first to bear the worst impacts of climate change.
The main vehicle for rectifying this is the Green Climate Fund, via which richer countries, like the US, are supposed to send $100 billion a year in aid and financing by 2020 to the poorer countries. The United States’ share was $3 billion, but with President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, this goal is unlikely to be met.
The agreement matters because we absolutely need momentum on this issue
The Paris agreement is largely symbolic, and it will live on even though Trump is aiming to pull the US out. But, as Jim Tankersley wrote for Vox, “the accord will be weakened, and, much more importantly, so will the fragile international coalition” around climate change.
We’re already seeing the Paris agreement lose steam. At a follow-up climate meeting this year in Katowice, Poland, negotiators forged an agreement on measuring and verifying their progress in cutting greenhouse gases, but left many critical questions of how to achieve these reductions unanswered.
But the Paris accord isn’t the only international climate policy game in town
There are regional international climate efforts like the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. However, the most effective global policy at keeping warming in check to date doesn’t have to do with climate change, at least on the surface.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was convened by countries to halt the destruction of the ozone layer, had a major side effect of averting warming. In fact, it’s been the single most effective effort humanity has undertaken to fight climate change. Since many of the substances that eat away at the ozone layer are potent heat-trappers, limiting emissions of gases like chlorofluorocarbons has an outsize effect.
And the Trump administration doesn’t appear as hostile to Montreal as it does to Paris. The White House may send the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to the Senate for ratification, giving the new regulations the force of law. If implemented, the amendment would avert 0.5°C of warming by 2100.
Regardless of what path we choose, the key thing to remember is that we are going to pay for climate change one way or another. We have the opportunity now to address warming on our own terms, with investments in clean energy, moving people away from disaster-prone areas, and regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Otherwise, we’ll pay through diminished crop harvests, inundated coastlines, destroyed homes, lost lives, and an increasingly unlivable planet. Ignoring or stalling on climate change chooses the latter option by default. Our choices do matter, but we’re running out of time to make them.
Further reading:
Avoiding catastrophic climate change isn’t impossible yet. Just incredibly hard.
Reckoning with climate change will demand ugly tradeoffs from environmentalists — and everyone else
Show this cartoon to anyone who doubts we need huge action on climate change
It’s time to start talking about “negative” carbon dioxide emissions
A history of the 2°C global warming target
Scientists made a detailed “roadmap” for meeting the Paris climate goals. It’s eye-opening.With all the major hockey draft guides out it’s time to compare what they offer versus their cost. Each guide has two common elements: players listed numerically along with player profiles (sometimes comprehensive, sometimes selective). The guides may have mock drafts, organisational comments, and/or a look at eligible overage players and European free agents. Other elements often included are a look at top players for future drafts, but personally I don’t see the value in that information for these products.
The four publications that cover the entire draft have 121 players in common–that’s close to two-thirds (57%) of the entire class. Red Line Report remains the most radical of the guides and taking it out leaves 136 players shared (64%). In terms of unique selections, HP has the fewest (16), followed by FC (20), ISS (35), and RLR (40). Most of these players are late round picks (5th to 7th rounds), with only 11 listed in the 4th round, 2 in the 3rd, and 1 in the 2nd–there is a high proportion of Europeans amongst the unique’s (the region scouts struggle with the most), with 36 of 111 being from across the pond (32%; it’s 52/226 otherwise, or 23%).
There are a few odd choices (or non-choices) from the publications and these are the most interesting:
Gustav Forsling: the Swedish defenseman is slated as a late 2nd or early 3rd round pick, but Red Line Report doesn’t include him at all–not in over 300 selections. There’s no reasoning provided for that, he simply does not appear. RLR is known for its strong opinions, but I can’t recall another time (since I started reading the publication back in 2010) where they’ve completely delisted a player that highly touted elsewhere
Sebastian Aho: the Finnish forward is a second or third round pick except (again) from RLR, who just like Forsling above do not have him listed
Emil Johansson: the Swedish blueliner is another 2nd-3rd round pick that RLR lists well outside of the draft (267)
Igor Sheshyrokin is a 2nd to 5th round pick most places, but ISS (and Central Scouting) do not list the Russian goaltender
Dexter Dancs: the winger is a second round pick in RLR’s eyes, but listed by no one else (not even CS)
Other picks with at least two third or fourth round selections that are excluded by a single publication (included in brackets): Matthew Berkovitz (ISS), Alex Schoenborn (FC), Francis Perron |
lanes to create more chances for the Notes team. This will boost St. Louis’ offensive production, which has been a little lacking since returning from the Olympic break, and should give the team the added support they need to truly shut their opponents down.
Sobotka: “It’s been a long break for me. It’s been probably 6 weeks right now, and it’s been a tough injury for me. I’m excited to be back.” — Lou Korac (@lkorac10) March 13, 2014
He came out of the gates flying and managed a 3 point, 1st star of the game performance in his debut from injury acting as a human wrecking ball out there hitting anything that moved while he tested out his knee. This was an amazing sign, showing that he is already ready to play and contribute in all situations, something the Blues were hoping for. Though you didn’t see him on special teams much last night, he will return to his premier role within the next few games, and I believe the entire organization won’t look back.
Lord Stanley here we come for your Cup, it’s been far too long without it. This season is already one for the record books, but could be “the year” for the team, and our city. Whatever the final regular season and playoff games hold on thing is certain, the Blues are a force to be reckoned with this year, and Vladimir Sobotka is a huge reason why.
Like what you’ve just read? Follow me on Twitter: @pep30“She was the love of my life,” the priest, who is in his early 30s, told the court on Tuesday. He added he “did not know the age of consent was 16 years old in Norway. In my home country of Germany it is 14."
"If I had been familiar with Norwegian law in this field, it would not have happened," he said. "When we started the relationship, I knew I broke the laws of the Church. I was not aware that I was also breaking Norwegian law."
The relationship only came to light when the girl made a church confession she thought was confidential. Yet the church's pastor claims confidentiality did not apply, as the teenager was not a confirmed Catholic.
She called on the court not to condemn the priest when she gave evidence, saying he had not coerced her. "I do not think he has done anything wrong," she said.
The 15-year-old explained that she had been horrified when the man was charged following a confession she had made in church."I was assured that it was 100 percent confidential,” she told the court.
"I find it appalling that a girl of fifteen years should be guaranteed confidentiality, only for it not to apply because she is not Catholic," Yngvil Semb Hartmann, the girl's lawyer, told the court.
The priest said that the relationship had developed from an innocent flirtation he began with the girl when he worked in a youth ministry for the Catholic Church in Bergen during the summer.
"After an evening event, she waited for me in the sacristy," he told the court. "She was with me. We talked together and kissed each other. It was the first time we had sexual relations."
The girl then messaged him on Snapchat, asking if he wanted to meet again, after which the relationship developed further.
The priest faces six months in jail, one of them suspended, if found guilty of abusing the 15-year-old girl.The Belgian international is a doubt for the Monday night game at The Hawthorns following minor surgery on his knee.
Although he's back in full training today, the record signing may not be fully fit in time for the visit of Sean Dyche's team.
Rondon was pulled out of international duty with a hamstring strain, but the Venezuelan has already recovered.
When asked about Chadli this morning, Pulis said: "That will be a late one, he's out on the grass today for the first time after a lot of work in gym.
"We wont take any chances if we don't have to. Salomon will be fine. The only one we are really concerned with is Chadli, and whether we push him or not."
The majority of Albion's players returned to training on Tuesday but the three Northern Ireland internationals, who played against Croatia that evening, are due back today.
"All of them will be back today so we'll find out what condition they're in," said Pulis.
"Speaking to them, they've all got through the games ok so it's just having a look at them today.
Advertising
"We won't do a lot of work on them today with the game on Monday, the main work will be done Saturday and Sunday."
Gareth McAuley, who turned 37 in December, and Chris Brunt, who's recently returned from a long-term knee injury, only played one half against Croatia on Tuesday night.
Pulis is more relaxed about Chadli's injury considering the impressive performances both Brunt and James Morrison put in against Leicester last time out.
He was pleased with Albion's return of four points from four tough fixtures against Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester.
Advertising
The Baggies have now got Burnley, Hull City, and Watford coming up, but Pulis is taking nothing for granted.
"They'll be even tougher, they all are," he said. "We can't go into any game not 100 per cent committed, we're not good enough to do that.
"The thing with the Leicester game is we had more confidence right from the start, I think that made a big difference."The trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick on charges of misleading the bank’s auditors will begin in September.
Mr FitzPatrick (66) of Whitshed Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow has pleaded not guilty to 27 offences under the 1990 Companies Act. These include 21 charges of making a misleading, false or deceptive statement to auditors and six charges of furnishing false information in the years 2002 to 2007.
The trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court is due to take twelve weeks and will require a specially enlarged jury of 15 members.
On Monday Judge John Aylmer set a date of September 21st for a jury to be sworn in. The court heard the jury swearing will take a full day.
After this there will be two days of legal issues to be dealt with in the absence of the jury. The trial will begin in evidence on the following Monday, September 26th.Statement by the Editorial Board of Xekinima (sister organisation of the Socialist Party in Greece)
Syriza’s first days in government have brought back, at last, smiles, optimism and pride to millions of workers in Greece. The new government’s public commitments and the first steps for the restoration of minimum wage to €750; the abolition of anti-working class legislation,; the reinstatement of collective bargaining; the reinstatement of the Christmas bonus for low pension receivers; the ending of foreclosures; the re-employment of the ERT (public TV broadcast that was shut down by the previous government) workers; the ending of privatisations; the re-employment of unlawfully and unconstitutionally sacked public sector workers; the abolition of the so-called “evaluation” of public sector workers (by which 15% have to by necessity be described as “inefficient” and are thus liable to layoff); the abolition of hospital charges (5 euro per visit to any hospital) the restoration of Sunday as a free day (i.e. shops to be closed on Sunday )etc, are not small issues. For a society that has been through the destructive whirlwind of the pro-Troikian governments, these announced reforms mark a big change. They are the beginning of the workers’ “counteroffensive”, to take back what has been deprived of us in the course of the last years.
But some want to wipe out the smile…
But some appear determined to wipe out the smile from the face of the Greek workers. The decisions of the European Central Bank, on 4 February, and the stance of the German government, as it was made clear by Schäuble at his meeting with the Greek Finance Minister, Y. Varoufakis, on 5 February, made things absolutely clear: they are not willing to make any serious concessions to the Greek government in its effort to ensure the most elementary rights for the Greek working class and the poor.
What the Greek government is, in reality, asking from the so-called European “partners” is very “small” in relation to its initial declarations but also not huge in economic terms. The government’s effort is focused on ensuring, by extending the payment of the Greek debt and reducing debt rates, that the primary surplus annually will not be at 4+%, but at 1-1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product. Given that 1-1.5% is an issue of “negotiation”, it means that a deal could end up at around 2-2.5% instead of 4+%. In this way, instead of having about 4% of the GDP every year going towards the repayment of the debt, a smaller amount will be given back to the lenders.
This translates to just a few billion eruo (three to four) on an annual basis. This is a small amount, in reality. But it would allow the government to relieve, a little bit, the burden of poverty and despair on the backs of millions of Greek workers, unemployed and poor. But to even this small concession, the Brussels’ directory says “no”.
Big concessions by SYRIZA
The Syriza-led government has made too many concessions already in its effort to strike a deal with the so called “partners” in the EU. It left aside the issue of reduction of the debt (“cancellation” or “writing off of the biggest part”) as well as the issue of an “all-European conference for the debt” and any reference to the historic precedent of the reduction of the German debt after WW2. Syriza abandoned the issue of renationalising privatised public enterprises. Yianis Varoufakis went as far as to claim that all investments are welcomed, such as the Cosco (a Chinese company) buying Piraeus port because they “modernise the economy” and “increase competition”. Varoufakis also made clear that all of the Greek debt will be paid off and “indeed with interest”. Ministers Dragasakis and Sakellaridis made clear that the government will touch the administrations of the major banking conglomerates (even though the banks, in terms of ownership belong to the state, since it owns the majority of the shares, while the administrations are in hands of the old private owners).
Despite all these concessions by Syriza, the ECB and the German ruling class said “no”. And not just them! Even the alleged “allies” of Greece, the French President Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Renzi, aligned themselves behind the ECB and Schäuble, with the same ease that they were hugging Tsipras the previous day declaring their “understanding” and “solidarity” with Greek claims! If you have such “friends” you don’t need any enemies!
This is not “negotiation”, it’s “war”
The Greek government says that now “negotiations” have begun. But what began on the first day of Syriza’s electoral victory is not “negotiation”, it’s “war”!
As predicted repeatedly by Xekinima (CWI Greece), in many articles and statements, Brussels’ would not be willing to tolerate the binning of austerity in Greece, particularly as this would set an example to the peoples of the rest of Europe, and especially of the south.
The Brussels Directory and the ruling classes of Europe are not willing to tolerate the Greek workers’ refusal to submit, our refusal to bow our heads! It demands from us to continue to pay for the next decades, for a debt that we did not create and for which we are not responsible, so that those who actually are responsible continue to make profits and get richer on our backs.
Their “weapon”: the threat of exit from the euro zone
Their “weapon” of the Troika is, once again, threatening that Greece will be kicked out of the euro-zone by ending of funding of the budget deficits and the ending of liquidity from the ECB to the Greek banking system.
This does not mean that they want Greece’s exit from the Eurozone, as such. They very well know that this will have a cost and that it contains serious dangers for the stability (actually the very future) of the eurozone and the course of the European economies. But for them it would represent a much bigger cost if a small nation, like Greece, brings about the complete jettisoning of the austerity policies that they have imposed on the entire EU. Therefore, they want to maintain the euro zone and for Greece to remain in the euro zone but under the condition that the Greek people submit to their demands!
In other words, they want us within the euro zone but on our knees! This means that in order for them to accept a new deal with the Syriza government, they will pressurise it so much so as to make it accept a new deal in exchange for peanuts!
What should our answer be?
The Greek working class, the masses and the social movements must demand from the new Greek government; not a single step back!
If Brussels’ answer to the Greek government’s effort to put an end to the hurricane that is wrecking Greek society is the ending of funding and financial asphyxiation, then our answer cannot be any other but this: the euro is not the “sacred cow” that Brussels thinks it is.
As Yianis Varoufakis recently stated and as everyone in Greece knows, more than 90% of the euros that the Troika gives to Greece goes back to its creditors. So the answer is simple; “if you don’t give us the euros that are necessary to pay back the debt, then you won’t be taking the instalments for the payment of this debt”.
We have to raise our voice and boldly say: We won’t pay their debt and we will proceed to nationalise the banking system, i.e. put it in the hands of society and the workers; we will nationalise the commanding heights of the economy; we will implement workers’ and social control and management, i.e. democracy, and end corruption and theft; we will put an end to the games of the speculators through currency controls and through state control of foreign trade; we will move to the planning of the economy for the needs of workers and the masses; we will build democratic structures in society, through assemblies and rank and file committees, in workplaces and local communities, so that we control the decisions that determine our lives.
This is the answer to the threats of Draghi and Schäuble. At the same time, we should seek for our real allies! We will not find them at government level (either in the south or elsewhere in Europe) but amongst the working masses and from the rising forces of the Left, already seen in a number of Europeans countries, south and north, but also internationally.
The SYRIZA leadership believes that it can “reform” the European Union, the EU of the bosses and the multinationals, that it can make it democratic and humane, through “negotiations”. We have to say to them that they are wrong!
The bosses’ EU and the Eurozone, the one we know so well, is an outright reactionary, undemocratic, obsolete structure, only capable of imposing brutal, anti-working class, barbaric policies. It has to be thrown into the dustbin of history. This is the task of the working class. And we can achieved it through common struggles of the working class from all over Europe, with the aim of a Europe that will not be controlled by the bosses and the multinationals but by the workers themselves – a Europe united on a voluntary, democratic and equal basis, a Socialist Europe.Documents released during the internet giant’s court battle with the US Internal Revenue Service over a possible $1.5bn in unpaid taxes detail a complex restructuring and a deal with Luxembourg that delivered Amazon multimillion-dollar savings
Amazon is facing a landmark court ruling in the US that could prise open its obscure tax structure in Luxembourg, after a high-stakes legal battle that has shed unprecedented light on the technology giant’s labyrinthine tax affairs.
The case, which is quietly coming to a head as Amazon’s Luxembourg arrangements face intense scrutiny from European authorities, has revealed new details of an elaborate avoidance scheme it devised and codenamed Project Goldcrest.
Amazon: the obscure subsidiary at the heart of US and EU tax disputes Read more
Newly emerged documents seen by the Guardian show precisely how Amazon embarked on a complex 28-step scheme, which took more than two years to complete, and fundamentally reordered its global business in Europe using a maze of offshore entities and intercompany agreements.
Amazon’s move to Luxembourg has been well documented, but the company has never publicly disclosed full details of Project Goldcrest, which it brazenly named after Luxembourg’s national bird. The tax arrangements came into effect in 2006 and largely remain in place today.
The case, which could force Amazon to pay more than $1.5bn (£1bn) in unpaid taxes, throws into sharp relief tensions between the US and Europe over how to tax multinationals that operate in both jurisdictions. On either side of the Atlantic, authorities are racing to recover vast sums from Amazon’s multibillion-dollar pool of untaxed income held in Luxembourg.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A goldcrest, the national bird of Luxembourg. Amazon gave its name to the company’s tax avoidance project. Photograph: Lisa Geoghegan/Alamy
The US Internal Revenue Service has criticised Project Goldcrest for depriving it of tax, and attacked core features as predicated on “legally baseless” methods. The Seattle court in which the US taxman and the tech giant are squaring off is poised to rule in coming months on the dispute.
The new documents, retrieved from the case the internet company is waging against the IRS, show the complexity the company resorted to in order to make the scheme work and the involvement of executives at the highest levels of the company.
Amazon maintains that it operates a pan-European business from its Luxembourg base, where it has more than 1,000 employees. “Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in every country where we operate,” a spokesman for the company said.
Before and after Project Goldcrest
The documents that have emerged from the court battle between Amazon and the IRS also raise fresh questions for Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, as Amazon agreed the favourable tax deal with Luxembourg in 2003 while he was the country’s prime minister.
Court records show that Amazon’s then top tax official, Robert Comfort, was in direct contact with Juncker’s finance ministry at crucial stages in 2003 before Amazon received approval for the so-called sweetheart deal.
Following the LuxLeaks revelations in 2014 concerning Luxembourg’s controversial tax deals with multinationals, Juncker distanced himself from controversial tax rulings of this kind, claiming that the finance ministry, which he ran until 2009, was not involved in the deals.
Antoine Deltour, the former PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor and the source behind the LuxLeaks scandal in 2014, says details of Project Goldcrest raise serious questions about the legality of a scheme of this kind owing to doubts over whether or not Amazon correctly states its taxable income in the US.
In an interview with the Guardian, Deltour said: “These findings reveal that not only the multinationals like Amazon abuse the legal insufficiency of the international tax system, but that some states actively help them to do so.”
Inside Project Goldcrest
Amazon’s motives behind Project Goldcrest were clear from the outset, according to the IRS. In a memorandum filed in the Seattle case, tax inspectors claim that when Amazon weighed up the costs and benefits of implementing the scheme, its finance staff “did not quantify any benefits other than avoided US corporate income taxes”.
The IRS has questioned the legality of methods used by Amazon to devise complex intercompany contracts that transferred intangible assets – vital software, trademarks, marketing assets such as branding for its website – to one of its Luxembourg companies, a so-called “pass-through” entity not taxed in the Grand Duchy.
Amazon has vigorously contested the IRS’s claims in the case, which could have significant financial implications for the company. Overall, the IRS has moved to recover $1.5bn in back taxes from the company, plus interest, dating back to 2005-06, when the company implemented Project Goldcrest.
The dispute centres around “transfer pricing”, which multinationals use to value the goods and services shifted around the group structure. Companies are required to establish a transfer price that is market based, as if it were selling the service to a separate company.
In the memorandum, the IRS contends that Amazon used “unrealistically low values” to transfer its assets from the US to Luxembourg, and its valuation of these assets was the “product of counterfactual and legally baseless assumptions”. The memorandum also attacks Amazon’s subsequent justification of its methods as “arbitrary” and “plainly an exercise in futility”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amazon agreed the favourable tax deal with Luxembourg in 2003. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
One witness for the IRS, the Washington-based tax expert Daniel Frisch, said that crucial tax advice given to Amazon before the Luxembourg move contained “a number of fundamental flaws” that were “inconsistent with the arm’s length standard”. Amazon has contested Frisch’s findings.
The focus on transfer pricing on the US side mirrors suspicions in the European commission’s continuing investigation into Amazon’s tax deal with Luxembourg.
Whilee US tax inspectors believe intercompany payments between Amazon in Luxembourg and its US entities have been too low, European investigators suspect Amazon has inflated royalty payments from one of its Luxembourg entities to another, in return for using the IP. An arrangement such as this allows Amazon in effect to wipe out taxable profits.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner, is conducting an investigation, expected to report back in the coming months, that will determine whether the deal with Luxembourg amounted to illegal state aid.
In a statement, Amazon said: “Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given our heavy investments and the fact that retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business. We’ve invested over €15bn in Europe since 2010 and last year alone created over 10,000 new jobs, bringing our direct employment in Europe to over 40,000 people.”
Changes to how Amazon is taxed?
Disclosure of Project Goldcrest comes amid heightened political sensitivity in Europe over the way technology giants minimise their tax bills by shifting valuable –but difficult to value – intellectual property into offshore havens such as Luxembourg and charge subsidiaries large fees for using it.
Last month, Google faced a backlash against a landmark tax settlement with the UK, widely condemned for being too lenient. Google, or Alphabet as its holding company is now known, operates a similar structure whereby subsidiaries pay intellectual property royalties to Bermuda.
Over the past 20 years Amazon has largely avoided US federal taxation by managing its books to avoid reporting any meaningful profits. Project Goldcrest has played a significant role in Amazon’s aggressive tax strategy, depriving governments on both sides of the Atlantic of large sums of tax since the project’s completion in 2006. Critics argue that Amazon’s aggressive tax planning has also bolstered its ability to undercut rivals on price.
“Think of small and medium-sized businesses that are being displaced by Amazon,” said Philippe Lamberts, a prominent Green party member of the European parliament from Belgium. Speaking to the Guardian, Lamberts highlighted what he saw as Amazon’s “determined will to construct the company in a way that optimises tax breaks”.
“It has nothing to do with creating advantages for society. It is exploiting the numerous gaps in the system, and that’s what makes it outrageous,” he added.
In recent weeks, the European commission has moved to crack down on elaborate avoidance schemes. In April, the commission will table proposals that would force the world’s largest multinational corporations to open up their tax arrangements with each European government to full public scrutiny.
Senior European officials have told the Guardian that proposed legislation would directly tackle the kind of arrangements put in place by Amazon.
But Lamberts said the commission’s proposals were lukewarm at best. “There are all sorts of things that they avoided doing, and to me this is telling. I really wonder whether they are serious,” he said in reference to the commission. “I believe much of what Amazon is doing will remain possible afterwards.”
Read documents in full (PDFs)Benghazi survivor: Hillary Clinton has ‘no soul’
Kris "Tanto" Paronto, a military contractor and former Army Ranger who survived the 2012 terrorist siege in Benghazi, spoke at the Republican's annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Bridgeport, Conn. on Thursday, May 26, 2016. less Kris "Tanto" Paronto, a military contractor and former Army Ranger who survived the 2012 terrorist siege in Benghazi, spoke at the Republican's annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Bridgeport, Conn. on Thursday, May... more Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Benghazi survivor: Hillary Clinton has ‘no soul’ 1 / 5 Back to Gallery
BRIDGEPORT — A survivor of the 2012 Benghazi siege that claimed the lives of four Americans and subject of the movie “13 Hours” repudiated Hillary Clinton Thursday night in Connecticut’s largest Democratic stronghold.
Kris “Tanto” Paronto, a military contractor and former Army Ranger, said Clinton failed as secretary of state to send in adequate reinforcements when the U.S. mission in Libya was under terrorist attack.
Part of the security team that tried to defend the compound, Paronto headlined the annual Lincoln Day fundraising dinner of Bridgeport Republicans, who make up less than 10 percent of the city’s electorate.
Paronto stopped short of endorsing the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, but said he will work with Republicans to shine a light on what happened in the confusion of the attack that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens on Sept. 11, 2012.
“I don’t think she has a soul,” Paronto said of Clinton during an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. “I hope it haunts her. I don’t think it will.”
A spokesman for Clinton, who campaigned in Bridgeport ahead of her primary victory last month in Connecticut, declined to comment.
Organizers sold 300 tickets to the dinner at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn, the largest turnout yet for the annual event. They expected to raise $20,000 from the dinner and a VIP book signing of “13 Hours,” on which the movie is based on and to which Paronto contributed.
The movie’s portrayal of the siege and a “stand-down” order to Paronto and fellow security team members has been challenged by Democrats. The film makes no mention of Clinton by name.
“You have a State Department that is giving stand-down orders when our embassy is under attack and our ambassador is killed,” said John Slater, the dinner’s organizer and Bridgeport’s former GOP chairman.
Slater met Paronto at the movie’s January premiere at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Bridgeport was a dramatic change of scenery for Paronto, 45, who recently appeared at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention and the Kentucky Derby.
Weary from a red-eye flight and holding a cup of coffee, Paronto posed for photos with VIPs at a book signing in a ninth-floor hotel room, including Connecticut’s two Republican National Committee members, Pat Longo of Norwalk, and state Rep. John Frey, of Ridgefield.
Paronto said he has no doubt that there is a nexus between the Benghazi attack and the email scandal that has dogged Clinton, who has been criticized for using a personal server to send and receive classified material when she was secretary of state.
He repeated accusations that Clinton misled the victims’ families over what incited the attack.
“She lied to the family members, period,” Paronto said. “People are believing her over the family members of teammates that I lost.”
Clinton has denied telling the victims’ families that an anti-Islam video was to blame for sparking the attack.
Andy Wainwright, a Republican State Central Committee member from Stamford, said he recently saw “13 Hours” and was mesmerized.
“It was not a political movie,” he said. “There was no finger-pointing. It highlights the bureaucracy and a lot of times the military being handcuffed.”
neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggyPM due to make statement after UK rejected his arguments to remain in the EU. Here are the key questions he has to address
1. What will be done to calm the markets? With the pound in freefall, will the Bank of England intervene? There has even been talk of closing the stock market to stop panic selling of shares. Cameron will have to say something to steady nerves.
2. Will he remain as prime minister? No one expects him to leave Number 10 this morning, but does he really think he will be able to oversee the EU withdrawal process over the next few year? Perhaps he does. More likely, he will recognise that is unrealistic. In that case it is possible he may announce his intention to stand down later this year, possibly before the Tory conference.
EU referendum results: Britain votes for Brexit – live updates Read more
3. Will he invoke article 50 of the Lisbon treaty immediately? This is the process that starts the two-year countdown to Brexit. Before the referendum Cameron said he would trigger article 50 straight away, but there is no reason why he should and every reason to delay. It makes no sense to start the two-year clock running until the UK knows what it wants. He would be wise to clarify his intentions.
4. Will parliament be recalled? There is a strong case for saying it should sit on Saturday, to allow the government to assure MPs that it has a plan before the markets open again on Monday.
5. Who will be in charge of the withdrawal negotiations? This begs the huge question as to what mandate will apply to those doing the negotiating. Will Cameron seek cross-party agreement? Will he take the Vote Leave programme as a manifesto he is bound to honour? For example, will the UK definitely withdraw from the single market?
6. Will there be an emergency budget? George Osborne said an emergency budget would be necessary this summer. Does that still apply, or will Cameron write that off as campaign scaremongering?
7. Will there be an election? There is a case for saying a new prime minister may need a mandate for the withdrawal negotiations – although there are probably very few people in Westminster with the appetite for another election now.
8. Does Cameron accept that the Scots have the right to have a second independence referendum? During the campaign he said the 2014 referendum was supposed to last for a generation, but there were some moments during the campaign when he accepted that the Scots would have a case for demanding a second referendum if they voted to stay in the EU while the UK as a whole voted out. And that is what has happened.The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) values the input of all community members. In an effort to enhance community involvement in the directive review and development process, the Bureau is seeking feedback on the directives listed below. During this time, individuals may submit comments or proposals regarding the content of the current active version(s) of the directive(s) for a period of thirty calendar days. The open public comment period is labeled at the top of the directive for your reference. Please note that no revisions have been made to these directives while in their first universal review and public comment period.
Community members and other stakeholders can submit comments through the “Provide Feedback” link included at the end of the directive. Comments should be limited to a substantive review of the directive content or proposals for additional related content. Comments should not include questions, as they will not be answered in this forum. After the close of this public review and comment period, all comments received are discussed during the Bureau’s internal review process for potential inclusion in a draft containing proposed changes to the current active directive. An updated draft reflecting changes to the current directive will be posted on the PPB’s website at the start of the Second Universal Review and Public Comment Period.
For more information on the directives review process, please click on any of the following links:
The Portland Police Bureau is currently in the process of reviewing the following directive(s). At this time, we are accepting public comments on these policies in their first universal review and public comment period:If you want to eat healthily you have to do more than select the *least unhealthy* processed foods that have been advertised to you.
I would suggest you learn about nutrition, about what protein, carbohydrates and fats really are, what they do in your body and where you can find them. You should learn about vitamins and minerals, again find out what they do in your body...
Then it will be simple to see if a product is healthy, because you will be able to read the ingredients and see if your body needs it - or if you just think it will be tasty and easy to cook.
Lastly, I really encourage you to cook - not like a celebrity chef, just start experimenting and learn a few recipes. When you can cook you can amaze your friends, eat cheaply, you have some control over what goes into your body and you don't have to rely on the junk the supermarkets want to sell you :-)
TofuMan · 10 years ago 10 Thumbs up 0 Thumbs down Report AbuseWhen we last saw Knuckle Sandwich, indie designer Andrew Brophy's latest Windows PC and Mac project, we remarked upon the role-playing game's similarities to EarthBound, the beloved Super Nintendo adventure. But the game draws more inspiration from another Nintendo series instead, Brophy explained to Polygon.
"I think mechanically, Knuckle Sandwich feels a lot more like playing Pokémon," he told us.
That's not to suggest the contemporary RPG features any monster-collecting, however, although it does pit you against monsters in turn-based battles. Instead, the primary logline is distinctly more relatable.
"Having a day job sucks" is how Brophy summed up the game, in which you play as a boy who's living on his own for the first time, supporting himself with a diner waiter's salary. That might sound mundane, but things quickly get weirder: People have been disappearing from town, and there's talk of cults behind the mystery.
To that end, Brophy cites a certain non-gaming inspiration: American Psycho, "which I think will be very clear to people when they play the game," he added.
Knuckle Sandwich's latest teaser trailer, which you can watch above, doesn't readily suggest how that gore-filled cult favorite comes into play. Instead, Brophy uses it to premiere other previously unseen elements, including a brand-new art style and redesigned main character.
"It [also] introduces your three co-workers," he said about the teaser, "who act as your guide[s] and occasional traveling companions throughout the game."
Players will spend the bulk of Knuckle Sandwich splitting their time between exploring their city with their group and working at the diner.
It sounds mundane, but things get pretty weird
"To me, it's interesting having this divide between keeping up with a routine and then going open world," Brophy explained. "The game rewards you for exploring and interacting with the sub-plots within the story, but to that end, you are not punished for skipping straight to the main story arc.
"Not everyone has time!" he added. "I'm considerate."
Scoring this adventure is an original soundtrack by Gyms, whose work is heavily influenced by Super Nintendo-era jams. The new teaser features the debut of the game's score, which Brophy cites as a big part of the game's overall style.
Even if it's more Pokémon than EarthBound — although Brophy did name its sequel Mother 3 as another influence — there's another title that this retro-style RPG might remind gamers of.
We couldn't help but ask Brophy what he thinks of 2015's underground hit Undertale, which itself bears many similarities to Earthbound and other JRPGs from the SNES' glory days. What does he make of Knuckle Sandwich's potential to succeed following Undertale's own success at revisiting that genre?
"I think now is a great time for fans of games like these," the designer replied. "This whole sub-genre is based on subverting tropes in role-playing games, so you tend to be surprised with each one, even if they follow a similar format.
"I think there's plenty of room for video games like mine, so I don't need to succeed over Undertale because I know I'm crafting a very different experience."
There's no firm release date yet for Knuckle Sandwich. Brophy is working on a demo, however, so gamers will be able to try out the latest RPG with a twist soon. The game was also successfully greenlit on Steam last fall.Look closely at your friends, family and even strangers. Spot anything strange?
Ignore any large noses or unusually-shaped brows. Instead, look at their hair – or rather, the lack of it.
It might not seem strange, because we are used to having relatively little hair covering our bodies. But when we compare ourselves to the rest of the mammals, and our closest living ape cousins, it is downright bizarre that we are the only large-bodied mammal with so little of it.
Unlike hairy chimpanzees and bonobos – and all other primates – most of our skin is on display. We have evolved this way, even though fur is beneficial: it insulates and protects the skin, and in some cases acts as a useful camouflage. So if it is so advantageous, why did we lose so much of it?
It was Charles Darwin who first taught the public that humans are descended from an ape-like ancestor. He also wondered why we had so little hair.
Something must have created an evolutionary pressure for these hominins to lose their fur
"No one supposes that the nakedness of the skin is any direct advantage to man; his body, therefore, cannot have been divested of hair through natural selection," Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man.
He proposed that we lost much of our fur due to sexual selection: we preferred hairless mates, and that is why hairlessness became common.
But that cannot be the whole picture. Before a preference for hairlessness began, we first had to start losing hair.
Our earliest human-like ancestors, known as hominins, were ape-like. For them, fur would have been useful, keeping them warm on cold nights.
Something must have created an evolutionary pressure for these hominins to lose their fur.
A few million years ago, there were several hominin species roaming the Earth. These included the famous fossil known as "Lucy", an Australopithecus afarensis from 3.2 million years ago.
If the hominins were covered in hair, they could not have lost heat fast enough
These hominins were ape-like. Lucy was a lot like |
not 380 of them lining the entire facade! Well that's precisely the sight that the Flower Tower in Paris promises to all who stop by. Designed by extremely talented architect and green wall artist Edouard François, the apartment lies behind a wall of breezy potted bamboo plants, making it look a lot like a giant green hedge.
Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian called the Flower Tower “one of the best places to live in Paris,” and it’s easy to see why. Even though the actual building is two tones of grey and quite drab, the bamboo adds a bright, fresh excitement to the whole exterior. And imagine living inside one of the apartments? It must be like seeing a little forest outside your window every day – with an exhilarating view of Paris right behind it to boot.
The hardy and rapid-growing bamboo plants are lined in rows (that don’t necessarily all look evenly spaced) and sit in 1.2-meter-high white flowerpots. What makes the building look even crazier is that the pots appear to just be sitting precariously on narrow ledges with no rails, ready to take a tumble to the sidewalk or – eek! – right on top of some unsuspecting pedestrian’s head. But luckily the danger is merely an illusion since the planters are actually embedded right into the structure.We have smartphones and smart watches. But do we need a smart … rice cooker?
What even is a smart rice cooker?
And, wait, isn’t rice the easiest food in the world to make?
These were some of the many questions that crossed my mind when Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. launched its 999 yuan ($155) smart rice cooker last week. In the name of science, I lugged one back to China Real Time’s test kitchen. The mission: to see if rice really does taste different with the help of big data. Was there a grain of truth to Xiaomi’s claims?
Xiaomi’s rice cooker is its latest addition to its menagerie of smartphone-controllable home devices. We’ve been told that in the future, all of our devices will be smart and interconnected. Scrolling through Xiaomi’s smart home app, I realized the future is here. Sort of. If the future is being able to use a single app to control your lamps, webcam, air purifier, water purifier (a lot of things need purifying in China) and, yes, rice cooker – then the future is here. In China.
Before attending the Xiaomi launch, I had considered the technology of rice-making roughly as many times as the average person, which is zero times.
The launch event for Xiaomi's smart rice cooker. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
But as Xiaomi's ecosystem chief Liu De explained at the launch, rice actually tastes different based on the pressure and temperature at which it's cooked. As proof, he presented the graph above, which clearly indicates that rice Sweetness and Stickiness (blue line) equals Color and Texture (green line) at 1.2 atmospheres of cooking pressure. While it's not immediately clear why we'd want sweetness to equal color, the key point here is that the makers of premium Japanese rice cookers have determined after scientific experimentation that 1.2 atmospheres and 105 degrees Celsius produces the tastiest rice.
The Xiaomi (left) and Supor (right) rice cookers. The Wall Street Journal
China Real Time's experiment was not, strictly speaking, a scientific one. I tested the Xiaomi rice cooker against the only other one I had on hand, my personal "Supor" brand rice cooker, which I'd purchased from a local grocery store upon moving to Beijing last year. I had chosen the Supor appliance based on price without knowing anything about the brand, but it turns out that Zhejiang Supor Co. is China's largest cookware maker and was acquired in 2006 by French company SEB Internationale SAS.
Nevertheless, the Supor rice cooker is not a smart one. It is a dumb one with exactly two settings: "on or off," and "rice or porridge."
Xiaomi's rice cooker can be controlled by its MiHome app, which is a pretty nifty concept. But setting up the app is not the easiest process. It took me around half an hour.
Setting up the Xiaomi app: easier said than done. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
The cooker had trouble establishing an initial connection to the Wifi network, with the app imploring me to "make your router, iPhone and device close with each other" before telling me it had yet again failed to connect.
Photo: The Wall Street Journal
After resetting the rice cooker through a pinhole with the sharp end of an earring, we had crossed the first hurdle.
The Wall Street Journal
Next, I needed to select my rice variation in the app to ensure proper cooking settings. This was a head-scratcher. I had a box of "organic rice," but was this "Dongbei rice" from China's northeast? Or was it "thin seedling rice," whatever that meant (I later found out this means Jasmine rice)? Pearl rice? Sticky rice? Hunan rice? Zhejiang rice? I was overwhelmed with "Rice Choice."
In a panic, I chose the "scan" option. But the app wouldn't read the barcode. Help! On the third try, the barcode scan worked. Phew. Ignorance of rice varieties would not stop me from making smart rice.
Xiaomi’s rice-type selection (left) and bar code scanner (right). Photo: The Wall Street Journal
The next step was selecting the desired texture, well-done or al dente. As Xiaomi's executives had trumpeted, this was the world's first rice cooker with a full "taste curve" continuum, the precise texture selectable by slidebar on your smartphone.
Photo: The Wall Street Journal
My options included "Soft Tasty" and "Sweet waxy delicious."
The Xiaomi rice cooker... disassembled.
A few colleagues were wary of the idea of "waxy" rice, but it sounded pretty fine to me. You'll note that the app interface isn't quite ready for prime time, with some of the words cut off the screen. But that was okay, as it didn't interfere with operation.
And with that, it was finally hardware time. Luckily the device came with a "Rapid Disassembly and Assembly Directions" card, which I dutifully followed without scrutinizing closely enough at the onset. At the end of the instructions, I realized it was more disassembly than assembly. I had successfully disassembled the rice cooker.
Five minutes of reassembly later, I was ready to cook some rice. It was here that I realized I would not actually be able to escape learning the difference between Dongbei rice and thin seedling rice.
The bowl of the Xiaomi rice cooker.
The bowl of the smart rice cooker requires different water levels for Dongbei ("Northeast”) rice and thin seedling rice. Fortunately, a more adept colleague than myself discerned that my organic rice was from Heilongjiang province, which is in China's northeast.
My plan had been to cook identical quantities of the same rice in both rice cookers to see if there was a difference in taste. But upon turning to the Supor rice cooker, I discovered an embarrassing problem.
The Supor rice cooker cup.
I didn't remember if my rice measuring cup actually came with the Supor rice cooker, or with a previous larger rice cooker. Using the wrong sized measuring cup could throw off the proportions entirely for the Supor sample.
This had never presented an issue before, as I generally subscribe to the "eyeballing" method of making rice (also known as the "as long as it's edible" approach). I mean, that's how we all cook rice, isn't it? Isn't it? I suspected such parameters didn't quite meet scientific rigor. I also realized that if my Supor sample failed, this experiment could expose to all my colleagues that I didn't actually know how to make rice. I would lose face as a person of Chinese extraction. Still, it was too late to turn back. I filled both rice cookers and hit "cook."
The Xiaomi rice cooker's display was a little hard to see in China Real Time's sunlit kitchen unless you shaded it with your hand, so at first it was difficult to tell if it was working.
Photo: The Wall Street Journal
That turned out to be okay, because the Xiaomi app sent cooking updates. I'm not quite sure what happens in the "Big Fire" stage of cooking, but I was happy to be informed near the end that the rice had reached "best taste.”
The various stages of cooking with the Xiaomi rice cooker. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
Finally, it was time. Xiaomi's app told me, "Have a meal.”
Photo: The Wall Street Journal
Several China Real Time colleagues were kind enough to help with a blind taste test. Most said there was a difference in taste, and I agreed. The Xiaomi cooker did produce rice with a firmer, springier texture. The Supor sample was more like your average homemade rice, a bit mushier with the grains not as distinct. I asked a colleague, Josh Chin -- our resident culinary expert due to his past life as a chef on a man-made island -- to better describe the difference.
Rice cooked in the Xiaomi (left) and Supor (right) rice cookers. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
"The difference was subtle -- I mean, it's rice, right? -- but the smart cooker definitely imparted a pleasing extra pearliness," he said. "Now is that pearliness worth the extra $150? I guess it depends on how much rice you eat."
Rice cooked in the Xiaomi (left) and Supor (right) rice cookers. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
In conclusion, this was the most difficult and stressful rice-cooking session I have ever endeavored. But the rice was tasty. And it probably would be a lot easier the second time around, with all the initial set-up completed. And I can now tell Dongbei rice from thin seedling rice, which is surely a worthwhile outcome.
—Eva Dou. Follow her on Twitter @evadou.Laura Zeng competes in the clubs final at the 2015 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships on Sept. 10, 2015 in Stuttgart, Germany.
STUTTGART, Germany, Sept. 11, 2015 – Five-time Pan Am Games gold medalist and World clubs finalist Laura Zeng of Libertyville, Ill./North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center, finished in eighth place in the all-around final at the 2015 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships today in Stuttgart, Germany. By virtue of her top 15 finish, Zeng has qualified the Unites States to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Her eighth place finish is the best finish for a U.S. gymnast at the World Championships in the all-around.
The U.S. rhythmic group gets its World Championships underway tomorrow, starting at 7 a.m. ET. USA Gymnastics will carry live coverage on its YouTube channel.
Russia’s Yana Kudryavtseva won her third-straight World all-around title and her fifth gold of these championships, posting 75.632. Her teammate Margarita Mamun was second (74.766), and Belarus’ Melitina Stanioiuta took bronze, scoring 72.132.
Zeng was the final competitor in each rotation. She began with the ribbon, performing to Zambra by Ojos De Brujo. She showed clean control on a triple balance combination and a back attitude turn into a cartwheel. She scored a 17.550. With the hoop, she performed to a classical piece in a white sequined leotard. She caught her first toss mid-leap and closed with an intricate catch between her legs while performing a back walkover to score 17.633.
In the third rotation, Zeng performed with ball and scored 17.600. She showed an intricate mastery where she passed the ball from one foot to the other while performing a front walkover. As the music picked up speed, Zeng performed her trademark fouette turns to the delight of the more than 4,800 fans on hand at the Porsche Arena. Zeng closed her competition with the clubs, the apparatus on which she finished seventh in last night’s event final. She scored a 17.633, giving her a 70.416 total in the all-around and eighth place.
Over nine routines and five days of competition, Zeng never scored lower than 17.233.
The competition schedule for group is: Sept. 12, all-around finals and event qualifications, 1 p.m. (USA); and Sept. 13, 5 ribbons and 3 clubs/2 hoops finals, 1 p.m. All times are local Stuttgart time, which is six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone.
For group, competition is in both the all-around and events [5 ribbons and 3 pairs of clubs (six total)/2 hoops]. The all-around competition on Sept. 12 serves as the qualification round for the event finals. The event finals are on Sept. 13.
The top eight Groups will earn their countries’ berths for the competition in Rio. An additional two Groups may also earn their places based on the continental representation requirement, for a total of 10 Groups qualifying to the Games. The second opportunity to qualify for the 2016 Games is the Olympic Test-Event in April 2016. Individual rhythmic gymnasts will also qualify for the individual event competition at the 2017 World Games based on performances in Stuttgart.Dungeon Kingdom features fully dynamic lighting and shadows and a wide range of interactions with the environments!
Posted by eoliene on Aug 24th, 2014
The Dungeon Kingdom is a 3D Role playing game with strong Influences from Dungeon
Master, Ishar, Eye of Beholder and other Dungeon crawlers games from past.
Fire:
We always say the child not to play with fire, right? Well in Dungeon Kingdom you can enjoy playing with fire safely! What happen if you throw a burning torch on curtains? Well, the'll burn :
And finally, after waiting a short while, let's see what is remaining from our curtains:
Luckily, Dungeon Kingdom engine handles very well dynamic lighting (including real time shadows), so the game has great potential when it comes to play with fire and more generally speaking, lights.
Thanks the real physics engine, you can have the fun of watching a torch (that you have just thrown) falling in the stairs making shadows dancing on walls!
These features of Dungeon Kingdom are also operating very nicely on Tablets and Smart-Phones devices such as Nexus 7 or iPad, thanks to an efficient graphics setup and optimization.
Remember you can vote for us on Steam Greenlight:
Steamcommunity.com
Thanks again to our wonderful supporters!
You can watch a video showing those features, played on Android device:
Youtube.com
Regards to all!
edit: to avoid conflict on game name, Dungeon Kings is now Dungeon KingdomAir Canada says it has amended its policies after a leading air passenger rights advocate criticized an incident where the airline refused to guarantee a toddler a seat next to her parents on a Vancouver to Toronto flight unless a $40 fee was paid.
Gabor Lukacs told CBC News Friday that Air Canada is mandated by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to make all reasonable efforts to seat children 12 and under adjacent to an accompanying adult. Its own operating tariff says it will do just that — and for free, even on the airline's economy brand, Tango, he added.
"Air Canada is misleading the families and is engaging in fear-mongering," Lukacs said.
"Essentially Air Canada is asking for ransom money to ensure that children are seated next to their parents while actually as a matter of law, they are required to do it anyway — and free of charge.
"It is a cash grab," Lukacs said.
New procedures implemented today
Asked for comment over its procedures for seating children, Air Canada said Friday that it, "automatically assigns seating without an advance seat selection fee soon after the booking has been made, either directly through Air Canada or through a travel agency, for parents and guardians who have indicated they are travelling with children on a Tango fare."
Matt and Caley Hartney say Air Canada told them there was a $40 fee to guarantee their toddler sits beside them on a flight. (Caley Hartney) Nevertheless, the statement said, procedures have been amended today so that Air Canada call centre agents will now assign "complimentary seating to children and their parents or guardians right at the time of booking a Tango fare directly through Air Canada Reservations or their travel agent."
They said the new information will be updated to their website shortly.
The change of procedure comes a day after CBC News published the story of Caley and Matt Hartney, who were told that their two-year-old daughter, Charlotte, would not be guaranteed a seat next to one of them, without a $40 charge.
"I clarified with the [call centre agent] three or four times, that he was telling me my child was not guaranteed a seat next to [us] without a fee," Carley Hartney said Friday.
Informed that her story had prompted a change in procedures, Hartney said she was delighted.
"I am really happy to hear that," she said.
'Children have to be safe. Full stop'
The idea that a child under 12 should sit next to a parent or guardian on a flight is not about convenience, Lukacs argues. It is a straightforward safety issue.
"The children have to be safe and Air Canada cannot operate a flight, and cannot have terms and conditions that jeopardize the safety of children — whether it is Tango, executive class or whatever.
"Children have to be safe. Full stop."
Lukacs said that no one is expecting that families should be able to insist on all sitting in a specific row number, just that a child under 12 is seated next to an accompanying adult for no extra charges.
"That's all, " he said. "Nothing beyond that."
Last year, following a passenger complaint against another airline, Air Canada, along with several other carriers, were ordered by the CTA to file new tariffs by March 2, 2015 that "reflect the fact that the respondents have adopted supplemental seating policies or procedures and are making reasonable efforts to ensure that children are seated with their accompanying guardian."There's no question that Auburn, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas are seven of college football's heavyweights.
Collectively, they've combined to win 26 national championships, and 21 of their players have hoisted the Heisman Trophy.
Together, they're also known for a more dubious number: $51.35 million.
That's how much money the aforementioned FBS programs have paid their former coaches to buy out the remainder of their contracts, and each of them will carry dead money into the coming season.
Buyout information for former USC coach Lane Kiffin is unknown because USC is a private school and is not required to make contract information public. According to the Los Angeles Times, Kiffin earned about $3.4 million in total compensation in fiscal 2013-14 before his departure from USC, based off tax returns.
Here's a look at some of the more notable contract buyouts in recent college football history:
$18.9 million
(estimated)
Charlie Weis, seen in 2009, went 35-27 as coach of the Fighting Irish. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Charlie Weis
Former school: Notre Dame
Date of firing: Nov. 30, 2009
Agent: Bob LaMonte
Estimated remaining buyout: Two annual payments of $2,054,744
Note: The Fighting Irish have already paid Weis more than $14.8 million not to coach, including an initial payment of about $6.6 million.
$7.9 million
Nebraska sent Bo Pelini packing, but the results with Mike Riley haven't been what they were hoping for. Bruce Thorson/USA TODAY Sports
Bo Pelini
Former school: Nebraska
Date of firing: Nov. 30, 2014
Agent: Neil Cornrich
Estimated remaining buyout: 46 monthly payments of $132,176
Note: FCS program Youngstown State will pay Pelini $213,894 to coach its team this year; Nebraska will pay him $1.59 million not to coach the Cornhuskers.
$7.5 million
Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
Gene Chizik
Former school: Auburn
Date of firing: Nov. 25, 2012
Agent: Russ Campbell
Estimated remaining buyout: Eight monthly payments of $200,000
Note: The Tigers paid more than $12.5 million in buyouts for the past two head coaches they ran off -- Chizik and Tommy Tuberville ($5.083 million).
$6.3 million
Rob Foldy/Getty Images
Will Muschamp
Former school: Florida
Date of firing: Nov. 16, 2014
Agent: Jimmy Sexton
Estimated remaining buyout: Two annual payments of $2.1 million
Note: Muschamp will be paid $2.1 million from Florida and $1.6 million as Auburn's defensive coordinator. His $3.7 million salary would have been more than what all but 12 Power 5 head coaches were paid last year.
$5.625 million
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Charlie Weis
Former school: Kansas
Date of firing: Sept. 28, 2014
Agent: Bob LaMonte
Estimated remaining buyout: 19 monthly payments of $200,893
Note: Weis earned about $2.1 million for each of his six victories at Kansas -- including wins over South Dakota, South Dakota State and Southeast Missouri State.
$5.5 million
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Jeff Tedford
Former school: California
Date of firing: Nov. 20, 2012
Agent: Tim Younger
Estimated remaining buyout: Seven monthly payments of $198,000
Note: Cal's buyout to Tedford would have been reduced only if he'd accepted another coaching job that paid more than $1.5 million annually.
$5 million
Wade Rackley/Getty Images
Derek Dooley
Former school: Tennessee
Date of firing: Nov. 18, 2012
Agent: Sexton
Estimated remaining buyout: 18 monthly payments of $104,167
Note: With the buyout alone, the Volunteers paid an average of $1.25 million for their four SEC victories during his three-year tenure.
$3 million
Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports
Brady Hoke
Former school: Michigan
Date of firing: Dec. 2, 2014
Agent: Trace Armstrong
Estimated remaining buyout: 19 monthly payments of $125,000
Note: Including his buyout and the $1 million paid to San Diego State to buy out his contract there, the Wolverines paid Hoke more than $15 million to coach four seasons.
$2.75 million
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Mack Brown
Former school: Texas
Date of resignation: Dec. 14, 2013
Agent: Joe Jamail
Estimated remaining buyout: Three annual payments of $687,500
Note: Brown also received a one-year job as special assistant to UT president Bill Powers with a $500,000 salary.
$2.5 million
Jim Owens/Icon Sportswire
Skip Holtz
Former school: South Florida
Date of firing: Dec. 2, 2012
Agent: Himself
Estimated remaining buyout: Three annual payments of $500,000
Note: The Bulls gave Holtz a three-year extension in July 2012 -- then fired him about five months later, costing the school an additional $1.5 million in the buyout.
$2.1 million
AP Photo/Steve Coleman
Ellis Johnson
Former school: Southern Miss
Date of firing: Nov. 27, 2012
Agent: Richard Davis
Estimated remaining buyout: One annual payment of $333,000
Note: According to Deadspin.com, Southern Miss sold its 2013 home opener against Nebraska (moving it to Lincoln) for $2.1 million -- the same amount the Golden Eagles owed Johnson for firing him.Marketing can’t help most startups. Here’s why: most startups are mediocre—mediocre product, mediocre operations, mediocre support. How else do you explain the fact that over half of all startups are gone within five years, and only 30% ever make it to 10 years? The truth is that investing scarce capital in the marketing of “mediocre” rarely pays back very well.
There is an old saying in marketing that goes: “nothing kills a bad company faster than good marketing.” Spending your next dollar on marketing may temporarily boost sales, but if your business is exhibiting shades of mediocrity, you may not get the return on your investment that you expected.
A quick story.
A few years ago we worked with a large interior design company whose customers were homeowners that numbered in the thousands. The design company’s business had grown substantially over the years on the strength of referrals. As sales slowed in 2007, the company asked us to develop a marketing program to help reignite sales among a broader audience.
Before spending their money, we recommended to the CEO that we do a bit of customer research, which was approved. The survey asked customers if they would be willing to refer the services of the design firm to friends or colleagues and gave those customers a scale of 0-10 to express their support (10 being “extremely likely”). The CEO struggled with the findings. The conversation went something like this:
Us: Only 33% of your customers love you. CEO: I don’t get it. Our customers rave about the work we do. Every job! Us: But sales are slowing. The referrals are slowing. CEO: Maybe we have to go after new markets. Us: Maybe there’s something else going on.
The next step was to dig deeper into the 37% of customers who gave them a seven or an eight, and the 30% of customers who gave them six or less. The next conversation went like this:
Us: The majority of your customers love your design work, but really don’t like your billing and collections. Apparently, there have been a lot of screw ups. As a result, you received more sevens and eights in the survey than your design success would suggest. CEO: Accounting is really boring. Us: Yeah, we noticed.
If we’d charged ahead with a full-blown marketing campaign, the design company would have spent a lot of money exposing its weakness to a greater number of people. That would have been the path to a saw-toothed sales curve instead of an upward, hockey stick-type sales curve. Talking to customers in a very simple, quantifiable way forced the company’s weakness out into the open where the CEO was able to deal with it.
Sometimes, spending money on marketing is the wrong thing to do. Spending money on finding out who you really are—how your customers see you—is the right thing to do.
So here are three simple questions you should ask your customers:
What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? What should we start doing?
Simple, to the point, revealing, and very easy to do. Try it with one customer and see what happens. And then make the call on whether to spend that $1 on marketing.
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.A superhero killed the president this summer. Moments later, a shocked White House press corps watched as John Horus, his gleaming white-and-gold costume still soaked in blood, explained why. Because "the war in Iraq is illegal and predicated on lies," because "our people and theirs are dying for corporate gain," because of the "use of torture by our elected authorities," and because the president "stole the last two elections," the most powerful member of the Seven Guns could no longer "stand by while this administration commits crimes." In response, a terrified government imposed martial law, launching a nationwide manhunt for Horus' estranged teammates, whose reactions to the act ranged from horror to sympathy.
That bit of propaganda-by-the-deed launched acclaimed British scribe Warren Ellis' Black Summer, an eight-issue comic book miniseries from Avatar Press. And though heroes at industry giants DC Comics and Marvel have shown more restraint -- even after Superman's Lex Luthor won the Oval Office in 2000 -- the post–September 11 era has seen an explosion of politically themed storylines in mainstream as well as independent comics. While real-world presidential candidates invoke supercop Jack Bauer, of the TV series 24, as a guide to national security policy, a more nuanced debate about preemptive war, warrantless surveillance, and the responsibility that comes with great power is taking place in an illustrated universe.
In one sense, this is nothing new. The very first issue of Captain America (1941) showed the star-spangled super-soldier punching out Adolf Hitler, prompting criticism from both Nazi sympathizers and those who considered der Führer Europe's problem. Superman and Batman hawked war bonds while facing down monstrous racist caricatures of buck-toothed Japs. Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen -- works that transformed comics in 1986 by proving that illustrated tales of men in tights could be serious, adult art -- were both steeped in their Cold War milieu. (Moore took his title from the Roman poet Juvenal's famous query about political power: "Who watches the watchmen?")
Nevertheless, the politically inspired stories of the "War on Terror" era have been remarkable not only for their ubiquity and sophistication, but also in the way they have exposed -- and sometimes exploded -- the political ideas embedded in the superhero genre itself. A famous 2002 cover of the German news magazine Der Spiegel depicted members of the Bush cabinet dressed as Rambo, Batman, Conan the Barbarian, and the "warrior princess" Xena, suggesting that neoconservatism is just comic-book logic applied to international affairs. But the efforts of comics writers to grapple with current events raise a corollary question: Is the superhero a natural neocon?
Probably the most widely read of the recent crop of political comics has been Marvel's "Civil War," a massive 2006–2007 crossover story line spanning the company's main superhero titles. The story begins when the members of a young team of C-list heroes get a bit too big for their spandex and challenge a group of powerful supervillains living incognito in Stamford, Connecticut. The ensuing battle leaves more than 600 civilians dead, and public outcry prompts the hasty passage of the Superhuman Registration Act, which requires costumed heroes to be trained and licensed -- and to disclose their secret identities to the government. The "powered community," heroic and villainous alike, is riven by the act: Iron Man and the Fantastic Four's stretchable supergenius Reed Richards rally support for registration, while Captain America goes rogue and begins building a dissident underground. The stand-in for the conflicted reader in this debate is Spider-Man, who is initially so convinced of the wisdom of registration that he unmasks on national television. When he sees the extradimensional Guantanamo being built to house resisters, however, he defects with a dramatic speech about the folly of trading liberty for security.
As the Abu Ghraib scandal unfolded in the news pages in 2004, the DC Comics universe found itself in the throes of Identity Crisis, in which it is revealed that a cabal of heroes affiliated with the Justice League superteam had been tampering with the memories of captured baddies to protect their own identities. An outraged Batman, who discovers that his own memory has been altered to cover up these acts, begins tracking superhumans via a vast satellite surveillance network -- which, naturally, falls into the wrong hands. Meanwhile, the Arab antihero Black Adam overthrows the tyrannical leader of "Khandaq," then kills the entire population of Bialya in retaliation for a terrorist attack on his country.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about these stories is why they fail. For as much as they seek to tease out the complexity and moral ambiguity of their themes, the authors of most of these tales clearly mean to convey a liberal or civil libertarian message. So much so that in 2003, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies released a screed titled "The Betrayal of Captain America," by right-wing pundit Michael Medved, decrying leftist infiltration of comics; that same year, professional bluenose Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center condemned Superman as a Ba'athist sympathizer. Yet when these stories go beyond leftish imitations of a previous generation's simplistic propaganda comics, the allegories tend to collapse under the weight of their own internal contradictions. There are, of course, openly conservative comics -- ranging from the ludicrous Liberality for All (starring a cyborg Sean Hannity!) to Bill Willingham's brilliantly layered Fables. But there is often a strong (if unintended) neoconservative subtext even in stories by left-leaning authors.
The "Civil War" storyline may provide the clearest illustration of this. The Superhero Registration Act is a straightforward analogue of the USA PATRIOT Act; the rhetoric of its opponents could have been cribbed from an ACLU brief. But under scrutiny, their civil libertarian arguments turn out to hold very little water in the fictional context. The "liberty" the act infringes is the right of well-meaning masked vigilantes, many wielding incredible destructive power, to operate unaccountably, outside the law -- a right no sane society recognizes. In one uneasy scene, an anti-registration hero points out that the law would subject heroes to lawsuits filed by those they apprehend. In another, registered hero Wonder Man is forced to wait several whole minutes for approval before barging into a warehouse full of armed spies from Atlantis. Protests about the law's threat to privacy ring a bit hollow coming from heroes accustomed to breaking into buildings, reading minds, or peering through walls without bothering to obtain search warrants. Captain America bristles at the thought of "Washington … telling us who the supervillains are," but his insistence that heroes must be "above" politics amounts to the claim that messy democratic deliberation can only hamper the good guys' efforts to protect America. The putative dissident suddenly sounds suspiciously like Director of National Intelligence Mitch McConnell defending warrantless spying.
The problem of modern terrorism -- how to deal with small groups of individuals who can wreak the kind of destruction that once required an army -- is familiar territory for comics, as is the idea that heroes often inadvertently create their own worst enemies. Yet attempts to directly address the problem of blowback from military action exhibit the same sort of ambiguity. In the second volume of Marvel's Ultimates (2004–2007) -- a reimagined version of the classic Avengers superteam -- the heroes are being used to carry out covert military missions abroad. Their foreign interventions prompt governments hostile to the U.S. to send their own superteam ("persons of mass destruction" wryly dubbed "The Liberators") to invade Washington. After the inevitable victory, The Ultimates decide they must operate independently of the U.S. government, but the lesson remains that "the world needs looking after," presumably by the same mostly American heroes.
These mixed messages shouldn't be blamed (solely) on the comics' creators, though. As John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett argue in their book The Myth of the American Superhero, the premises of the genre itself demand that "total power must be pictured as totally benign, transmuting lawless vigilantism into a perfect embodiment of law enforcement." The hero, possessed of moral clarity, solves problems by force, yet (usually) without killing. Evil is depicted as personal rather than institutional: The problem is not that power is wielded by a small elite, but that the wrong people -- supervillains -- sometimes get powers. And when the only tool you have is Thor's hammer, every problem looks like a supervillain. Super-heroes don't form PACs; they have slugfests, because the narrative of the superheroic redeemer demands that more prosaic means of conflict resolution -- diplomacy, say -- prove ineffectual.
The simplest way for writers to escape the embedded politics of superheroism, of course, is by ditching the tights entirely. Brian K. Vaughan makes this rejection explicit by having Mitchell Hundred, the protagonist of Ex Machina, abandon his costumed identity as the hapless Great Machine to serve his fellow New Yorkers as mayor. And there are many spandex-free depictions of war in comics. Vaughan's simple but moving Pride of Baghdad follows a group of lions freed from an Iraqi zoo during an American bombing. (The liberated animals are eventually shot by frightened Coalition forces.) Rick Veitch lampoons the romanticization of war in Army @ Love, in which a Huxleyan Department of Motivation and Morale entices soldiers to fight in "Afbaghistan" by making conflict sexy and fun. Others, such as Brian Wood in DMZ and Anthony Lappé in Shooting War, illustrate the old adage that "when war is declared, truth is the first casualty" by following journalists into spin-riddled battle zones.
Yet however much some writers may lament the popular identification of comics with superhero tales, it is no accident: Iconic characters demand a medium that deals in icons, and their privileged place in the American Zeitgeist has given them a mythic narrative power that storytellers are loath to forsake, even as they seek to tame the genre's fascist undertones. Some film adaptations of comic book tales -- notably Superman Returns, V for Vendetta, and the first two Spider-Man films -- have attempted to democratize their protagonist by creating populist moments in which ordinary citizens must band together to save the hero. But rather than conveying a message of democratic empowerment, these scenes typically have more than a whiff of übermench-as-embodiment-of-the-volk about them.
Mainstream titles increasingly feature stories in which the traditional Manichaeism of the genre is countered by pitting heroes against each other rather than villains, emphasizing how evil can arise from well-intentioned efforts to use coercive power for good ends: "Civil War" falls into this camp, as does DC's Infinite Crisis (2005–2006), in which a group of erstwhile heroes discover that their scheme to remake the universe into a utopia has transformed them into monsters. Other titles, following in the tradition of Watchmen, create doubly allegorical worlds populated by close analogues of the classic DC stable of heroes, then use them to explode or detourn the tropes of conventional superhero comics.
The failures and successes alike show that if comics are to succeed as modern political allegory, comics writers cannot simply transplant real controversies into their fictional worlds. They also face the daunting task of inventing a grammar and a vocabulary for a new sort of superhero narrative -- one capable of telling us that, sometimes, great power comes with the responsibility |
strengtheners with full integration into the banking system, that point of view has validity.
If, however, governments crack down on crypto currencies and don’t embrace centralized crypto currency trading, increased trading may occur on decentralized exchanges and the crypto ecosystem may instead of pricing cryptocurrencies and tokens in fiat pairs, price them only in Bitcoin or Ether.
Atomic Swaps :
Atomic swaps allow users to by-pass even decentralized exchanges and transact with each other, even if the transaction involves different cryptocurrencies. Atomic cross-chain trading allows users to trade cryptocurrencies on different blockchains. For example atomic swappers holding alt coins like Litecoin can trade with holders of Bitcoin (or vice versa) at an agreed ratio (currently about 75-1; just like the gold silver ratio). Atomic swaps can occur using digital signatures that act as a functioning escrow that prevent one party from sending coins to another party and not receiving the bargained for swapped coins in return.
Developers are currently testing atomic swaps. Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin, recently tweeted his success in an atomic swap involving Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Questions:Posted by Raine Hutchens on Jul 6, 2012
This year Gen Con attendees will have the ability to be of the first players to pick up a copy of the brand new Ascension: Immortal Gods expansion. Gary Games just announced via the game’s official website that Immortal Heroes will be available at the convention, and players can walk away with a full copy in-hand. If you follow the story in Ascension, Immortal Heroes picks right up where Storm of Souls left off.
Ascension is a deck building game in which players purchase heroes and defeat evil creatures to gain honor points. Once all of the honor points available on the board are used, the player with the most wins the game. But it dives much deeper than that, and as Gary Games explains, there’s a lot living under the surface. Storm of Souls introduced new Events to the game that had special effects as long as they were in play. Also included were trophy monsters that allowed players to sacrifice them to gain a special reward when needed. It was a standalone expansion for the game, just as Immortal Heroes will be.
The story of Immortal Heroes continues on from where Storm of Souls left off. Samael has freed Kythis from his duties as Gatekeeper to the afterlife. Kythis was created by the other gods as a demigod of the abyss, and now that he’s free he seeks to repay his creators for millennia of servitude to a meaningless cause. Kythis has suffered many times over limitations that sought to control his power, and he has grown tired of the old ones squandering away with their petty wars.
Samael lies dead, and the throne of Deofol sits empty. Someone with limitless power and an undying ambition shall be the new ruler of the gods, and Kythis has the revenge to fuel him for the deed. This is his final chance at divine retribution and he will stop at nothing to seize his gain.
With the loss of Samael the people of Vigil sit in uncertainty. Their hope is diminishing. They looked toward a future free from the Fallen One’s grasp. It was supposed to be a time of prosperity and celebration, whilst honoring the dead. But how, I ask, could you honor that which cannot accept death?
The Gatekeeper is absent and a generation of souls and fettered spirits haunt the living. Most people have learned to accept the strange spirits of deceased loved ones as a common occurrence; some have even found peace in knowing that the visages of their loved ones accompany them once more. Happiness won’t last long according to the sages, as a darker threat lies looming above; one that is not seen by the people of Vigil.
Souls continue to gather among the living, unable to embrace the peace that death promised to them in their final breath. Mages and seers communed to make an attempt at communicating with the dead to find some sort of answer for why the dead couldn’t make the journey to their promised land. They eventually found what they were seeking as they watched their loved ones become consumed by Kythis so he may eventually take control of his father’s throne at Deofol and leave Vigil in ruins.
Now it is up to both the living and the dead to drive back Kythis and put an end to his evil scheme.
Immortal Heroes will introduce a new feature called Soul Gems. When players gain a Soul Gem, it is placed in front of them like a Trophy Monster or a Construct. The player then may banish a Soul Gem they own at any time to gain the listed effect. The Soul Gem is drawn at random from a new side deck of 40 cards that will be included with the game. Some of the Soul Gems are more common, while others are rare and limited to one per deck. Banished Soul Gems are kept in a separate pile that is reshuffled when the Soul Gem deck runs out.
Immortal Heroes also expands upon what we’ve seen with Storm of Souls. Trophies added a lot of fun to the game and were received very well. With the new expansion Gary Games wanted to focus more on Ongoing Trophies. Ongoing Trophy Monsters play out just like regular Trophy Monsters, though they stay in play. For instance, once their Trophy effect is gained, they remain in play instead of being banished.
Something else we will see in Immortal Heroes is the addition of 5 new Event cards. Along with that comes a brand new mechanic that makes playing with older sets much easier. What you get are 20 New Event cards that will swap out the current Event with a new one. You’ll play with 5 of these for every expansion you’re playing with. The Event cards will all go aside in a face-down Event Deck. Shuffle in the New Event cards into your center deck so you can draw them, and only them, out when concerning Events. You’ll start with the top card from the Event deck in play (because a lot of players were asking if they could start the game with one in play) and then deal out the Center Row. Any time you reveal a New Event card you’ll simply swap out the Event that’s currently on the field. Make sense?
These new additions will no doubt make Ascension even more fun to play than it already is. I know I’m picking up a copy at Gen Con this year, and you should too. It’s an expansion to what’s already available, but it’s also a standalone copy. You can pick this right up and play with it, right out of the box. Check back for more Ascension: Immortal Heroes updates, and if you’re interested about the game you can check it out on its official website.I’m an Assistant High School Principal in New Orleans. My Students Shouldn’t Have to Keep Burying Their Friends. 'I need that to stop.'
Sue, 36, is an assistant principal at a high school in the Westbank area of New Orleans, a suburban neighborhood on the Mississippi River. Since the start of the year, 29 people have been fatally shot in the city – including former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, who was killed in a road-rage incident Saturday night. Sue asked that her real name, her school, and the names of her former students not appear in this story.
The vast majority of my kids — who come from neighborhoods all over the city — have been exposed to gun violence. Whenever I read the news and see a report of a shooting or a murder, especially when they identify the victim as a young man, I click on the link and think, “I hope I don’t know this person. I hope this is not one of mine.”
In my 14 years of teaching in New Orleans, I can count the number of students I’ve lost to gun violence on two hands. Our school lost three students over the course of three years, so those stand out.
Jordan was a senior in the fall of 2012. He was really into skateboarding, and was a very good student. I recall seeing a news story in September that said an 18-year-old male was shot and killed, and the next day a teacher sent me a text with his name, asking if I knew him. It just shocked me.
Jordan had been taking the trash out at two in the morning. He lived in a gated, upper-middle class neighborhood. I think someone was out there waiting for him and shot him right in his front yard. It might have been drug-related. But after the news broke, I told our kids, “There’s no reason someone should have been killed. Whatever it was, it wasn’t worth a life.”
His mom ran outside when she heard the gunshots, and Jordan died in her arms. I got to know her when she was enrolling him in the school, and she’s now an anti-gun violence advocate in the city. She and I stay in pretty close contact. I try to send her cards at different holidays to say, “I’m still thinking about you.”
Jordan’s brother is currently a ninth grader. We’ve been trying to get him into our school. His mom told me that, at the school he’s in right now, he recently stepped in to break up a fight between a couple of students, and he got in trouble for it. And he said, “I’m not watching someone else die.”
Then there was Chad. He came here for his freshman and sophomore year. He was hilarious. He wanted to be a musician. He was one of those kids who was not a good learner, he didn’t have a good educational foundation, so he caused trouble in school. He got expelled at some point, but he remained good friends with our students and would come by the school, so I still considered him one of my kids.
He was killed on a Saturday in December 2013. Chad was selling drugs after our school’s football game, and I don’t know what went wrong, but they shot him in the head several times and stuffed his body in the trunk of a car and drove him to a wooded area.
I learned about his death on the news, but the kids know immediately. It spreads via text and social media. They know when the family knows.
Robert graduated in 2014. He was goofball, and couldn’t sit still. He was always in the halls instead of in class. He’d come up to me and give me a hug. He and I were pretty close while he was here, even though he was in trouble a lot.
Then, just over a year ago, I saw online that there had been a shooting in the city the night before. The next morning when I got out of the gym, there was a text message from one of my students who’d graduated that year: “Please call me right now.” What college freshman sends text messages at six in the morning? I called her right away, and as soon as I hit “send,” something clicked. It’s like something connects, and you know it’s bad. She said, “Did you hear about Robert?” I’m on the phone with her and we’re both crying about it.
He was shot and then crashed his car into a tree. We heard that he was selling drugs, but not big-time. It was a little here and there. He was enrolled at the community college, and wanted to be a mechanic or an electrician. I think he would have been very successful with that.
His girlfriend is still a student here, and a lot of the kids who were here last year knew him well. And so that affected us a lot. His girlfriend didn’t handle it so great — she was absent a lot afterward. It still comes up from time to time.
His funeral was the only one that I was able to go to. There’s something about seeing 18- and 19-year-olds bury their friends. My kids should not have to do that. I need that to stop.
I still see pictures of Robert pop up on social media. They still tweet about Jordan. They still tweet about Chad, too. The kids mourn for a long, long time.
[Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images]District Magistrate Raj Shekhar confirmed that there was no loss of life in the accident in Alambaugh area in Lucknow.
Highlights Workers were filling concrete between two pillars at the time of accident All workers have been rescued and rushed to hospital for treatment The accident led to traffic disruption, vehicles diverted from the area
In an accident at a metro construction site in Lucknow today, three people were injured after the shuttering between two pillars collapsed while the labourers were working on reinforcing the portion.The injured were taken to a hospital. District Magistrate Raj Shekhar confirmed that there was no loss of life. He also said that "no one was trapped in the debris", and that, the debris was "being cleared and relief was being provided to the injured.He added that an inquiry will be held to find out how the accident occurred.Superintendent of Police Rajesh Pandey said that the incident occurred when metro workers were reinforcing the portion with concrete between the two pillars in Alambaugh area in Lucknow. The incident also led to disruption in traffic. Vehicles have been diverted from the area.Successful test of the Hatf-5B Pakistan ballistic missile
In recent years the concern over nuclear proliferation has centered on Iran's ongoing effort to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, however, may prove to be just as dangerous and just as destabilizing as that of Tehran's. That country is well on its way, within another decade, to amassing the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Moreover, its current focus on deploying theater nuclear weapons, so called (5 to 10 kiloton) low-yield battlefield weapons, represents a dangerous new strategy that has wide-ranging impact on both the stability of the Indian subcontinent and the threat that a militant organization will obtain a nuclear device.
For the last seventy-five years, the international politics of the Indian subcontinent, and, to a lesser extent, the broader south and central Asian region that surrounds it, have revolved around the continuing Indian-Pakistani conflict. The two countries have fought four wars since their birth, following the partition of British India in 1947. These wars, fought in 1947, 1965, 1971 (which resulted in the loss of East Pakistan and the birth of the new state of Bangladesh), and in 1999, all resulted in significant Indian victories.
The 1999 war, called the Kargil War, was fought in the Kargil district of Kashmir. This was the first Indo-Pakistani conflict following the deployment of nuclear weapons by both countries. At one point during the fighting, Pakistan's government ordered the arming of its nuclear missiles, potentially bringing the two countries to the brink of a nuclear conflict. Although a truce was later negotiated, the fate of the original princely kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, a legacy of the 1947 war, has to this day still not been resolved and continues to be a major source of conflict between the two countries.
The genesis of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program had a number of sources. In part it was a response to the defeat in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war. It was also driven by Pakistan's realization that India was going ahead with the development of its own nuclear arsenal. Neither country is a signatory to the U.N. sponsored Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Pakistan opted to try to develop both plutonium and enriched uranium-based weapons.
In 1985 the CIA warned of a Pakistani plan to build a "plutonium production reactor." Pakistan subsequently built, with Chinese help, the 40-50 megawatt heavy-water Khushab plutonium production reactor. The reactor went on line in 1998. Three additional heavy-water reactors were also built and are currently operational at the same site. Pakistan also built a plutonium reprocessing plant at the New Laboratories facility at the Pakistani Institute of Science and Technology. An additional reprocessing facility is being built at the same location and a third is under construction in Chasma.
Indian Army Agnil missile at Republic Day Parade 2004
Pakistan also began a program to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) using gas centrifuge enriched uranium. The specially designed centrifuges spin uranium hexafluoride gas at high speeds to increase the concentration of the uranium 235 isotope. This is the same technology that Iran has been using in its nuclear weapons program.
The program got a significant boost when A.Q. Kahn, a metallurgist working in the Dutch subsidiary of the British-based Uranium Enrichment Company (URENCO Group) returned to Pakistan in 1975. Khan brought with him blueprints for various centrifuge designs and a broad array of business contacts. By buying individual components rather than complete gas centrifuges, he was able to evade existing export controls and acquire the necessary equipment.
Khan would go on to establish an illicit nuclear weapons technology procurement and consulting operation, the "Khan Network," that would play a major role in the transmission of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and to a lesser extent, North Korea. The Pakistani government has denied that it had any knowledge of Khan's illicit side business but under American pressure arrested A.Q. Khan, sentencing him to house arrest, and dismantled his network.
There continue to be reports, however, that rogue elements of that network continue to operate clandestinely. In 1998 and then in 2001, for example, according to former CIA Director George Tenant, the agency obtained fragmentary intelligence that Osama bin Laden had dispatched emissaries to make contact with the Khan network, in order to discuss obtaining the equipment necessary for developing a nuclear weapons infrastructure, details of nuclear bomb design and information on how to construct radiological dispersal devices.
There are also unconfirmed reports that as recently as 2014, the Islamic State has also reached out to former members of the Khan network for assistance in securing atomic weaponry. While the design and construction of a nuclear device is very likely beyond the capabilities of Al Qaeda, ISIS or any other militant jihadist group, the use of radiological dispersal devices, so called dirty bombs, is well within their capability.
A. Q. Khan, fifth from left, at Pakistan's nuclear testing facility in the Ras Koh Hills, May 28, 1998
The Pakistani nuclear effort also received considerable assistance from China. It is believed, that starting in the late 1970s, Beijing supplied Pakistan with a broad array of missile and nuclear weapons related assistance. This assistance included warhead designs, highly enriched uranium (HEU), components of various short and intermediate range missile systems, gas centrifuge equipment and technical expertise. The A.Q. Khan network later transferred some of this technology to other countries.
According to various intelligence sources, Pakistan currently has between 100 and 120 nuclear weapons under its control. It is believed, however, that Pakistan has produced and stockpiled around 3,000 kilograms (6,600 lbs) of weapons grade HEU and about 200 kilograms (440 lbs) of plutonium. Pakistan's HEU based warheads utilize an implosion design that requires between 15 and 20 kg of HEU. The current stockpile is enough for an additional 150 to 200 weapons, depending on the warhead's desired yield.
The plutonium-based warheads need between 6 and 8 kg of plutonium. The current stockpile would yield between 25 and 35 additional warheads. As of the end of 2015, Pakistan has enough HEU and plutonium to produce an addition 175 to 235 warheads. This number could be higher if Pakistan opts for smaller warheads intended for battlefield weapons. This would raise the Pakistani nuclear arsenal to between 300 and 350 nuclear warheads. Pakistan is adding enough HEU and plutonium to its stockpile to produce around 10 to 20 additional bombs a year.
According to the Federation of American Scientist's latest tally, there are 15,465 nuclear weapons in the world. The vast majority of those are owned by the United States and Russia. France has about 300 warheads, China has around 250 and the United Kingdom has about 215. Israel is widely acknowledged to possess a sophisticated array of nuclear weapons. Estimates of the Israeli nuclear arsenal vary widely, from as little as 80 to as many as 400, with at least 100 of those weapons being thermonuclear "hydrogen bombs."
Since the late 1980s, Pakistan has used a variety of militant organizations as proxies in its ongoing struggle with India over Kashmir and elsewhere. This strategy may have been a direct result of its success with "Operation Cyclone," the CIA and Saudi funded program to arm the Afghan mujahedeen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai under attack by Lashkar terrorists, November 2008
"Operation Cyclone" was also the code name for the terrorist attack in Mumbai. From November 26-29, 2008, ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based militant organization with long-standing ties to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency conducted a series of 12 coordinating bombings and shooting attacks across Mumbai. The attacks resulted in the death of 164 people and the wounding of at least 308. The fact that the Mumbai operation used the same code word designation is a disturbing parallel. It is hard to believe that its use was a coincidence.
Sponsored, organized, trained and funded by Pakistan's ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba is only one of several militant organizations that the ISI has used as proxies in its covert military operations. Other militant groups with documented links to the ISI include: Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Omar, Jaish-e-Monammed, Sipah-e-Sahaba, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jamaat-ud-Da'wah, Harkat-ud-Jihad al-Islami, the Haqqani Network, Jamaat-ud-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and of course its most famous creation--the Afghan Taliban.
Since 1990, given its record of defeat in conventional military conflicts with India, it appears that Pakistan's military strategy has relied on a threefold approach: use militant proxy organizations to strike at Indian military positions in Kashmir, specifically, and to attack Indian targets in general, rely on the threat to deploy nuclear weapons should India try to retaliate with a military invasion of Pakistan and rely on the U.S. and China, in particular, and world opinion in general, to restrain India from attacking Pakistan before the ponderously slow Indian Army can mobilize and be in a position to attack.
One of the lessons that India drew from the 1998 Kargil war was precisely that its slow mobilization and advance would give the Pakistani military plenty of advance warning of its intended strategy and military objectives. It would also give Pakistan plenty of time to mobilize world opinion to restrain India. Moreover, India found that it could not muster a strong enough offensive capability to do anything more than limited border incursions and low level attacks against border fortifications.
Surrender of Pakistani military forces in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, December 16, 1971
In response, the Indian Army undertook a comprehensive review of its military operations with the goal of developing a quick strike capability into Pakistan. The resulting doctrine, called "Cold Start," was designed to reorient India's military forces from their traditional defensive posture toward a more aggressive, offensive capability. The doctrine called for the formation of several eight division-sized, integrated battle groups that would combine infantry, artillery and armor. They would be on a standby alert, ready at all times to thrust deep into Pakistani territory along several possible lines of advance.
These battle groups would receive air support from the Indian Air Force (IAF) and, where appropriate, support from India's naval forces as well. The rapid deployment of these battle groups would allow India to seize Pakistani territory before the international community could mobilize a consensus to restrain India. The Indian military has continued to insist that there is no "Cold Start" doctrine and that the debate over military doctrine that has been swirling around India's Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses has been purely an academic exercise. Pakistan's military leadership and the ISI, however, believe that the "Cold Start" Doctrine is a fact.
The Pakistani response to the Cold Start Doctrine has been to emphasize the development of battlefield, so called "theater nuclear weapons." The strategy is to meet India's rapid deployment forces with a series of limited nuclear strikes against concentrations of troops and armor and then rely on international pressure to constrain India from escalating the confrontation to a full blown nuclear conflict.
Battlefield nuclear weapons pose a whole different level of security risks than conventional nuclear weapons. Islamabad's current Strategic Command Organization for Pakistani atomic weapons relies on a threefold structure consisting of the National Command Authority (NCA), the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC). The NCA and the SPD have operational control over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The military's SFC has only day to day "administrative control" and technical support of these weapons system.
More importantly, Pakistan's nuclear weapons are kept disassembled, typically in three or four component parts with each of those parts kept in separate facilities. Thus the nuclear warheads are kept separate from the delivery vehicles. Moreover, the fissile cores of the warheads are separated from the conventional, i.e., non-nuclear explosives. Even if a militant terrorist organization was to penetrate a facility where the nuclear components are stored it could not obtain a functioning nuclear weapon.
The one drawback of this approach is that unless very close inventory control is maintained it is possible for component parts to go missing without being noticed. The combination of a multi-branch command authority and the fact that the weapons are kept in a disassembled state makes it extremely difficult for rogue elements within Pakistan or for militant organizations to secure or launch a nuclear weapon.
Pakistani, truck mounted Babur, 400 mile range, Cruise Missile
Battlefield weapons on the other hand, by their very nature, are more at risk to theft, diversion or unauthorized use. As battlefield weapons they need to be under the control of local commanders. While the decision to deploy them may still be under the national command authority, their actual use has to be left to the commander in the field. Although most of them can be kept disassembled, it is likely that some portion has to be maintained in a ready state if they are to prove useful in stopping an Indian incursion.
At the very least, some portion would need to be assembled and deployed forward in anticipation of a possible Indian attack in response to a Pakistani operation. Typically, these battlefield weapons have short ranges. Since the facilities where the components of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal are stored are well back from the Indian frontier, this means that the weapons would likely need to be stationed relatively close to the frontline in a ready state. It is unclear how the Strategic Command Authority would exercise its control over such battlefield weapons once they were deployed or who would be responsible for guarding them.
In a positive development, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met informally with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on November 30, during the Paris Climate Change Summit. The meeting was followed up by a surprise visit of Modi to meet with Sharif in Lahore Pakistan on December 26. This was the first direct meeting between sitting Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers in more than a decade.
Hatf 2, Pakistani Army Short Range Ballistic MissilePositive Notes to Students
As I wrap up my school year, I am thinking about my students, their struggles, and their successes. No matter what their abilities, I want each student to walk away with a positive feeling, so I write each of my students a short note â a couple of sentences that captures their unique essence as a person. It is different from other notes, because I write them on their desks using dry erase markers.
Each note is a positive comment that captures my appreciation for each student. During the last 10 weeks of school, I start recording my thoughts so that it isnât a daunting task, adding a few more each day. The night before the last day of school, I get to work. It takes me about an hour to do this. When my sixth graders arrive on the last day, they are greeted with words that they carry with them into their future, and hopefully, give them a boost when things get tough.
Last year, my sixth graders cherished these notes so much that they guarded them all day, making sure their friends didnât accidently rub them off. They even took pictures of the notes as a keepsake.
Letters to Future Students
Call me crazy, but before I have finished wrapping up this school year, I am thinking ahead to next year. Like many of you, on the first few days of school, I go over classroom policies and procedures. Since this is my studentsâ first year in middle school, I also discuss tips for being successful. It is challenging for my incoming, 11-year-old students to absorb so much important information from so many teachers, each with their own rules and expectations. This is very different from having one teacher all day with one set of rules and expectations to follow. Understandably, it can be overwhelming. Often, reviewing behavior and expectations requires repeating for students to be successful.
Next fall, I am trying a different, less overwhelming, more personal approach. Before the school year ends, my current students are going to write letters to my future sixth graders, letters that my incoming students will open on the first day of school. I am hoping it will provide a personal connection, one that engages them more. When my new students share their letters with their new classmates, we will create our first anchor chart: Tips for Success in Middle School.
I recently told my current students my idea. Immediately, excited chatter started taking over the class. They all had their own perspective on the most important advice that should be given. The authentic writing experience has them highly motivated during the time of year when many students struggle to stay focused.
Before writing these helpful letters, brainstorm the most important tips students feel they need to share. Below are a few topics for discussion:
 Fill in planners with assignments and check off work as it is completed.
 Hand homework in on time.
 Keep organized notebooks, file papers in notebooks BEFORE leaving class.
 Show up to class on time and with class materials.
 Manage time wisely â especially during class and study halls, so you donât have a lot of homework.
 If confused with the homework, seek help from a teacher.
 If absent, contact teachers for back work.
 Hand in quality work, so you donât have to do it over.
 Clean out lockers once a week.
 Join a club or sport to make friends.
 Be kind to others.
Next, discuss the contents of the letter. Teachers can use the âAnnotated Sample Letterâ to guide the lesson, asking why the author thought it important to include the components listed below. Or, if you prefer a constructive approach, have students analyze the âSample Letterâ to identify the components listed below:
 Include things you like about middle school.
 Discuss a problem you encountered.
 Share how it made you feel or tell a story about it.
 Explain the solution to your problem.
 Close by explaining why the skill is important.
Next, review how to format friendly letters. Free resources for writing friendly letters can be found in my Scholastic blog: âFriendly Letters: Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving.â (November 2010).
I found stationery on clearance for $1, so my students will print their typed letters on colorful, fun stationery. However, many of you may not have this luxury. You might like The Big Book of Classroom Stationery (Grades 4-6), which is available as an eBook and can be download from Scholasticâs Teacher Store. Print copies of your favorite stationery, so students can handwrite the letter, making it more personal. If you are a member of Scholastic Printables there is a variety of printable stationery available to download and print.
I havenât decided if I want to grade this or make it a fun end-of-year activity â stress free! However, if you want to make this a graded assignment, use the âFriendly to assess studentsâ work.
The best part is that this activity sets up the lesson for the first day of school, so you can wrap on a good note and all prepared to start the next school year.
How do you close out your school year on a positive note? Please share below.Want a additional copy for a friend? Pick up the Tower 57 Two-pack
TOWER 57 IN A NUTSHELL
MEDIA ABOUT TOWER 57
FEATURES:
FAST-PACED ARCADE GAMEPLAY
TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION
COOPERATION
DIESELPUNK WORLD
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS
ADVERSARIES
In a dystopian, dieselpunk world, where Megatowers are the only enclaves of civilization, a group of extraordinary individuals is sent to infiltrate the reclusive Tower 57.Tower 57 is awith 16-bit inspired pixel art, destructible environments and heavy. It is also a modern take on what madegames so great back in the days.There is no school like the old school.. Tower 57 offers complex situations arising from simple systems interacting with each other - and it does it the hard way. Number of lives is scarce, respawns limited and difficulty skyrockets when you least expect it.Choose from a roster of. And if you happen to lose an arm or leg during your mission - you can always replace it with a new, better one! Master these combos and you will never get bored on your way to the top of the Tower 57.Mayhem tastes the best when it is shared. Tower 57's main campaign is designed for both,. Flank your enemies, bait them into an ambush, leverage co-op specific weapons, or combine your regular weapons for increased firepower and new effects!Find your way through a maze of floors connected by elevators, a central hub filled with shops and terminals, and a multitude of secret walls and uncharted passageways leading to forgotten parts of the tower. Times of randomly generated levels are gone -Smash them, crash them and destroy everything. Reload. Repeat. Because. Everything - from debris and shell casings to bloody footprints - will mark your destructive trail through the Tower.Each enemy features its own distinct spawning mechanism, movement & attack patterns, as well as some weaknesses. And you'd better
© 2017 11 bit studios S.A., 11 bit studios™ and respective logos are trademarks of 11 bit studios S.A. All rights reserved.Image caption David Delos was filmed with passwords and other sensitive information, blurred out by the BBC, behind him
Staff at France's TV5Monde have been filmed with passwords visible a day after the TV network suffered a huge cyber-attack.
Login details for social media accounts could be seen behind a journalist interviewed on France 2.
It comes after hackers claiming to represent jihadist group Islamic State (IS) took TV5Monde off air.
The Paris-based channel told the BBC the visible data was a one-off mistake and was not linked to the attack.
Its TV station, website and social media accounts were all hit on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned what he called an "unacceptable attack on freedom of information".
Image copyright Google+/TV5Monde Image caption Several of the organisations social media accounts were hit
Journalist David Delos was speaking on camera of the "frustration" felt in the newsroom on Thursday when passwords for accounts on Twitter and Instagram could be seen on a dividing screen in the background.
Most were too blurry to be distinguished with the naked eye, but social media users claimed to have been able to decipher YouTube login details.
Footage broadcast on BFMTV also appeared to show a password written on yellow post-it notes and stuck on computer monitors.
A spokeswoman for TV5Monde said passwords were not normally left around in such a way, and the error made in the interview was an isolated case.
'Threatening the government'
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cyber-attack, which French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said was likely to have been a "terrorist act".
A message posted by the hackers on TV5Monde's Facebook site read: "The CyberCaliphate continues its cyberjihad against the enemies of Islamic State."
They replaced TV5Monde's social media profile pictures with a masked Islamist fighter.
Mr Cazeneuve promised the government would do "everything to catch those who tried to attack the heart of the French Republic".
The head of TV5, Yves Bigot, said on Thursday it was not clear whether the hackers had targeted the channel specifically, or used it as a messenger.
"Obviously what they were doing is threatening the French government, the French military and the French policy in the Middle East."
France is part of the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria.
The channel has not commented on the latest apparent security breach.
TV5Monde regained control over most of its sites about two hours after the attack began on Wednesday and full services were restored by Thursday evening.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese-American nuclear engineer pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to produce “special nuclear material” in China in violation of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
Allen Ho, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and a Chinese state-owned nuclear power firm, the China General Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC), were indicted in April last year on charges of conspiracy.
The DOJ said Ho had pleaded guilty “to conspiracy to unlawfully engage or participate in the production or development of special nuclear material outside the U.S., without the required authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in violation of the Atomic Energy Act.”
A DOJ official said Ho and an associate, Ching Ning Guey — who pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2015 — were the first to be charged for violation of the 1946 act, a Cold-War era statute aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation.
The DOJ statement said Ho had been employed as a consultant by CGNPC and was also the owner of Energy Technology International (ETI), a Delaware corporation.
It said Ho assisted CGNPC in procuring U.S.-based nuclear engineers to assist in the design and manufacture of components for nuclear reactors more quickly.
It said Ho identified, recruited and executed contracts with U.S.-based experts from the civil nuclear industry who provided technical help for the development and production of special nuclear material for CGNPC.
Ho and CGNPC also facilitated travel to China and payments to the U.S.-based experts in exchange for their services, the DOJ said.
The United States defines special nuclear material as plutonium, uranium-233, or uranium enriched in the isotopes uranium-233 or uranium-235.
It says special nuclear material is only mildly radioactive, but includes fissile isotopes — uranium-233, uranium-235, and plutonium-239 — that, in concentrated form, could be used as the primary ingredients of nuclear explosives.
The Department of Justice did not say what sort of special nuclear material was involved |
the IDF realised that its strictly hierarchical command structure had hindered the war effort. The idea, which is now common in the US military as well, is to create a network of interconnected decentralised cells with significant autonomy to make executive decisions. In the words of General Stanley McChrystal, who headed the US Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008, ‘to defeat a networked enemy, we had to become a network ourselves.’ Each cell is made up of officers from different branches – infantry, artillery, air force, military intelligence, secret service agencies – who work together on the basis of shared information and shared strategy. The way the IDF cells function is classified, but it seems likely there are two main kinds: ‘attack cells’ and ‘assistance cells’. Attack cells would include ‘hunting cells’ whose goal is to hunt down Palestinian militants and assassinate them. There are also thought to be ‘fishing cells’, whose task is to monitor a particular area to determine who the ‘big fish’ in it are; and ‘real estate cells’, which identify and monitor strategic buildings and facilities so that they can be destroyed at the right moment if necessary.
One soldier, who was very likely a member of an ‘attack cell’, was asked what happens when the target bank is depleted, i.e. whether the IDF attacks the houses of lower ranking Hamas activists when most higher ranking targets have already been eliminated. The soldier replied:
Absolutely. See, you start the fighting with a very clear ‘target list’ that has been assembled over a long period of time, and there are also units whose objective is to mark new targets in real time. When we start running out [of targets], then we begin hitting targets that are higher on collateral damage levels, and pay less and less attention to this. But there are also all sorts of efforts aimed at gathering intelligence that’s specifically for establishing new targets like, for example, which areas are being used to launch [missiles or mortars toward Israel], statistics on where rockets are being fired from, where mortars are being fired from. [The co-ordinates] are calculated in a pretty precise way, and are used to try and figure out where it’s likely that there is a rocket-launching infrastructure. And you say: ‘OK, I’ll strike that piece of land, because every morning at 7 a.m., ten mortar shells are fired from there.’
After the nine-day artillery assault on the Gaza Strip, the troops marched in. The testimonies suggest that every infantry brigade was accompanied by a tank battalion, an engineering battalion and several D9 bulldozers, and had back-up artillery at its disposal as well as constant reconnaissance that was communicated to the officers on the ground through an assistance cell. The soldiers say that the ground troops had instructions to kill any person within range. Before they entered Palestinian houses, a tank would shoot a shell to create a way in or soldiers would use hand-held missile launchers. Anyone inside would be incapacitated and so unable to surprise the troops. Once they were in, any movement outside was considered suspicious.
Several soldiers said that at first there were arguments about how they should behave in the Palestinian houses they occupied. In briefings, soldiers were instructed not to loot or plunder, and some argued that they shouldn’t sleep on the mattresses or make coffee on the stove. Others disagreed:
The way I saw it, I pictured this family returning to their house and seeing it totally wrecked: the windows all broken, the floors torn up and the walls messed up by grenades; and they say: ‘The sons of bitches ate my cornflakes, I can’t believe it.’ No chance. They wouldn’t care if you used their cooking gas, if you used their kitchen. That’s total bullshit in my opinion. I don’t think that type of quandary is complex at all.
Many others began to understand that the ethical dilemmas raised in the briefings were a farce:
We knew that we were entering a house and that we could be good kids, on our best behaviour, but even then a D9 [armoured bulldozer] would show up and flatten the house. We figured out pretty quickly that every house we left, a D9 would show up and raze it. The neighbourhood we were in, what characterised it operationally was that it commanded a view of the entire area of the [Israel-Gaza border fence] and also some of the [Israeli] border towns. In the southern and some of the eastern parts of Juhar ad-Dik, we understood pretty quickly that the houses would not be left standing … At a certain point we understood it was a pattern: you leave a house and the house is gone; after two or three houses you figure out that there’s a pattern. The D9 comes and flattens it.
This is the Dahiya doctrine in action, named after the Beirut neighbourhood which Israel turned into rubble in 2006. According to Gabi Siboni from the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, the IDF needs
to act immediately, decisively, and with force that is disproportionate to the enemy’s actions and the threat it poses. Such a response aims at inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes. The strike must be carried out as quickly as possible, and must prioritise damaging assets over seeking out each and every launcher.
According to the 2009 Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the essence of the doctrine was ‘widespread destruction as a means of deterrence’. Soldiers talk of the ‘day after’ effect:
Part of the [military] engineering rationale, of what’s called ‘the day after’ – I don’t know if that’s the term that’s published – is that when we blow up and flatten the area, we can in effect sterilise it. Throughout the period of combat, one keeps in mind that there is this thing called ‘the day after’, which is: the day we leave [the Gaza Strip], the more [areas] left wide open and as ‘clean’ as possible the better. One decides on a certain line – during the days after Operation Cast Lead it was 300 metres from the fence – and this area is levelled, flattened. Doesn’t matter if there are groves there, doesn’t matter if there are houses, doesn’t matter if there is a gas station – it’s all flattened because we are at war, so we are allowed to. You can justify anything you do during wartime … Everything suddenly sounds reasonable even though it isn’t really reasonable. We had a few D9s in our battalion and I can attest that the D9s alone destroyed hundreds of structures. It was in the debriefing. There were a few more structures that we blew up in the end. Obviously there were all kinds of other things, but the D9 was the main tool, it doesn’t stop working. Anything that looks suspicious, whether it’s just in order to clear a path, whether it’s some other thing, it takes it down. That’s the mission.
Another soldier describes the last hour before a ceasefire:
There was a humanitarian ceasefire that went into effect at 6 a.m. I remember they told us at 5.15: ‘Look, we’re going to put on a show.’ It was amazing, the air force’s precision. The first shell struck at exactly quarter past five and the last one struck at 5.59 and 59 seconds. It was crazy. Fire, non-stop shelling of [a] neighbourhood [east of Beit Hanoun] … Non-stop. Just non-stop. The entire Beit Hanoun compound in ruins. Q: When you saw this neighbourhood on your way out, what did you see? A: When we left it was still intact. We were sent out of Beit Hanoun ahead of the ceasefire, ahead of the air force strikes. Q: And when you went back in [after the air strikes], what did you see of that neighbourhood? A: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Like the opening scene in The Pianist. There’s that famous photo that they always show on trips to Poland that shows Warsaw before the war and Warsaw after the Second World War. The photo shows the heart of Warsaw and it’s this classy European city, and then they show it at the end of the war. They show the exact same neighbourhood, only it has just one house left standing, and the rest is just ruins. That’s what it looked like.
Neve Gordon is the author of Israel’s Occupation as well as ‘The Human Right to Dominate‘ (co-authored with Nicola Perugini, forthcoming June 2015).
This article originally ran in the London Review of Books.It rained in New York last May 6, and music completists felt the downpour the heaviest. New albums from James Blake, Skepta, Death Grips, Anohni, and Kaytranada all came at once, a spread of vivid artists who had risen from self-contained music pockets as captains of focussed styles and subcultures. “Probable Depths” arrived more quietly that same day, and the cassette might have been lost in the spring shower if it hadn’t been for the loyal followers of Nandi Rose Plunkett, a singer and producer known as Half Waif. College-radio jocks and B-side bloggers picked up “Turn Me Around,” the record’s agile second single, and dished out praise that the ethereal pop song wholly deserved but was too opaque to earn more widely; like Plunkett’s path to performance, the track is a study of pivots. A mournful choral intro gives way to a hand-clap bounce fit for a Rihanna song—“I don’t even know what I’m here for,” Plunkett sings, never letting on where “here” may be.
The twenty-eight-year-old has rarely played it straight. The daughter of an Indian refugee from Uganda and an Irish-American, she grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, versed in traditional bhajans and Celtic pop. As a music major at Kenyon College, she inhaled varied forms—musical theatre, classical, folk, world music—and mastered few, instead working through her own experiments with upstart bands and nursing solo material by night. Her ideas jelled best with Evan Stephens Hall, and she joined his band Pinegrove. The group made their way to northern New Jersey after graduation, and became immersed in a close-knit music community that had produced bands like Ducktails and Real Estate—after crashing in Hall’s childhood bedroom for a summer, Plunkett found the confidence to pipe up on her own once again.
With Pinegrove, Plunkett helps to broaden the band’s blooming alt-country rooted deep in the New Jersey woodlands; as Half Waif, she makes room for globe-twirling prism pop in search of a home. At Silent Barn on April 6, she’ll play songs from “form/a,” the latest Half Waif EP (which she produced herself), swaying between the electronic bass of new tracks like “Night Heat” and the light step of “Turn Me Around,” nudging everyone near her into motion. ♦For those who were surprised that Ed Reed didn't end up as an assistant coach for the Baltimore Ravens, prepare yourselves for an even bigger shock.
Reed's son is a New England Patriots fan. Yes, the same team that rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Ravens' chief antagonist in the postseason.
This revelation came when Reed was explaining how his family wasn't initially excited about him joining the Buffalo Bills as their defensive backs coach last week.
"My son, he wasn't for it at first. He's actually a Patriots fan," Reed said on Showtime's "Inside the NFL" Tuesday night. "So I was like, 'Coach [Rex Ryan], we got to sell my son a little bit more, man. You got to get him some gear.' And he was like, 'He can get whatever he wants.'"
This will be baffling for many Ravens fans because Reed is such a popular figure in Baltimore, even to this day. It was only three years ago when Reed was celebrating a Super Bowl triumph with the Ravens. He retired as a Raven last year, and was inducted into the team's Ring of Honor in November.
But let's not forget that Reed and Patriots coach Bill Belichick have always had a bromance. During Super Bowl week, Reed said he could envision playing for the Patriots. A few years ago, Tom Brady joked that Belichick wanted to adopt Reed and change his name to "Ed Belichick." Maybe the respect for the Patriots is genetic.
So, no one can fault Reed's son for cheering for whichever team he wants. It would just be easier for Ravens fans if he had chosen the Jacksonville Jaguars.ISTANBUL, Oct 2 (Reuters) - The remains of former Turkish President Turgut Ozal are to be exhumed from his grave in Istanbul on Tuesday on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspicions of foul play in his death 19 years ago.
Mechanical diggers arrived at his tomb within a towering mausoleum in a cemetery on the European side of Turkey's largest city under the supervision of a prosecutor-led team including forensic experts, television footage showed.
After Ozal's death, relatives and associates said he was poisoned, and forensic teams will investigate whether any poisonous substances are present in the remains.
Ozal, the eighth president of the Turkish Republic, died of heart failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65 and while in office.
Viewed as a visionary who helped shape modern Turkey with free market economic policies, Ozal also gave firm support for the West, supporting the U.S.-led coalition which expelled Iraq from Kuwait in 1991.
Prosecutors decided two weeks ago that Ozal's remains should be exhumed and another autopsy held after a state supervisory board, acting on the order of President Abdullah Gul, produced a report in June voicing suspicions about the death.
The report was ordered in response to the suspicions of Ozal's family and friends about his death and the subsequent investigation. However, members of Ozal's family had been opposed to exhuming his remains.
After a period of military rule following a 1980 coup, Ozal dominated Turkish politics during his period as prime minister from 1983-89 and parliament then elected him president.
While prime minister, Ozal survived an assassination attempt by a right-wing gunman in 1988 when he was shot at a party congress, suffering a wounded finger. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Dan Lalor)Here's the 2014 update from the Center for Applied Rationality, an organisation who among its other goals, aims to improve the capabilities of effective altruists.
On the 2014 costs, their Executive Director Anna says:
Our total expenditures in 2014 came up about $840k... We ran 9 workshops in 2014, which generated about $435k in revenue, but also $210k in non-staff costs... Our basic operating expenses from 2014 were fairly similar to 2013: a total of about $42k/month... SPARC 2014’s non-staff costs came to $62k, and were covered by Dropbox, Quixey, and MIRI... Alumni reunion: $34k income; $38k non-staff costs (for ~100 participants)...Hamming: $3.6k revenue; $3k non-staff costs... Assisting thinking: $2.1k revenue; $3.2k non-staff costs... Attention: $3.3k revenue; $2.7k non-staff costs... Epistemic Rationality for Effective Altruists: $5k revenue; $3k costs
On achivements:
"Our brand perception improved significantly in 2014, which matters because it leads to companies being willing to pay for workshop attendance. We were covered in Fast Company -- twice -- the Wall Street Journal, and The Reasoner. Other mentions include Forbes, Big Think, Boing Boing, and Lifehacker. We’ve also had some interest in potential training for tech companies. Our curriculum is gaining a second tier in the form of alumni workshops.
On ongoing aims:
"CFAR seems to many of us to be among the efforts most worth investing in. This isn’t because our present workshops are all that great. Rather, it is because, in terms of “saving throws” one can buy for a humanity that may be navigating tricky situations in an unknown future, improvements to thinking skill seem to be one of the strongest and most robust. And we suspect that CFAR is a promising kernel from which to help with that effort.
As noted, we aim in 2015 to get all the way to a “full prototype” -- a point from which we are actually visibly helping in the aimed-for way. This will be a tricky spot to get to. Our experience slowly coming to grips with epistemic rationality is probably more rule than the exception, and I suspect we’ll run into a number of curve balls on path to the prototype."A torrent of headlines have reported that the United States intelligence community reached the bleak determination that no amount of pressure will convince Kim Jong Un to disarm. Earlier this month, a Russian lawmaker said North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile which it believes can reach the west coast of the United States.
For months, news outlets have faithfully covered the latest updates on Kim Jong Un and North Korea’s continued nuclear tests. While it is critical for the public to be made aware of these developments, we must not let it distract from the many other ongoing issues impacting national security. The Section 232 probe into the national security impact of steel imports is one such urgent matter that has not received the attention it deserves.
ADVERTISEMENT
The national security of the United States is currently at risk due to a flood of foreign steel imports. Our country has long been affected by the actions of governments in countries like China, Russia and others who subsidize their steel manufacturers and allow them to dump low cost supply into our nation. This has contributed to a massive global steel overcapacity and driven prices on the global steel market down to a point where American manufacturers cannot compete.
There is no question that the surge in steel imports has contributed to the decline of the American steel industry. Imports have caused the demise of manufacturers across the country, and impacted thousands of jobs for hardworking Americans as a result. More than 14,000 steel industry jobs were lost in 2015 and 2016 alone, and 48,000 have been eliminated since 2000. A recent report shows that steel imports are up 27 percent in August, illustrating that they are not slowing their course.
These figures will not improve on their own and will only worsen unless action is taken to address the ongoing steel import crisis. President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE’s frequent promises to prioritize American jobs and support at-risk industries like steel gave many hope that these trends would finally be reversed, but President Trump’s lack of action thus far has been troubling.
What’s even more concerning, however, is the impact steel imports have on the security of our nation. As steel factories close in the United States, the military and some of our most vital industries become increasingly reliant on foreign suppliers. This, in turn, compromises our ability to source steel rapidly in a crisis and puts our security in the hands of other countries by subjecting us to their potential supply disruptions, quality control issues and price gouging.
It is dangerous to do nothing as our global competitors take obvious steps to push us completely out of the steel production market that is so critical to our nation’s defense. Eliminating our ability to source steel necessary for armor, ships, tanks and other weapons jeopardizes our military’s ability to keep Americans safe.
Moreover, the loss of steelmaking capacity risks our ability to support our nation’s infrastructure. To illustrate the impact, because of plant closures, there remains just a single domestic steel manufacturer capable of making quality grain-oriented electrical steel that is essential for transmission and distribution energy transformers.
---
MORE STORIES FROM THE HILL
---
Relying on foreign steel becomes a critical concern when the United States needs to increase military production in order to meet the demands of a current or impending conflict. Make no mistake, if we lose our domestic steelmaking capacity, we will be dependent on potentially hostile foreign governments to make the steel necessary for our military equipment and homeland infrastructure.
While I applaud the administration’s initiation of the Section 232 probe into whether foreign steel imports threaten U.S. security, the results have been delayed multiple times and President Trump recently said that his administration will wait to address Section 232.
As a retired general in the U.S. Army, I find the administration’s lack of urgency on this matter to be extremely concerning. In an increasingly unpredictable and volatile global climate, we cannot afford to sit idly on this issue. With each passing day, bad actors in trade strengthen their grip on the global steel market, and further increase the risk of failure to source steel in a crisis.
I urge President Trump and the administration to recognize steel imports as the serious national security threat that they are, and I ask that he take swift and decisive action to protect the American people and our vital steelmaking capacity.
Brigadier General John Adams retired from the U.S. Army in 2007. His final assignment was as deputy United States military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military committee. He is the author of “Remaking American Security” and the president of Guardian Six Consulting.A rendering of the Stad Ship Tunnel in Norway. Norwegian Coastal Administration Stretching over 15 miles, Norway's Lærdal Tunnel has been the longest road tunnel in the world since it was built in the 1990s.
Now, the country will construct the world's first tunnel for ships — which will get between 70 and 120 vessels per day.
As noted by BBC News, the tunnel started gaining public support in the 1980s, and the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) has since embarked on several feasibility studies to see how it could come to fruition.
In March, Terje Andreassen, the tunnel's project manager, told Business Insider that the NCA submitted its findings to Norway's Department of Transport. The project got official approval in April. It will be financed by the Norwegian Parliament, which has already designated approximately $117 million ($1 billion NOK) for the NCA's research.
Construction will likely start in 2019, and the tunnel is expected to open in 2023, Andreassen told the AP.
The NCA worked with Snøhetta, an Oslo-based architecture firm, to create renderings of what the tunnel will look like. Check them out below.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201612/2847/1155968404_5232370638001_5232347564001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump allies try to freeze recount efforts Entities aligned with the president-elect file lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to halt Jill Stein's push for recounts.
Allies of Donald Trump are trying to freeze recount efforts in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states in which the president-elect narrowly beat Hillary Clinton — as they seek to preserve the legitimacy of Trump’s win.
A team of Trump attorneys filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania late Thursday requesting a dismissal of Green Party nominee Jill Stein’s recount effort, arguing that she lacks a valid claim and merely “alleges speculative illegality.”
Story Continued Below
On Friday morning, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit to stop the recount there, a move that came hours after Trump attorneys had filed a complaint to block the proceedings.
And soon after, a pro-Trump super PAC filed suit in Wisconsin, insisting Stein’s recount push could “unjustifiably cast doubt upon the legitimacy of President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s victory.”
While there’s no indication of coordination among the pro-Trump entities and the Republican state attorney general, they all filed lawsuits against Stein’s recount efforts within 24 hours or so. Stein’s campaign has led the recount charge, but it wasn’t until the Clinton campaign joined the effort that it really gained traction nationwide.
It’s highly unlikely that Clinton could come out victorious after recounts in the three states, but the renewed focus on America’s election systems and Election Day results come as Clinton’s popular vote lead has soared beyond 2.5 million.
It also comes just hours after Trump and Clinton aides convened at Harvard University on Thursday, throwing fresh jabs at one another over who won and who lost and how.
Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, said Thursday that they don’t expect a new result and didn’t plan to pursue a recount, but since Stein chose to do so, “We have to be at the table to make sure it’s done right, that it’s done fairly.”
Trump all but ignored Stein — during the campaign and after the election — until Clinton’s campaign breathed life into the recount effort.
Trump and his transition team have trashed Stein’s push as a frivolous fundraising scheme, but the president-elect hasn’t devoted any attention to the recount publicly since he launched a series of tweets this week citing Clinton’s concession comments and declaring himself — without evidence — the winner of the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
In his lawsuit filed on Friday, Schuette, who served as chairman of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign before throwing his support behind Trump, said Stein’s recount effort is without merit. “Michigan voters rejected Stein’s candidacy by massive margins, but her refusal to accept that state-verified result poses an expensive and risky threat to hard-working taxpayers and abuses the intent of Michigan law,” he said.
The state attorney general called it “inexcusable for Stein to put Michigan voters at risk of paying millions and potentially losing their voice in the Electoral College in the process.”
In a statement released by her campaign, Stein cast Schuette’s move specifically as a “politically motivated attempt” to side with Trump, dismissing it as “party politics that needlessly delays what should be a routine verification of the democratic process.”
“Our democracy allows for recounts to ensure the accuracy and security of elections, and today’s move by the Attorney General is yet another frivolous attempt to obstruct this legal process,” she said. “In an election already tainted by suspicion, some coming from Donald Trump himself, verifying the vote is a common-sense procedure that would put all concerns around voter disenfranchisement to rest.”
Schuette’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of the state, asks the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to reject Stein’s recount request on the grounds that Stein has acknowledged she has no evidence that fraud or widespread errors were committed. He also filed an emergency motion with the state Supreme Court to skip the Court of Appeals for immediate consideration.
It states that Stein garnered fewer than 52,000 of the 4.7 million votes for president cast in Michigan, noting that a recount won’t change the end result.
On Friday evening Trump filed another lawsuit against the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to stop the recount there.
“Although Stein had the ability to request a recount from the moment the polls closed on November 9, 2016, she waited an additional three weeks — until the last possible minute under Michigan law — to do so,” it says. “And she demanded a hand recount, a process that cannot possibly be completed in time for Michigan to guarantee that its votes will be counted in the Electoral College, and a process that will cost Michigan taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Indeed, Stein filed a petition with the Board of Canvassers on Wednesday, requesting a manual recount of every vote, an effort that was expected to begin on Friday. Her campaign paid the nearly $1 million filing fee in full.
Schuette’s suit refers to her request as “dilatory and frivolous,” and his office argues Stein’s campaign will pay less than $800,000 for the recount, leaving taxpayers to cover the remainder of a bottom line that could balloon to $5 million.
In another development in Michigan, the Board of State Canvassers deadlocked 2-2 on Friday on a separate objection from Trump’s lawyers to Stein’s recount effort. Because of the tied vote, a hand recount could theoretically begin in the state on late Tuesday or early Wednesday, but Schuette’s lawsuit throws that into question.
On Friday, Stein’s lead recount lawyer, Matthew Brinckerhoff, also pushed back against the pro-Trump super PAC lawsuit in Wisconsin, saying they would fight the effort to prevent a recount.
“The Jill Stein Campaign plans to intervene and join the Wisconsin Elections Commission in defending the recount. Citizens in Wisconsin and across the country have made it clear that they want a recount and deserve to see this process through to ensure integrity in the vote,” Brinckerhoff said in a statement.
Later on Friday, a court ruled against the super PAC's request to immediately stop the Wisconsin recount, but allowed the lawsuit to go forward.
Stein has raised more than $7 million in a matter of days to fund the recount endeavors and taken advantage of opportunities to get into the national spotlight with interviews with Vanity Fair and TV networks, in addition to shows like “The View” and Bloomberg’s “With All Due Respect.”
In an op-ed published Thursday in USA Today, Stein argued, “in the age of computerized voting machines and unprecedented corporate influence in our elections, our electoral system is under increasing threat.”
Even so, she explained that her aim isn’t to change the election results but rather “ensure the integrity and accuracy of the vote.”
“All Americans, regardless of party, deserve to know that this and every election is fair and that the vote is verified,” she wrote.The impact of America’s punishment policies is often measured in numbers: there are now 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons; one in a hundred and fifteen adults is confined behind bars; our inmate population is 4 times larger than it was in 1980. We Are Witnesses, a collection of short videos, offers a very different sort of calculation: the human cost of locking up so many citizens for so many years. The project comprises 19 videos, each between two and six minutes long. Taken together, they present a rare 360-degree portrait of the state of crime and punishment in the United States.
We Are Witnesses eschews politicians and professors in favor of other kinds of experts: people who have had firsthand experience with the criminal justice system. Two police officers, a prison guard, two judges, two parents of a murder victim, four ex-prisoners—each one stares straight at the camera, recounting his or her story. Created and produced by The Marshall Project, a newsroom covering the criminal justice system, We Are Witnesses delivers first-person testimonials that are intimate, honest, and revelatory.
Erica Garner remembers arriving at the scene of the death of her father, Eric, seeing police tape and news trucks. Later, she saw cell-phone-video footage of police officers pinning her father to a sidewalk. “I was just yelling at the screen, like, ‘Get off of him! Stop it!’ ” she says. “My head was spinning. I was hot. Throwing up. That’s how we found out.” Tyrrell Muhammad recounts how he spent so many days in solitary confinement, staring at the walls of his cell, that, eventually, he began to see “figurines” in the paint patterns that “look like Abraham Lincoln.” “Then you’re saying to yourself, ‘That’s not Abraham Lincoln. Stop it. Cut it out,’” he says. “You’re battling yourself for your sanity. And it’s a hell of a battle."
In other videos, insiders detail how the system works—and how it doesn’t. A veteran judge describes a day in his courtroom: “You hear the district attorney make their pitch; you hear the defense attorney make their pitch; and then, within literally a minute, you basically have to make up your mind so that you can move on to the next case.” A sense of complacency has long infected our justice system, and We Are Witnesses strives to extinguish it by injecting new insights into the public debate. Among them is the one suggested by the project’s name. These testimonials inevitably prompt questions of culpability—as well as the uncomfortable realization that the “we” in We Are Witnesses may apply not only to the individuals speaking here but to us all.
Jennifer Gonnerman
Ajudge humbly speaks of the deep pride he took from putting on his robe every morning. Parents of a slain young man lament the light sentence handed to their son's killer. A stabbing victim speaks compassionately about his attackers. An incarcerated mother relives saying goodbye to her young daughter.
We Are Witnesses is a video series about the millions of Americans whose lives are entwined in our criminal justice system. It is about the soul-destroying court bureaucracy, the unending trauma of being a crime victim, the pain of a parent (whether the child is criminal or crime victim), the misunderstood and the mistreated mentally ill. We Are Witnesses reveals a system that takes a toll on everyone it touches — guards, police, the incarcerated, crime victims, dads, moms, prosecutors, defenders, judges and kids — but also demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
The stories of the witnesses do not fit into a neat ideological framework. We watch the video of Eric Garner being manhandled by police, nightstick against his throat, and share the pain of his daughter Erica as she recounts his death. But then we hear retired Officer Steve Osborne, who watches the same video, and sees a different story. The trauma of being an incarcerated juvenile on Riker’s Island is described by Ismael Nazario and Venida Browder, whose son Kalief was beaten by both guards and juveniles. And we also hear from Corrections Officer Tareaphe Richards, who reflects on the terrors and dangers of being a guard at Rikers and his belief that he needs to defend himself constantly. Who is right? Whose reality fits more neatly into our world-view?
We Are Witnesses was filmed in a Manhattan studio under the direction of Jenny Carchman, and is being distributed by The Marshall Project, Participant Media, and Conde Nast Entertainment. The witnesses sat against a plain backdrop and were asked to look into the camera and simply tell their stories. Their answers touch on some of the most elemental questions about the human psyche. How do people recover from trauma? How do they endure pain — of violence, injustice or loss of a loved one — and not succumb to anger and despair? How do they rebuild their lives?
In creating We Are Witnesses, I wanted to expose the profound injustices and inefficiencies in our system of crime and punishment. As the witnesses reveal themselves, the films become more a celebration of the strength of everyday men and women. My hope is that We Are Witnesses will make us reexamine the toll of mass incarceration, while also honoring how those who encounter the system retain their dignity.
Neil Barsky
Director and Producer Jenny Carchman Executive Producer Neil Barsky Dawn Ostroff David Remnick Co-Executive Producer Participant Media Producer Lindsey Megrue Editor Seth Bomse Additional Editor Johnny Bassett Associate Producer Marley Cogan Director of Photography David Jacobson Music Scott Morgan Graphics Kook Ewo and Ronan Guitton Production Associate Davidson Barsky Assistant Editor Anne-Laure D'hooghe Production Sound Michael Moote Camera Assistant Kyle Sather Additional Camera Assistant Matt Degreff Gaffer TJ Alston Key Grip Jeff Holman Swing Jordan Bell Production Assistant Ruth Lichtman Post Production Sound Engineer Devin Emke Colorist Maria Mendoza Post Production Services Nigel Kettle, Park Avenue Post Legal Stephen Kiehl, Covington & Burling LLP For Condé Nast Entertainment: Editor Shandor Garrison For The Marshall Project: Project Manager Ruth Baldwin Designer/Developer Andy Rossback Additional Development Gabe Isman Additional Design Alex TatusianState Agency Game Farming Is Not Compatible with Ecosystem Integrity
With the delisting of wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act, management of wolves has been turned back to the individual states where wolves occur. In most of these states, we see state agencies adopting policies that treat wolves as persona no grata, rather than a valued member of their wildlife heritage. Nowhere do I see any attempt by these state agencies to educate hunters and the general public about the ecological benefits of predators. Nor is there any attempt to consider the social ecology of wolves and/or other predators in management policies. Wolves, like all predators, are seen as a “problem” rather than as a valuable asset to these states.
In recent years state agencies have increasingly adopted policies that are skewed towards preserving opportunities for recreational killing rather than preserving ecological integrity. State agencies charged with wildlife management are solidifying their perceived role as game farmers. Note the use of “harvest” as a euphemism for killing. Their primary management philosophy and policies are geared towards treating wildlife as a “resource” to kill. They tend to see their roles as facilitators that legalize the destruction of ecological integrity, rather than agencies dedicated to promoting a land ethic and a responsible wildlife ethic.
Want proof? Just look at the abusive and regressive policies states have adopted to “manage” (persecute) wolves and other predators.
Idaho Fish and Game, which already had an aggressive wolf killing program, has just announced that it will transfer money from coyote killing to pay trappers to kill more wolves in the state so it can presumably increase elk and deer numbers.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) which many had hoped might be a bit more progressive in its predator attitudes, supports new regulations that will expand the wolf killing season, number of tags (killing permits), and reduces the license fee (killing fee) charged to out of state hunters who want to shoot wolves.
Wyoming is even more regressive. Wolves are considered “predators” with no closed season in many parts of the state.
Alaska, perhaps displaying the ultimate in 19th Century attitudes that seem to guide state Game and Fish predator policies, already has extremely malicious policies towards wolves, and is now attempting to expand wolf killing even in national parks and wildlife refuges (it is already legal to hunt and trap in many national parks and refuges). For instance the Alaska Fish and Game is proposing [aerial?]-gunning of wolves in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and wants to extend the hunting/trapping season on wolves in Lake Clark National Park, Katmai National Park, and Aniakchak National Preserve until June, long after pups have been born. Similar persecution of wolves to one degree or another is occurring in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, which have been given management authority for wolves in those states.
Although some states like Montana changed their name from “game” to wildlife, their attitudes and policies have not changed to reflect any greater enlightenment towards predators.
Montana recently increased the number of mountain lions that can be killed in some parts of the state to reduce predation on elk.
South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is on a vendetta against a newly established mountain lion population in that state, and greatly increased mountain lion kill in a small and recently established population of these animals.
The Wyoming Game and Fish is almost salivating at the prospect of grizzly delisting so hunters can kill “trophy” grizzly bears.
I could give more examples of |
by having druids construct up to five tombs (or barrows), which are weak but low cost buildings. Rather than simply generating favor like Egyptian monuments or Chinese gardens, Celts can store up to 100 Gold in each tomb which in turn generates favor. The more gold you store, the faster your favor trickle. Gold can be transferred in and out of the tombs, depending on where you need it most. If a tomb storing gold gets destroyed, your gold will return to you. Storing gold in tombs prevents it from being stolen by the Thief god power.
Heroes
The primary Celtic heroes are called Chieftains. You initially can only create one, but for each Town Center you construct, you will be granted additional Chieftains (up to four), each one stronger than the previous ones. Like pharaohs, Chieftains can have a great variety of names; some of them are quite comical. The other hero available after the Classical Age is the Druid. Druids are capable of healing units and have a ranged attack. Although Druids are not the designated Celt scouts (the Hunter moves faster and has more LOS), they are capable of constructing rune stones, which are cheaper than Egyptian Obelisks but have less HP and LOS.
08/10/2016: But what makes Druids distinguishable from Priests and Monks is their ability to revive human soldiers. All human soldiers come with a revival bar similar to the Atlantean Automaton and Druids have 33 seconds to revive a soldier before it dies for good. Once revived, a soldiers only has about 5% of its health restored so they will also need to be healed. Druids cannot revive hunters, heroes or myth units.
Starting Conditions
The Celts start with a Town Center and four three Hunters but will have no other units to accompany them, so you will have to designate one of your starting Hunters as your scout. The starting Celtic resources are 250 Food, 150 Wood and 250 Gold.
Other Attributes
Instead of regular villagers, Celts have units called Hunters who move, build and gather resources two times faster than the average villager (but still slower than the Atlantean citizen) but are also more expensive and take up 2 population slots. What’s more interesting is that Hunters are much better at fighting and have a small bonus against cavalry and scouts, so they can act as light counter cavalry. Although Hunters are the primary means of gathering resources, all infantry and archer units can gather resources, meaning fewer units will be idle while you play as the Celts. However, infantry and archers gather resources 30% slower than regular villagers. Similar to the Atlanteans, some god powers can be used multiple times. Celt walls cost wood instead of gold.
Gods
Archaic Age
Teutates
Role: God of the People War and Wealth
God Power: Reprisal (1 cast) Great Banquet (4 casts)
Grants you one use of the last god power cast by your enemy All the player's technologies are reduced in price for the duration of this god power. The discount increases if saved for later ages (5% in Archaic, 10% in Classical, 20% in Heroic and 40% in Mythic). While in effect, only one technology can be researched per building. After 10 seconds, the original costs are restored. Cooldown time 3 minutes.
Focus: Economy
Bonuses:
Wall connectors can be upgraded to fire arrows
All economical improvements available in the archaic age
Cavalry units generate gold when fighting at a rate of 0.5 units per second.
All human units return part of their cost upon death (this only occurs after the dead units disappears)
God powers last 10 5 seconds longer
Improvement: Ale Vat
Reduces age advancement time and god power cooldown time by 10% Infantry and Archer units gather resources 10% faster
Wonder: Shrine of Brighid Emain Macha
Taranas
Role: God of Thunder
God Power: Wildfire (3 cast)
Strikes the ground with lightning to create an impenetrable wall of fire that stretches in the direction of your choice. After 30 seconds, the wall disappears. Cooldown time 4 minutes.
Focus: Buildings
Bonuses:
Town Centers fire chain lightning attacks instead of arrows
Promontory forts can be built in the Classical Age
Druids move faster and can heal buildings
Improvement: Wicker Work
Buildings cause area damage when destroyed
Wonder: Hill of Tara Wicker Man
Hesos
Role: God of the Willow
God Power: Dense Fog (2 cast)
Global god power that reduces the LOS of enemy units to 1 meter for 90 60 seconds. Cooldown time 3 minutes.
Focus: Infantry & Favor
Bonuses:
Infantry do 5% more double damage vs heroes
Infantry gradually have more attack as their HP lowers.
Druids can resurrect fallen soldiers
Tombs generate favor 10% faster.
Ramming and Siege Venetti available in Classical Age but have 25% less HP.
Improvement: Hanging Tree
Infantry may generate favor when killing enemy units Reduces age advancement time and god power cooldown time by 10%
Wonder: Well of Segais
Classical Age
Boann
Role: Goddess of Rivers the Boyne River
God Power: Bog (cast 4) Salmon Pool (cast 2)
Select areas on the map that cause enemy units to move considerably slower if they pass through it. The bogs remain on the map for 3 minutes. Cooldown time: 2 minutes. Select an open area to permanently turn the terrain into a private small pool with two schools of salmon. Docks can be built at the water's edge. Can also be used to create obstacles to slow down enemy armies. Cooldown time: 3 minutes.
Focus: Unit Speed
Myth Unit: Kelpie
Carnivorous horse that can travel on both land and water
Technology
Well of Wisdom: human units move 12% faster
Tide Masters: ships move 10% faster
Belenus
Role: God of light
God Power: Great Banquet Relocation (2 casts)
Boost your favor generating rate and that of your allies for a minute 30 seconds</strike> Select a friendly or enemy building within your LOS to have Belenus move it elsewhere. Cooldown time: 5 minutes.
Focus: Infantry
Myth Unit: Will O’ the Wisp
Cheap myth scout that cannot attack but has great speed and LOS.
Techs
Battle Scars: infantry do 10% more damage to other infantry
Hearth: Eliminates the cost of constructing houses
Gold Torc: Gargokladioi have 15% more HP
Cernunnos
Role: God of the forest, animals and fertility
God Power: Population Boom (2 casts) Sinkhole Sleuth (3 casts)
Duplicates your hunters (max 3 per cast) Select one friendly or enemy building, then select another area in your LOS to move it there. Summons four Bears that will attack villagers on sight. They are similar to regular Brown Bears but slightly more powerful. They do provide food when killed so they may be saved for the player's own economy. Cooldown time: 3 minutes.
Focus: Hunters
Myth Unit: Buar Sidhe
Fairy cow bull that attacks with horns (special attack) and can summon cattle at the cost of favor
Techs:
Goat Cheese: herd animals fatten up more (+100) and faster
Leather Rucksack: hunters move 20% faster and gather gold faster can carry +10 gold
Thatched Roof: hunters train 15% faster
Heroic
Epona
Role: Goddess of horses
God Power: Rust ( 2 3 cast)
Select enemy units to remove their armory upgrades for 90 seconds. Cooldown time: 4 minutes.
Focus: Cavalry
Myth unit: Dullahan
Headless horsemen that can hurl their flaming heads before charging in battle
Techs:
Terret Ring: Cidainhs and the Chariot Chieftain have +30% hack armor
Harness Plate: Immunizes cavalry, Kelpies and Dullahans from myth unit special attacks and some god powers
Myth Building: Naval Market (Port) that allows fishing ship to trade from the dock
Arawn
Role: God of the Otherworld and Revenge
God Power: Typhus (3 casts) Outbreak (2 cast)
Select some of your soldiers to taint their blood, causing them to do splash damage upon death Select friendly (9 to 10) or enemy units (5 to 6) to infect them with a disease that quickly drain their health. When they die, their blood spreads and any unit within range get infected themselves. After 70 seconds, the outbreak ends. Can be countered by keeping infected units away from healthy units or by continuously healing them until the god power ends. Has a reduced effect on villagers (3 to 4), does not affect heroes. Cooldown time: 3 minutes.
Focus: Archers and Myth Units
Myth Unit: Gwyllgi
Half skeleton hellhounds with a flaming ranged attack and a howl strong enough to knock away melee attackers
Techs:
Cremation: increase archer hack armor and pierce armor by 10%
Funeral Feast: Chieftains heal allied units upon death
Hounds of Annwn: increases myth unit special attack damage by 50% and decreases charging rate by 25% (including Titan)
Dian Cecht
Role: God of Healing and Medicine
God Power: Resurgence (2 casts) Metallize (2 casts)
Resurrects fallen human soldiers (max 10) and myth units (max 2) Select friendly buildings to give them 99% hack, pierce and crush armor for 50 seconds. Cooldown time: 3 minutes.
Focus: Druids
Myth Unit: Beithir
Appearing like a cross between an eel, a grass snake and a crocodile, these powerful beasts can be brought back to life if your heroes return the head to its body in time.
Techs:
365 Herbs: significantly increases healing rate of druids and increases damage multiplier against myth units by 3
Gundestrup Cauldron: Reduces food, wood and gold cost of temple units by 10% and favor cost by 30%
Golden Sickle: druids can empower buildings (similar to Ra’s priests) halves the time it takes for druids to resurrect human soldiers.
Mythic Age
Lugh
Role: God of the Sun and Arts Skills
God Power: Overgrow ( 2 1 cast)
Select enemy buildings to overrun them with giant weeds that make them unable to attack, train units, research improvements or even grant population until villagers cut them down
Focus: Promontory Fort Units
Myth Unit:
Lou Carcolh: slow but powerful dragon snail that burns units with a fire breath then swallows them whole spits a burning sticky slime to damage and immobilize foes.
Tech:
Bloodthirsty Spear: Gailaiche do 20% more damage
Lugh’s Fort: Promontory Fort units have +10% HP and Hack Armor
Magic Stone Ball: Iasotaes do x3 damage to myth units
Harvest Fair: provides a trickle of food, wood and gold (1 per second each)
The Dagda
Role: Father God of the Earth, Magic and Wisdom
God Power: Stampede (1 cast)
Causes a herd of animals to trample enemy buildings and units, also deals great damage to farms
Focus: Woad Raiders and Ships
Myth Units:
Ogre: club wielding giant that can bite off the heads of enemy human units, then throws the carcass to damage anything in its path.
Dobhar Chu: the king of otters, this naval myth unit can summon its mate upon death
Techs:
Undry: reduces the food cost of your units by 20%
Massive Club Head: Woad Raiders, Ogres and Ramming Venetti do 2x damage to buildings
Massive Club Handle: Human units regenerate (2.0 HP/second when idle).
Brighid
Role: Goddess of poetry and crafts
God Power: Shapeshifter (3 cast)
Temporarily turns day into night and transform your chieftain into the Pooka, a powerful myth hero. He will return to his former self after 3 minutes. Cooldown time: 3 minutes.
Focus: Heroes and Fairies
Myth Unit: Fairy
Powerful enchantress that can convert enemy units into goats
Techs:
Leanan Sidhe: Increases Fairy ranged attack by 50% and allows them to regenerate HP when damaging units
Far Darrig: Fairies have +4 attack and special attack range, +4 LOS and special attack turns enemies into cattle instead of goats
Dual Shots: archers and archer chieftains fire two projectiles instead of one
Averni Shield: Heroes have +30% pierce armor
Celtic Titan: Balor, the one-eyed giant demon
All three major gods can research Song of the Bard in the heroic age, which reduces the recharging rate of Carnyx Bearers.
Bonus information:
Houses grant 10 population cap each and are based on roundhouses
Hunters build silos to drop off food and wood as well as banks to drop off gold (may swap this idea with the Roman camps).
Training Camps are built in the classical age and train your counter units
Gargokladioi (counter infantry)
Sotaroas (counter archer)
Cidainh (chariot counter cavalry)
Woad Raider (tall Heroic Age unit that acts like a weaker War Elephant)
Promontory Forts are the Celtic fortresses and train your elite units
Gaelaiche (infantry)
Iaosatae (slinger archer)
Noble (Cavalry)
Stone Thrower (ranged siege)
Battering Ram (similar to Portable Ram but bigger and carried by 5 units)
Town Centers train Hunters, Chieftains, Druids and Carnyx Bearers (who boost morale in combat)
Markets have merchants instead of caravans, which are essentially carts pulled by two oxes. They move slower than caravans but accumulate much more gold mule caravans, which are essentially repaints of the donkey caravans.
Dock trains fishings ships, transport ships, Veneti, Ramming Veneti and Siege Veneti
Back up ideas in case some of the other ones get too much negativity:
Alternate Cernunnos God Power
Sleuth/Bear Attack (3 casts): summons 5 bears. They behave like regular bears as they will attack villagers that wander too close but are stronger. Food can also be gathered from there but they don't provide as much. Cooldown time 4 minutes.
Alternate God Power for Hesos
Ritual (2 casts): lowers the costs of improvements for a minute but only allows one improvement to be researched per building (?). The reduction cost depends on the age you're in: 10% in Archaic, 20% in Classical, 30% in Heroic, 40% in Mythic.
Other God Power ideas
Eye of Balor: summons a giant eye that rotates and opens randomly. Anything within its sight, friend or foe, becomes petrified. A type of Russian Roulette God Power.
Seal / Stop Magic / Amnesia / Hex: prevents healing and regeneration as well as building repair for 90 seconds.
Famine: prevents food gathering and increases the food cost of units for 60 seconds. Also prevents other god powers from being cast. May swap this God Power with the Roman God Power Drought.It’s time for episode two of Retro Wednesdays! – a weekly show where the crew at The Game Inquirer sit down and take a look at older games that have left a lasting impression whether it be a good one or a bad one. Every week two of the crew members each pick a game to play and discuss.
Ryan, Carl, Lily and Daniel regroup this week to check out a couple of old PlayStation hits. First up is a game Dan remembers fondly – Tomba… or Tombi… whatever you prefer. The show then takes a cooler turn as the gang replay Cool Boarders 2.
Dan explains why this weird and wacky game, Tomba is worth revisiting: “Our first game we’re playing is a Playstation 1 title called Tombi (also known as Tomba in Japan and America). This adventure platformer stars a pink haired animalistic boy known as Tombi, who is in search of his grandfather’s bracelet which has been stolen by the evil pigs. (As they do). Carl and myself have fond memories of playing this game when we were younger, and although it may not have been a major stand out title in the Playstation’s impressive catalogue of games, it definitely has a cult following. The game simply oozes charm from its colourful and imaginative art direction to its amusing dialogue from its many cast of zany characters.”
He adds, “We explore the first opening quests in the game to give a taster of what the game is about and introduce it to those of you who are unaware of what the game is. It may look a little rough around the edges but it’s a damn good game. Keep a look out for some questionable looking flowers and some rather disturbing actions between Tombi and an innocent frog too.”
As for the second game of the week, this was a choice everyone happily agreed with, it’s Cool Boarders 2. “Before SSX, before 1080 on the Nintendo 64, there was Cool Boarders. One of the first three games I had for the system (along with the very first GTA and Crash Bandicoot 2) as a kid this was as cool as a game could get,” claims Dan. “Offering a great mix of races, score focused rounds and of course Big Air there was plenty to get stuck into.”
“In the show we volunteer Ryan to take the plunge in a round of Board Park where let’s just say his skills are less than impressive. It’s here that we remember just how tough this game actually is… especially if you can’t remember the control system! We then each take a shot at pulling the biggest tricks we can in Big Air – apparently landing on your head is good enough for a score of around 200. We also fail miserably at the game’s campaign mode before finally racing each other in two player mode. What have we learned from this whole experience? We’re not very cool for one, and Cool Boarders 2 is a tough game to master.”
Remember to check back each week for new episodes where we take a look at plenty more retro games. Please subscribe and “like” our videos and if you’ve any suggestions for future titles leave a message on YouTube or below in the comments.Intuitively, one might think that a person who doesn't have kids would feel a sense of emptiness and deep regret in his or her decision. Believe it or not, we find that the exact opposite is true. One myth about childfree adults is that they're happier because they are selfish and have more money for fancy vacations and cars. But if you talk to most childfree adults, this is not what's causing them to report higher levels of than are reported by parents. Let's take a look at some of the factors that may explain why childfree adults are happier than parents.
It's easier for childfree adults to stay physically healthy!!
Keep in mind how many hours per day childrearing takes (8 on average). Once this central task is done, how many parents have time to go to the gym or out for a run? Plus, it's a fact that households with children tend to contain greater quantities of high fat foods; it's no wonder that parents would have trouble resisting, and thus may be more overweight. Studies show that people who don't get enough are more likely to have weight issues-do you know some parents who lack adequate rest because of staying up too late trying to get everything done?
Childfree adults have an easier time holding onto a youthful attitude!
Okay parents, I know that many of you will argue with me on this one, but let's be realistic here. Having a baby is one of the fastest routes to maturity, and this has been tested out over time. If you've never been a parent, you've never felt that great weight of responsibility that only a child can bring. Look around you and try to pick out the adults who have never had kids. What I see often is women and men who look and also act younger than their peers. I sometimes joke that we've never completely grown up!!
Childfree women have an easier time keeping their girlish figures than women who have borne children.
Dolly Parton recently shared in an interview that she attributes her still great figure, including firm breasts and a small waist, to not having had kids. Most women who have had babies will tell you just how difficult it was to get their bodies back, if they were able to do so at all.
Childfree couples are happier than couples with kids!!
Again, your might tell you that this couldn't be the case, because we all know that a child will bring a couple closer—right?? Actually, marital satisfaction rates plummet following the birth of the first child, and they don't return to pre-child levels until the nest is empty. For many couples, the focus during childrearing years shifts to the children first, then work, and finally hobbies and self-care, with the relationship coming dead last.
All that free time actually is a good thing!
In our western world, we are spread too thin. The result is that many of us feel that there's not enough time for everything we want to do. Our careers suffer, we miss sleep, and we don't have time for those precious hobbies of golf, cooking, friendships, reading, or travel. As a childfree adult myself, I often face a weekend with little that I have to do, and this feels wonderful. I'm usually mentally tired after a long week of being a psychologist, and it's nice to not have to take care of anyone but me, my husband, and my dogs for a couple of days.
To sum it all up, don't have a child because you think it will bring you happiness or improve your. If you're not content with your life prior to kids, this discontent will likely continue after the child is born. Plus, it's important to recognize the challenges that parenting will bring. There are positives and negatives in every life, and it's important to weigh these out as you create the landscape of your future.The similarities between suspected mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh are striking.
Both were good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom. Both thought their acts of mass destruction would trigger a great battle to rescue society from the liberal forces of multiculturalism that allowed non-Christians and non-whites positions of acceptability. Both regretted the loss of life but thought their actions were “necessary.” For that they were staunchly unapologetic. And both were Christian terrorists.
Their similarities even extend to the kind of explosive used in their actions. Both used a mixture of fuel oil and ammonium nitrate fertilizer; which Breivik said he needed for his farm operations. The farm, it turned out, was rented largely because it was a convenient place to test his car bombs.
And then there is the matter of dates. McVeigh was fixed on the day of April 19, the anniversary of the Waco siege. Breivik chose July 22, which was the day in 1099 that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established during the First Crusades.
The title of Breivik’s manifesto, which was posted on the internet on that day, is “2083”—the date Breivik suggested would be the culmination of a 70-year war that began with his action. Yet 70 years from 2011 would be 2081; why did he date the final purge of Muslims from Norway to be two years later, in 2083? I found the answer on page 242 of Breivik’s manifesto, where he explains that on 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire’s military was defeated in a protracted struggle, thereby insuring that most of Europe would not become part of the Muslim empire. The date in Breivik’s title is the 400th anniversary of that decisive battle, and in Breivik’s mind he was re-creating the historic efforts to save Europe from what he imagined to be the evils of Islam.
The threat of Islam is a dominant motif of his 1500-page manifesto, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence.” The writing of a manifesto is a major difference between Breivik and McVeigh, who was not a writer; instead McVeigh copied and quoted from his favorite book, The Turner Diaries, a novel by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald.
McVeigh’s beloved novel explains his motives in a matter eerily similar to the writings of Breivik in his “2083” manifesto: he thought that liberal politicians had given in to the forces of globalization and multiculturalism, and that the “mudpeople” (non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, non-patriarchal males) were trying to take over the country. To save the country for Christendom the righteous white, straight, non-feminist Christian males had to be shocked into reality by the force of an explosion that would signal to them that the war had begun. These were McVeigh’s ideas from The Turner Diaries, but they were also Breivik’s.
“The time for dialogue is over,” Breivik writes on page 811 of his manifesto. “The time for armed resistance has come.”
The enemy of this imagined cosmic war were “the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites” whom he regarded as the “Nazis of our time,” intent on “leading us [White Europeans] to the cultural slaughterhouse by selling us into Muslim slavery.” Breivik says, threateningly, to the “multiculturalist elite” that “we know who you are, where you live and we are coming for you.”
The manifesto is an interesting and eclectic document, something of a scrapbook of everything from his instructions for small-scale farming to a syllabus for a course on revolution that he’d love to see taught (complete with extensive bibliography that includes authors such as Immanuel Wallerstein, Theda Skocpol, and Eric Hobsbawm; it recommends as a textbook Theorizing Revolution, a book written by my colleague at Santa Barbara, John Foran). It also includes theoretical and historical overviews of European history and political ideas, and an attempt to explain Muslim ideas and Islamic history; skewed in such a way to make it appear as if this major religious tradition were a single ideology eager to control the world.
The manifesto also includes a how-to manual for the creation of terrorist devices and acts of terrorism themselves—a manual not unlike the “Army of God” handbook created by Christian anti-abortion activists, most likely penned by Lutheran pastor Michael Bray. It advises on costumes that might be worn in order to avoid detection (including a policeman’s uniform).
Perhaps the most interesting section is Breivik’s day-by-day accounts of the weeks preceding the July 22 bombing and massacre, a chronology that ends with this matter-of-fact statement: “I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, 12.51.”
Moments later he posted the 1500-page book on the website before allegedly driving to downtown Oslo to detonate the bomb that killed seven and shattered major buildings containing the offices of the ruling political party. Afterward, he reportedly donned the policeman’s uniform to gain entrance to the liberal party’s youth camp where he coldly murdered over 80 of the young people in a rampage that lasted more than an hour.
Like McVeigh, he thought that this horrible dramatic action would bring a hidden war into the open. Like many modern terrorists, his violent act was a form of performance violence, a symbolic attempt at empowerment to show the world that for the moment he was in charge. The terrorist act was a wake-up call, and a signal that the war had begun.
Behind the earthly conflict was a cosmic war, a battle for Christendom. As the title of Breivik’s manifesto indicates, he thought he was re-creating that historical moment in which Christianity was defended against the hordes, and Islam was purged from what he imagined to be the purity of European society.
Breivik meticulously detailed what he expected to be the historical trajectory of this war through four stages, culminating in 2083. He expected that the forces of multiculturalism would be tough, and would resist the efforts to combat it. “It will take us up to 70 years to win,” Breivik writes on page 811, but adds that “there is no doubt in our minds that we will eventually succeed.”
In the final phase, the civil war between the evil multiculturalists and the righteous few, a series of coup d’etats throughout Europe will overthrow the liberal forces. Then, finally “the deportation of Muslims” will begin, and European Christendom will be restored.
Is this a religious vision, and am I right in calling Breivik a Christian terrorist? It is true that Breivik—and McVeigh, for that matter—were much more concerned about politics, race, and history than about scripture and religious belief; with Breivik even going so far as to write that “It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter)).”
But much the same can be said about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and many other Islamist activists. Bin Laden was a businessman and engineer, and Zawahiri was a medical doctor; neither were theologians or clergy. Their writings show that they were much more interested in Islamic history than theology or scripture, and imagined themselves as re-creating glorious moments in Islamic history in their own imagined wars. Tellingly, Breivik writes of al Qaeda with admiration, as if he would love to create a Christian version of their religious cadre.
If bin Laden is a Muslim terrorist, Breivik and McVeigh are surely Christian ones. Breivik was fascinated with the Crusades and imagined himself to be a member of the Knights Templar, the crusader army of a thousand years ago. But in an imagined cosmic warfare time is suspended, and history is transcended as the activists imagine themselves to be acting out timeless roles in a sacred drama. The tragedy is that these religious fantasies are played out in real time, with real and cruel consequences.A rendering of the planned Health Innovations Center on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. (Photo: Provided/NKU)
Northern Kentucky University leaders see the development of a Health Innovation Center as more than a gleaming $97 million building in the heart of the Highland Heights campus.
They – along with Gov. Steve Beshear and regional health care industry officials – see an opportunity to provide a new approach to education and health care delivery.
NKU hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday morning to mark the start of construction on the Health Innovation Center. The center will be the first new academic building built on campus since Griffin Hall, home of the College of Informatics, was completed in October 2011. The project includes building a new 95,492-square-foot facility and renovating the 111,639-square-foot Founders Hall, which is the second-oldest academic building at the university.
Planning for the new center's development at NKU launched more than 10 years ago. Soon, Northern Kentucky business leaders will be able to check this project off their list of regional priorities.
“We are proud to lead the way, with the help and support of our partners in Frankfort and in our local community," NKU President Geoffrey Mearns said.
When the Health Innovation Center opens in 2018, it will be home to NKU's College of Health Professions. The facility will allow NKU to expand existing academic programs and add new ones.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Business Report newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get top business headlines at the start of each day and be alerted of important business news as it happens. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Business Report Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
The center will bring together experts from NKU's six colleges to create interdisciplinary teams to study health care from different perspectives. The approach calls for combining data analytics, psychology, preventative care, and holistic approaches to address wide-ranging health challenges that millions of people face such as addiction and chronic illness.
NKU’s Center for Economic Analysis and Development recently completed a study that found Greater Cincinnati – based on its employment trends, population changes and growth from health care institutions – needs more than 50,000 new qualified health care workers by 2020.
“The future of population healthcare will increasingly depend upon gathering and analyzing data to determine which practices and policies are improving collective health outcomes,” said Dr. Dale Scalise Smith, dean of NKU's College of Health Professions. “Our innovative approach will be a model for other educational institutions and communities to emulate.”
Kentucky Gov. Steven L. Beshear, NKU President Geoffrey S. Mearns, and members of NKU’s Board of Regents break ground Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 on the new Health Innovation Center. Pictured from left: Board Chairman Nathaniel G. Smith, Dennis Repenning (hidden), Lee Scheben, Arnie Slaughter, Mearns, Beshear, Katherine Hahnel, Andra S. Ward, and Terry L. Mann. (Photo: Provided/Northern Kentucky University)
Last year, the Kentucky General Assembly allocated $97 million its biennial budget for the project. St. Elizabeth Healthcare also has invested $8 million to equip the building with a two-story virtual care environment that will provide students experience and training across the continuum of care. A committee of business and healthcare leaders from around the region has been contributing to plans for the center since 2014.
"Through this new learning center, NKU is helping us improve our education programs to prepare our young leaders for the increasingly high-tech jobs of the 21st Century, and making Kentucky more competitive as companies seek out highly skilled, capable employees," Beshear said. "Our future looks bright as we continue to partner with our higher education community to raise our education standards and rankings.”
CO Architects of Los Angeles and Downtown Cincinnati-based GBBN Architects designed the facility. The Cincinnati office of Turner Construction is managing the construction project.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1RVM3wTDec 9, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Matt Cullen (7) celebrates his goal with right wing Patric Hornqvist (72) and left wing Sergei Plotnikov (61) in the first period at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Penguins picked up forward Matt Cullen during free agency last summer. Though not many fans had high expectations for the aging center, Cullen has proved his worth over and over again.
Full disclosure: I love Matt Cullen as a player. Watching the Nashville Predators last season, I liked how he fit in with the team as a lower-line center and face-off master. When the Pittsburgh Penguins snagged him up, I was really excited.
Most of the other people I talked to were just really confused instead.
“Who on earth is Matt Cullen?”
Oh, this kind of older fourth-liner, he looks a bit like a smaller version of Luke Danes from “Gilmore Girls,” he played for Nashville last season – and they’d heard enough.
Let’s take a look at the numbers, though.
In his first season with the Predators, 2013-2014, he put up 39 points in 77 games played. In the second year of his contract, he managed 27 points between the regular season and playoffs – a total of 68 games played.
Not too shabby for a guy on his fourth NHL team in his late thirties.
Additionally, his two-year contract with Nashville had a cap hit of 3.5 million dollars – oof. Compared to similar players, that’s a lot of dough.
For the Penguins, who are always sitting dangerously close to the salary cap, there was no way that was doable. If he had asked for that much, there’s no chance he would be in Pittsburgh right now.
Luckily, he didn’t. His one-year contract with the Penguins only has a cap hit of $800,000. Brian Dumoulin has the same hit, and Olli Maatta accounts for scarcely more. The only players who have less lucrative contracts than Cullen are – with the exception of backup goalie Jeff Zatkoff – perennially bouncing up and down between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre.
In 48 games played this season, Cullen has 13 points and a +3. Given how often the lines were changed and the various wingers he had to play with, along with a coaching shakeup and system overhaul, that’s decent. Plus, he wasn’t brought in to challenge the big guns’ scoring prowess, and we all know that.
He was a depth acquisition, and that’s what exactly what he’s useful for. When other Penguins centers Eric Fehr and Nick Bonino got hurt, Cullen moved up and down the lineup to fill any gaps.
His years of experience in the league also makes him a valuable asset in the bottom six, whose lines are often some rotation of younger call-ups from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. While many of them now have NHL experience due to the injuries that repeatedly plague their NHL affiliate, it’s obviously nowhere near what the 39-year-old Cullen has.
Nashville’s coaching staff long had a focus on faceoffs, despite the Barry Trotz administration already being on its way out just when Cullen came in. A lot of Cullen’s value does stem from his ability to win faceoffs. Honestly, if the rest of his game completely fell apart and the Penguins were in a situation where he could only take faceoffs, that would still be pretty effective. More from Editorials This Year’s Penguins are Pretenders, Not Contenders
Pittsburgh Penguins: Is this Team Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
Pittsburgh Should Be Home to the Next NWHL Franchise
Pittsburgh Penguins: NHL predictions for the upcoming season
Five Pittsburgh Penguins with most to prove in 2018-2019 Season
In must-win faceoff situations, such as last-minute comeback attempts in the Penguins |
one.
Carrie Mesrobian's Sex and Violence: Evan prefers sex without drama. He cultivates a carefree personality and is able to almost immediately target THE GIRL WHO WILL SAY YES, until he chooses the wrong girl and must face horrible consequences.As the annual International Whaling Commission meeting stumbles to a close, unable to negotiate a compromise between whaling opponents and people who've killed more than 40,000 whales since 1985, scientists say these aquatic mammals are more than mere animals. They might even deserve to be considered people.
Not human people, but as occupying a similar range on the spectrum as the great apes, for whom the idea of personhood has moved from preposterous to possible. Chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos possess self-awareness, feelings and high-level cognitive powers. According to a steadily gathering body of research, so do whales and dolphins.
In fact, their capacities could be even more ancient than our own, dating to an evolutionary explosion in brain size that took place millions of years before the last common ancestor of the great apes existed.
"If an alien came down anytime prior to about 1.5 million years ago to communicate with the 'brainiest' animals on Earth, they would have tripped over our own ancestors and headed straight for the oceans to converse with the dolphins," said Lori Marino, an evolutionary neurobiologist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
The idea of whale personhood makes all the more haunting the prospect that Earth's cetaceans, many of whom were hunted to the brink of extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are still threatened.
At the annual International Whaling Commission being held this week in Portugal, officials failed to curb the continuing killing of some 1,000 whales every year, mostly by hunters from Japan, Norway and Iceland. Many scientists say populations are still too fragile to support commercial hunting or, in the case of Japan, "scientific research" that appears to kill an especially high number of pregnant females.
Mortality from hunting, however, may be the least of the whale's worries. Industrial pollution has suffused their bodies with heavy metals and toxins. Noise pollution drowns out the vocalizations on which whales rely to find food and navigate. Overfishing punches holes in oceanic webs of life. Whales and dolphins are also accidentally caught in nets and struck by ships.
Such collisions appear to be pushing the North Atlantic right whale to oblivion, and the IWC says that ship strikes "should be reduced to zero as soon as possible." But though the U.S. has set speed limits off its northeast coast, the World Shipping Council has fought such measures internationally. It's also possible that Navy sonar tests, which may have caused mass beachings in the Bahamas, are to blame. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down restrictions on the tests. And though President Obama has noble intentions on ocean policy, pollution and overfishing is a global problem.
In the midst of this, research has continued on whales and dolphins, which have long been difficult to study. Whales can't be kept in captivity. Scientists require expensive ships and tools that, despite their sophistication, produce relatively low-resolution readings of whale life.
Most findings come from bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, sperm whales and humpback whales — the species that scientists have painstakingly studied for a few decades, and now continue their work with improved gene sequencing and song analysis tools. In these four species, scientists see considerable social complexity and individual distinction. They talk of whales and dolphins in terms of cultures and societies, and say cetaceans possess qualities of personhood. They say the same is likely true of other species, who simply haven't been studied yet.
"It's only due to our lack of knowledge that humans remain this exclusive species," said Shane Gero, a Dalhousie University marine biologist. "We're getting a lot of long-term studies in cetaceans, hitting multiple generations, and we're finally able to get at these questions." Though there's still more evidence for primate than cetacean personhood, Gero said accumulating research "will start tipping the scales."
Gero trained under Dalhousie University biologist Hal Whitehead, who started studying whales in 1977. Researchers from his lab and that of St. Andrews University biologist Luke Rendell, another former Whitehead student, have studied sperm whales around the world. They're responsible for much of what's known about the whales' social behavior, which involves wide variations in group formation, hunting and child-rearing. Groups even appear to communicate in their own unique dialect.
"Based on what we know, I'd guess that cetacean culture is intermediate between humans and chimpanzees. Not in material culture, but in most other respects," said Whitehead.
Culture is an especially important measure of personhood in whales, since it's difficult to administer the sorts of tests that have found chimpanzees to be capable of basic math, altruism, laughter and complex communication, the latter of which can be neurologically imaged in real-time.
But if cetaceans can't take these tests, they have met one critical laboratory benchmark of higher cognition: self-recognition. With Wildlife Conservation Society cognitive scientist Diana Reiss, Lori Marino showed that bottlenose dolphins can use mirrors to investigate marks hidden on their bodies. "When they look in the mirror, they're saying, 'That's me,'" said Marino. "They have a sense of self through time."
And in a much-celebrated first documented example of tool use in marine mammals, a family of dolphins in Australia uses sponges to hunt.
Cetaceans even surpass most primates in their use of sound. "We've known for some time now that the communication systems of these animals is more complex than we can imagine," said Marino. "People are starting to use some interesting statistical methods to look at their vocal repertoires, and they're finding structural complexity that suggests there may be something like grammar, syntax, even language."
Fueling the evolution of cetacean communication is an ability, observed in dolphins, humpback whales and sperm whales, to pass songs and codas between generations and individuals.
"One of the ways in which dolphins are unusual among mammals is their ability to imitate sounds. Most apes are barely able to modify the sounds that they make vocally, based on what they hear," said Peter Tyack, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. "To be able to learn sounds and incorporate them is really important for human communication."
According to Tyack, the individually distinctive calls of dolphins may even be equivalent to names. "That's an open research question," he said.
In addition to cultural evidence, researchers who've studied cetacean brains — many of which are among the largest in the animal kingdom — have found highly developed analogues to human structures. Whale brains appear to have undergone massive growth about 30 million years ago, a process linked in primates to the development of complex cognition and culture.
"The parts of the brain that are involved with processing emotion and social relationships are enormously complex, and in many cetaceans even more highly elaborated than in the human brain," said Marino. "If we assume that the limbic system is doing what it's doing in all mammals, then something very high-level is going on."
As for the nature of a whale's inner life, it's difficult to say but possible to speculate.
"My strong suspicion is that a lot of sperm whale life revolves around social issues," said Whitehead. "They're nomadic, live in permanent groups, and are dependent on each other for everything. Social structure is vital to them. The only constant thing in their world is their social group. I'd guess that a lot of their life is paying attention to social relationships."
These relationships would be "interestingly different from ours, for a variety of reasons," continued Whitehead. "There's nowhere to hide, they can use sound to form an image of each other's insides — whether you're pregnant, hungry, sick. In a three-dimensional habitat, it's probably much harder to say something is mine, or yours, whether it's a piece of food or a potential mate."
Tyler Schulz, another researcher in Whitehead's lab, recently refined a method for linking sperm whale codas to the individual who composed them. That should help researchers get an even better appreciation of personal traits.
"He found that in one group, most of the animals had a similar repertoire of calls, but the mother of a baby had a different one," said Whitehead. "As we analyze the data, we'll be able to figure out whether that was the mother's originally vocabulary, and she was a weirdo, or if maybe that was just baby talk. We all know women who change their vocabularies when they have babies."
Images: 1. steews4/Flickr. 2. NOAA. 3. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 4. Northern Territory Government
See Also:
Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, including references and outtakes for this article; Wired Science on Twitter.
*
*The royal wedding was watched by millions of people in 180 countries around the world. Check out how some of the big numbers stacked up for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
In the UK, initial viewing figures from industry body Barb suggest that more than 24 million people were tuned in to the BBC or ITV at the high point in the ceremony. The National Grid said its figures showed a huge surge in demand for power after the service - equivalent to one million kettles being boiled - when the royal couple returned to Buckingham Palace.
Over the course of the day power use rose and fell during key moments - with the biggest drop in demand when the couple made their balcony appearance and people stopped what they were doing and turned back to their televisions.
Out on the streets of London, the Metropolitan Police estimated one million people turned out to try to catch a glimpse of the wedding parade. There were 5,000 police officers keeping order and, 24 hours after the wedding, 55 arrests had been reported.
Westminster Council was in charge of clearing the streets of the procession and deployed 130 road sweepers - 100 more than usual. They moved an estimated 140 tonnes of rubbish - a spokesman for Westminster Council said horse manure was the "biggest issue".
The bride's dress was probably the best-kept secret of the day. The ivory lace and silk gown had a 2.7m train - considerably shorter than Princess Diana's 8m train. Each lace motif was attached with a tiny stitch and workers had to wash their hands regularly to keep the lace and threads absolutely spotless.
Around the country there were thousands of street parties with people taking advantage of the extra bank holiday. There were 5,500 official applications for road closures - with people in Hertfordshire making the highest number of requests at 298.
Tesco said it had sold 120 miles of bunting, enough to wrap round Westminster Abbey 100 times. Its sales of champagne and sparkling wine were significantly up. While Marks and Spencer claimed sales of chicken drumsticks had doubled in a week to one million and sales of sausage rolls reached two million.
Celebrations at Buckingham Palace continued all day. The formal lunch reception was attended by 650 guests, who consumed 10,000 canapes, prepared by a team of 21 chefs.
Later, 300 close friends and family were invited to an evening do where guests were offered a choice of two wedding cakes. The traditional fruit cake was made up of 17 individual cakes, eight tiers high and it was decorated with some 900 sugar-paste flowers. A less traditional chocolate biscuit cake, requested by Prince William, contained 1,700 Rich Tea biscuits and 17 kilos of chocolate.Share this article via flipboard
Share this article via email
Share this article via messenger
A manhunt was launched after the attack (Picture: Reuters)
Four people were injured in a mass knife attack at an underground station in Munich.
A man has been arrested in connection with the incident, which happened at the Rosenheimer station in the German city’s central square.
Fast food workers quit en masse with brutal takedown of their bosses
Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae said there were no serious injuries.
Police launched a manhunt following the incident on Saturday morning.
Three hours later, they arrested the suspect, described as 33 years old and German.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The attack happened at an underground station in the city (Picture: Google/Metro.co.uk)
Several people were hurt but none suffered life-threatening injuries (Picture: AP)
Police had released a description of the suspect (Picture: AP)
Officers said they have ‘no serious doubt’ that he was the assailant who allegedly attacked eight people.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Officials believe the incident is not terror-related.
Donald Trump 'trashed his own son Don Jr for having terrible judgement'
The man has not revealed his motive, but Mr Andrae said there is no indication he holds extremist, political or religious views that could have factored into the attack.
Police believe he has psychological problems.
Officers had urged locals to remain in their homes until the suspect was detained.Fraport likely to take over Ljubljana Airport
Germany’s Fraport is to begin takeover talks for a 75.5% stake in Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport after the Slovenian government overturned an earlier decision to freeze the privatisation of state-owned companies. The state investment firm Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH), which is in charge of selling state assets, said yesterday it would start exclusive talks over Ljubljana Airport with Fraport, which is a multi billion euro management and transport company. Talks with the German conglomerate will continue “for a limited time”, according to SDH, which added that Fraport was the highest bidder. The sale of Slovenia’s busiest airport is now expected to be completed this autumn.
The only other interested party which publicly revealed its intention to bid for a majority share in Ljubljana Airport was France’s Vinci, which was willing to invest fifty euros per share, or a total of 96.7 million euros. Fraport’s offer is believed to have eclipsed this figure. Several companies are reported to have pulled out of the bidding process after the Slovenian government temporarily halted all privatisations in the country last month in the lead-up to snap parliamentary elections. Besides Fraport and Vinci, Friedmann Pacific Investment Holdings from Hong Kong and Italy’s SAVE are also believed to have placed bids. Initially, twenty companies expressed interest in participating in the privatisation process.
Fraport, officially known as Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, manages Europe’s third busiest airport - Frankfurt. In addition, the company also runs several major airports across the world including Cairo, Delhi, Hanover, Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Fraport also runs the main international airports in Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria, Lima in Peru, Xi’an in China, Antalya in Turkey and the new airport in Dakar in Senegal, which is currently under construction. The company boasts some 20.000 employees and in 2013 generated revenue of 2.6 billion euros. Fraport will have to address the issue of building a new passenger terminal at Ljubljana Airport. Late last year, the airport’s minority shareholders, mostly made up of banks, rejected plans for the construction of a new terminal, which was pitched by the state.
Foreign ownership and airport concession contracts are becoming common in the former Yugoslavia. Zagreb Airport is managed by a consortium led by France’s Aéroports de Paris while Pristina Airport is run by the Franco-Turkish consortium headed by Istanbul-based Limak Holding. Macedonia’s Skopje and Ohrid airports are managed by Turkey’s TAV Holdings while Belgrade Airport will also be put up for concession in the foreseeable future.Centre
Andhra Pradesh
Naidu
Jaitley
Telugu Desam Party
National Democratic Alliance
Aadhar
Impressed by the pro-active measures he has taken to tide over the demonetisation crisis, thehas askedchief minister N Chandrababuhim to head a chief ministers’ panel to tackle the crisis. Finance minister Arunis learnt to have called up Naidu and requested him to head the panel that has five chief ministers.According to sources, Jaitley apprised Naidu, whoseis the second largest party in the, of the financial crisis after Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetisation on November 8. Just an hour before receiving the call from Jaitley, Naidu took on the bankers for “playing with the lives of people”. In his daily review with bankers, RBI representatives in the state and the state finance department officials, Naidu expressed his anger that the bankers were taking the “volatile situation lightly”.“The government has become incapable because of the non-cooperation from banks,” Naidu fumed at officials, saying public cannot be made to stand in queues for endless hours to carry out their daily transactions. To his credit, his government has been effectively tackling the cash crisis in the state. He has come up with several alternatives to encourage online and mobile transactions besides distributing small change at vegetable markets as an immediate relief to the people. He has been insisting that old notes should be allowed in hospitals on production ofcards of the payees.As a long-term measure, the Naidu government is roping in 90 lakh members from co-operative sector in villages and towns to undertake statewide campaigns on online transactions. As many as 5,000 women are being trained as master trainers to train 90 lakh women. The government is also designing a mechanism that makes ordinary phones do money transactions. The government will distribute such phones to families which do not have one.Andhra state road transport corporation quickly came up with swipe / POS machines to accept payments through debit and credit cards.Night after night, Batman faces Gotham's most fearsome criminals: gangsters, lunatics, and supervillains. And while he may take the occasional pummeling, he manages to survive those long nights. Or does he?
Inspired by Kim Kardashian's gluteal photoshoot, Comics Should Be Good made "Break the Internet" the theme for this week's The Line It Is Drawn drawing challenge. Commenters were invited to come up with ideas for comic book plot twists that would "Break the Internet" and the contributing artists illustrated the various ideas.
BigBearSpeaks submitted this idea, which was drawn by artist Nick Perks:
Advertisement
Yep, just like Hank and Dean Venture, Batman dies on a regular basis and is replaced by a fresh Bruce Wayne clone. Twist!
Head over to The Line It Is Drawn for more imaginary plot twists, involving Catwoman, the Green Goblin, Squirrel Girl, and more.
The Line it is Drawn #216 – Breaking the Internet! [The Line It Is Drawn]It's safe to say Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is not a fan of Andy Dalton.
Bennett appeared on NFL Network’s NFL Total Access Thursday night, discussing the penalties handed down to Tom Brady, the addition of Jimmy Graham, and a game of 'The World According to Michael Bennett.'
Well, according to Bennett, Andy Dalton is not someone you want as your starting quarterback:
"Ah, did I do it again? Did I do it again? Gave up the lead," Bennett said in his imitation of Dalton.
Dalton has often been criticized for being the weakness on a Bengals team talented enough to contend for a Super Bowl, but can't win a playoff game. While Dalton has had his struggles, giving up leads is not actually something he tends to do.
In 68 career games (including playoffs), Dalton has lost just eight games during which the Bengals led in the fourth quarter.
In 56 career games (including the playoffs), Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has lost 10 games in which Seattle held a fourth-quarter lead. That's 10 losses Wilson suffered while having a superior defense than that of what Dalton had in Cincinnati.
While no one is arguing who's the better QB between those two, it does show that 'giving up the lead' is not something Bennett can criticize Dalton for when his own QB has done it more often.
This will also serve as some nice bulletin-board material for the Bengals when they host Seattle in Week 5. Taking a shot at a team's franchise QB is something every player on Cincinnati is going to remember between now and then.Riggs and Murtaugh are trying to take down some drug dealers but the they turn out to be not run of the mill drug dealers; they have automatic weapons and helicopters. Eventually they grab one of their vehicles and find a million dollars worth of gold coins or Krugerrands in the trunk. Later Murtaugh is threatened by the men they're pursuing. That's when the Captain reassigns them to protect a man named Leo Getz who is suppose to testify in a big case. When they get to where Leo is, someone tries to kill him and that's when they learn he laundered half a billion dollars worth of drug money. He then takes them to a place he once went to and that's when the people there start shooting at them. Later when they come back with back up they learn that the men work for the South African consulate and have diplomatic immunity. They deduce that they are the ones they were looking for, but because of they have diplomatic immunity they can't do anything. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.comImage caption Artist Salvador Dali is known for his surreal paintings and eccentric personality
Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works.
Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.
Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought.
It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.
In some people, it leads to mental illness.
But rather than a clear division, experts suspect a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits but few negative symptoms.
Art and suffering
Some of the world's leading artists, writers and theorists have also had mental illnesses - the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and American mathematician John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe in the film A Beautiful Mind) to name just two.
Creativity is known to be associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Image caption The thalamus channels thoughts
Similarly, people who have mental illness in their family have a higher chance of being creative.
Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen believes his findings could help explain why.
He looked at the brain's dopamine (D2) receptor genes which experts believe govern divergent thought.
He found highly creative people who did well on tests of divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus - as do people with schizophrenia.
The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning.
"Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus," said Professor Ullen.
Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror Mark Millard, UK psychologist
He believes it is this barrage of uncensored information that ignites the creative spark.
This would explain how highly creative people manage to see unusual connections in problem-solving situations that other people miss.
Schizophrenics share this same ability to make novel associations. But in schizophrenia, it results in bizarre and disturbing thoughts.
UK psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society Mark Millard said the overlap with mental illness might explain the motivation and determination creative people share.
"Creativity is uncomfortable. It is their dissatisfaction with the present that drives them on to make changes.
"Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror. They see the world in a fractured way.
"There is no sense of conventional limitations and you can see this in their work. Take Salvador Dali, for example. He certainly saw the world differently and behaved in a way that some people perceived as very odd."
'TROUBLED' GENIUSES Writer Virginia Woolf
Painter Vincent van Gogh
Painter Salvador Dali
Painter Edvard Munch
Composer Robert Schumann
Mathematician John Nash
Pianist David Helfgott
He said businesses have already recognised and capitalised on this knowledge.
Some companies have "skunk works" - secure, secret laboratories for their highly creative staff where they can freely experiment without disrupting the daily business.
Chartered psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon says an ability to "suspend disbelief" is one way of looking at creativity.
"When you suspend disbelief you are prepared to believe anything and this opens up the scope for seeing more possibilities.
"Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules or accepting the restrictions that society places on us. Of course the more people break the rules, the more likely they are to be perceived as'mentally ill'."
He works as an executive coach helping people to be more creative in their problem solving behaviour and thinking styles.
"The result is typically a significant rise in their well being, so as opposed to creativity being associated with mental illness it becomes associated with good mental health."Craigslist parvo puppy dies within 3 days of sale Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Video
(WFLA) - They were told he was 8 weeks old and had his shots. But the very night Chelsea and Anthony Scroppo bought a puppy they named Bhodie for Chelsea's mom Cheryl, there were problems.
"He had bloody diarrhea all night, the first night and we were texting you know "Ashleigh" to see if he had his shots. She had told me that he had and what vet? There was no reply," said Cheryl.
Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved
Like others 8 On Your Side has found, Chelsea and Anthony spotted an ad for this puppy on Craigslist. They paid $250 to Hayley Lidey, who uses the name "Ashleigh", and her boyfriend Alberto Anaya.
"It was them," said Chelsea. "Her boyfriend, I met. I saw her in the vehicle with him, but she didn't attempt to talk to us or get out or anything like that."
According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, health certificates are required to accompany the sale of any cat or dog.
"They told us when we picked the puppy up that they would have the documentation of shots and everything and there was nothing, and then when I questioned them they said I had to call the vet, they were going to give me all the information," explained Chelsea.
That is the same story Christopher and Shawn Tomaras heard when they bought a puppy in April from Lidey. They too spotted an ad on Craigslist.
"As soon as I saw him I just fell in love with him," remembered Shawn.
The puppy she named Leo, sick with parvo, died within five days. Another viewer who recognized Lidey from our report tells us, she bought a puppy from her in November. Rocky was also sick with parvo, he survived. Sherry McCormic of Port Richey bought a puppy she named Bella from Lidey. She discovered the puppy was at death's door with parvo.
"I hope she rots in jail for what she did," stated Sherry.
Bella survived.
Lidey spent most of May in jail for violating probation on an unrelated conviction. After fighting parvo with Bhodie, Cheryl Hostetler hopes Lidey ends up behind bars.
"We got the medicine and IV fluids, given to him. I was giving them to him at home and three days later he died in my lap," said Cheryl.
Cheryl adopted Bhodie after her dog of 12 years died. She ended up burying the puppy next to her dog. That she says was devastating.Nate Silver, creator of the FiveThirtyEight blog, made statistics cool in 2012 with his confident and correct prediction that Barack Obama would win by a wider margin than pundits expected—and especially with his uncannily accurate state-by-state predictions.
But during the current Presidential election cycle, he stumbled badly with an early assessment that Donald Trump had only a two percent chance of winning the Republican nomination. We saw on the last night of the Republican convention how that turned out.
Of course, probabilities are, by their nature, about events that are uncertain, and improbable events happen all the time. This doesn’t prove that the original assessment of its probability was wrong. But Silver’s estimate of Trump’s probability of winning still seems way off. Silver himself attributes his miss to his failure to use statistical models in early estimates. Basically, he said he was acting like a pundit, but attaching subjective probabilities to his off-the-cuff estimates.
Now Yaneer Bar-Yam and Taeer Bar-Yam, of the New England Complex Systems Institute and MIT Media Laboratory, have now published a more thorough and scholarly assessment of the two-percent affair, and they’ve concluded that Silver’s explanation is basically right, but superficial. Despite his expertise, he fell into one of the classic traps of non-statistical thinking: failure to take into account the property of dependence.
In calculating Trump’s odds of winning, Silver postulated a series of six hurdles (he called them “Stages of Doom”) that Trump had to overcome in order to get the nomination. One, for example was “heightened scrutiny,” the point at which voters start to focus on a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses; another was “Endgame,” in which party leaders might pull out all the stops to torpedo the his nomination.
Silver assigned a 50 percent probability to his surviving each stage and then multiplied the probabilities together: 50 percent times 50 percent times 50 percent, and so on—another way of saying.5 raised to the sixth power. The number that comes out is 0.0156, which is a bit less than two percent.
But Silver’s choice of six stages (not seven, not four) was purely arbitrary. And even if they were the right ones, his assumption about the probabilities was flawed. Just because an event has two possible outcomes does not necessarily mean that the two outcomes each has a 50 percent probability (unless you’re doing something like flipping coins). Finally, Silver erroneously assumed that the stages were independent of one another. In a political campaign, success at one stage can improve the odds of success at the next stage—or diminish them. The probability of success at any stage is dependent on prior outcomes. By the time the campaign got to the “Endgame” stage, for example the probability that Trump’s nomination could be stopped by party leaders was drastically less than 50 percent. Silver wasn’t doing statistical modeling, he was doing back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Most of the time, Silver actually does use statistical models, which generally deal with the aggregation and weighting of polling data—they’re snapshots of voter opinion. Flying more under the radar, perhaps because it is less well understood by political journalists, is the role of data mining analytics, which gives candidates the tools to actually do something about voter opinion. These statistical methods first appeared on the scene in the 2004 Kerry campaign. Before then campaigns thought of targeting exclusively in terms of groups: one message might be targeted at women under thirty, another at recent immigrants, another at rural whites, and so on.
The application of data mining methods to politics means that messaging could be targeted to individuals—Irma Smith might get one message, Harold Jones another. These methods are the political cousin of the same techniques that have been around somewhat longer in business, government, military, medical and other applications. Marketers use them to decide, for example, which online ad you are most likely to click on. Insurance companies use them to guess whether a claim is fraudulent. In politics, analysts use these techniques to guess two things about you: which candidate you favor, and whether you are likely to vote. In this way persuasion messaging and get-out-the-vote efforts can be targeted where they will do the most good (and can avoid harm!).
Now you might think that one hardly needs statistics for this: just look up whether someone is registered as a Democrat or Republican, and how often they vote (both are publicly available). Indeed, just using those two variables buys you a lot of predictive power, and, in an election that is not close, you probably don’t need the added benefits of “microtargeting.”
However, in a close election, that extra bit of predictive power that you can get from bringing numerous variables into a statistical model can make a big difference. In addition to voting behavior, consultants will consider consumer data (e.g. subscriptions to newspapers), demographic information, and census information about the neighborhood in which the voter lives. Use of predictive statistical models is widely viewed as a key contributor to Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012.
What about 2016? Ted Cruz was the candidate who embraced these techniques earliest and most comprehensively. And he lost in a bitter contest with Trump, who seemed to be following the model of free publicity for celebrities: whether the coverage is positive or negative matters little, as long as they spell your name correctly.
But Trump did have an analytics operation in the primary season. Its job was to identify and turn out (though not necessarily persuade) disaffected citizens who are not regular voters.
Where did Trump get the statistical models to do this? Not from the Republicans—Trump was seeking his voters from outside the GOP fold. He used statistical models created by the same firm that produced them for Kerry and Obama: HayStaqDNA, the creation of Ken Strasma. Strasma was unaware of Trump’s use of the models, which were obtained via a third-party vendor.
Strasma, who continues to do political consulting but will share his methods with anyone in his online Persuasion Analytics course at Statistics.com, says: “Both Sanders and Trump defied expectations by appealing to non-traditional voters. Predictions made based on polling of traditional Democratic and Republican primary voters, especially early in the campaign, dramatically under-estimated their potential. Through microtargeting they were both able to find the non-traditional voters who would support them if they could be motivated to turn out for the primary.”
So what will be the future role of statistics in politics?
Nate Silver’s persona and site are now deeply embedded in the political scene, and their owner, ESPN, will do its best to ensure that this continues to be the case. His misstep in this one case is not likely to greatly devalue ESPN’s asset.
Whether that means we can trust his projections is another matter. The demands of being a media property are great, and Silver must now produce “copy” on a daily basis, which does not always allow time for solid research. From a statistician’s perspective, he risks just becoming just another pundit, albeit one whose opinions are cloaked in numbers.
As for the future of data mining analytics in politics, it’s hard to imagine that it will go away. In highly energized campaigns like those of Trump and Sanders, it can help identify and turn out non-traditional voters. In a traditional contest, it will operate most often “at the margin,” where the seesaw is finely balanced. It is in those situations where accurately targeted individual get-out-the vote and persuasion efforts may tip the balance.CLOSE Melania Trump has refiled her lawsuit against Mail Media in New York after it was rejected in Maryland for "jurisdictional issues." USA TODAY
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at 60th Annual Red Cross Gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on Feb.4, 2017. (Photo: MANDEL NGAN, AFP/Getty Images)
First lady Melania Trump has returned to the legal battlefield against the American outpost of Britain's rowdy tabloid, The Daily Mail: She's refiled her $150 million libel lawsuit against the powerful publication, which has been comparatively friendly to her husband's political career.
It's an unprecedented move for a first lady, but Trump, 46, is going after the Mail and its website MailOnline.com because they were among several less-than-fastidious media publications that reported in August on allegations that Trump, a former model, once worked for Milan and New York modeling agencies that also operated as escort agencies.
At the time the Daily Mail story was first published in August 2016, she strongly denied those allegations as "100% false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation,” according to her lawyers' statement at the time. A month later, The Mail issued a retraction. (She also won an apology and settlement from a Maryland blogger who published a similar story.)
On Monday, the first lady refiled her lawsuit against Mail Media Inc., in New York state court, after her initial effort to file in Maryland was rejected by a judge as the wrong venue. MailOnline.com, which is based in New York, claims to be the biggest, most-read news website in the world.
A spokesman for MailOnline did not return a message from USA TODAY seeking comment.
Her lawsuit asserts the escort story damaged her chances of profiting from her high profile, which expanded when she married Donald Trump in 2005 but has soared since he was elected president in November and the Slovenian native became the first foreign-born first lady in nearly two centuries.
Trump's filing claims she "had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person, as well as a former professional model, brand spokesperson and successful businesswoman, to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.”
Those product categories could have included apparel, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care and fragrance, among others, the lawsuit says.
But hold the outrage — Trump's attorney, California media lawyer Charles Harder, insists that doesn't mean she intends to monetize her new role as critics have implied.
"The first lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so," Harder said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY. "It is not a possibility. Any statements to the contrary are being misinterpreted."
But when pressed for a reason for why her lawsuit contains such language, Harder did not respond.
Profiting from their position has not been an issue for modern first ladies, although it's not clear that doing so would be illegal given that the "job" is unofficial, undefined and unpaid.
First lady historian Myra Gutin, a professor at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.,J., says a few first ladies have participated in commercial projects in the past — books, radio broadcasts, TV programs — but they donated their pay to charity.
"It's such murky territory," Gutin said. "No, there is nothing that would prohibit her from profiting. But it would be a first."
It's also a first for a first lady to file a lawsuit, although Trump wasn't yet FLOTUS when she originally filed hers.
"It's unprecedented for a president (to file a lib |
.S. oil and steel. Many people have noted this, and singled it out as a primary cause of bringing the Pacific to a boil, while overlooking that we ourselves made sure the embargo was not rigorously enforced. FDR knew that this would convince the Japanese that our ’embargo’ was hypocritical and not what it purported to be; he gambled that they would interpret this to mean that the U.S. was preparing to attack them.
Next was the diplomatic effort to get the Dutch authorities in Java, Sumatra, etc. to assist us by doing everything possible to delay or obstruct Japanese efforts to secure long-term contracts for oil. The Dutch oil officials collaborated very well, dragging out the talks to the intense anger of their counter-party, right up to the 8th of December 1941.
Last by not least was the re-deployment of all major units of our Pacific Fleet from West Coast harbors and bases at San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco and Seattle (and even Panama) to Pearl. This was to many serving Navy officers a clear strategic mistake, and a number of them protested it.
Officers who raised these objections were quickly shunted off to obscure assignments. A few who occupied major Pacific commands were relieved and replaced. At least one senior officer, offered the Navy command at Pearl, declined it after giving his own assessment of the situation, remarking that he did not want the blame for what he expected would happen.
Stinnett describes the deliberate effort to keep Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, commanding Pacific Fleet, and Gen. Walter Short, U.S. Army Pacific in Hawaii, ‘out of the loop’ except for some vague alerts only days before the attack. Both were disgraced, degraded and discharged. Kimmel charged, in Congressional hearings during 1942, that he had been made the goat. Many older Americans recall that story. Stinnett is still angry about it. It aimed to preserve utmost secrecy in advance lest the Japanese learn that the U.S. knew what was afoot. It exemplified the prime imperative of secret services: never reveal ones sources and methods.
Finally, the still astonishing coincidence that the Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, which the attackers expected to find at anchor, departed December 6 to deliver planes to advanced bases further west. How fortunate that the most valuable naval assets were nowhere near Pearl when the bombs and torpedoes began to strike.
For that matter, why is so much still unknown, and why does so much resistance continue to hearing an alternative explanation of events, more than seventy years afterward? Many of the documents Stinnett was able to pry out of government archives had been officially declassified by the early ’90s. FDR, his opponents and detractors are dead. Stinnett was able to locate a handful of ex-Navy people who had been involved and learn their stories; all of them were gone before he published.
The reason why: Sources. And. Methods.
Successfully trick your likeliest enemy into attacking you, monitoring his actions with technological means no one knew you had, and accept a severe blow primarily to evoke the visceral outrage of your own population. At war’s end, transfer the functions and personnel of your Naval Intelligence cryptographic section to a new governmental entity called the National Security Agency, simultaneously enlarging its scope and responsibilities to cover any and all aspects of electronic communications. Destroy any prior documents. Hide its appropriations. Deny that your activities negate citizens’ rights to privacy. Assure the public: if they’re not doing anything wrong, they have nothing to fear.
When pressed, claim to have used your secret powers to forestall some number of attacks, but refuse to disclose any specifics that might compromise your sources and methods.
So, now, our present situation.
Two events have put us where we are: commercializing the Internet, and the World Trade Center attack, from which it flows that our presumptive Fourth Amendment ‘rights’ are not merely ignored, but erased.
Last Tuesday, December 17th, some of the big Internet companies — Google, Microsoft, Apple and others — met with President Obama one week after those companies and other Silicon Valley giants, usually arch rivals, united in calling for reform in government surveillance practices. Several executives, including Ms. Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, expressed concern that foreign countries may now decide to prevent all the user data generated by people in their countries from flowing to the United States. One such law has been proposed in Brazil. The executives said these laws would significantly hurt their businesses and America’s start-up economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/us/
This is reaching back to the origin of ‘privacy’ in English common law: an essential adjunct to a citizen’s privileged Private Property. Or, to spell it out for Americans, the third leg of the famous expression: Life, Liberty and the Making of Money.
Not mentioned in the report is the fact that all these companies are in one way or another making plenty of money exploiting private information they winnow from all forms of internet activity. Not at all different from the kind of Big Data that NSA gathers, except for the uses — commercial marketing — to which they put it.
Who can predict what changes, if any, will now result? Edward Snowden declares that he has achieved his objective. He has bared the details of Sources and Methods for all to see, and leaders of the surveillance establishment have lied about all of it repeatedly.
If the rest of us actually value our privacy, now is our opportunity. Otherwise, Orwell is correct: “If you want to keep a secret, you must keep it from yourself.”
Evan Yoes can be reached at: eyoesat@gmail.com.Johannesburg – Vicki Momberg, the real estate agent whose racist rant at a black police officer was caught on camera was found guilty of four counts of crimen injuria by the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Friday.
Momberg's racist tirade happened after she became the victim of a smash-and-grab robbery in Northriding, Johannesburg, in February 2016.
Magistrate Pravina Rugoonandan said on Friday that the words used by Momberg was racial and intentional. She also said Momberg knew her actions were unlawful.
Rugoonandan explained the four charges of crimen injuria against Momberg.
ALSO READ: Vicki Momberg previously charged for racist rant 11 years ago
One was for calling the 10111 hotline and calling the person who answered the phone a "f*****g k****r", and another for calling another call centre agent a "f*****g bitch".
The other was for calling the 10111 call centre agent a "useless k****r" and the last was for calling Constable David Mkhondo, who assisted her on the scene of her accident a "useless k****r" and "black bastard".
In the video clip that went public, Momberg can be heard complaining about the "calibre of blacks" in Johannesburg.
"The calibre of blacks in this town [varies] from the calibre of blacks in Durban. They're opinionated, they're arrogant, and they're just plain and simple useless. I am happy for a white person to assist me, or a coloured person, or an Indian person. I do not want a black person to assist me," she shouted.
'I will drive them over'
"Let me tell you something. This is the type of police force we have got. We've got a low calibre of people working. If I see a black person, I will drive them over. If I have a gun, I will shoot everyone," she tells the officer before driving off.
Earlier this year during her trial, she said that she would not have been able to identify the alleged smash-and-grab suspect.
"All I would have been able to say was that he was black," she testified.
ALSO READ: Black police officer’s appearance 'intimidated' me - Momberg
During the trial, Mkhondo testified that he, his supervisor and another colleague stopped at the Bel Air Shopping Centre in Northriding, north of Johannesburg, after the driver of a white VW Polo which was behind them flashed its lights.
Mkhondo said the VW Polo also stopped and a woman got out and immediately started making racist slurs.
News24 previously reported that Momberg didn't deny Mkhondo's testimony, but instead said she was "intimidated" because she had been robbed by a black man.
"I hope he (Mkhondo) will one day understand what I felt like."
LISTEN: Vicki Momberg's mother shocked at daughter's racist slurs
KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE newsletter.
- FOLLOW News24 on TwitterImage copyright AP Image caption The protesters back the EU's criticism of the government
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Warsaw to protest against the Polish government.
The protesters say the governing conservatives run an undemocratic administration that violates European values.
A smaller protest against EU interference was also held.
The Law and Justice party has drawn criticism from the European Commission for its reforms of judicial, surveillance, and media laws.
The government passed legal amendments late last year which change the way the Constitutional Court operates.
The changes require a two-thirds majority of the 15 judges to support a ruling for it to be valid, and also stipulate a quorum of 13 judges for rulings to be valid.
Why is Poland worrying the EU?
Government takes control of state media
Critics have said the changes mean the court is now unable to examine government legislation, and the issue has sparked mass protests in Poland.
The Council of Europe says changes undermine the rule of law, and the European Commission has launched an inquiry into changes to the Constitutional Court and media laws.
Recently approved media laws have placed public radio and TV under a new national media council and have given the treasury minister the right to hire and fire management.President Obama called Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE early Wednesday morning after the billionaire's stunning victory in the presidential election, according to NBC News.
Kellyanne Conway tells me President Obama called Trump tonight. She did not know what they said. — Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 9, 2016
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the network she did not know what the two men said to each other.
Trump's victory was a devastating blow to Obama, who campaigned hard to elect Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE.
Obama repeatedly warned that Trump was "uniquely unqualified" to serve as president due to his erratic temperament and comments about women and minorities.
But the president's warnings ultimately weren't enough to help Clinton win.The present investigation sought to determine whether CBDA can (i) inhibit LiCl‐induced conditioned gaping to a flavour and to a context in rats in a 5‐HT 1A receptor‐dependent manner; (ii) prevent toxin‐induced vomiting in house musk shrews; and (iii) enhance activation of 5‐HT 1A receptors in rat brainstem membranes. We also investigated whether CBDA can suppress motion‐induced vomiting in shrews. Our overall objective was to explore the possibility that CBDA might inhibit vomiting and conditioned gaping and enhance 5‐HT 1A receptor activation with greater potency or selectivity, and/or over a wider dose range, than CBD. Some of the results described in this paper have been presented to the International Cannabinoid Research Society (Bolognini et al., 2012 ).
CBD is formed in cannabis from an acidic precursor, cannabidiolic acid (CBDA; Potter et al., 2008 ), the isolation from cannabis and structure of which was reported in 1965 (Mechoulam and Gaoni, 1965 ). In harvested cannabis, CBDA (Figure 1 ) gradually loses its carboxyl group to form CBD, a process that can be greatly accelerated by heating or burning cannabis, as happens when it is smoked. Currently, much more is known about the pharmacological actions of CBD, which are numerous (reviewed in Pertwee, 2008 ; Fernández‐Ruiz et al., 2012 ), than about those of CBDA. There is already evidence, however, that CBDA shares the ability of CBD to activate the transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channels, TRPV1 and TRPA1, and to antagonize TRPM8 (De Petrocellis et al., 2008; 2011 ). Importantly, however, CBDA produces these effects with significantly less potency than CBD. Indeed, the concentration ranges at which CBD targets all of these cation channels, except TRPV1, overlap with the concentration (100 nM) at which it increases the E max of 8‐OH‐DPAT in rat brainstem membranes (Rock et al., 2012 ). At 1 μM, both CBD and CBDA have also been shown to produce a significant downward shift in log concentration–response curve of the GPR55 agonist, L‐α‐lysophosphatidylinositol, for its stimulation of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in human GPR55‐transfected HEK293 cells (Anavi‐Goffer et al., 2012 ). Furthermore, CBDA has been found to affect the contractility of gastrointestinal tissue of house musk shrews in vitro, as indicated by its ability, at 10 μM, to reduce both the magnitude of contractions induced by carbachol or by electrical field stimulation and the tension of intestinal segments that had been pre‐contracted with potassium chloride (Cluny et al., 2011 ). In addition, Takeda et al. ( 2008 ) have reported that CBDA is a selective inhibitor of COX‐2, an enzyme expressed by cells undergoing inflammation; more recently, however, Ruhaak et al. ( 2011 ) found that CBDA did not inhibit this enzyme, prompting a need for further research.
We have shown previously that CBD can also target CB 1 receptors with significant potency. For example, in experiments performed with mouse whole brain membranes, we found that CBD (1 μM) can antagonize the cannabinoid receptor agonist, CP55940, in the [ 35 S]GTPγS‐binding assay with an apparent K B of 79 nM. This value is close to the concentration (100 nM) at which CBD increases the maximal effect ( E max ) of 8‐OH‐DPAT in rat brainstem membranes (Rock et al., 2012 ), but significantly below the K i value of CBD (4.9 μM) for its displacement of CP55940 from specific binding sites in mouse whole brain membranes (Thomas et al., 2007 ). In view of the ability of CBD to interact with CB 1 receptors, it is also noteworthy that its ability to suppress vomiting in house musk shrews is not blocked by the selective cannabinoid CB 1 receptor antagonist, SR141716A (Parker et al., 2004 ).
Several findings that we recently made (Rock et al., 2012 ) support the hypothesis that CBD attenuates toxin‐induced vomiting in shrews and signs of nausea in rats through indirect agonism of 5‐HT 1A receptors located in the brainstem. First, each of these effects of CBD can be prevented by the administration of a selective 5‐HT 1A receptor antagonist, either WAY100135 or WAY100635. Second, CBD displays significant potency at enhancing the ability of the selective 5‐HT 1A receptor agonist, 8‐OH‐DPAT, to stimulate [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to rat brainstem membranes. Third, when co‐administered with 8‐OH‐DPAT, CBD suppresses LiCl‐induced signs of nausea in rats in an apparently synergistic manner. It is also noteworthy that a number of other in vivo effects of CBD seem to be 5‐HT 1A receptor mediated and that the log dose–response curve of CBD for the production of these effects is bell shaped (Mishima et al., 2005 ; Campos and Guimarães, 2008 ; Zanelati et al., 2010 ; Gomes et al., 2011 ; Maione et al., 2011 ). As to the ability of CBD to reduce signs of toxin‐induced nausea in rats, we have postulated that this results from CBD‐induced enhancement of the activation of somatodendritic 5‐HT 1A receptors in the dorsal raphe nucleus, as activation of these receptors is expected to reduce the release of nausea‐inducing 5‐HT in forebrain regions (Rock et al., 2012 ).
It has also been found in a phase II clinical trial that Sativex, a medicine that contains the phytocannabinoids, Δ 9 ‐tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ 9 ‐THC) and CBD, was both effective in reducing the incidence of chemotherapy‐induced nausea and vomiting, and well tolerated by patients (Duran et al., 2010 ). It should be noted, however, that the log dose–response curves for the anti‐emetic effects produced by CBD in house musk shrews are biphasic. Thus, CBD suppresses acute cisplatin‐induced vomiting at 5 mg·kg −1, but potentiates it at 40 mg·kg −1 (Kwiatkowska et al., 2004 ). Similarly, acute vomiting elicited by LiCl is suppressed by low doses of CBD (5–10 mg·kg −1 ), whereas higher doses (20–40 mg·kg −1 ) of this phytocannabinoid act to facilitate LiCl‐induced vomiting, rather than to reduce its expression (Parker et al., 2004 ). This narrow range of CBD efficacy may limit its clinical use as an anti‐emetic.
The cannabis plant is a natural source of at least 70 compounds known collectively as phytocannabinoids, and there is convincing evidence that one of these, cannabidiol (CBD; Figure 1 ), can suppress nausea and vomiting. CBD can reduce vomiting in Suncus murinus (house musk shrew) produced by nicotine, cisplatin or lithium chloride (LiCl, Kwiatkowska et al., 2004 ; Parker et al., 2004 ; Rock et al., 2011; 2012 ), although not by motion (Cluny et al., 2008 ). It can also reduce the establishment of conditioned gaping reactions (Grill and Norgren, 1978a, b ) elicited by a LiCl‐paired flavour, a model of nausea‐induced behaviour in rats (see Parker and Limebeer, 2008 for review). Unlike conditioned taste avoidance, which can be produced by rewarding drugs as well as by emetic drugs, conditioned gaping reactions are only produced in rats by drugs that induce vomiting in emetic species, such as shrews (Parker, 2003 ; Parker et al., 2008 ). In addition, in a rodent model of anticipatory nausea evident in chemotherapy patients returning to the treatment‐paired context, CBD (unlike traditional anti‐emetics) effectively suppresses the expression of conditioned gaping elicited by LiCl‐paired contextual cues (Rock et al., 2008 ).
Values have been expressed as means and variability as SEM or as 95% confidence limits. The concentration of 8‐OH‐DPAT or CBDA that produced a 50% displacement of [ 3 H]8‐OH‐DPAT or [ 3 H]CP55940 from specific binding sites (IC 50 values) was calculated using GraphPad Prism and the corresponding K i value of CP55940 was calculated using the equation of Cheng and Prusoff ( 1973 ). Values for EC 50, E max and SEM or 95% confidence limits of these values have been calculated by non‐linear regression analysis using the equation for a sigmoidal dose–response curve (GraphPad Prism). The apparent dissociation constant ( K B ) value of CBDA for its antagonism of CP55940 in the [ 35 S]GTPγS‐binding assay has been calculated by Schild analysis (Graph Pad Prism). Mean values were compared with zero by column statistics analysis using the Wilcoxon signed rank test (GraphPad Prism 5.0). P ‐values <0.05 were considered significant.
Assays were carried out with [ 3 H]8‐OH‐DPAT or [ 3 H]CP55940 and Tris‐binding buffer (50 mM Tris–HCl, 50 mM Tris‐Base, 0.1% BSA; pH 7.4), total assay volume of 500 μL, using the filtration procedure described previously by Ross et al. ( 1999 ). Binding was initiated by the addition of rat brainstem membranes (500 μg protein per well), for experiments with [ 3 H]8‐OH‐DPAT, or of mouse whole brain membranes (33 μg protein per well), for experiments with [ 3 H]CP55940. All assays were performed at 37°C for 60 min before termination by addition of ice‐cold Tris‐binding buffer and vacuum filtration using a 24‐well sampling manifold (Brandel Cell Harvester) and Brandel GF/B filters that had been soaked in wash buffer at 4°C for at least 24 h. Each reaction well was washed six times with a 1.2 mL aliquot of Tris‐binding buffer. The filters were oven dried for 60 min and then placed in 5 mL of scintillation fluid (Ultima Gold XR). Radioactivity was quantified by liquid scintillation spectrometry. Specific binding was defined as the difference between the binding that occurred in the presence and absence of 1 μM unlabelled 8‐OH‐DPAT or CP55940. The concentration of [ 3 H]8‐OH‐DPAT and [ 3 H]CP55940 used in these displacement assays was 0.7 nM. Compounds under investigation were stored at −20°C as stock solutions of 10 mM in DMSO, the VEH concentration in all assay wells being 0.1% DMSO. The binding parameters for [ 3 H]CP55940, determined by fitting data from saturation‐binding experiments to a one‐site saturation plot using GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA), were 2336 fmol·mg −1 protein ( B max ) and 2.31 nM ( K d ) (Thomas et al., 2004 ).
These assays were carried out with rat brainstem or mouse whole brain membranes (100 and 5 μg protein per well respectively), GTPγS‐binding buffer (50 mM Tris–HCl; 50 mM Tris‐Base; 5 mM MgCl 2 ; 1 mM EDTA; 100 mM NaCl; 1 mM dithiothreitol; 0.1% BSA), 0.1 nM [ 35 S]GTPγS and 30 μM GDP, in a final volume of 500 μL (Thomas et al., 2005 ). Membranes were pre‐incubated for 30 min at 30°C with 0.5 U·mL −1 adenosine deaminase (200 U·mL −1 ) to remove any endogenous adenosine. Binding was initiated by the addition of [ 35 S]GTPγS. Non‐specific binding was measured in the presence of 30 μM GTPγS. Assays were performed at 30°C for 60 min. The reaction was terminated by the addition of ice‐cold Tris‐binding buffer and vacuum filtration using a 24‐well sampling manifold (Brandel Cell Harvester; Brandel, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, USA) and Whatman GF/B glass fibre filters that had been soaked in wash buffer at 4°C for 24 h. Each reaction tube was washed three times with a 4 mL aliquot of buffer. The filters were oven dried for 60 min and then placed in 5 mL of scintillation fluid (Ultima Gold XR; PerkinElmer, Buckinghamshire, UK). Radioactivity was quantified by liquid scintillation spectrometry.
Values have been expressed as means and variability as SEM. In the house musk shrew studies, the effect of CBDA on emesis was analysed using an independent t ‐test or one‐way anova followed by a Bonferroni or Dunnett's multiple comparison post hoc test. In the rat studies, the number of gapes or hedonic reactions was analysed using a one‐way anova and planned comparison tests. Statistical comparisons of the amounts of saccharin consumed during conditioned taste avoidance tests by different groups of rats were made by using either a 5 × 3 mixed factors anova, or in the experiments with WAY100635, a 4 × 3 mixed factors anova. For all analyses, P ‐values <0.05 were considered significant.
The induction and quantification of the emetic response to motion have been described previously (Cluny et al., 2008 ). Briefly, six linked transparent compartments [100 mm (width) × 150 mm (length) × 150 mm (height)] are placed on a track that moves horizontally at a frequency of 1 Hz and amplitude of 40 mm. This motion induces emetic episodes, each of which consists of a bout of retching that involves strong repeated abdominal contractions accompanied by wide opening of the mouth and, initially, also by the passage of matter from the upper gastrointestinal tract. In this investigation, shrews ( n = 6–18) were administered CBDA (0.02, 0.1 or 0.5 mg·kg −1 ) or VEH i.p. They were then immediately placed individually in a compartment of the shaker and monitored over a 45 min period for any signs of emesis and for any other overt behavioural changes. Motion was then applied to the compartments for 10 min during which the number of emetic episodes and the latency of onset of the first of these episodes were noted. If no emetic episodes were observed, the latency of onset was recorded as 600 s. Animals were observed for a further 2 min before being returned to their housing cage.
A distinctive context was created by exposing rats to location, visual and tactile cues different from those to which they were being subjected in their home cage environment. This was achieved by placing a ‘contextual’ conditioning chamber in a dark room next to a 25 W light source. This chamber was made of black opaque Plexiglas, but was in all other respects identical to the one used in the LiCl‐induced conditioned gaping experiments. The rats underwent four conditioning trials, during which the contextual chamber was paired with 127 mg·kg −1 LiCl. In every conditioning trial, each rat was injected with LiCl and immediately placed in the distinctive context for a 30 min period. This procedure was repeated four times, with a 72 h interval between each conditioning trial. For the test trial, rats were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups ( n = 10): SAL‐CBDA, WAY100635‐CBDA, SAL‐VEH, WAY100635‐VEH. CBDA or VEH was administered 15 min after SAL or WAY100635. Forty‐five min later, rats were individually placed in the contextual chamber for a period of 5 min during which their orofacial responses were video recorded using a mirror located beneath the chamber.
The rats were treated exactly as in the experiment with WAY100635 described in the previous section, except that they received an injection of either SR141716A (1 mg·kg −1 ) or VEH 15 min prior to the pretreatment injection of CBDA (0.1 mg·kg −1 ) or VEH. Rats were subjected to one or other of the following treatments: SAL‐VEH ( n = 12), SAL‐CBDA ( n = 12), SR141716A‐VEH ( n = 6) or SR141716A‐CBDA ( n = 6).
Seventy two hr later, all the rats were tested drug‐free. They were again intraorally infused with 0.1% saccharin solution at a rate of 1 mL·min −1 over a 2 min period, during which their orofacial responses were video recorded. Rats were then returned to their home cages. The videotapes were later scored (at ½ speed) by an observer blind to the experimental conditions using ‘The Observer’ (Noldus Information Technology, Inc., Leesburg, VA, USA) for the behaviours of gaping (large openings of the mouth and jaw, with lower incisors exposed) and of tongue protrusions.
All rats were surgically implanted with an intraoral cannula under isoflurane anaesthesia as described by Limebeer et al. ( 2010 ). Following recovery from surgery (at least 3 days), each rat was subjected to an adaptation trial for which it was placed in the taste reactivity chamber with its cannula attached to an infusion pump (Model KDS100; KD Scientific, Holliston, MA, USA) for fluid delivery. The taste reactivity chambers were made of clear Plexiglas (22.5 × 26 × 20 cm) and placed on a table with a clear glass top. A mirror beneath each chamber facilitated viewing of the ventral surface of the rat and hence of any orofacial responses. Water was infused into the intraoral cannula of each rat for 2 min at a rate of 1 mL·min −1. On the day following this adaptation trial, the rats were subjected to a conditioning trial in which they received i.p. pretreatment injections of VEH ( n = 12) or of one of four doses of CBDA (0.01 mg·kg −1, n = 8; 0.1 mg·kg −1, n = 12; 0.5 mg·kg −1, n = 7; 5.0 mg·kg −1, n = 8). Forty‐five min after the pretreatment injection, each rat was individually placed in the taste reactivity chamber and intraorally infused with 0.1% saccharin solution for 2 min at a rate of 1 mL·min −1 while any orofacial responses were observed using a mirror located beneath the chambers. These responses were monitored using a video camera (Sony DCR‐HC48; Henry's Cameras, Waterloo, ON, Canada) fire wired into a computer. Immediately after the saccharin infusion, all rats were injected with 20 mL·kg −1 of 0.15 M LiCl and returned to their home cage.
Shrews were transferred from the colony room to an empty cage in the experimental room that contained four meal worms. After 15 min they were injected with CBDA or VEH. In experiment A, they received an injection of either CBDA, at a dose of 0.05 mg·kg −1 ( n = 8), 0.1 mg·kg −1 ( n = 8), 0.5 mg·kg −1 ( n = 6), or 5 mg·kg −1 ( n = 8), or VEH ( n = 6), followed 45 min later by an injection of LiCl (390 mg·kg −1 ). In experiment B, shrews were injected with 0.5 mg·kg −1 CBDA ( n = 8), a dose found to be effective in experiment A, or with VEH ( n = 8), 45 min before receiving an injection of cisplatin (20 mg·kg −1 ). Shrews were then immediately put individually into an observation chamber for 45 min in the LiCl experiment or for 70 min in the cisplatin experiment. The Plexiglas observation chambers (22.5 × 26 × 20 cm) were placed on a table with a clear glass top. A mirror beneath the chamber facilitated viewing of the ventral surface of each shrew and hence of all vomiting episodes. The frequency of these episodes was counted by an observer blind to the experimental conditions.
Samples of CBDA extracted from cannabis were provided by GW Pharmaceuticals (Porton Down, Wiltshire, UK), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) by Sigma‐Aldrich (Poole, Dorset, UK), and ethanol, Cremophor, LiCl, cisplatin and WAY100635 by Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). In both the LiCl‐ and cisplatin‐induced emesis experiments, performed in Guelph with shrews, and the LiCl‐induced gaping experiments, performed in Guelph with rats, CBDA was prepared in a vehicle (VEH) consisting of a 1:1:18 mixture of ethanol, Cremophor and saline (SAL) and was administered i.p. in a volume of 2 mL·kg −1. This VEH and injection volume were also used for SR141716A, which was administered to rats i.p. at a dose (1 mg·kg −1 ) expected to reverse the effects of CB 1 agonists (e.g. Vlachou et al., 2003 ), without potentiating the aversive effects of LiCl (Parker et al., 2003 ). In the motion‐induced emesis experiments, performed in Bradford with shrews, CBDA was prepared in a VEH of 2% DMSO in distilled water and administered i.p. in a volume of 10 mL·kg −1. LiCl was prepared as a 0.15 M solution with sterile water and administered i.p. in a volume of 60 mL·kg −1 (390 mg·kg −1 ) to shrews (see Parker et al., 2004 ) and in a volume of 20 mL·kg −1 (127.2 mg·kg −1 ) to rats. Cisplatin was prepared as a 1 mg·mL −1 solution in SAL and was administered to shrews i.p., in a volume of 20 mL·kg −1 (20 mg·kg −1 ). WAY100635 (0.1 mg·mL −1 ) was prepared in SAL and administered to rats i.p in a volume of 1 mL·kg −1 (0.1 mg·kg −1 ).
Animal procedures complied with the Canadian Council on Animal Care and the National Institutes of Health guidelines or the UK Animals Act (Scientific Procedures) 1986. The protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care Committee, which is accredited by the Canadian Council on Animal Care or by the University of Bradford animal ethics committee. Toxin‐induced emesis experiments were performed with male (36.5–45.8 g) and female (18.9–29.3 g) house musk shrews ( S. murinus ), aged 87–815 days at the time of testing, that had been bred and raised at the University of Guelph. They were single housed in cages in a colony room at an ambient temperature of 22°C on a 10/14 h light‐dark schedule (lights off at 19:00 h). Shrews were tested during their light cycle. Motion‐induced emesis experiments were performed with male (60–80 g) house musk shrews ( S. murinus ) that had been bred and raised at the University of Bradford colony. They were housed up to three to a cage at 22°C on a 10.5/13.5 h light‐dark schedule with lights off at 19:00 h (on at 08:30 h). All studies involving animals are reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting experiments involving animals (Kilkenny et al., 2010 ; McGrath et al., 2010 ).
Panel (A) Effect of CBDA on specific binding of [ 3 H]CP55940 to mouse whole brain membranes ( n = 6). Its mean K i value with the 95% confidence limits of this value shown in parentheses is 0.9 μM (0.7 and 1.3 μM). Panel (B) Effect of 10 μM CBDA on CP55940‐induced stimulation of [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to mouse whole brain membranes. The mean EC 50 and E max values of CP55940 with their 95% confidence limits shown in parentheses are 12.4 nM (4.3 and 35.8 nM; n = 8) and 64.5% (52.5 and 76.5%), respectively, in the presence of VEH (DMSO), and 66.6 nM (27.0 and 164 nM; n = 8) and 63.3% (53.7 and 72.9%), respectively, in the presence of 10 μM CBDA. The mean apparent K B value of CBDA for this antagonism with its 95% confidence limits shown in parentheses is 1.8 μM (0.6 and 5.5 μM). Panel (C) Effect of CBDA on [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to mouse whole brain membranes ( n = 16). None of the five mean values shown are significantly different from zero (column statistics analysis; P > 0.05).
CBDA displaced [ 3 H]CP55940 from specific binding sites on mouse whole brain membranes and antagonized stimulation of [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to these membranes induced by the selective cannabinoid receptor agonist, CP55940 (Figure 9 A,B). These mean K i and K B values, with their 95% confidence limits shown in parentheses, are 0.9 μM (0.7 and 1.3 μM) and 1.8 μM (0.6 and 5.5 μM) respectively. CBDA neither stimulated nor inhibited [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to mouse whole brain membranes when administered by itself at concentrations ranging from 1 nM to 10 μM ( n = 10). CBDA concentrations of 1, 10, 100, 1000 and 10 000 nM did not alter [ 35 S]GTPγS binding to a value that was significantly different from zero (column statistics analysis |
held in Budapest was concerning the threat posed by Iran. Israel has raised multiple times in the past the concern that Iran was entrenching its stronghold in the region by providing its proxies military help that can be used against the Jewish state.In particular, Israel is wary of Tehran's collaboration with Lebanon-based, Shi'ite terror organization Hezbollah. ''I told Putin-- if we see Iran by our border passing weapon to Hezbollah, we'll take military action,'' Netanyahu said.''We've done this [in the past] a dozen times,'' Netanyahu said, referencing Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah military targets in retaliation for the terror organization's attempt to arm up, which constitutes a grave security risk to Israel.The Prime Minister's Office has yet to comment on these statements that were erroneously leaked to the media, but they are sure to be followed up by backlash.The Jerusalem Post cannot independently verify the recordings at this time.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>Amid all the chaos and confusion of the Trump administration, one certainty abides: Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not like pot.
The former Alabama senator once joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "ok" until he found out they smoked weed. During a 2016 Senate hearing, he called marijuana a dangerous drug. He also didn't shy away from Reefer Madness-era moralizing: "Good people," he said, "don't smoke marijuana."
Federal law shares Sessions' sentiment. The US still bans marijuana outright, placing it in the same category as heroin and cocaine. But these days, opposing pot is bad politics. During the November election, marijuana legalization polled better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In Colorado, which has legalized both medicinal and recreational marijuana, one report found the industry added $2.4 billion and 18,000 jobs to the local economy in 2015. Even the staunchly conservative Florida governor Rick Scott has approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana for the terminally ill. Sending federal agents to raid marijuana dispensaries in the 29 states that have legalized weed in one way or another only seems likely to alienate voters.
"Does the GOP really want to piss off the senior citizens of Florida?" says Micah Tapman, who runs the Colorado-based cannabis startup incubator Canopy.
Tapman isn't betting on it. What worries cannabis entrepreneurs like him most isn't some blatant crackdown on dispensaries, but a more surreptitious war on drugs, in which government overseers like the Department of Labor or the Internal Revenue Service catch cannabis companies slipping up on the more mundane details of complying with laws around safety, environmental standards, and taxes. In other words, to stop pot, the Trump administration may find the answer in what it ostensibly despises most: government regulation.
Which, ironically enough, presents its own business opportunity. Today, there are businesses like Front Range Biosciences that test the quality of different growers' cannabis. Adistry, meanwhile, ensures cannabis companies are compliant with advertising restrictions. Other startups help businesses track the product through the supply chain, manage wholesale orders, and yes, even handle payroll—all so marijuana companies can focus on selling a product that could still technically land their proprietors in federal prison.
Complying with local and state regulations is already a migraine-inducing experience for most any small business, much less one trafficking in a federally banned substance. Laws limit where and how marijuana sellers can advertise. They require dispensaries to track and trace all cannabis products from "seed to sale." Even something as simple as paying employees poses challenges for these businesses, since big banks, still bound by federal law, can't work with payroll providers that service cannabis companies. If the federal government decides to pile on with a new regulatory war on drugs, marijuana entrepreneurs may need help. And so startups are springing up to provide it.
"There are a lot of ways they can stick their fingers in the industry without having the DEA go after the industry," says Keegan Peterson, CEO of Wurk, a payroll and compliance firm that works with legal marijuana companies. "It's created a lot of work for us."
Keeping the Books
Sessions has so far exercised caution as he tiptoes into the pot policy arena. He appears poised to keep in place the 2013 Cole memorandum, guidelines laid out by the Obama-era Justice Department that instructed federal prosecutors and law enforcement to de-prioritize cases against marijuana businesses that were following state law. Still, it's clear Sessions sees marijuana as a scourge. "Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life," he said during a speech in March.
For people like Peterson, Sessions' anti-pot animus suggests that while he may not seek to upend the industry entirely, he plans to keep a close eye on it. "They have made clear that they're going to make sure the businesses that are operating are following the law," Peterson says. And that likelihood has been a boon for the burgeoning cannabis compliance industry.
"All of these things say to a Department of Justice that’s unfriendly, 'Look, we understand you disagree, but we're being responsible,'" says Tapman. "We’re going 60 in a 55."
For would-be pot entrepreneurs, it's a different world than the one Steve DeAngelo stepped into when he opened Harborside Health, one of California's first dispensaries, in 2006. Back then, DeAngelo had to build his own laboratory to monitor the plants' quality and develop software that could follow it through the supply chain. Now, he says, "There’s been a sea change when you look at the kind of support resources available to a legal cannabis business today."
And yet, industry leaders know that Sessions now holds the power to overturn that progress. Just last week, they saw how impermanent the country's current drug enforcement rules are when Sessions directed federal prosecutors to pursue the "most serious, readily provable offense" in their cases. In doing so, Sessions effectively reversed the Obama-era drift toward doing away with mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenders.
"It brings to mind the department's ability to make quick decisions that affect a very large percentage of people," Peterson says. "That’s the organization that controls the future of the cannabis industry."
That future is still very much in flux. For now, the most the industry can do to prepare for such uncertainty is to keep its books in order.House Conservatives are trying to play it cool after House Freedom Caucus member Rep. John M. “Mick” Mulvaney (R.-S.C.) met with President-elect Donald J. Trump Monday about his leading Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, one of the most powerful positions in the White House and the federal bureaucracy.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) told Breitbart News: “Mick is whip-smart and has been deeply involved in the budget process to establish a more effective and accountable government. He’d be terrific for the job.”
A Republican congressman, who asked not to be identified for this story, told Breitbart News Mulvaney had an excellent interview at Trump Tower and everyone is just standing by.
Another Capitol Hill source told Breitbart News Mulvaney’s meeting with the president-elect was short and businesslike, but when Mulvaney met with the most senior members of Trump’s team, the meeting went longer than an hour and became an in-depth conversation about the federal budget process and how to take on the federal bureaucracy. Taming regulation and the federal bureaucracy are stated priorities of the president-elect.
Through a spokesman, Mulvaney declined to speak to Breitbart News, citing his desire to keep his dealings with the presidential transition team confidential.
Mulvaney may be reluctant to speak, but his colleagues eagerly shared their enthusiasm for his intelligence, work ethic, and commitment to the conservative agenda.
Another member of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Timothy A. Huelskamp (R.-Kansas), who said he spoke to the Trump team about being the head of the Agriculture Department, told Breitbart News Mulvaney understands the realities of the federal budget. “The old saying is that a vision without funding is an illusion–Mick understands that.”
The Kansas congressman, who lost his August primary to a challenger backed by leadership, said Mulvaney would bring another dimension to the job. “They say I’m an &ssh@le, well, he’s an &ssh@le, which is what you need in that job.”
Chairman of the House Rules Committee Rep. Peter A. “Pete” Sessions (R.-Texas) said he admires the graduate of Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s law school.
“Mick Mulvaney is a very disciplined, thoughtful, artful guy, who has exhibited his intellect and desire for service well beyond being a member of Congress,” Sessions said.
Trump would be making the right choice if he brought Mulvaney into his White House to run OMB, Sessions said, adding:
I have known several heads of OMB’s, up to and including one of my very dear friends, Jimmy Nussle, and one of my friends, who is Rob Portman, who served over and around there–I just want you to know, Mick Mulvaney will bring not only conservative credentials, but he’ll bring hard work and being a smart guy–we will miss him tremendously, but the advantage would be to the American public and confidence that he would bring to an important job.
In addition to overseeing the development and presentation of the president’s budget proposal to Congress and the monitoring of budget trends, the OMB director has go-no-go authority over all federal regulations on behalf of the president.
The first Navy SEAL to serve in Congress, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R.-Mont.), told Breitbart News OMB needs to be reformed–or as he put it: “OMB? It needs to be taken out and beat up and Mick is just the perfect guy for that because he is relentless and he is a strong conservative–OMB is part of the problem.”Remember last year when John Travolta introduced Idina Menzel’s Frozen performance at the Oscars and said, “Please welcome the wicked-ly talented, the one and only, Adele Dazeem.”
It never gets old.
And boy, did we have fun with it. For a year, Adele Dazeem was the gift that kept on giving. Later, Travolta apologized and said, "I've been beating myself up all...Then I thought...what would Idina Menzel say? She'd say, Let it go, let it go!”
NEWS: Travolta and Scarlett Johansson are Oscar’s most awkward couple
And we almost did. But then it was time for the Academy Awards again and the inevitable Adele Dazeem jokes that would come with it. Except this time was so much...weirder.
First, host Neil Patrick Harris made a joke about how Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t just the most awesome name in show business, it’s also “the sound you get when you ask John Travolta to pronounce Ben Affleck.”
Giggle giggle. How fun is this?
Then Menzel came onstage and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage my very dear friend Glom Gazingo.” That was Travolta’s cue and the two came out, hugged, and everyone had a good chuckle.
Ya got him, Idina Menzel! Ya got him!
NEWS: Here’s the complete list of winners from the 2015 Oscars!
“I deserve that,” he said. Then he grabbed her face and continued, “But you, you my darling, my beautiful, my wickedly talented Idina Menzel. Is that right?” And we were all like WTF is happening? Let her go? This is super f*cking uncomfortable?
“You got it...” she (kind of? But not really?) giggled. “It’s not like it’s going to follow me around for the rest of my life or anything.”
Travolta chimed in, “Yeah, tell me about it.” And that was all just the worst. We promise we’ll never laugh at anything ever again. We’re sorry!
Related GalleryThis article is about the first-sale doctrine as applied to copyright. For the analogous doctrine applicable to patents, see Exhaustion doctrine
The first-sale doctrine is a legal concept playing an important role in U.S. copyright and trademark law by limiting certain rights of a copyright or trademark owner. The doctrine enables the distribution chain of copyrighted products, library lending, giving, video rentals and secondary markets for copyrighted works (for example, enabling individuals to sell their legally purchased books or CDs to others). In trademark law, this same doctrine enables reselling of trademarked products after the trademark holder put the products on the market. The doctrine is also referred to as the "right of first sale," "first sale rule," or "exhaustion rule."
The term "first sale" comes from the concept that the copyright owner's exclusive right to distribute a particular copy (such as a particular copy of a book) comes to an end when the copyright owner makes its first sale of the book. After that initial transfer of title of the copy, the new owner of the copy can generally distribute that particular copy without further authorization of the copyright holder.[1]
The first-sale doctrine is one of the limitations and exceptions to copyright.
Overview [ edit ]
Copyright law grants a copyright owner an exclusive right "to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending." 17 U.S.C. 106(3). This is called a "distribution right" and differs from the copyright owner's "reproduction right" which involves making copies of the copyrighted works. Rather than the right to copy, the distribution right involves the right to transfer physical copies or phonorecords (i.e., recorded music) of the copyrighted work. For example, the distribution right could be infringed when a retailer acquires and sells to the public unlawfully made audio or video tapes. Although the retailer may not have copied the work in any way and may not have known that the tapes were made unlawfully, he nevertheless infringes the distribution right by the sale. The distribution right allows the copyright owner to seek redress from any member in the chain of distribution.
The first-sale doctrine creates a basic exception to the copyright holder's distribution right. Once the work is lawfully sold or even transferred gratuitously, the copyright owner's interest in the material object in which the copyrighted work is embodied is exhausted. The owner of the material object can then dispose of it as he sees fit. Thus, one who buys a copy of a book is entitled to resell it, rent it, give it away, or destroy it. However, the owner of the copy of the book will not be able to make new copies of the book because the first-sale doctrine does not limit copyright owner's reproduction right. The rationale of the doctrine is to prevent the copyright owner from restraining the free alienability of goods. Without the doctrine, a possessor of a copy of a copyrighted work would have to negotiate with the copyright owner every time he wished to dispose of his copy. After the initial transfer of ownership of a legal copy of a copyrighted work, the first-sale doctrine exhausts copyright holder's right to control how ownership of that copy can be disposed of. For this reason, this doctrine is also referred to as the "exhaustion rule."
The doctrine was first recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1908 (see Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus) and subsequently codified in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 109. In the Bobbs-Merrill case, the publisher, Bobbs-Merrill, had inserted a notice in its books that any retail sale at a price under $1.00 would constitute an infringement of its copyright. The defendants, who owned Macy's department store, disregarded the notice and sold the books at a lower price without Bobbs-Merrill's consent. The Supreme Court held that the exclusive statutory right to "vend" applied only to the first sale of the copyrighted work.
Section 109(a) provides: "Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106 (3), the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord." The elements of the first sale doctrine can be summarized as follows: (1) the copy was lawfully made with the authorization of the copyright owner; (2) ownership of the copy was initially transferred under the copyright owner's authority; (3) the defendant is a lawful owner of the copy in question; and (4) the defendant's use implicates the distribution right only; not the reproduction or some other right given to the copyright owner.
Application to public display right [ edit ]
17 U.S.C. §109(c) creates a limited exception to a copyright owner's public display right. Owners of a lawful copy of a copyrighted work can, without permission from the copyright owner, display that copy to viewers present at the place where the copy is located. For example, an owner of copy of a computer program (and only a computer program under §109(c)) cannot display the copy publicly on a website under this provision.[citation needed]
An amicus brief in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. argued that Section 109 was a key provision for US art museums:
Most U.S. art museums have permanent collections that were acquired through purchases, gifts, and bequests, and on which they draw for exhibitions to the public. Museums also present special exhibitions, largely made up of works not in their collections, through loans from private collectors, galleries, and other institutions. For all these activities museums depend on the protections afforded by Section 109. Section 109(c) provides that the owner of a particular copy "lawfully made under this title" is entitled to display that copy publicly without the copyright owner's permission. Section 109(a) similarly allows museums to buy, borrow, loan, and sell such "lawfully made" artworks.[2]
Limitations [ edit ]
The first sale doctrine only limits the distribution rights of copyright holders. This principle sometimes clashes with the holder's other rights, such as the right of reproduction & derivative work rights. For example, in Lee v. A.R.T. Co., the defendant bought plaintiff's artworks in the form of notecards and then mounted them on ceramic tiles, covering the artworks with transparent epoxy resin. Despite plaintiff's assertion of violation of his right to prepare derivative works, the 7th Circuit held that the derivative work right was not violated and that defendant's sale of the tiles was protected under the first sale doctrine. However, based on very similar facts, the 9th Circuit in Mirage Editions, Inc. v. Albuquerque A.R.T. Company held that plaintiff's right to prepare derivative works was infringed and that the first sale doctrine did not protect the defendant under such circumstances.
Application to digital copies [ edit ]
The first-sale doctrine does not neatly fit transfers of copies of digital works because an actual transfer does not actually happen – instead, the recipient receives a new copy of the work while, at the same time, the sender has the original copy (unless that copy is deleted, either automatically or manually). For example, this exact issue played out in Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc., a case involving online marketplace for pre-owned digital music.
E-books have the same issue. Because the first sale doctrine does not apply to electronic books, libraries cannot freely lend e-books indefinitely after purchase. Instead, electronic book publishers came up with business models to sell the subscriptions to the license of the text. This results in e-book publishers placing restrictions on the number of times an e-book can circulate and/or the amount of time a book is within a collection before a library's license expires, then the book no longer belongs to them.[3]
The question is whether the first-sale doctrine should be retooled to reflect the realities of the digital age. Physical copies degrade over time, whereas digital information may not. Works in digital format can be reproduced without any flaws and can be disseminated worldwide without much difficulty. Thus, applying the first sale doctrine to digital copies affects the market for the original to a greater degree than transfers of physical copies. The U.S. Copyright Office stated that "[t]he tangible nature of a copy is a defining element of the first sale doctrine and critical to its rationale."[4]
In Europe, the European Court of Justice ruled, on July 3, 2012, that it is indeed permissible to resell software licenses even if the digital good has been downloaded directly from the Internet, and that the first sale doctrine applied whenever software was originally sold to a customer for an unlimited amount of time, as such sale involves a transfer of ownership, thus prohibiting any software maker from preventing the resale of their software by any of their legitimate owners.[5][6][7] The court requires that the previous owner must no longer be able to use the licensed software after the resale, but finds that the practical difficulties in enforcing this clause should not be an obstacle to authorizing resale, as they are also present for software which can be installed from physical supports, where the first-sale doctrine is in force.[8][9] The ruling applies to the European Union, but could indirectly find its way to North America; moreover the situation could entice publishers to offer platforms for a secondary market.[6]
Ownership requirement [ edit ]
For the first sale doctrine to apply, lawful "ownership" of the copy or phonorecord is required. As §109(d) prescribes, first sale doctrine does not apply if the possession of the copy is "by rental, lease, loan, or otherwise without acquiring ownership of it."
Some software and digital content publishers claim in their end-user license agreements (EULA) that their software or content is licensed, not sold, and thus the first sale doctrine does not apply to their works. These publishers have had some success in contracting around first sale doctrine through various clickwrap, shrink wrap, and other license agreements. For example, if someone buys MP3 songs from Amazon.com, the MP3 files are merely licensed to them and hence they may not be able to resell those MP3 files. However, MP3 songs bought through iTunes Store may be characterized as "sales" because of Apple's language in its EULA and hence they may be resell-able, if other requirements of first sale doctrine are met.
Courts have struggled and taken dramatically different approaches to sort out when only a license was granted to the end user as compared to ownership. Most of these cases involved software-licensing agreements. In general, courts look beneath the surface of the agreements to conclude whether the agreements create a licensing relationship or if they amount to, in substance, sales subject to first sale doctrine under §109(a). Thus, specifying that the agreement grants only a "license" is necessary to create the licensing relationship, but not sufficient. Other terms of the agreement should be consistent with such a licensing relationship.
In Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc. the 9th Circuit created a three-factor test to decide whether a particular software licensing agreement is successful in creating a licensing relationship with the end user. The factors include: 1) whether a copyright owner specifies that a user is granted a license; 2) whether the copyright owner significantly restricts the user's ability to transfer the software to others; and 3) whether the copyright owner imposes notable use restrictions on the software. In Vernor, Autodesk's license agreement specified that it retains title to the software and the user is only granted a non-exclusive license. The agreement also had restrictions against modifying, translating, or reverse-engineering the software, or removing any proprietary marks from the software packaging or documentation. The agreement also specified that software could not be transferred or leased without Autodesk's written consent, and could not be transferred outside the Western Hemisphere. Based on these facts, the 9th Circuit held that the user is only a licensee of Autodesk's software, not an owner and hence the user could not resell the software on eBay without Autodesk's permission.
However, the same 9th Circuit panel that decided Vernor v. Autodesk, refused to apply Vernor's three-factor test in UMG v. Augusto to a purported licensing agreement created when UMG sent unsolicited promotional CDs to music critics. The promotional CDs' packaging contained the language: "This CD is the property of the record company and is licensed to the intended recipient for personal use only. Acceptance of this CD shall constitute an agreement to comply with the terms of the license. Resale or transfer of possession is not allowed and may be punishable under federal and state laws." Augusto tried to sell these CDs on eBay and UMG argued that first sale doctrine did not apply since the CDs were not sold and only a licensing relationship was created. However the court held that first sale doctrine applies when a copy is given away and that recipients of the promotional CDs did not accept the terms of the license agreement by merely not sending back the unsolicited CDs.
In the case UsedSoft v Oracle, the European Court of Justice ruled that the sale of a software product, either through a physical support or download, constituted a transfer of ownership in EU law, thus the first sale doctrine applies; the ruling thereby breaks the "licensed, not sold" legal theory, but leaves open numerous questions.[10]
Importation of copies [ edit ]
Section 602(a)(1) of the Copyright statute states that "importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords." This provision provides copyright owner an opportunity to stop goods from entering the United States market altogether.
Application of this provision created difficult legal issues in the context of gray market products. Gray market dealers buy the genuine goods in foreign countries at a significant discount from U.S. prices. They then import these genuine goods into the U.S. and sell them at discount prices, undercutting the authorized U.S. dealers. The gray market exists where the price for goods outside the US is lower than the price inside.
On the surface, §602(a), barring unauthorized importation, would seem to clash with the first-sale doctrine, which permits the resale of lawfully made copies. The issue comes down to whether §602(a) creates an affirmative right to bar all unauthorized importation, or does the first-sale doctrine limit the reach of §602(a), thus permitting the resale of at least some lawfully made imported copies.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court in Quality King v. L'Anza found that first-sale doctrine applied to imported goods at least where the imported goods are first lawfully made in the United States, shipped abroad for resale, and later reenter the United States. That case involved importation of hair care products bearing copyrighted labels. A unanimous Supreme Court found that the first-sale doctrine does apply to importation into the US of copyrighted works (the labels), which were made in the US and then exported.
However, the Supreme Court did not decide the issue where gray-market products are initially manufactured abroad and then imported into the US. The Court indicated that importation of goods made outside the US could perhaps be barred under §602(a), since such goods would not be "lawfully made under this title." Such products might be lawfully made, either by the copyright owner or a licensee, but they would not be lawfully made under US copyright law. Rather, they would be lawfully made under the copyright laws of the other country; and the first-sale doctrine would therefore not limit the §602 importation restriction.
The 2008 Omega v. Costco case involved this exact unresolved issue, where the defendant Costco obtained authentic Omega watches, which feature a copyrighted design on the back of the watches, through the gray market and resold them in its stores in the US. Omega manufactured these watches outside the US and did not authorize their importation into the US. Based on the Quality King case, the 9th Circuit held that "application of first-sale doctrine to foreign-made copies would impermissibly apply" the Copyright Act extraterritorially. However, the court stated that first-sale doctrine might still apply to a foreign manufactured copy if it was imported "with the authority of the U.S. copyright owner." The Supreme Court granted certiorari to Omega v. Costco, and affirmed 4-4. However, as an evenly split decision, it set precedent only in the 9th Circuit, not nationwide.[11]
However, in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,[12] in 2013, the United States Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision that the first-sale doctrine applies to goods manufactured abroad with the copyright owner's permission and then imported into the US. The case involved a plaintiff who imported Asian editions of textbooks that had been manufactured abroad with the publisher-plaintiff's permission. The defendant, without permission from the publisher, imported the textbooks and resold on eBay. The Supreme Court's holding severely limits the ability of copyright holders to charge vastly different prices in different markets due to ease of arbitrage. The decision removes the incentive to US manufacturers of shifting manufacturing abroad purely in an attempt to circumvent the first-sale doctrine.
Exceptions [ edit ]
Record rentals [ edit ]
The Record Rental Amendment of 1984, codified in 17 USC §109(b) prohibits an owner of a phonorecord that embodies a sound recording or musical work from renting it to the public for direct or indirect commercial advantage. This exception was designed to prevent music stores from renting records and thereby facilitating home copying.
Section 109(b) is an exception to the first sale doctrine, but it is limited in several ways. It applies only to rentals, and not to resale or other transfers. It is also limited to a subset of sound recordings—only those sound recordings that contain only a musical work. It does not apply to sound recordings that contain other content, such as commentaries or dialog soundtrack, or to non-musical sound recordings, for example audiobooks. Lastly, libraries and educational institutions are exempt from this restriction, and may rent or loan musical sound recordings.
Software rentals [ edit ]
The Copyright Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 amended §109(b) further to prohibit rentals of computer software for direct or indirect commercial advantage. The exception does not apply to lending of a copy by a nonprofit library for nonprofit purposes, provided the library affixes an appropriate warning. The amendment also specifically excluded:
A computer program which is embodied in a machine or product and which cannot be copied during the ordinary operation or use of the machine or product; or
A computer program embodied in or used in conjunction with a limited purpose computer that is designed for playing video games and may be designed for other purposes.
Application in trademark law [ edit ]
With reference to trade in tangible merchandise, such as the retailing of goods bearing a trademark, the first sale doctrine serves to immunize a reseller from infringement liability. Such protection to the reseller extends to the point where said goods have not been altered so as to be materially different from those originating from the trademark owner.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Specific citations:
General references:Europe is home to a lot of storybook ski towns. There’s nothing like a quiet, serene village nestled snugly in a valley surrounded by majestic peaks. So, what about North America? Are there still authentic ski towns left or have the McMansions come in and destroyed the soul of every resort? Luckily, there are a few enchanting destinations left that have their charm, character and most of all, a feeling of being in the mountains. You better hurry up though… because you never know when this will change.
Telluride, CO
Surrounded by 14,000 ft. monumental crests, this town might be the shining example of what a western mining village transformed into a ski town looks like in someone’s imagination.
With a small main street lined by buildings from the 1800’s, Telluride sits next to a large resort filled with steep terrain that literally drops right into town! And, there is such little traffic that it doesn’t even need a stoplight. This was also where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid called home so you KNOW that it has a lot of attitude.
Jackson, WY
Like the town’s motto, “The Last of the Old West”, this place personifies the Wild West. The term “Jackson Hole” came from early trappers/mountain men, who primarily entered the valley from the north and east and had to descend along relatively steep slopes, giving the sensation of entering a hole. With one of the most, if not THE most beautiful mountain ranges on the planet, The Tetons, their views and wildness bring this town to another level.
If the scenery isn’t enough to captivate you, butting up to the town is the century old National Elk Refuge where around 4,000 elk spend their winters. And the best part? You can visit the refuge by sleigh! Hearing the snorts and bellowing of elk only yards from you could be one of the most exciting sleigh rides you’ll ever take. Of course, the skiing isn’t too bad either.
Whitefish, MT
Our personal favorite! Located just down the road from the local’s “Big Mountain” (some also know it as Whitefish Mountain Resort), this town has everything… seriously everything you could want or need. From a micro-brewery serving huckleberry beer to a quaint main street filled with mom & pop shops, Whitefish is an amazing destination everyone should visit. And, if you do visit, be sure to follow the locals’ mantra and “Don’t tell anyone.”
Fernie, BC
If Jackson, WY is “The Last of the Old West”, then the Powder Highway must be the last vestige of skiing and snowboarding’s soul. From the northern outpost of Revelstoke to the southern city of Nelson, BC, each one of the towns in this region is unique with its own amazing sense of adventure. Our pick for the most authentic is Fernie. You can literally look right out of town up to the massive hulking peaks of the Fernie ski resort. These snow covered giants loom over the landscape, calling for you to come visit and shred them.
Stowe, VT
This list couldn’t exist without highlighting at least one of the famed New England communities. The best example of a true haven for culture and history with skiing, hands down, is Stowe. Back in the 1930’s, there were really only two major destinations for skiers: Sun Valley in the West and Stowe in the East. This legendary Vermont mountain settlement is complete with an iconic white church steeple, a comfy country inn and many other historic buildings. It’s also home to the renowned Trapp Family Lodge, famous for the Sound of Music. The hills ARE truly alive in this quaint locale. The state of Vermont is also the largest producer of maple syrup in the country so if you have a sweet tooth, this translates to amazing pancakes and all kinds of other treats.
So, how did we determine this list?
The definition of authentic is that it is of undisputed origin and it really is genuine. The next question then is what makes a ski town authentic?
Majority of architecture is original and historic; not artificially built
Deep culture that is different than any other destination
Nearly surrounded by peaks
An urban location large enough to have places to eat and hang out but not so large that it feels like a city
Minimal to no traffic
Honorable Mention – Truckee, CA
Truckee is definitely a ski town that we love. It has amazing architecture and awesome skiing, but from the center of town, the mountains seem so far into the distance that it’s hard to imagine that there is even a ski resort near by. In addition, the volume of traffic can sometimes be challenging which leads to a more “city” feel than the towns listed above.
We love snow, ski towns and travel, but of course, this is an opinionated list.
Are we missing another authentic ski town that you think should be on this list? Let us know!Owen Kelly leads AJ Allmendinger during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Johnsonville Sausage 200 Presented by Menards at Road America on June 22, 2013, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo: Tyler Barrick, Getty Images)
Australian Owen Kelly will be back with Joe Gibbs Racing at Road America, the team has confirmed.
Although Kelly, 39, has made only four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, two have come at the rolling 4-mile course in Elkhart Lake, where he finished fifth in his series debut in 2010 and fourth in 2013.
Kelly will drive Gibbs’ No. 18 Toyota on Road America 180 weekend, Aug. 26-27.
Kelly has qualified no worse than ninth in his four Xfinity races. He led two laps at Mid-Ohio last weekend but also went off course. Mid-Ohio is the site of his other two races.Kelly also has made one Sprint Cup start.
Road America typically brings out some drivers who aren’t regulars on the circuit, and Kelly is the third to be announced as entered by a top-flight team. Michael McDowell will drive Richard Childress’ No. 2 Chevrolet and Alex Tagliani Team Penske’s 22 Ford.In a podcast interview with ESPN’s John Clayton, Donte Whitner explained his departure from the San Francisco 49ers this offseason.
The hard-hitting safety signed with his hometown Cleveland Browns in the first few minutes of free agency on March 11. Whitner signed a four-year, $28 million deal with the Browns. The 49ers countered by signing Indianapolis safety Antoine Bethea to a four-year $22 million deal.
In the interview with Clayton, Whitner said the Browns offered him “$8-10 million” more than the 49ers did over the course of the deal. He also indicated there was some “tricky language” in the 49ers’ offer. He said he didn’t feel like the 49ers were offering Whitner his “true value” based on what he brought the team.
Overall, though, Whitner didn’t appear to be bitter. He said he enjoyed his time with the 49ers and he appreciated being part of a team that went to the NFC Championship Game in each of his three seasons in San Francisco.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A major UN report on secret detention policies around the world concludes the practice could reach the threshold of a crime against humanity. An advance unedited version of the report was published last week and will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March. The report examines the vast network of secret prisons connected to the so-called global war on terror.
Well, a new investigation by journalist Anand Gopal reveals some harrowing details about America’s secret prisons in Afghanistan, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. What emerges is a world that goes far beyond the main prison in Bagram and includes disappearances, night raids, hidden detention centers and torture. Gopal interviewed Afghans who were detained and abused at several disclosed and undisclosed sites at US and Afghan |
a President who leads.
The principles he laid out deal with every aspect of our immigration problems—everything from border security to interior enforcement to closing loopholes in our asylum program. It’s the kind of bold agenda that the American people have been waiting for. It is reasonable and it will work. And this is a critical point: this is not hopeless; it can be done!
First of all, the President is determined to finally build a wall at our Southern border. This will make it harder for illegal aliens to break into this country. For many, they will decide not to come illegally. But more importantly, the wall will send a message to the world that we enforce our laws. It sends a message: finally we mean it.
And to better do that, President Trump has proposed hiring more than 10,000 new ICE officers, 1,000 new ICE attorneys, 300 new prosecutors, and nearly 400 new immigration judges. He has proposed switching to a more merit-based system of immigration like they have in Canada. That means welcoming the best and the brightest but turning away gang members, fraudsters, drunk drivers, and child abusers. This merit-based system would better serve our national interest because it would benefit the American people. That’s what this agenda is all about. We can't accept everybody—only people who will flourish.
And that’s why the President supports mandating the use of the E-verify system, which is an internet based system that allows employers to verify that those they hire are authorized to work in the United States.
Under the President’s plan, it would be illegal to discriminate against American workers in favor of foreign workers.
We need this agenda. And Texans know that better than just about anybody.
I’m sure everyone in this room remembers Houston police officer Kevin Will. An illegal alien who had been deported twice drove drunk and hit Officer Will at about 90 miles per hour. Officer Will’s last words were telling someone to get out of the way of the car. He died protecting innocent people. And when he died, his wife was pregnant with their first child.
The open-borders lobby talks a lot about kids—those who are here unlawfully. But open-borders policies aren’t even in their interest either. After the previous administration announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—or DACA—policy in 2012, the number of unaccompanied children coming here nearly doubled in one year. The next year, it doubled again.
I doubt that was a coincidence. DACA encouraged potentially tens of thousands of vulnerable children to make the dangerous journey North. That had terrible humanitarian consequences—and Texans know that firsthand.
Earlier this month, Border Patrol arrested two young men who had benefitted from DACA, for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal aliens into Laredo.
Just a few days later, another beneficiary of DACA was charged with the murder of an 18-year old girl. In total, 2,000 DACA recipients have had their status withdrawn.
The President wants to stop the incentives for vulnerable children to come here illegally. He began to do that last month when he ended the DACA policy.
The President has also laid out a plan to close loopholes that are being exploited in our asylum program.
Under the previous Administration, the federal government began releasing illegal aliens who claimed to be too afraid to return home. Unsurprisingly, the number of these claims skyrocketed nearly 20-fold in eight years from 5,000 in 2009 to 94,000 now. And after their release, many of these people simply disappeared.
It’s too easy to defraud our system right now—and President Trump is going to fix that. The President’s plan to close the loopholes will stop the incentive for false asylum claims.
President Trump is also confronting the state and local jurisdictions that have undertaken to undo our immigration laws through so-called “sanctuary policies.”
Such policies undermine the moral authority of law and undermine the safety of the jurisdictions that adopt them. Police are forced to release criminal aliens back into the community—no matter what their crimes. Think about that: Police may be forced to release pedophiles, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and arsonists back into the communities where they had no right to be in the first place. They should—according to law and common sense—be processed and deported.
These policies hinder the work of federal law enforcement; they’re contrary to the rule of law, and they have serious consequences for the law-abiding Texans.
Earlier this month, an illegal alien in Kansas pled guilty to reckless driving that killed a law enforcement officer conducting a traffic stop. He tested for a blood alcohol content twice the legal limit. The officer who was killed—Deputy Brandon Collins—had two young daughters.
The illegal alien who killed Deputy Collins had already been arrested twice for driving-related offenses—including a previous drunk driving conviction. Clearly, he had been in police custody, but no one turned him over to ICE.
The politicians behind “sanctuary” policies say that forcing police officers to release criminal aliens back onto the streets will somehow increase community trust.
But that does not make sense to me. Would releasing someone who had been arrested numerous times into your community give you more confidence in law enforcement?
Would learning that a local district attorney actually charges illegal aliens with less serious crimes than Americans to evade federal deportation make you believe they are trying to make your neighborhood safer? Would forcing federal officers to track down criminal aliens on your street instead of safely in the jails make you believe we value your community?
We all know law enforcement is not the problem. You risk your lives each day in service of the law and the people you protect. Cooperation, mutual respect is critical. Disrespecting our law enforcement officers in their lawful duties in unacceptable.
The problem is the policies that tie your hands.
Yet, rather than reconsider their policies, sanctuary jurisdictions feign outrage when they lose federal funds as a direct result of actions designed to nullify plain federal law. Some have even decided to go to court so that they can keep receiving taxpayer-funded grants while continuing to impede federal immigration enforcement. We intent to fight this resolutely.
We cannot continue giving federal grants to cities that actively undermine the safety of federal law officers and intentionally frustrate efforts to reduce crime in their own cities.
These jurisdictions that knowingly, willfully, and purposefully release criminal aliens back into their communities are sacrificing the lives and safety of American citizens in the pursuit of an extreme open borders policy. It’s extreme and open borders because if a jurisdiction won't deport someone who enters illegally and then commits another crime then who will they deport.
This isn’t just a bad policy. It’s a direct challenge to the laws of the United States. It places the lives of our fine law enforcement officers at risk and I cannot and will not accept this increased risk because certain politicians want to make a statement.
Our duty is to protect public safety and protect taxpayer dollars and I plan to fulfill those duties.
The vast majority of Americans oppose “sanctuary” policies. According to one poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities should turn over criminal aliens to immigration officials.
The American people are not asking too much, and neither is the Department of Justice. Federal law enforcement wants to work with our partners at the state and local level. We want to keep our citizens safe.
Fortunately, in President Trump, we have strong leadership that is making a difference.
Since he took office, border crossings have plummeted by nearly a quarter—even as our economy has been booming. This past fiscal year, Border Patrol conducted half of the number of arrests as the previous one, and one-fifth of the number of arrests they made a decade ago.
Now, someone might say, that decline is because they’re just not catching people. But that’s just not true.
Border Patrol’s tactics and their technology have been refined and are only getting better. The Department of Homeland Security believes that they are catching a greater share of illegal aliens than ever—more than four out of five.
So the data show clearly: President Trump’s leadership is making a difference. Would-be lawbreakers know that we are restoring the rule of law and enforcing our immigration laws again.
And under President Trump’s immigration principles, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security will stop rewarding sanctuary cities with taxpayer dollars.
If these cities want to receive law enforcement grants, then they should stop impeding federal law enforcement.
In Texas, you have taken a leadership role on this issue.
I want to commend the state legislature for passing Senate Bill Four with strong majorities in both chambers, and thank Governor Abbott for signing it into law.
I am well aware that this law has its critics. And I am more than familiar with their line of criticism. But the facts of the case are clearly on Texas’ side.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in this case. We believe that the outcome is important not just to the state of Texas, but to the national interest. The integrity of our immigration laws is not a local issue—it is a national issue.
I am confident that Texas will prevail in court. But I would urge every so-called “sanctuary” jurisdiction to reconsider their policies. So-called “sanctuary” policies risk the safety of good law enforcement officers and the safety of the neighborhoods that need their protection the most. There are lives and livelihoods at stake.
If we work together, we can make our country safer for all our residents—native born and lawful immigrant alike. Working together requires ending “sanctuary” policies.
The Department of Justice is determined to reduce crime. We will not concede a single block or street corner in the United States to lawlessness. Nor will we tolerate the loss of innocent life because a handful of jurisdictions believe they are above the law.
And so to all the law enforcement here—federal, state, and local—thank you for all that you do. President Trump is grateful; I am grateful, and the entire Department of Justice is grateful for your service. We have your back and you have our thanks.
Thank you, and God bless you.Oklahoma Regulator Might Limit Water Use in Sensitive Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer
Logan Layden Bio Recent Stories Logan Layden was a reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2017. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009 and spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman.
Kevin Blackwood / Arbuckle-Karst Conservancy
The Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer serves as the primary source of municipal water for Ada, Durant, and a number of small south-central Oklahoma towns.
The aquifer is unique. It’s mainly replenished by rainfall that seeps into the ground. It’s also the only ‘sole source’ aquifer in the state, which means the Arbuckle-Simpson provides more than 50% of the drinking water for the area, and there’s no other viable alternative
As StateImpact has reported, the last decade has seen a big increase in the number of limestone and sand mining operations in the area, and the pit-mining they do displaces a lot of groundwater. Nearby residents say the mining has dried up streams they tap for drinking water, and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board set out to determine how much water is too much to take from the aquifer.
After all these years, The Journal Record‘s M. Scott Carter reports the OWRB will review proposed limits — and possibly adopt them — at a meeting later this month:
The rule is a decade in the making and the end result of collaboration between advocacy groups, Native American tribes and state and federal agencies. It would allow only two-tenths of an acre-foot (about 64,000 gallons of water) per allocation, per year, said OWRB spokesman Brian Vance. Vance said the new rule would help manage the water of the aquifer and improve the Arbuckle-Simpson’s sustainability.
Currently, an unstudied aquifer like the Arbuckle-Simpson has a annual yield limit of more than 600,000 gallons per year, more than ten times what the new rule would allow.
The impact that will have on pit-mining in the area is not yet clear, but aquifer advocacy groups like Citizens for the Protection of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer — and President Amy Ford —are happy with the proposal.
“It’s being done in a holistic approach,” she said. “Everyone involved understand the importance of the aquifer. Everyone had to share. We all understand that having that flow of water is vital to economic growth.”
StateImpact will be at the OWRB meeting on Oct. 23, where the mining industry will no doubt be heavily represented.Drained by a 17-month crude rout, some U.S. shale oil companies are merely hanging on for life as oil prices lurch further away from levels that allow them to profitably drill new wells and bring in enough cash to keep them in business.
The slump has created dozens of oil and gas "zombies," a term lawyers and restructuring advisers use to describe companies that have just enough money to pay interest on mountains of debt, but not enough to drill enough new wells to replace older ones that are drying out.
Though there is no single definition of a zombie, most investors and analysts consulted by Reuters say they tend to have exceptionally high debt loads and face the prospect of shrinking oil reserves.
About two dozen oil and gas companies whose debt Moody's (MCO) rates toward the bottom of its junk bond scale broadly fit that description. Investors and analysts mentioned SandRidge Energy Inc (SDRXP.PK)., Comstock Resources, and Goodrich Petroleum Co as some of that group's more prominent members.
To stay alive, zombie companies have curbed costly drilling and are using revenue from existing production to pay interest and other expenses in a process some describe as "slow-motion liquidation."
Bankruptcies and defaults loom because the cutbacks in new drilling have been so deep that many companies risk getting caught in a vicious circle of shrinking oil reserves, falling revenue and declining access to credit, experts say.
As long as oil prices stay below the estimated break-even level of $50 a barrel, the zombie group is set to grow. In fact, so many oil companies are struggling that "zombies" are the topic of a keynote address at a big energy conference in Houston on Thursday.
Thomas Califano, vice chair of the restructuring practice at the law firm DLA Piper, said banks that have loosened loan terms to avoid defaults might be just allowing companies to postpone "their day of reckoning."
"They can just be zombies. They can pay their interest, there's no growth and they are cannibalizing their assets," he said.
Consider SandRidge, which is one of at least 25 U.S. exploration and production companies rated by Moody's at B3 negative or lower, a category for speculative investments with significant credit risks. Many of these companies are small, with output of less than 10,000 barrels per day.
(http://reut.rs/21MrSHM)
"SandRidge is an example where they have enough cash on the balance sheet to service debt for next three years and likely can't grow their assets in this price environment," Michael Roberts, a principal at the Carlyle Group which invests in energy companies, said at a recent seminar in Houston.
A spokesman for SandRidge, which is working to reduce its interest payments and recently spend $190 million to add some production and reserves, declined to comment for this article.
At the end of the third quarter, SandRidge had $790 million in cash - based on its past interest expenses enough to cover 10 more quarters - but not enough to greatly expand drilling. The company's rig count is down about 80 percent this year.
By one common measure for shale companies, SandRidge's interest payments in the third quarter equaled two-thirds of its cash flow. During a market upswing, investments in new wells take up the vast majority of shale companies' budgets.
CapitalOne projects Goodrich will hit a liquidity shortfall by the end of 2017. Representatives from Goodrich did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Analysts at Baird have taken the unusual step of saying Comstocks's oil reserves are worth less than the debt it owes.
Comstock declined to comment.
LAYOFFS, OFFICE SHUTDOWNS AND NO FREE SODA
Squeezed, companies are taking a knife to operations. Goodrich reported in its third-quarter filing that it had frozen salaries and laid off 30 percent of its workers.
To raise cash, SandRidge put its 30-story tower up for sale in May, but has yet to find a buyer. In April, it laid off at least 130 employees, or 20 percent of its workers based there, records show.
To pinch pennies, SandRidge has eliminated free sodas from break rooms, one employee said.
Some companies that have halted nearly all drilling and fracking are now warning in regulatory filings their output could drop, which could make cash even tighter and hasten an expected decline in U.S. crude output.
Stopping new drilling is risky because shale wells decline much faster - up to 90 percent in their first year - than conventional wells.
For example, Magnum Hunter Resources Corp, based in Irving, Texas, one of the first this year to completely halt all fracking to save cash, told regulators in November the absence of new wells would "eventually lead to a decline in our production and reserves."
A spokesman for Magnum Hunter did not respond to a request for comment.
Comstock has only one rig running in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale. GoodRich reported a 37 percent production drop after it sold production properties in the Eagle Ford to raise cash.
Credit rating agency Fitch says defaults for oil and gas companies are already at the highest since 1999. Since the start of the third quarter, at least 12 oil and gas companies have defaulted on their debt.
The "zombies" bet that by shifting into survival mode they can hang on until oil prices recover, but the outlook is grim.
With oil prices near new seven year lows below $37 a barrel, crude futures now forecast prices will not return above $50 until early 2018, prompting many to ask the same vexing question: "How long can you survive without having a new well come on?" says Deborah Williamson, a Dykema restructuring attorney in San Antonio.
Reporting by Anna Driver and Tracy RucinskiIDEAS Hale is a Democratic politician from Tennessee; he has been a Catholic nonprofit executive and helped lead faith outreach for President Barack Obama.
At times during the first GOP debate on Thursday night, it was hard to tell who was talking: Pope Francis or Ohio Governor John Kasich.
“We need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let them share in this great American dream that we have,” the second-term governor, an Anglican, said. “God gives me unconditional love. I’m going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around me.”
Recent polling suggests that practicing and preaching Pope Francis politics works. Kasich apparently got the memo. His inclusive and conciliatory language Thursday night stood in stark contrast to that of many of his rivals, most notably, Donald Trump. Pope Francis has called for us to build bridges to make a home for immigrants and the excluded, yet Trump communicated a different idea: “We need to build a wall, and it has to be built quickly.”
It isn’t just Kasich’s words that connected him with the 78-year-old Bishop of Rome. Kasich’s policy decisions during the past five years have reflected the pope’s plea that politicians be “genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.” Most noteworthy was the governor’s courageous decision to break with his Republican colleagues and support Medicaid expansion in the state of Ohio. When conservatives pushed back on his decision, Kasich asked his fellow Republicans to understand that poverty is real. “When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.”
The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now
Pope Francis would most certainly agree. He has derided trickle-down economic systems that cut social programs as having a “crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power,” and has lamented that “the excluded are still waiting.”
Kasich’s performance Thursday night was reminiscent of the George W. Bush era of “compassionate conservatism.” Bush defined this governing philosophy in simple terms: “It is compassionate to actively help our citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on accountability and results.” The philosophy proved successful for Bush. But can Kasich follow suit?
Kasich’s campaign got off to a rocky start. One of President Barack Obama’s former senior advisors called his long-winded announcement that he was running for president “a great advertisement for speechwriters and Teleprompters.” Some, including John McCain, have also complained about Kasich’s temper. These are all valid concerns. But Kasich’s performance last night might be able jumpstart his underdog primary campaign.
In an interview earlier this year, Kasich revealed that he really does understand Francis:
The Pope’s not saying, ‘Let’s just abandon everything up until now.’ He’s saying, ‘But wait a minute! Before we get to the rules, let’s look at the good stuff. Let’s have the dessert first!’ Look, there’s so much we have to do to clean ourselves up. Me: deeply flawed! There’s so much that we have to do. So instead of getting into the judgment, why don’t we get into the feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and helping the imprisoned and helping the lonely?”
If this is the message Kasich takes into 2016, he might be back in Cleveland again next summer for the convention as the GOP nominee for president.
Contact us at editors@time.com.U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, directly accused Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday of engaging in possibly illegal “pay to play” politics by promising to help a major donor move legislation pushed by insurance companies.
In a letter addressed to the governor and written on congressional letterhead, Castro referred to a May 20 email exchange between Abbott’s office and Richard Weekley, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
Weekley had asked Abbott to “personally intervene” to help pass the bill, saying that Democrats — and their major donor Steve Mostyn — stood to benefit by killing it.
Castro said the email exchange “speaks to the shadiness and corruption that has characterized state government for several years, including the issuance of hundreds of millions in no-bid contracts to cronies that occurred” when Abbott was attorney general.
The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) and Weekley have given Abbott at least $720,000 since 2001, records from the Texas Ethics Commission show.
“You exhibit an eagerness to take official action to please a donor for the purposes of political retribution,” Castro wrote. “For years, members of the Texas business community and others have spoken of state leaders’ tendencies toward ‘pay to play’ and official retribution for supporting persons politically opposed or out of favor with state officeholders.”
He said the email exchange “confirms that reality,” and calls Abbott’s actions “unethical and quite possibly illegal.”
Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch did not return messages left via phone, text and email Wednesday afternoon.
In the May 20 email, Weekley wrote to Abbott that the pro-insurer bill was “good policy and good politics.”
“Having Mostyn rape the insurance companies of hundreds of millions of dollars will harm consumers across the state as well as hurt the politicians who Mostyn will try to defeat,” Weekley wrote.
The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.
In a postscript he added, “We can’t let the House, composed of 98 Republicans and 52 Democrats, have a legislative victory for Mostyn, who gave over $25,000,000 to Democrats over the last five years.”
A few hours later, the governor’s office responded via email: “We are working it. Spoke with the Speaker about it earlier today.”
Weekley addressed the email directly to the governor, and the documents were provided to The Texas Tribune in response to a request for copies of emails sent by Abbott himself.
However, the governor’s office has refused to say if it was Abbott or someone else who authored the email.
At issue was Senate Bill 1628, which would have erected hurdles for homeowners and businesses that wanted to sue insurance companies that don't deal with them fairly, or don't adequately pay out on claims made under property and casualty insurance policies, such as losses after a storm, fire or accident.
The legislation ended up dying in committee in the final days of the recently concluded session after a wide swath of business interests — from oil and gas companies to auto dealers — said it would weaken their insurance policies and put them at a disadvantage in disputes over property damage claims.
Disclosure: Steve Mostyn is a major donor to The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.
Reference Letter From Joaquin Castro To Greg Abbott (26.5 KB) DOWNLOADThe latest shrill column on “Obamacare,” columnist Charles Krauthammer claims to have found a moment of clarity: the future unavailability of some insurance plans that the president said people would be allowed to keep.
Here’s a moment of truth that Krauthammer might have found even more clarifying: last week on a talking head TV show, Raffi Williams, Deputy Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee, was asked what the Republican ideas were to help young people. “What I’m advising young people to do,” he said, “is to go get a job that gives you health care.”
That was it. From the start, conservatives have been lying about the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Congress greatly reduced the funding to design and refine the website. They encouraged Republican governors to not set up state-run exchanges (most of which are working fine) or accept Medicaid funding, tried to dismantle the implementation of the law, and actively encouraged young people to not sign up for ANY insurance rather than participate.
They have also trotted out purported horror stories of individuals who have lost their non-compliant plans, many of which have been fact checked and found to be instances of for-profit insurers trying to scare the uninformed into more expensive plans than ones they could find on the exchanges.
These people cannot be trusted.
- DAVID VARNER, GranbyIt's official: the Trans-Pacific Partnership is SOPA on steroids. Thanks to a leaked chapter of the secret international treaty, we now know that the TPP would grant unprecedented snooping and censorship powers to ISPs, copyright holders, and governments.
Sign to the right to tell your lawmakers: Oppose the TPP and SOPA-style internet censorship.
The TPP would encourage ISPs to censor web content, prosecute supposed copyright infringers without due process, spy on your web activity, share your private data with copyright holders, and even block your internet connection altogether.
The intellectual property provisions in the TPP -- leaked by WikiLeaks last week -- amount to a wish-list for Hollywood and Big Pharma: criminalizing small-scale downloading, destroying Fair Use standards, and undermining access to medicine for million of people worldwide.
We still have time to stop this corporate coup d'etat -- sign to tell your lawmakers stand against censorship and corporate protectionism.
The TPP sacrifices our democratic power to serve the interests of giant companies. Lax food safety rules, unregulated fracking, overseas job shifts, rocketing drug prices, internet monopolies, slashes to public services to profit Wall Street robbers -- are just some of the projected effects of the TPP.
And if the President has his way, this thing will be "fast-tracked" through Congress -- which means lawmakers' won't get a chance to debate or modify the trade law.
Sign to the right to tell Congress to reject "fast track" trade authority -- and stop the TPP!
Use these links to get your friends to sign as well:
If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends. If you're already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet
Here's the full text of the leaked document from Wikileaks. And a summary from Electronic Frontier Foundation.The Golden State Warriors rolled to the Western Conference crown in 2014-15. But in a reloaded West, can the defending champs pull it off again?
We asked our ESPN Forecast panel to predict who will emerge as Western Conference champions in 2015-16. For our picks for the Eastern Conference champs, click here.
To participate in the discussion and perhaps get your opinion published on this page, #ESPNForecast is the Twitter hashtag to use. Or you can just follow along @ESPNNBA.
So who will be best in the West? Read on:
Western Conference champions projections
1. Golden State Warriors
Proj. record: 60-22
Points: 122
The Warriors haven't even reached their full offensive potential yet. Expect to see that in their 2nd year under Kerr. #ESPNForecast - Guru Ramprakash (@gururamp30) September 2, 2015
2. San Antonio Spurs
Proj. record: 57-25
Points: 96
I'm all in on the Spurs taking one last title before the big three change over entirely. #ESPNForecast - Rodney Scearce (@rscearce) September 1, 2015
3. Oklahoma City Thunder
Proj. record: 55-27
Points: 30
The Thunder have the deepest roster during their stay in OKC. Durant is back, Ibaka is getting healthy. 15-16 Champs! #ESPNForecast - Jacob Barber (@NBA_Jacob_B) September 1, 2015
4. Los Angeles Clippers
Proj. record: 56-26
Points: 23
5. Houston Rockets
Proj. record: 56-26
Points: 9
@espnnba #espnforecast HOU has #1 seed potential if Ty performs better than expected and if Howard and Harden remain healthy and productive - Zach (@zjl00) September 1, 2015
@ESPNNBA @JHarden13 @HoustonRockets I say they have a better chance because Harden will lead them higher than 5. #espnforecast - Maximo Bonarriva (@mab200216) September 1, 2015
6. Memphis Grizzlies
Proj. record: 51-31
Points: 4
Even if there was a playoff realignment, or lucky bounces, the Grizzles still aren't making the finals #ESPNForecast - B. Stew-Gotti (@onlyicanbstew) September 1, 2015For the 1941 Abbott & Costello film, see In the Navy (film)
"In the Navy" is a song by the American disco group Village People. It was the last top 10 hit for the group in the United States.
Background and writing [ edit ]
After the enormous commercial success of their 1978 hit "Y.M.C.A." which unexpectedly became the unofficial hymn and powerful advertising tool for the YMCA, the group took on another national institution, the United States Navy. The Navy contacted group manager Henri Belolo to use the song in a recruiting advertising campaign for television and radio. Belolo gave the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at Naval Base San Diego where the Navy provided them with access to film on the deck of the berthed frigate USS Reasoner, in the end the Navy did not use the video, choosing to remain with the traditional "Anchors Aweigh".[1]
In a landmark ruling in 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that under the Copyright Act of 1976, co-writer Victor Willis (Village People's "Cop"/"Naval officer") can recover his share of the copyrights to songs co-written by him.[2] Willis now owns 33% of his songs.[3]
Chart performance [ edit ]
Cover version [ edit ]
Alestorm created their "In the Navy" cover.
Pink Lady recorded a cover version in 1979 and retitled it "Pink Typhoon". In the song's chorus the lines "In the navy" have been replaced with "Pink Lady",
In popular culture [ edit ]The Cleveland Browns are marching towards the end of the 2017 season without a victory.
Changes could be on the horizon for the franchise. Jason La Canfora joined the Baskin and Phelps show to discuss potential changes that owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam may make in the coming month.
"I continue to hear that he has got a trick or two up his sleeve. He is trying to work on some big stuff. We will see what that means and if that comes to fruition if he is able to put it together," La Canfora said.
"I've heard more like in terms of a team president type. You know, a Peyton Manning type, somebody who can kind of spearhead the whole thing for him. He knows [Jon] Gruden through Peyton. Peyton and Gruden are close. I don't see Jon Gruden going to Cleveland in any stretch of the imagination. I don't think that's a fit at all."
He had previously reported that the Browns attempted to trade for Harbaugh when he was coaching the San Francisco 49ers. Now at Michigan, Harbaugh's name is being tossed around again.
"Is Harbaugh a fit? He tried to trade for him a couple of years ago. Was willing to trade for him. Had the trade done and then Harbaugh wouldn't agree to a contract," he explained.
"Is Harbaugh looking around Ann Arbor like some people tell me he is thinking like 'you know what, if they think I'm going to be Bo Schembechler, nobody is going to be Bo Schembechler in this day and age with what we are competing with in this conference.'"
Separately, FOX Sports' Jay Glazer reported that multiple NFL teams are looking to lure the college coach back to the NFL.
The Toledo native racked up a 49-22-1 record over four seasons in the NFL. As the coach of Michigan, he has gone 28-14.The screen was flickering, as it always did, proudly displaying the screening times of all the latest films. Joey couldn’t make up his mind which one to see. It was such a tough decision! In the mean time, Joey needed food.
The food court was busy, as it usually was on a Friday evening. He quickly spotted Ashley sitting with her friend Hazel, a girl he’d never met before, and went over to say hello.
Almost an hour later, after eating dinner and having every film being shown recommended to him, Joey had decided which film to see.
Two and a half hours later, he had a weird feeling in his stomach. He knew he’d eaten earlier, so it couldn’t be hunger. He’d heard about people getting butterflies when they met someone they really liked, but could it really happen to him?1. Chip Kelly
Is Chip Kelly a huge racist? Stephen A. Smith said it best:
“Chip Kelly makes decisions over the last couple of years that, dare I say, leave a few brothers feeling uncomfortable … You got to be his kind of guy. And I’m like: ‘Riley Cooper is your kind of guy?’ … The operative word is ‘culture.’ … Now, I’m not gonna say I know, but it does strike me as a tad bit odd.”
So, yeah, it’s pretty obvious that Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is a huge racist. Let’s move on to the other most racist NFL head coaches …
2. John Fox
So John Fox becomes head coach of the Bears, and then a few weeks later the team coincidentally sends their best wide receiver, black man Brandon Marshall, to the JETS for a 5th Round pick? Come on. I’m not saying John Fox is racist. But that’s the exact kind of move a racist would make.
Don’t be surprised to see Fox use that 5th Rounder on a white player, as a RACIST would.
3. Jim Tomsula
The new 49ers head coach has seen Frank Gore leave, may want to trade Colin Kaepernick (Who is maybe part black? He’s at least URBAN.) and forced Patrick Willis to RETIRE FROM FOOTBALL FOREVER over not wanting to play for a racist head coach.*
If that’s not enough, Tomsula proudly sports a cop mustache in the style of a racist cop. Despicable
*probably
4. Mike Pettine
So Pettine is suspending Josh Gordon for a year, but supports Johnny Manziel in his rehab. Can anyone figure out the difference between Gordon and Manziel. I bet you can, Pettine, you RACIST.
5. Bill O’Brien
Bill O’Brien’s main career stops: Duke, New England, State College, Penn., and Texas. It’s like the guy is on a pleasure cruise of America’s most racist places. More like Bill O’Racist, amiright?
6.Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick sure loves white receivers, doesn’t he? You know who else loves white receivers? A little group called RACISTS. Also, can anyone recall ONE. SINGLE. TIME. that Bill Belichick is on record saying “I’m not a racist”? I sure don’t.
7. Marvin Lewis
Really? Marvin Lewis?
Yeah. Marvin “The Racist” Lewis.
Lewis has black players throughout his roster. Yet he wants to see them fail because he is forcing them to play with Andy Dalton. Only someone who hates black people would make them play for a team quarterbacked by Andy Dalton. Use your brain.
8. Mike Tomlin
Think of the (black) offensive talent Tomlin has just let walk away in recent years. Mike Wallace. Emmanuel Sanders. LeGarrette Blount. Limas Sweed. Yet Ben Roethlisberger and Heath Miller remain gainfully employed? Oooooookay, Tomlin, you racist.
Need extra proof? Remember when Tomlin tried to rip Jacoby Jones during a kick return in 2013? RACIST RACIST RACIST.
9. Gus Bradley
Jacksonville is practically in Georgia. Chances are all the people who live and work there are super-racist. Plus, observe Bradley’s hairstyle. SKINHEAD. Gus Bradley is a racist skinhead.
10. Tom Coughlin
Tom Coughlin is an angry, old, white man. He’s got to be racist as hell. No need to over-think this.One week ago, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver announced the official creation of his new mega-church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. Like Colbert Super PAC before it, the church was set up 100% legally in order to highlight the absurdity of a federal tax system that rewards religious organizations for essentially fleecing their congregants.
Oliver asked viewers to send in “seed” money to a P.O. Box in New York, and “to be honest,” he said |
STF benefits so the Samson & Delilah chorus was apropo and recieved highly & loudly by those in attendance...each time it was repeated. Ohhh boy. There we go'd again. - January 31, 2009Bear of a show
Reviewer: cb18201 - favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 23, 2008
Subject: both sources sound the same after putting them side by side and comparing them, both sources sound the same, this one just has the audience sugar mag encore. the volume levels are the same and the very slight hiss is the same. the only thing i noticed about this version which i like beter is there is less dead air at the begining of each track where on the other source some tracks dont start until a few seconds in. either way both are good, great show. give a listen - December 23, 2008both sources sound the same
Reviewer: wrkster - - December 13, 2008
Subject: Brian Leopard source sounds better....... this source sounds pretty good but the Brian Leopard source sounds better! - December 13, 2008Brian Leopard source sounds better.......
Reviewer: Heyitsthatguy - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 27, 2008
Subject: Who needs the drugs? Terrapin Station sounds like rain. - June 27, 2008Who needs the drugs?
Reviewer: babycakes77 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 16, 2008
Subject: Emotions High I have been listening to the Dead all day working in the yard..take a break..do an "Alabama Grateful Dead" search and find this site. Geez..saw them as a youngin' jamming in SF, then Ala, then LSU, then Red Rocks. Thanks for this site, Thanks for DeadHeads! Got my concerts on my iPod and simply listening to the 1st track (tuning up)...I teared up. - June 16, 2008Emotions High
Reviewer: WolfmansBrother - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 15, 2008
Subject: well hush my mouth well it seems we had to head to the deep south to get us a ripping good show that stands out amongst a heap o' good shows. having been on tour since philly, this was one of my favorite nights so far, and certainly since we made the turn at buffalo.
a super solid first set with great song selection, highlighted by what i think is my favorite scarlet>fire to date - back in that set closing slot it hasn't been in for a while and just an amazing transition. i take my break too and smoke me a fatty.
the second set is also really well-played and from terrapin to the end is stellar. someone doses me during samson, which may have helped. i weep, i scream, i rage. we pull out every match, lighter and tikki torch in the place we can find to tease them back out for an encore, which bobby grudgingly grants, but only because it's mickey's birthday, again. he's holding up nicely given how fast the years are passing him by on this tour. and, sugar mag as the encore - how f'in sweet is that?!?
i ooze out the door looking for some grits... - April 15, 2008well hush my mouth
Reviewer: Living_Dead_Bear - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 21, 2008
Subject: An answer, and an ecxellent show! "They Love Each Other"s first appearance on a studio album came in 1976 as the third song on "Reflections," the third solo album by Jerry Garcia.
..and this show is awesome. Great quality, and the band is on. Definitely worth a listen!
Curse GDM, bobby, and the lack of soundboards for download.. looks like we actually have to trade boots with other actual people again! oh nooo! - January 21, 2008An answer, and an ecxellent show!
Reviewer: Fin, jr. - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 21, 2008
Subject: Beauty! Uh...yeah...beauty, eh? Yeah, beauty. - January 21, 2008Beauty!
Reviewer: Harry Scott - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 19, 2007
Subject: Love They Love I've been bouncing around these streams for quite a while now, and "They Love Each Other" always sounds great (although I think Hartford '83 is the best; Jerry's solo leaves me speechless). But -- and I'm ashamed to admit this -- I don't know what recording it orignially appeared on. I'm curious: is there a studio version? Somebody fill me in. - December 19, 2007Love They Love
Reviewer: robertm - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 12, 2007
Subject: Right now on Sirus Dead channel I am listning as I write this, this show on Sirus GD channel & I am again reminded of a BEAUTIFUL as they come Dead show,High Time just played & I almost cried at the beauty of this version..I say again I am reminded of a great time in my life & at the same time the BEST Dead
period ever..May 1977 will always be a special year for alot of Dead Heads! Scarlet/Fire is just about on... - December 12, 2007Right now on Sirus Dead channel
Reviewer: scum beat - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 28, 2007
Subject: what a show in THE month oh man -- I've been listening to the May '77 set of shows again -- JUST BECAUSE WE CAN!!!!!!! which is enough to make the slightest dead head turn whirling dervish. This show in Alabama of all places just goes and goes and goes and goes.
yes all the reviewers are correct -- jack-a-roe is perfect (the 2nd time played) the jack straw rocks!, high time...and the scarlet fire is primo!!! the best?? who's to say but it @#%* just rocks too. And all this is ony the first set. Unbelievable. What a month this was. Too bad I was only 13 and just wasn't quite there. Oh well. This is the next best place. I've got good speakers and can stream this stuff. As long as they can keep it up here why download?
Thanks to everyone who make this place happen.
Jerry you still da man!!.
Peace. - October 28, 2007what a show in THE month
Reviewer: simsburydedhed - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 31, 2007
Subject: Better than Cornell? Hot, Hot, Hot!!!! Sick Jackstraw and Jack A Roe is rockin'. Awesome show from start to finish. This is my personal favorite from '77 and maybe of all time. - August 31, 2007Better than Cornell?
Reviewer: eelsongs - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 30, 2007
Subject: Awesome Jack-A-Roe You must check it out if you like this song. - May 30, 2007Awesome Jack-A-Roe
Reviewer: JamminJerome - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 18, 2007
Subject: BEAUTIFUL show I can't say enough about this show! Beautiful in every way! Nice Matrix sound, amazing energy, and plenty of experimentation. Best Jack-A-Roe I've heard - believe everything you hear - and great versions of Jack Straw, Scarlet>Fire, Terrapin, and Wharf Rat. The bonus Equinox at the end of this recording is a nice little gem. Enjoy this show!
SOLID 5 stars - May 18, 2007BEAUTIFUL show
Reviewer: caspersvapors - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 9, 2007
Subject: JS just wanna say I love this Jack Straw, its so locomotive, especially after this first jam. Donna is also pretty good on it: out of Shayyanne! - March 9, 2007JS
Reviewer: pnc - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 16, 2006
Subject: gotta do it... don't give too many fives, but the boys earned it for this one. and the sound is very good (not perfect). - October 16, 2006gotta do it...
Reviewer: hwy41hustler - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 14, 2006
Subject: Awesome show One of the best shows I've heard in my short years of listening to the dead!(10 yrs) The whole show is awesome! You can understand most of the lyrics. Great singing and playing! SIX STARS ROLL TIDE - October 14, 2006Awesome show
Reviewer: flashbackmagic - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 1, 2006
Subject: wow this show is sick! Everything is tastey all around.
SICKEST jack a roe ive ever heard. it competely floated in time. Smooth as can be, not a blemish to be heard.
Great vocals on HighTime.
Cant go wrong with this show - October 1, 2006wow
Reviewer: kcappraiser - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 13, 2006
Subject: Jack-A-Roe Best Jack-A-Roe ever. - June 13, 2006Jack-A-Roe
Reviewer: Stargazin - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 17, 2006
Subject: sweet alabama this show is BURNING!
ALL-TIME BEST MISSISSIPPI HALF STEP!
Why was May 77 so good? This show is a perfect example -- every song is flawlessly executed, grooving hard and full of passion and skill. This was the most well-crafted, tight era for the Dead... no one has ever made rock and roll swing this hard. The Buffalo War Memorial show from the week before is still my favorite first set, but this one is a very, very close second. Scarlet>Fire is tremendous. And the Terrapin>Playin>Wharf Rat is a highlight of May 77, which pretty much makes it a highlight of the entire 30 years of GOGD. SIX STARS! - May 17, 2006sweet alabama
Reviewer: jfk62 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 5, 2006
Subject: SBD Still Available Check out further.net I downloaded the SBD and it sounds great! As others have said - a worthy alternative to the other popular May shows - an incredible month. Since the SBD downloads are gone at this site, the other site is worth finding for shows like this. - April 5, 2006SBD Still Available
Reviewer: japhyryder - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 6, 2006
Subject: Great Scarlet>Fire! If you're looking for a spring 77 alternative to 5/8/77, look no further. If not this version of the classic pairing, then you might try 4/23/77.
Also, though the Jack Straw is strong here, 5/21/77 is even better! Gotta like when they jammed out the ending a bit finally! - March 6, 2006Great Scarlet>Fire!
Reviewer: higgy - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 16, 2006
Subject: my first show This was my first of what became many, many, Dead shows in my life. MAN! It was a great show to be there and see, it was also fantastic when I found this archive and streamed the show. I went right back to 30 years ago. It is a shame I can no longer download it so I can enjoy it at home and in my bus and on my bike and well anywhere else. I will always have it in my mind though. You always remember your first show. Peace all. - February 16, 2006my first show
Reviewer: spacecowboy - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 17, 2005
Subject: Mama I'm Coming Home All I can figure on why this southern show was so hot was that the band was stoked to play in Donna's home state for the first time. Each song is played with controlled power. They really attack 1/2 Step, Jack-a-Roe and Terrapin. Highly recommend this show. - November 17, 2005Mama I'm Coming Home
Reviewer: L. Rosley - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 14, 2005
Subject: This one's a keeper What a fine, fine Mississipppi Half Step -- beautiful soloing by Jerry, Kieth is right on, and the Jerry and Donna vocals are pretty. And this is only the second song of the show.
Also a good Wharf Rat, but the jam between Wharf Rat and the Playing reprise is a different take, very quiet and introspective, nice interaction between Jerry and Keith. - November 14, 2005This one's a keeper
Reviewer: Mr. Charlie - Lambertville - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 4, 2005
Subject: This show rips I haven't listened to this show for some time. This afternoon I had a couple of hours in the car and had a chance to listen at a signifiscant volume. The band is just soooo very on! There are soooo many treats that occured in this Spring Tour. This showis another exaple of a underrated show. So many in this run had their own level and type of astonishing music. This one's a must. - November 4, 2005This show rips
Reviewer: bangtailpoet - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 3, 2005
Subject: Well Kept Secret This could well be the most underrated of the May '77 run. This is a definite stand-out. There is not a moment of this show that is not just bubbling with IT. This is probably my favorite Jack Straw; there's just something about the inflection in Donna's voice when she hits that "out of SHAH-anne, from sea to shining sea." But, take it from me, you won't be able to listen to just one track...put aside a few hours and take it all in. Very surprised the good Doctor has not reviewed this show yet. - November 3, 2005Well Kept Secret
Reviewer: eyezoftheworld - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 21, 2005
Subject: start to finish you need to listen to this one start to finish. if you smoke... your bag will be gone.... you smoke cigs, you wont have time to during this one... you drink, you will feel drunk. this show is very mellow and yet has quick, energy filled songs in just the right spots. i would reccomend this show to people who are not fans of 77. not to mention, this show tells the future. i was listening to fire on the mountain and all the smoke alarms went off. i guess mom was making dinner. - October 21, 2005start to finish
Reviewer: boobychew - favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 20, 2005
Subject: sound yes, the scarlet>fire is exceptional, but the recording is very deep on the bass. 3.5 for sound and 4.5 for the show. - September 20, 2005sound
Reviewer: hyperboy - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 14, 2005
Subject: Miss 1/2 step!! Jack Straw! Wow! This show is up there with New Haven, Boston Garden, Cornell, and Buffalo! Miss 1/2 step is gorgeous...Jack Straw is f-ing smokin'. Entire show is consistent '77 quality. Get it now!
Yes, this is the coolest, grooviest Jack-a-Roe! And this Terrapin is great...Jerry's plays his solo on Lady with a Fan twice as long as normal. Great stuff! - September 14, 2005Miss 1/2 step!! Jack Straw!
Reviewer: Geoffsky - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 25, 2005
Subject: What a nice Listen! If you're ever looking for a cool, mellow concert to listen to, this one is it! Nice slow versions with a whole lot of funk in the rythms. Jack a roe, Bertha, TLEO. I'd let BigJDogg take a bullet to be at this show too!
I listen to these shows at work while I fly my little cubicle around the universe so it is especially nice to get an easy listen.
Then I was listening to the encore and noticed the goose bumps rising. Not the best Sugar Mag ever but I could feel how it pulled me out of the whole mind excursion one more time. I used to pray for a lttle 3 chord rock after 20 - 30 - 40 minutes of tough space travel on the dance floor. - August 25, 2005What a nice Listen!
Reviewer: bigboypeete - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 16, 2005
Subject: 1/2 step this is a great show beautiful sound, not surprising, a ball busting 1/2 step, keith is in his finest hour here and jerry is feeding off his energy takin it to another level, 77 has got to be the best year for 1/2 step - July 16, 20051/2 step
Reviewer: walkin' jingle - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 19, 2005
Subject: Magical end Wow, this is an outstanding show. Each song is a great version of itself, the sound is crispy, and the second set Terrapin and Wharf Rat> Playin' are magical. walkin' jingle -- May 19, 2005Magical end
Reviewer: theweasel - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 13, 2005
Subject: Thank you Betty!!!!! The whole month of May, is worth getting. This show is overlooked b/c of Cornell, Buffalo and New Haven. But this show is soooo upbeat, tight and the song selection(minus Sunrise)is excellant and region appropriate.
1/2 Step is fabulous and Jact Straw wails. The Jack-a-roe is the best I've heard. Never heard it played like this. Kinda spacey, kinda jazzy and Phil finally puts together a descent beat with even well timed rolls.
GET IT. It worths it....for sure.
ALL YOU DEADHEADS NEED TO CHECK OUT MARTIN SEXTON. HE"S IN THE ARCHIVE. ENJOY!!! - May 13, 2005Thank you Betty!!!!!
Reviewer: BigJDogg - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 6, 2005
Subject: What a show, what a tour I'll keep it short: I would take a bullet for any show of this tour, and this show is no exception. Holy Scarlet->Fire Batman! And that's on the real folks.
Five stars. - May 6, 2005What a show, what a tour
Reviewer: darkstarpat - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 27, 2005
Subject: hopin... am i the only one who listens to Jerry's first wah-wah solo on Estimated and hopes he'll take to the next level and rip it for just one more minute? I know I felt like that on this one. Rippin' show. I dig this Scarlet>Fire and they're firing on all cylinders on that Playin' medley. - April 27, 2005hopin...
Reviewer: Patty Falafal - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 18, 2005
Subject: fire simply, absolutely on fire all the way around... - April 18, 2005fire
Reviewer: luvlight72 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 16, 2005
Subject: One of the greats This show has to be one of the tightest shows I've heard yet. Disc 2 of this show might be the greatest overall one disc to date I've heard. God Bless you Archive..... my life is a little more complete with access to classics like this!!!! - April 16, 2005One of the greats
Reviewer: Brother Luck - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 11, 2005
Subject: T-Town rocks! This has always been one of my favorite GD shows. I had it on tape years ago and now a sbd on cd. It smokes from the start and never gets old. The best part is that i went to BAMA and know some older heads that were actaully at this show in Tuscaloosa. - April 11, 2005T-Town rocks!
Reviewer: Brother Luck - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 11, 2005
Subject: T-Town rocks! This has always been one of my favorite GD shows. I had it on tape years ago and now a sbd on cd. It smokes from the start and never gets old. The best part is that i went to BAMA and know some older heads that were actaully at this show in Tuscaloosa. - April 11, 2005T-Town rocks!
Reviewer: Capt. Cook - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 24, 2005
Subject: Phil was Right! From the Phil Zone rightly selected a definitive Jack-a-roe, but missed the real clincher - the finest Scarlet-Fire ever put to tape. This one really shines!!! Jerry seems to revel in the beat, letting the jam progress SLOWLY. This whole 2-weeks, from the Barton Hall show until here just SHINE. I must say as a whole they rival Europe 1972, and while there is not the crazy Dark Star's of then, this is a more seasoned, and talented band, both vocally and melodicly. - February 24, 2005Phil was Right!
Reviewer: MushroomEagle - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 17, 2005
Subject: AU! Wow. This whole show keeps blowing me away. I have finally listened to all 3 discs, and none have disappointed. As an Auburn student and fan, its hard to enjoy a show from Tuscaloosa so much, but in all honesty - one of the best Fires, Terrapins, and Playins ever. Great Sampson and Delilah, Bertha... wow. i love this show - whoever said the Fire on the Mountain was sub-par is NUTS. DOWNLOAD THIS SHOW...rivals but does not overcome the greatness of 5/8/77... so if you loved that show, get this one! - February 17, 2005AU!
Reviewer: batcaver - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 12, 2004
Subject: Even LLRain A great show is one where I can even listen to LLR, and this is one. I give this 5 stars for Donna's harmonies with both Bobby and Jerry. A lot of the songs including Big River, seem to have that funky back-beat Phil mentions in his "Phile Zone" cd notes about Jackaroe. Maybe because this was the month Marley released Exodus. - November 12, 2004Even LLRain
Reviewer: sheikyerbouti - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 22, 2004
Subject: This scarlet>fire stands is off the charts Of course this is a 5 for the scarlet fire alone for years I had this on the eugene '78 'close encounters' space tape I inherited knowing full well it did not belong there knowing someday someway through much sweat and perseverance I would find the true source and alas 5/17/77 been looking since 1982 - not full time but out of 200 tapes I can still pin point a song when I heard Phil and the fretless bass I knew what the next note was and presto! we have a match, and what a match it is. The estimated is HOT and the drums>wharf (one of the best) back into playin sizzles. Sugar mag encore? They do it here... Everyone probably stumbled out into the steamy spring night completely blown away.
I am not going to even cheapen this by trying to compare this to others however these scarlet>fire's are also really solid:
5/8/77
5/25/77
11/06/77
4/23/77
10/22/78
9/20/82
4/13/83
10/21/83
There are so many others + the rest of this show is great even for '77 enjoy it! - September 22, 2004This scarlet>fire stands is off the charts
Reviewer: dcain - favorite favorite favorite - September 22, 2004
Subject: Scarlet-Fire? On my initial listen, I noted Garcia's third run in his Scarlet solo as "interesting, but a bit tentative, lost." And noted for Fire that there didnt seem to be much improv at the end. I'll give it another listen or two, but I don't see this on a par (yet) with many other Spring '77 shows. BTW take a listen to 2-3-79 Scarlet, and 2-5-78 Scarlet-Fire. - September 22, 2004Scarlet-Fire?
Reviewer: Daiha - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 4, 2004
Subject: Solid and Smooth As a warmup for the amazing run that was to follow, 5/17/77 is an eye-opener -- smooth and solid from start to finish. From the first note of "Minglewood," it's clear the band is "on." Each set is a winner. Others have rightly noted the quality of "Half-Step"; I'd like to also point out the nearly flawless versions of "TLEO," "Jack A Roe," and "Sunrise." Note, too, the first-set close: "Scarlet/Fire," a very spacey coda for a robust opening act. You'll find the second set just as strong. With its clear, well-balanced soundboard source, 5/17/77 is a great additition to your 1977 collection. - September 4, 2004Solid and Smooth
Reviewer: VTVid - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 28, 2004
Subject: neat the dank. brilliant.5 step, and the BEW>Prophet>Terrapin is very nice. - July 28, 2004neat
Reviewer: RJGerard - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 28, 2004
Subject: Great 1/2 Step I was surprised by how much I like this show. I am a big Ms. 1/2 Step fan and this one pleases fully. Also check out a solid Brown Eyed Women, Scarlet and an awesome Samson and Delilah. Hope this helps fellow Dead music lovers. - June 28, 2004Great 1/2 Step
Reviewer: 59309a - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 21, 2004
Subject: Yet another great show Mississippi 1/2 step on this show is the best one I've heard, and its transition into El Paso is very nice. The Jackaroe was released on a 2CD set Phil put out back in the late 90s and it is super (great bass licks). The high time is also sweet.
Definitely worth having (along with 5/19/77) - June 21, 2004Yet another great showCake Slice Box
A piece of cake. Literally. A wedge-shaped box that can be used to store pieces of cake. The box consists of an upper and a lower part. The upper part is the cover. The lower part, the tray, does not need glue because it will be locked by the cover. By default, the cover is 5% larger then the tray but this can be adjusted in the expert settings. The angle is a measure for how big a piece of cake can fit in. Look in the figure if you don‘t know what to enter here. For example, an angle of 30º is large enough for 1 piece from a 12-piece cake. The length is the length of the piece, which should be about half the diameter of the complete cake. But, be sure to add quite some allowance here.At the beginning of this century Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson (remember them?) starred in a movie with a very suggestive title “What Women Want”, these three simple words offered a world of possibilities for screen play writers, but the 90’s naivety was still intact and what the audience got was another cheesy movie full of clichés about the way men and women related back then.
Almost twenty years have passed since the film’s 2000 release and major success in the box office but that question remains more valid than ever, but today a movie with such title would shamelessly portrait every part of women’s tastes, including sex, a topic that was taboo back then and that to this day many people consider inappropriate not only in films but even in normal everyday conversations.
This has led to wide ignorance about what pleases women in the bed, their tastes, preferences and G-spots, and the worst part is that among many sexually active men the lack of knowledge is a determining factor for bad sexual relations.
If you want to please a woman, this goes beyond looks, or penis size, it’s all about technique. They care more about the environment surrounding intercourse than us, the context really matters for them so this is good way to start if you want to make them burst in pleasure.
Some men don’t know the importance of oral sex, which is definitely a major source of enjoyment for them, so please don’t look at it as if it’s only a necessary step before vaginal penetration, a kind of toll you have to pay before really getting on the highway. Oral sex is all they might need to enjoy sex and it’s all you might need to leave a good impression.
It is also a question of market forces, guys who practice good oral sex are scarce and girls who enjoy it are a multitude, so just do the math; learning how to play down there can give you enormous market advantage. Since we want your share value to increase, we’re going to give you three simple tricks that will make them go crazy, but before that, keep in mind that the more relaxed you both are the better, so get her as comfortable as possible and try to be it yourself, they can tell if you’re not, believe me.
1. It’s all about rhythm
They love intensity changes, start very slow, kiss her neck, then her chest and gently move down, by the time you reach her vagina she should already be turned on, once there, start licking softly at first and then harder and harder, throw in a bit of sucking to and she’ll be really grateful. Try changing the pace every now and then. This is like a song, if you stay on the same note, people get bored.
2. Be a Clitoris PhD
This is a major source of enjoyment for women and if you know how to work it you can make her burst in pleasure as she comes one, two and three times. The tip of the clitoris is where most of the fun happens, suck it gently and then harder, lick a bit and introduce a couple of fingers in her vagina for maximum excitation.
3. Tongue and fingers will do the job
They also love finger stroking while you tongue is down there. Don’t be scared to be firm while you stimulate her, she’ll probably like it, and if you’re going in to hard, her or her body language will make it clear. If you manage to combine your tongue with good fingering most of the job will be done.
These simple tricks will get you started in the amazing world of really good oral sex, we assure you they will be very grateful.The PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG, or just FIG for short) is at a crossroads. Many electrons have been sacrificed talking about FIG’s tribulations of late, but sadly much of it has been FUD, with little effort spent on the positive. At SitePoint’s invitation, I’d like to offer a more positive outlook on FIG and the PHP community, and demonstrate why FIG can, and should, continue to have a positive impact on the PHP ecosystem.
By way of introduction, I am the FIG representative for Drupal and have been continually since November 2009, just shy of 7 years now, making me one of the longest-running FIG representatives. I was the Editor of PSR-6 and the current Editor of PSR-13, and also helped on the PSR-3 and PSR-7 specifications in particular. Along with Phil Sturgeon I helped design the current FIG workflow for PSRs. On the Drupal side, I was one of the main drivers behind Drupal 8 adopting PSR-0 and PSR-3.
An Uncomfortable Beginning
--ADVERTISEMENT--
FIG was founded in 2009 under the name “PHP Standards Group” after an initial meeting at php[tek] in Chicago in May. Initially it was setup with a mailing list at standards@lists.php.net, with the purported goal of establishing its first spec — the PSR-0 autoloading standard — and presumably others as community-wide standards.
The unsurprising “who do you think you are?” backlash to that presumption was swift and decisive, and the group was quickly thrown off of lists.php.net, instead setting up a Google Group for coordination. Little else was done by the PHP Standards Group for the next few years, other than admitting a few additional people/projects in late 2009 (including yours truly, representing Drupal). The PHP Standards Group hadn’t yet earned the right to call itself that in the eyes of the community.
Slow but Steady Growth
Fast forward to October 2011. After being completely dead for 2 years, the group started to come alive again. It renamed itself to the hopefully-less-controversial “Framework Interoperability Group”, although it still had no effective bylaws nor a defined mission statement, working instead on “whatever we decide to work on.” Among the specs that were tackled in that period were the PSR-1 coding standards, PSR-2 coding style standards, and PSR-3 logging interface.
There was some debate around whether interfaces were even “fair game” for FIG to define, since it had no mission statement. Therefore, in March 2013 I ran a poll to gauge whether those involved in FIG (both project members and otherwise) favored “soft specs” (like coding standards) or “hard specs” (like interfaces), and the results came back solidly for “all of the above, but with lean toward interfaces”. A similar poll, shortly afterward, showed a modest lean toward forward-looking but practice-informed specs (rather than “only document what’s been done” or “build new stuff from whole cloth” extremes).
Despite the “framework” in the name, FIG was also never limited to just “framework-ish” projects. Aside from being an extremely ill-defined word to begin with, FIG’s membership quickly grew to the point that pure-framework members were a decided minority alongside stand-alone libraries, CMSes, Wikis, e-commerce suites, and other stand-alone applications. The benefits of collaboration and interoperability are not limited to “frameworks”.
Participation in FIG was also ill-defined. The initial founders were mostly project leads, but not entirely. Early on, there were many debates on whether members were “people” or “projects”; that is, were FIG members ambassadors acting on behalf of their projects, or were they simply people determined “cool enough” to have a vote for life by virtue of happening to lead a project? That was put to a vote in April 2013, and the bylaws clearly amended to make voting representatives ambassadors on behalf of their project. Despite the clear result, a select few refused to acknowledge that decision and act as though it never happened; there was some validity to their claim as in practice one is always interacting with a person, not with a “project”, and humans are humans, but the group and the bylaws had spoken.
Another issue that arose was the ownership of a spec in development. Technically no one was responsible for anything, so multiple specs (those which became the PSR-4 autoloading standard and the PSR-6 caching standard) had multiple competing versions from different people and no one could keep track of which was the “real” version. Clearly that was suboptimal.
In July of 2013, therefore, the group adopted a new workflow bylaw, authored primarily by Phil Sturgeon and myself, which defined a clear Editor, Coordinator, and Sponsor for a PSR in draft, creating the skeleton of a working group. Under that model, the group passed the PSR-4 autoloading standard, PSR-6 cache standard, and PSR-7 HTTP messaging standard.
A Community-Wide Impact
The various PSRs that FIG has published have, of course, impacted the PHP community far beyond the handful of member projects. Defined standards in a vacuum have a way of doing that.
PSR-0 was a key enabler for Composer, which has transformed the PHP ecosystem.
PSR-1 and PSR-2 together are now a preset in many IDEs, which makes them the default coding standard for nearly all PHP projects (except a select few with massive code bases that predate PSR-2, for whom switching is impractical despite pressure to do so).
The PSR-3 logger has been installed, according to Packagist, over 37 million times. For PSR-7, it’s around 11 million.
The PSR-7 HTTP messaging standard has spawned a cottage industry of experimentation with HTTP middleware that has already been adopted to some degree or another by many if not most major projects.
Despite its contentious beginnings, FIG has effectively become the standards body for PHP. It took time for it to earn it, but it did, thanks to the work of dozens of people, both FIG members and not. A Reddit thread started last January showed that, while not universal, there was a clear preference for FIG to step up and accept that role formally.
Today, FIG has a number of specs in various stages of development, ranging from just-getting-started to nearly-complete, including:
PSR-9 (background) and PSR-10 (background) – Security reporting and automated security advisories.
PSR-11 (background) – Dependency Injection Container interoperability.
PSR-12 (background) – Revised |
9th inning man for the Indians. His FIP and xFIP rank in the top 12 on this list during those 2 seasons, so this seems like a fair spot for him to land. His numbers are actually similar to Craig Kimbrel’s the past 2 seasons with the only difference being Allen’s much higher BaBip%. I still prefer taking Miller as the higher upside option in this bullpen. It wouldn’t surprise me if Miller transitions into more of a conventional closers role to keep his innings down with Allen taking on the 8th inning role at some point. In save only leagues, I’d list Miller at 11 on this list.
15. A.J. Ramos (Miami Marlins)—Kyle Barraclough, Brad Ziegler
The Marlins clearly don’t feel comfortable with Ramos as their closer, making serious runs at Chapman and Jansen this offseason. They fact they clearly aren’t sold on him as a closer, probably due to his below average fastball, makes me feel uneasy drafting him. He does a good job keeping the ball on the ground for the most part, but still, his xFIP and SwStr% from last season put him in the bottom third of active closers. Opportunity is in his favor, as I don’t think Ziegler will challenge him and Barraclough still needs to iron out his control issues before being strongly considered for the role.
TIER 3: Bound for the Floor
16. Fransisco Rodriguez (Detroit Tigers)—Bruce Rondon, Justin Wilson
Its amazing to think about how long K-Rod has been closing out games. Mike Trout was still in little league when Rodriguez notched his first MLB save. He doesn’t have the same velocity he once had, but he’s still been fairly effective and has one of the filthiest changeups in baseball at times. He also doesn’t have much competition as of now (Rondon and Jimenez may give him a run at some point). His BABIP seems mostly due to luck, and he is becoming a bit of a HR risk. You could do worse with your second (hopefully) RP.
17. Shawn Kelley (Washington Nationals)—Blake Treinen, Koda Glover
If Shawn Kelley was announced the closer tomorrow, he instantly moves up 6 spots in my rankings. He ranks 4th in xFIP, 7th in SwStr% and the Nationals are favored to win the NL East so plenty of save opportunities should be available. But the fact is, no one really knows who will win this job. Kelley is definitely the clubhouse favorite here, but Treinen’s numbers aren’t too shabby either and Koda Glover has the prototypical closer build/arsenal. Glover is the real darkhorse here, as some really believe he will be closing games sooner rather than later as long as his can harness his command problems. David Robertson has also been rumored to be a target for the Nats, and he would certainly get a boost in these rankings if that happens.
18. Adam Ottavino (Colorado Rockies)—Greg Holland, Jake McGee
Ottavino, similarly to Kelley, would be higher on this list if I wasn’t worried about his job security following the Holland signing. His numbers make him a fit in the low teens, and while he doesn’t miss too many bats, he keeps the ball on the ground which is obviously a huge plus pitching at Coors. He’s more likely to keep the job all year compared to Kelley, but I like Kelley’s K and opportunity upside better. Beware though, both also come with significant injury risk.
19. David Robertson (Chicago White Sox)—Nate Jones, Michael Ynoa
As I mentioned a little earlier, Robertson would get a nice boost in these rankings if he were acquired by the Nationals. Until this happens, I’m staying away as he will be too hard to trust this season. Pitching for one of the worst teams in baseball, and coming of a disappointing 2016, I find no reason to believe he can improve upon his numbers in Chicago this year. Based of this list, he was ’21 in FIP and xFIP, 19th in SwStr% and 17th in GB% so 19th overall seems completely fair to me. I highly recommended scooping up Nate Jones late in your draft, who to be honest, is probably the better pitcher of the two at this point in their careers.
20. Sam Dyson (Texas Rangers)—Matt Bush, Jeremy Jeffress
Unlike the previous two players mentioned, the only reason Dyson is rated this high is his relatively high job security. I’m not convinced Bush is really a good closer option and Jeffress didn’t exactly excel in that role with the Brewers. Maybe Keone Kela can bounce back this season and take the role, but until he proves he’s healthy and can be that guy, the jobs all Dyson’s. The Rangers were 3rd in save opportunities last year and figure to be a top 10 team in MLB again this season. Dyson is a distant second on this list to Britton in GB%, which is nice to have pitching in Arlington half the year. So now the negatives. 23rd in FIP, 27th in xFIP and 27th in SwStr%. Huston Street missed bats at a higher clip than this guy. That’s not someone I feel comfortable with in the last inning of a ball game in 2017.
21. Neftali Feliz (Milwaukee Brewers)—Corey Knebel, Jacob Barnes
Feliz had a nice comeback season last year, and seemed to regain his stuff from past years. Ranking 13th in SwStr% makes me almost feel guilty for putting him this low. The fact the Pirates didn’t try resigning him when they needed to replace Melancon and his 29th ranking in FIP though make me feel more confident that this is where he belongs. The Brewers were bad last season, but they still managed to churn out the 10th most save opportunities. Knebel is a threat if he can put it all together this season but I see Feliz running away with the job if he can stay healthy.
22. Jim Johnson (Atlanta Braves)—Arodys Vizcaino, Mauricio Cabrera
I really wanted to convince myself to rank Johnson higher on this list. He ranks in the top 16 in FIP and xFIP, he should be giving a fairly long leash in the role and the Braves SHOULD be a little bit better than last year, right? For a team rebuilding, I feel like its inevitable for them to move Johnson and go with one of their young talented relievers (Vizcaino or Cabrera). His SwStr% is pretty terrible too, which limits any potential upside in the K department. Still, he can be a solid, if unspectacular RP2 if he has the job all year.
TIER 4: Better Days (and the Bottom Drops Out)
23. Tony Watson (Pittsburgh Pirates)—Felipe Rivero, Daniel Hudson
Tony Watson is a nice above average MLB relief pitcher any team would like to have. He’s just not really the guy you want pitching in the 9th with a lead. He misses some bats and he should have the opportunities if he holds the job, but his FIP (28th ranked) is worrisome. My guess is Romero or Hudson end up taking over the job at some point this season, but late in drafts Watson can be worth a flier.
24. Raisel Iglesias (Cincinnati Reds)—Drew Storen, Michael Lorenzen
Like I said with Watson, Iglesias is a nice MLB reliever, he just isn’t quite closer material. Unlike Watson, there’s a guy behind him who has closing ability who just happens to have never put it all together. Iglesias is still the guy I’d rather own here, but Storen makes for an interesting late round option to stash on bench. Lorenzen is an interesting sleeper for save opportunities this year as well.
25. Brandon Maurer (San Diego Padres)—Carter Capps, Kevin Quakenbush
IF Carter Capps can remain healthy for a full season he is by far the best closing option in San Diego. Given his funky delivery and injury history, Id say the odds of that were like the odds of Hacksaw Ridge winning best picture last night. I’m interested to see if Buchter gets any save chances this year, as he was the most dominant option out of the bullpen last season. Still, I’d prefer Capps in the last round to Maurer a few rounds earlier.
26. Fernando Rodney (Arizona Diamondbacks)—Jake Barrett, Randall Delgado
From here on out, the list gets really ugly. “Fernando Rodney” and “easy save” have never been mentioned in the same sentence, and I doubt he can miraculously turn things around at this point of his surprisingly lengthy career. He at least has little to no competition so there’s that.
27. Ryan Madson (Oakland Athletics)—Sean Doolittle, Santiago Casilla
After a good start to last season, Madson completely fell apart in the 2nd half. I don’t expect him to hold on to the job, if he even wins it, for much longer than April. Doolittle is my favorite to end up with the most save opportunities, but Casilla could wind up with a few too.
28. Brandon Kintzler (Minnesota Twins)—Glenn Perkins, JT Chargois
Kintzler actually is a pretty nice 7th inning/situational option most managers would like to have. His stuff by no means is closing caliber, and he will likely be exposed early in the season. He should however keep the job until Perkins can get healthy as there are no other options (unless Chargois has a lights out spring maybe?)
29. Jeanmar Gomez (Philadelphia Phillies)—Hector Neris, Joaquin Benoit
I get why the 3 mentioned above are their teams respective closers (and even the last name on this list for that matter) but Gomez has not earned this job. Benoit or Neris are both better options by a mile, with Neris being a nice upside pick late in drafts.
30. Huston Street (Los Angeles Angels)—Cam Bedrosian, Andrew Bailey
Street completely bottomed out last year and at this point, there can’t be much left in the tank. Bedrosian will be the guy at some point, it’s just a matter of when not if. I’d take Bedrosian late in drafts and leave Street alone.cover. The Sixth Gun's Cullen Bunn has been a part of thecreative team since joining Rick Remender as co-writer last year, and took the book over solely a few months later with issue #23. Now he's steering the series into a new era, with Venom and Flash Thompson moving to Philadelphia, and Toxin and Eddie Brock following him there.
After a stint as the (mostly) heroic Anti-Venom, Eddie Brock was transformed against his will into the latest incarnation of Toxin — who Bunn says will be "solidly an antagonist" for Venom and Flash. That's not the only familiar face popping up in Venom's new surroundings, as both Valkyrie and Daimon Hellstrom will continue to play (very different) roles in Flash Thompson's life. Bunn also hints, quite strongly, that the new Superior Spider-Man — you may have heard a thing or two about him here and there — will also be showing up sooner rather than later in the series.
With issue #29 out earlier this week, Newsarama talked about all of it with Bunn — whose Helheim, with artists Joëlle Jones and Nick Filardi, premieres from Oni in March — including raising the ire of Daimon Hellstron's uniquely passionate fanbase, and building an ersatz "Cullenverse" between Venom and the February-debuting Fearless Defenders. Courtesy of Marvel, we're also debuting a couple of pages of Declan Shalvey's interior art from February's Venom #31.
: Cullen, right now you're entering into a new era of, with the title character moving to Philadelphia. How has that phase of the book gone for you so far?
Cullen Bunn: I'm really enjoying it. Venom's been sort of a weird project for me. I've enjoyed everything I've done on it, but in a lot of ways, it feels like I've been writing limited series within Venom, even though it's an ongoing book. I co-wrote the "Savage Six" arc with [Rick] Remender, and I knew we had a job to do; we had this story to tell. When I came on as a solo writer on the book, I had three issues before we went into the "Minimum Carnage" storyline.
Now, coming out of "Minimum Carnage," we've got Venom moving to Philadelphia, and it really does, to me, feel like a fresh start on the character. This three-issue arc — #28, #29 and #30 — in a lot of ways, it feels like a brand-new Venom. He actually makes the move in #31, and there are new supporting cast members, Flash has a new approach to being a hero, and [we] introduce some new threats that I think will really shake things up. Venom fans — and I'm talking about the die-hard Venom fans, and the die-hard symbiote fans — are going to go crazy, especially starting with #31, and get some things that they have been clamoring for.
Nrama: Is one of those things the return of Toxin?
Bunn: It is. You'll start getting glimpses of him before issue #31, but in #31, Toxin returns.
There are a lot of people who say, "Eddie Brock should be the only Venom. He's the only person worthy of being Venom." My goal, as lofty as it may be, is, I really want people to forget about Eddie as Venom. What [artist] Declan [Shalvey] and I are trying to do is, once we tell this story, I want people to associate Eddie Brock with Toxin. It's a lofty goal, because he has such a big history with Venom, but a lot of people really liked when he was Anti-Venom. We want to make Toxin a viable, interesting, dynamic character on his own — the Eddie/Toxin combo, or "Broxin" as I've seen him referred. [Laughs.] Our goal is to really make people love and hate and fear Toxin, and Eddie Brock.
Nrama: So it sounds like Eddie Brock will be pretty solidly a villain this time around, maybe more so than he has in the past?
cover.: When Eddie and Toxin were bonded in "Savage Six," he was almost like this mindless killing machine. That is not the Toxin you are going to see. I don't want to say he's solidly a villain, but for Venom, at least, he is solidly an antagonist. The one thing that Eddie and Toxin have in common is that they both hate Venom — both the symbiote and the man. That solidifies their partnership to some degree.
Nrama: Valkyrie has a budding romance with Flash Thompson, and you'll be writing her in Fearless Defenders. So will she remain a part of Venom's life going forward?
Bunn: She's definitely a big player in the current arc, #28-#30. She appears in every issue there.
I kind of lucked out. A lot of times when you have romances with two characters, you have one writer writing one of the characters in the book, and another writer writing another character in the book, and sometimes the puzzle pieces don't seem to fit. I have gotten into a situation where I'm writing the main books for both of these two characters, so I get to play both sides of that relationship. You'll see Venom in Fearless Defenders; you'll see Valkyrie in Venom — not every issue or every arc, but there will be a presence in those two books.
cover.: You'll get to build up a mini-Cullenverse.
Bunn: Right! The Cullenverse. I like this.
Nrama: I've seen on Twitter that you've been getting some grief from Daimon Hellstrom fans, about making him evil — have you been surprised at all by that reaction?
Bunn: [Laughs.] When I did that, in Fear Itself: The Fearless, I wrote to the editorial team, and to Matt Fraction and Chris Yost, who were helping me write that series, and said, "I'm going to rain on every Hellstrom's fan parade, and I'm going to make him evil." In the grand scheme of things, it's just a handful, but they're a very vocal handful of people who were upset that I made Daimon Hellstrom a bad guy.
I've had people say, "Cullen Bunn is such a terrible writer, because he made Daimon Hellstrom bad." I think that's sort of a funny critique — there are plenty of other reasons to call me a terrible writer. But a lot of people don't like Daimon Hellstrom as bad. I love the character. I remember very vividly reading the first appearances of Daimon Hellstrom when I was a kid — I remember the room I was sitting in. I was visiting my cousins in Georgia, and they had those issues with Daimon Hellstrom in it, and I remember reading those and just being amazed. This is not a matter of me not liking Daimon Hellstrom. I think he's a character who goes beyond good and evil. I think people don't remember that in the short-lived Druid series, he burned Dr. Druid alive and put him in a trashcan. He's a character whose concept of good and evil is a little bit different. I try to think about the long game and what I'm going to do in the future, and I've got a plan for Daimon Hellstrom, and a lot of people who hate what I've done can't even picture what I've got planned for him in the end.
He's kind of a bad guy now, he's done some terrible things, but I think Hellstrom believes that the only way to combat ultimate evil is with an equal amount of evil, and that's kind of his goal — that's why he's taken this heel turn that he's taken.
The complication that I've had is that since he's made his heel turn in Fear Itself: The Fearless, he has appeared in a number of other books as a good guy. A lot of times that's written off as, "Well, this book takes before this book, and this book takes place…" — they do some chronology magic to make it work. This is not a situation where it works. He's been in too many places. He had a significant role in Journey Into Mystery; he had a significant role in the end of New Avengers. That's confused a lot of people, and frustrated people, and I will say that I will make that all make sense.
Nrama: That's pretty frank of you to admit that it doesn't make sense right now.
Bunn: Those things frustrate me just like they do any other reader. I get it. I have a tolerance to some degree when I'm reading comics, because I know that there are a lot of different people writing these books, and a lot of people involved, and not everybody reads each and every thing. But this is one that, because I'm involved in it, I have a dog in this hunt. In the pages of Venom, I will make the multiple appearances of Hellstrom make sense, and the seeming multiple-personality disorder.
Nrama: Maybe that will get some of the Hellstrom fans off of your back?
Bunn: I'm certain that I will make people more angry. When I was really getting a lot of email, and seeing on forums people who were frustrated with Hellstrom, I'd put a tweet out and say, "Daimon Hellstrom stole your girlfriend this morning," and things like that, just to mess with people. Because it's kind of funny. I know that people love these characters, but when you stop and think about it, it's a little funny to get so frustrated about what's going to happen with these characters, especially when you know, it's not like they're reading the final book that features Daimon Hellstrom. Hell, right now, they're not even reading the only book that features Daimon Hellstron. [Laughs.]
: You would think that since he's the Son of Satan, he'd naturally have some evil tendencies.
Bunn: If you use that defense, though, people will give you this whole rundown of his lineage, and that makes my head spin. As much as I like the character, his frequently retconned and revised origin gives me a headache.
Nrama: To wrap up, with the new Superior Spider-Man era starting, can readers expect to see some interaction between the new Spidey and Venom at some point relatively soon?
Bunn: I would say that it's a certainty.
More from Newsarama:Got a comment? There's lots of conversation on Newsarama's FACEBOOK and TWITTERCourtesy of the New York State Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections
Orange, Calif.
WITH Mitt Romney, a member of the Mormon church, quite possibly heading toward the Republican nomination, Americans may be faced with a presidential aspirant whose faith many find strange and troublesome. It would not be the first time that has happened, and during a previous campaign the response was pretty nasty.
By any measure, Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic candidate against Herbert C. Hoover in 1928, had a formidable record. Growing up poor, Al (as everyone except The New York Times called him) left school at age 12 to go to work, at jobs that included a stint in the Fulton Fish Market.
An outgoing lad with a fine speaking voice, he gravitated to street corner politics and on to Tammany Hall. Smith started as an unknown member of the New York State Assembly and rose to become speaker. In 1911, he led the investigation of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire and sponsored the subsequent reform legislation that influenced fire codes nationwide.
Courtesy of the New York State Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections
Like Mr. Romney, Smith was the governor of a northeastern state. He served four nonconsecutive terms beginning in 1919, and a good argument can be made that Al was the greatest chief executive in the history of New York State, where he created the precursor of the New Deal.
So Smith should have been an impressive candidate, but the electorate had several problems with him. Voters reacted to his equivocal stance on Prohibition, to his Irish heritage, even to his New York roots. Their foremost objection by far, however, was to his religion: Smith was a devout Roman Catholic.
The response to this belief was public and private, during a campaign that lasted only two months, from September to November. Yet feelings were so strong that they swirled into a hurricane of abuse, a crescendo of fear and hate blasting through eight weeks. The school board of Daytona Beach, Fla., sent a note home with every student. It read simply: “We must prevent the election of Alfred E. Smith to the Presidency. If he is elected President, you will not be allowed to have or read a Bible.” Fliers informed voters that if Smith took the White House, all Protestant marriages would be annulled, their offspring rendered illegitimate on the spot.
Opponents blanketed the country with photos of the recently completed Holland Tunnel, the caption stating that this was the secret passage being built between Rome and Washington, to transport the pope to his new abode. Countless copies of a small cartoon appeared on lampposts and mailboxes everywhere. Titled “Cabinet Meeting — If Al Were President,” it showed the cabinet room, with the pope seated at the head of the table, surrounded by priests and bishops. Over in the corner was Al Smith, dressed in a bellboy’s uniform, carrying a serving platter, on top of which was a jug of whiskey. Summing up, the minister of the largest Baptist congregation in Oklahoma City announced, “If you vote for Al Smith you’re voting against Christ and you’ll all be damned.”
Courtesy of the New York State Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections
The Ku Klux Klan became actively involved in preventing a Catholic from ever getting near the White House, going all out to defeat Smith. One Klan leader mailed thousands of postcards after Democrats nominated the New Yorker, stating firmly, “We now face the darkest hour in American history. In a convention ruled by political Romanism, anti-Christ has won.” A Klan colleague in remote North Manchester, Ind., warned his audience, in booming tones, of the imminent arrival of the pope: “He may even be on the northbound train tomorrow! He may! He may! Be warned! America is for Americans! Watch the trains!” When I interviewed Hugh L. Carey, only the second Roman Catholic elected governor of New York, for my Smith biography, he remembered Klan parades in Hicksville when he was 9 years old and how frightened he was, because “there was a real anti-Catholic sentiment.”
At least as nefarious were the private conversations, whisperings that went on in homes, workplaces and schools across America. One woman wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt that she had heard that “if Governor Smith is elected president, the pope’s son will be his secretary.” F.D.R. asked, in his reply, how many sons did the lady think the pope had, and what were their occupations? Down in Amarillo, Tex., Representative Marvin Jones, a good Democrat, went into his local drugstore, and the owner asked him whom he was going to vote for. Mr. Jones answered with Smith’s name. His neighbor bluntly replied, “We’ve been fighting that bunch for 2,000 years. Do you think I’m going to turn the government over to them?”
Simon Rifkind, at the time I spoke with him, was one of the last people alive to have actually been on the Smith campaign train. He noted that, when he was growing up in New York City, Catholics were all around him (Mr. Rifkind was Jewish), and “I had not been aware of the intense anti-Catholicism that prevailed in this country.” But that year, “when I came to mid-America,” he said, “it hit you in the face.” Explaining that Smith would sometimes “be boycotted because he was a Catholic,” Mr. Rifkind went on, “There were some times when nobody showed up at the platform.” In Kansas, a little girl came home and asked, “Mama, why don’t they kill that bad man Smith that they told us about in Sunday school?”
Even experienced political figures were stunned. Frances Perkins, later the first female cabinet member, campaigning for Smith in Maryland, founded as a Catholic refuge, still faced what she described as “some of the most terrible fantastic prejudices and dreadful yarns I have ever heard.” Someone pointed out to her “the estate which had been purchased for the pope and where the pope was coming” as soon as Smith was elected. “They knew it for a fact.” Lillian Wald, a leader in the settlement house movement and New York’s pre-eminent authority on social work, despaired over “the organized bigotry, the like of which I have never seen. I feel as if some poison gas had spread over us and that our democracy will suffer from this for many years to come.”
Courtesy of the New York State Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections
Smith lost that year, badly. Hoover got 58.2 percent of the votes, his opponent a dismal 40.8 percent. Even worse was the Electoral College; Hoover carried it by 444 to 87, winning 40 of the 48 states. The Roman Catholic candidate lost every western state and every Midwestern industrial state, even liberal ones like Wisconsin, while the solid Democratic South split over him. What really broke the governor’s heart, however, was that his own beloved home state thoroughly rejected him; New York went for Hoover, and outside of the five boroughs, only a scant four counties returned for Smith. Even among Gotham’s smart set, the “in” joke after Smith lost was that, upon learning of his defeat, the first thing he did was send a one-word telegram to the pope. It read, “Unpack.”
The problem with such sickness is that it ignores reality and facts, the most important of which is this: There is absolutely no evidence that a religious hierarchy, either that of Al Smith’s Roman Catholicism, of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism or of Representative Keith Ellison’s Muslim faith, has ever dictated these politicians’ positions on the issues or challenged their allegiance to the Constitution. Every American has a right to private beliefs, but we are not voting for which church someone goes to, or which movie he sees or what book she reads. The question should be the candidate’s outlook on the country’s problems and what policies he advocates in response. Those are what count, and they are weighty enough concerns.
A version of the article appeared in print on Dec. 11, 2011.
Robert A. Slayton is a professor of history at Chapman University and the author of “Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following corrections, the second of which corrected errors in the first.
1. An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to Hugh L. Carey, a former governor of New York. While Carey, who served from 1975 to 1982, was the second Catholic to be elected governor of New York State, he was not the second Catholic to hold the position. The printed correction also said that the second Catholic governor was Malcolm Wilson, who succeeded to the office when Nelson A. Rockefeller resigned in 1973 and lost to Carey in the 1974 election, but that is not the case.
2. An opinion essay on Dec. 11 about anti-Catholic prejudice during the 1928 presidential campaign of Alfred E. Smith referred imprecisely to Hugh L. Carey, and a correction in this space on Dec. 18 erroneously attributed a distinction to Mr. Smith. While Mr. Smith (who served from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928) was the first Catholic to be elected governor of New York State (and Mr. Carey, who served from 1975 to 1982, was the second), Mr. Smith was not the first Catholic governor. The correction also referred incorrectly to Malcolm Wilson, governor from 1973 to 1974. He was one of several Catholics who succeeded to the position without having been elected (including Martin H. Glynn, who served from 1913 to 1914 and was the state’s first Catholic governor). Neither Mr. Wilson nor Mr. Carey was the second Catholic governor; Mr. Smith was.A simple wooden board and round stones made out of clam shells. These two ingredients are all it takes to create the elegant and often bloody battlefield of Go.
Designed several millennia ago, the game of Go is the oldest board game in existence.
Starting in China, the game has gone through several changes in strategic principles, but has remained faithful to it’s simple rules.
It has been my favorite game for some time.
Whether it’s romanticizing over the past greats; Shusaku and Dosaku, as well as Dosaku’s pupil Doteki, who perhaps possessed the greatest mind in the history of Go, or it’s simply sitting down and becoming one with one’s thoughts in front of a wooden board with stones made out of clam shells.
Even when a game turns into a bloodbath, an unknowing spectator would hardly notice.
“When I play go, a lot of times I find how it relates to my life… I’ll play recklessly and after a few lost games I begin to wonder why I lost. Then I’ll think about the recklessness of my play and begin to ease myself and settle in. The same way I would do if I were faced with a pressuring situation in my life.”
These words came from the owner of a go salon I frequent. In my experience I’ve only ever met someone near my age just once, with the makeup usually being that of middle-aged men. There’s a reason for that.
Go has been proven to slow down the effects of Alzheimers. It is the only game that uses both sides of the brain; chess, by comparison, uses the left-side.
But with a ruleset so simplistic, children can easily become addicted to the game. In fact, in the Orient, there are professional systems where players compete for prize money in lavish tournaments to decide the best player in their respective countries. Most professionals begin playing at the age of six and earn their first paychecks by the age of 12.
With grand success comes grand torture and defeat.
Former professional player Kageyama Toshiro once declared, “Amateurs’ go comes from pleasure, professionals’ go comes from suffering.”
Indeed, as many cases have shown.
Nowadays, Koreans dominate the Go world. With wave after wave of impossibly strong players, hardly any international tournaments are won by other nations; although China has put up a good fight lately, Japan hasn’t won a major international tournament since 2005.
It is of no coincidence.
Yeon’gusaeng, known as insei in Japan, are junior professionals. Aged anywhere from nine to 18, these junior professionals are among the strongest amateurs in the country, and, in some cases, already of professional strength.
They spend upwards of ten hours a day studying the game. Replaying games from old masters and playing games against each other, the core of their training comes from doing “life and death” problems.
These problems are often seemingly simple board positions that are usually solved when one reads out a five, ten, sometimes 20 or even 30 move variation which leads to the result of either Black/White living/dying.
After over five years of off and on playing, I can read upwards of 15 and sometimes 20 moves for a single position.
By comparison, professionals read upwards of 100 moves.
“Usually professional players, including me, read around 100 moves ahead. This might surprise amateur players, but the more difficult thing is not reading ahead 100 moves, but deciding which of the final cadidate moves gives a better result… the most painful moment is when I realize that I am on the wrong way a few moves after my original decision. That gives me an agony beyond description.”
Lee Chang-ho’s answer when asked how many moves he can read. Chang-ho is considered one of the greatest players of all-time, winning over 140 titles and completely dominating the professional scene during the 1990s and early 2000s.
At first the game is extremely fun and mostly gratifying. Reading one sentence can immediately improve your strength. However, as one improves, the stronger each band of strength becomes. Suddenly one finds themselves at a wall, impossible to climb and impenetrably hard to break through.
I found myself there.
But then I began to think. Suddenly this game, created over 2000 years ago with a wooden board and stones made out of clam shells, taught me something. Patience and peace of mind.
The air became light again. My bones would ache less and less. Waking in the morning became something to look forward to and not something of a chore.
What Go taught me was to be content with what I have. It may not be as grand as someone else, but it is good. It is decent. Who could ask for more than something good and decent?
Reach for the stars, but do not be dissatisfied with living on cloud nine.
AdvertisementsFor the person who wants cups and clothes, alongside cards.
Take a Rest Between Duels!
・ This mug is perfect for tea time as school, work or even at home.
・ It’s also good as an interior decoration for your room.
・ It confirms to the New Food Sanitation Law, so you can use it with confidence.
・ Microwave and Dishwasher Safe
・ Keeep in mind this product’s artwork might be damage if used in a direct fire or oven.
・ Polishing with scourers or cleansers might damage the surface.
Item Name: 遊☆戯☆王VRAINSフルカラーマグカップ (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Full Color Mug Cup)
DImensions: 9.5 Tall × 8cm Diameter / Ceramic
Price: ¥1,500 （Plus Tax ¥1,620）
■ Estimated Release Date of Early August 2017
A reasonably sized Acrylic strap!
・ It’s attachable and detachable with an Earphone Jack for Mobile Devices
※ Please enjoy it as an accessory while attached to the Earphone Jack. There’s a chance it might fall if you hang it from things such as your mobile phone.
Item Name: Aiアクリルストラップ (Ai Acrylic Strap)
Size:（Roughly）7.1cm Long×7.1cm Wide / Acrylic
Price:¥800 （Plus Tax ¥864）
Item Name:プレイメーカー アクリルストラップ (Playmaker Acrylic Strap)
Size:（Roughly）8.0 Long× 5.1cm Wide / Acrylic
Prince:¥800 （Plus Tax ¥864）
■ Release Date of Late August 2017
A reasonably sized Acrylic Keyholder!
Item Name: Aiアクリルキーホルダー (Ai Acrylic Keyholder)
Size:（Roughly）7.1cm Long×7.1cm Wide / Acrylic
Price:¥800 （Plus Tax ¥864）
Item Name:プレイメーカー アクリルキーホルダー (Playmaker Acrylic Keyholder)
Size:（Roughly）8.0 Long× 5.1cm Wide / Acrylic
Prince:¥800 （Plus Tax ¥864）
■ Release Date of Late August 2017
It’s great for customization since you can easily attach and detach it! You can count yourself among the Duelists and Staff of 『Team 5D’s』, or even if you just want to support the team!
・ The emblem of “Team 5D’s” that Yusei and his friends wore on their clothes has been made real as a detachable patch!
・ On the back is Velcro (or as Japan calls it, “Magic Tape”)
・ Starting with Cospa’s Patchbase Series,
It’s very easy to place on items with commerical available Velcro Straps.
・ Along with every day use Military styled Items, we recommend putting it on items for things such as Survival Games.
※ The Base comes with “Female Velcro”. Please use it with a Velcro material included on your item.
Item Name:チーム5D’s脱着式ワッペン (Team 5D’s Detachable Badge)
Size: |
moral backbone strengthened, watch it! PizzaGate is not a joke. It is real. Satanists claim to draw energy from their victims, the younger and more innocent, the better. Seaman argues that Hillary Clinton's ill health is proof that the "magic" of Satanism does not work. The Illuminati, or the Satanic cult at the heart of this scandal believes that the occult magic they employ only works if you reveal, albeit cryptically, your actions and intentions to the masses. It's an occult or symbolic revelation, like promoting the symbol of pizza everywhere as cultural icons like Miley Cyrus and many "respected" business establishments do. To the lay person, the symbol just represents "pizza." But to the black initiates, the illuminated ones, the chosen few given the insider's knowledge of discernment, it means the promotion and endorsement of pedophilia and Satanic ritual abuse. That is why such artifacts as the Georgia Guidestones, that call for the culling of the planet's 8 billion people, down to 500 million, should be taken seriously. The lay person, the lazy people who don't want to think critically, will just laugh at the message calling it "preposterous." But for the elites who create such messages, their guilt for having harmed us is washed away because we were forewarned of their intentions and yet we did nothing about it. These Satanic occultists communicate to the masses via symbols. Hence their need to control the music and movie industries where all their dark symbols can be packaged attractively for us.
Some Cultural Icons With Pizza
Conditioning of the public to accept the elites' Satanist pasttimes. Cultural icon giving "pizza" to little girls, asking them if they want to have a "pizza party" with adults. (cf. https://voat.co/v/pizzagate )
"Listen kids there's something that happens, they don't tell you about it."
Interesting how Perry sprinkles glitter on the pizza before handing it to the child. Symbolic of the date rape drug commonly used by pedos?
1) Music star and active supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Katy Perry, in pizza suit onesie. 2) Pop icon, Clinton supporter, and former Disney star, Miley Cyrus, blinded by her love for pizza, eyes wide shut. 3) Miley Cyrus, pizza queen. 4) Miley Cyrus, Pizza Slut. 5) Miley Cyrus, spreading her legs for "pizza." 1) Music star and active supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Katy Perry, in pizza suit onesie. 2) Pop icon, Clinton supporter, and former Disney star, Miley Cyrus, blinded by her love for pizza, eyes wide shut. 3) Miley Cyrus, pizza queen. 4) Miley Cyrus, Pizza Slut. 5) Miley Cyrus, spreading her legs for "pizza."
The game that is played here is propaganda, the NWO conditioning to accept a depraved and rootless belief system, that is "hidden in plain sight." That is exactly what was meant by the title of Kubrick's occult masterpiece, " Eyes Wide Shut " ( * ). More here * ). The occult practicioners derive satisfaction, "get off," if you will, from fucking us over right in front of our eyes without our being aware of it. That is what "occult" really is. Pizza, used this way, is like a Trojan Horse. It seems normal, acceptable, so we let down our guard and bring it into our beings. But it is the secondary and tertiary meanings of "pizza," and the illuminati's INTENTIONS when pushing these messages, that can cause us harm, or at the very least condition us to accept the deeper, hidden meanings of the symbolism. e.g., the normalization of child abuse. The media sets up superstars like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus to be role models, objects of adoration for children and adolescents. Then, when these idols are firmly entrenched in the nation's psyche, the occult controllers laden them with malignant messages and symbols.
"Secret Pizza Party" illustrations. "Secret Pizza Party" illustrations.
YouTube comments:
Lori Chiov
RED FLAG ~>> "SECRET" You don't encourage/TEACH SECRETS to children--EVERunless you are doing something wrong, like GROOMING them!!"
Popsickle Pete
The secret handshake at 1:33 resembles the symbol of Thelema. From wiki: The law of Thelema is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." The law of Thelema was developed in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley, an English writer and ceremonial magician.
Many hacked emails from John Podesta and others reveal coded pedophile langage. For example:
hot dog = boy
pizza = girl
cheese = little girl
pasta = little boy
walnut = colored person
map = semen
sauce = orgy
I've seen elsewhere that "chicken" also means boys.
>>>
Now with that in mind, read this email asking “Do you think I’ll do better playing dominos on cheese than on pasta?” Dominos on Cheese or Pasta Now consider the first posted email that says John Podesta left a handkerchief with a “pizza related map”.
In other Podesta emails, a pizza joint called “Comet Ping Pong Pizza” is referenced multiple times. You can find this at Wikileaks Podesta search = Comet
This is where it starts to get weird, and I will try to bring in only the most relevant evidence. John Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, and he also served this position for Obama. He acted as a chief of staff to Bill Clinton. He is not an elected official, but it is clear he has real influence in American politics. In the emails, you will read that this Comet location seems to be a hot spot, serving as a fundraiser location for both Obama and Hillary Clinton. Why would they choose a pizza joint supposedly kid-friendly with the main attraction being PING PONG TABLES IN THE BASEMENT??
First suspicious activity is merely its location. Check out these FBI issued known pedophilia symbology:
1) Pedophilia symbols: Little Boy Lover, Girl Lover, etc. 2) Four pedophilia-involved businesses, owned by James Alefantis' Big Cheese LLC (cheese = little girl pedophilia). 3) Jeffrey Dahmer and the 1) Pedophilia symbols: Little Boy Lover, Girl Lover, etc. 2) Four pedophilia-involved businesses, owned by James Alefantis' Big Cheese LLC (cheese = little girl pedophilia). 3) Jeffrey Dahmer and the Greek Gods ate children. 4) Besta Pizza advertisement, with pedophilia and boy lover symbolism. 5) Map of DC PizzaGate area. 6) Child torture drawings by a favorite artist of the Podestas and Comet Ping Pong Pizza.
Pedophilia enterprises that front as normal businesses, all related to James Alefantis, John Podesta, and Hillary Clinton.
Where Is Julian Assange? - By Milo Yiannopoulos (*) (11/20/2016). WikiLeaks timeline, presented by Milo Yiannopoulos: "April 16, 2016: John Jones QC, Assanges U.N. lawyer, dies by jumping in front of a train. May 11, 2016: Michael Ratner, WikiLeaks' chief counsel, dies of cancer. July 10, 2016: Seth Rich, DNC staffer and possible WikiLeaks informant, is murdered near his home in Washington, D.C. October 7, 2016: WikiLeaks begins to release the emails of John Podesta, revealing crimes and damaging information to the Clinton Campaign and DNC. October 15, 2016: Joe Biden makes vague threats to Russia after blaming Russia for WikiLeaks. October 15, 2016: Pamela Anderson, who has ties to Spirit Cooking, brings food to the Ecuadorian Embassy. October 16, 2016: John Kerry visits the U.K. to personally pressure Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. October 16, 2016: WikiLeaks tweets SHA-256 pre-release keys, possibly as a threat to Kerry, the U.K., and Ecuador. October 16, 2016: Julian Assange's internet connection is severed. October 17, 2016: A WikiLeaks volunteer tweets that Julian is okay. The tweet is now deleted. October 18, 2016: FOX News reports that Assange will be arrested in a matter of hours. October 18, 2016:. WikiLeaks timeline, presented by Milo Yiannopoulos: "April 16, 2016: John Jones QC, Assanges U.N. lawyer, dies by jumping in front of a train. May 11, 2016: Michael Ratner, WikiLeaks' chief counsel, dies of cancer. July 10, 2016: Seth Rich, DNC staffer and possible WikiLeaks informant, is murdered near his home in Washington, D.C. October 7, 2016: WikiLeaks begins to release the emails of John Podesta, revealing crimes and damaging information to the Clinton Campaign and DNC. October 15, 2016: Joe Biden makes vague threats to Russia after blaming Russia for WikiLeaks. October 15, 2016: Pamela Anderson, who has ties to Spirit Cooking, brings food to the Ecuadorian Embassy. October 16, 2016: John Kerry visits the U.K. to personally pressure Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. October 16, 2016: WikiLeaks tweets SHA-256 pre-release keys, possibly as a threat to Kerry, the U.K., and Ecuador. October 16, 2016: Julian Assange's internet connection is severed. October 17, 2016: A WikiLeaks volunteer tweets that Julian is okay. The tweet is now deleted. October 18, 2016: FOX News reports that Assange will be arrested in a matter of hours. October 18, 2016: https://file.wikileaks.org/file / ( * ) made publicly visible, file dates changed to 1984. October 18, 2016: London airport evacuated due to "chemical fumes." October 21, 2016: Massive DDOS attack on U.S. internet. October 21, 2016: Heavily armed police seen outside the Ecuador embassy. October 22, 2016: Gavin MacFadyen, mentor to Assange and key player in WikiLeaks, dies of lung cancer. October 23, 2016: WikiLeaks Twitter account tweets a poll asking how best to prove Assange is alive. People ask for a video and none is provided. November 5, 2016: RT releases an interview with Assange. However, the video is edited. Also, Assange never comments on recent events. November 6, 2016: Huge DDOS takes down WikiLeaks for first time in years. November 12, 2016: Swedish prosecutors arrive at Ecuador embassy, but Assange's lawyer is barred from attending. The meeting was conducted with an Ecuadorian ambassador (not face to face). The election is over and Assange's internet is not restored. There is no proof of life despite many requests from supporters. Is he okay? Keep fighting!"
Screenshot of Wikileaks discussion board (*) (OCR PDF) (11/17/2016). CIA and GHCQ take control of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks personnel receive National Security Letters and gag orders and have their computers and devices confiscated. Thirteen of 15 personnel are missing. Do NOT send leaks or hacked materials to Wikileaks as the infrastructure is no longer under WikiLeaks control and you will be identified and targeted. Assange's Dead Man Switch was blocked by international DDOS attack. A last option, involving travel, is being undertaken by one WikiLeaks staffer who is violating his gag order, and may be killed for doing so. The TOR network, which provides for annonymity on the web, has been compromised, with exit nodes controlled by intelligence agencies.
CIA and GHCQ take control of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks personnel receive National Security Letters and gag orders and have their computers and devices confiscated. Thirteen of 15 personnel are missing. Do NOT send leaks or hacked materials to Wikileaks as the infrastructure is no longer under WikiLeaks control and you will be identified and targeted. Assange's Dead Man Switch was blocked by international DDOS attack. A last option, involving travel, is being undertaken by one WikiLeaks staffer who is violating his gag order, and may be killed for doing so. The TOR network, which provides for annonymity on the web, has been compromised, with exit nodes controlled by intelligence agencies.
HamFistedIdiot
Apparently, CIA and Mossad are involved in the child trafficking that the Clinton Foundation, Comet Ping Pong, and James Alefantis front for.
David Brock founded Media Matters and Correct the Record with funding from George Soros, and was a past lover of Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis (with Brock paying out $850K in their settlement). Brock is the king of the DNC's and Soros's massive online trolling campaigns. For more information check out:
Having been banned at Twitter, Reddit, and 4Chan, #PizzaGate is now being censored at YouTube. RIP Andrew Breitbart who in 2011 fingered John Podesta as a sadistic pedophile.
Two overviews of PizzaGate:
There is more to the Podesta/Abramovic Spirit Cooking than you want to know...
3LockBox
1. Arrest Soros.
2. Take down the PizzaGate Pedophiles.
3. Lock up the all implicated in the Clinton Global Initiative, the Clintons and even "innocent" Chelsea.
4. Splinter Al CIAda into a thousand pieces and scatter into the wind.
Sean7k
You need to have a little more faith. I enjoy reading the comments at the fake media sites like wapoop and the people aren't buying their narrative. They already know who the fake news outlets are. The MSM.
If you look around, the protests have disappeared, the people are getting back to life, Christmas and how to pay their bills. The news wants to stir everybody up, but they have miscalculated. They have compressed the interest cycle until people stop caring in a week and one-half.
An elector (one) with the promise there are more? What two or three? How will this matter?
The courts continue stay out of the issues and the recounts have been a non-starter.
I think the people are numb and tired. They are willing to give Trump a chance. It's Christmas.
There ARE forces at work for good in this world and they are just as capable as any other, hopefully more so. If we show our neighbors love and compassion, it could become quite infectious, as will our beliefs and integrity. We are the greatest influence on our society and it scares the powers to death we will realize it.
ty6099lle1
I watched it all now. I don't like your arrogance, smugness, and defensiveness. But good luck with your new platform. I agree that there is risk in covering #PizzaGate. You and Alex Jones have financial interests that could be jeopardized by lawsuits. Private bloggers and VOAT posters have less at risk and therefore more freedom. We are the trail blazers that more established sites like you need. We break new ground and make it safe for you to follow. If we don't have actual confessions or video footage, I agree that we cannot convict with 100% certainty the likes of James Alefantis and John Podesta. BUT, there is sufficient Instagram postings, pictures, and Wikileaks emails to warrant SERIOUS concern and legal investigation. To simply not cover #PizzaGate is not an option.
Miscellaneous Images And Screenshots
NOTES AND LINKS TO INTEGRATE:
Bill Clinton visits Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile island 27 times without security detail, just with personal confidant, Brand.
Definitions of terms
Cremation of Care https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVtEvplXMLs
extraordinary diagram overview of interrelated parties https://sli.mg/WDRsVY.png
https://twitter.com/hashtag/PizzaGate?src=hash
https://dcpizzagate.wordpress.com
https://twitter.com/i/moments/795578469061193729
https://twitter.com/BrittPettibone
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/pizzagate-4chan-uncovered-sick-world-washingtons-occult-elite/
https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@titusfrost/pizzagate-the-documentary-podesta-s-emails-lead-to-pedophilia-involving-obama-clintons-doj-and-the-dnc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmTL6IOPAZQ
http://archonmatrix.com/pizzagate-documentary-elite-pedophile-ring-exposed/
https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@titusfrost/pizzagate-dnc-pedophile-ring-exposed-by-podesta-s-emails-obama-clintons-andrew-kline
2017.2.12. I watched this yesterday and was moved by several things that leapt up at me as new and important. SGT Report shows footage of "transgressive art" in Brussels, the seat of the European Union. One is a ten-story tall mural of a decapitated, gutted, and genitally mutilated body hung up by wires that bind it's ankles, streaming blood to the street below. Another is a two-story tall depiction of a boy with his head held to the ground and a knife to his throat held by an expensively attired man. SGT Report makes a comparison between the gutted body and an identical image from a scene in the horror movie, "Hostel Part 2," where a college student is kidnapped and strung up by her ankles, hanging directly over a large bathtub-like structure whereupon a wealthy woman disrobes and proceeds to bathe in the blood that splatters down upon her as she strikes the victim, from her recumbent position, with a scythe. SGT Report goes on to discuss the story of the Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Bathory (born 1560), who is reported to have tortured and killed 650 young girls, bathing in their blood to maintain her youth.
A couple of nights ago I watched Alex Jones' interview with UC Berkeley professor, Darrell Y. Hamamoto titled, " California Professor Warns Of Leftist Plan To Destroy Humanity." I learned a number of helpful things in the course of the interview, although Alex was in particularly poor form interrupting Dr. Hamamoto loudly and repeatedly, even as the professor was in the middle of sharing some extraordinary things. Hamamoto describes the Podesta brothers' penchant for "transgressive" art. I had never heard this term before, which means edgy and violating social norms. So now child rape is cool simply because it violates social norms? Such an anti values value system assuredly spells the destruction of civilization. If not trust, respect, and industriousness, would we rather have a group held together by abuse, force, and deceit? It's preposterous! I went to Hamamoto's school, and I remember all the cafes full of deconstructionist poseurs wearing black leather late at night pounding caffeine drinks, smoking cigarettes, engaged in interminable mental masturbation, denying Nature's and Spirit's wisdom from growing within them. It is these lost and deluded people who develop intellectual paradigms to justify their degrading behavior. As if penning an intellectual category of "transgressive" gives it any legitimacy! But that is what they believe: "I think, therefore I am," or, "We dropped the bomb because we could." It is the whole Aleister Crowley mindfuck of might makes right as a legitimate argument. I think it was Camille Paglia who criticized this decadent post-morality, post-gender world view as an artificial construct that presaged the fall of civilization. I would have to agree with her.
Hamamoto describes the rollout of the 5G network in the Berkeley area and that this, too, contributed to the kind of mind control and madness that was on display at the recent campus riots that shut down the lecture by conservative gay activist Milo Yianniopolis. Hamamoto discusses the Department of Defense funding of psychological research at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. I think that directly linking violent protest to high frequency microwave bombardment is a bit of a stretch, but who knows what $billions of DOD research has wrought? I've been in the bowels of UC Berkeley's psychology department where I was in restricted areas where I saw primates with electrodes attached to their skulls. It was disgusting. Who knows what is going on there? Perhaps the 5G puts us in a more suggestible mental state, so that media propaganda viewed on televisions and smart phones is more effective. Or perhaps the 5G works synergistically with transmissions delivered via smart phones and other devices? I would have liked Alex to have given Hamamoto more time to flesh his thoughts out on this subject.
name scrubbed from site; more; 92% of violent Antifa rioters are unemployed and live at home.
2016.11.17.
This past Saturday I spent probably four hours poring over various blog posts and Twitter threads regarding what is being called "Pizza Gate," a criminal, cannibalistic, "spirit cooking," child sex trafficking enterprise revealed in Wikileaks' data dump of tens of thousands of emails to and from President Bill Clinton's former Chief of Staff and campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, John Podesta.
I mean, what could be more taboo, more a sign of the Ubermensch * ) who had "transcended" human morality than to have sex with, torture, and then eat, children? Jeffrey Dahmer * ) did it. The Greek gods * ) did it. So do the political elite who seek to go beyond limiting notions of right and wrong. Apart from the estimated 4% of the population who are born sociopaths who lust for power and dominion over others, and who might be attracted to such activities, Pizza Gate also appears to be part of an international intelligence operation meant to produce "control files" so that participants, who are part of the political and financial elite, can be forever blackmailed to serve a particular agenda, and not just their own self interest. Indeed, some argue that the capacity to rise to a high level in many areas of society requires that you be previously greenlighted by an influential cabal. Integral to such greenlighting or approval is that the cabal "owns" you: They can destroy your reputation and career at any moment they choose, with the release of certain private video footage or other compromising information that had previously been unknown to the public.
In the month since the release of Podesta's emails, thousands of online researchers have been making some very damning connections. At the same time there has been a flurry of censorship, with moderators, search engines, and social media attempting to black out, erase, modifiy, ban, and/or censor this information from the web. Some researchers have been killed. The plot is very thick. You could make an entire career out of this subject, as the web of occultism, blackmail, child trafficking, sex abuse, murder and the like are part of a spiderweb of corrupting influence that has affected just about every aspect of our lives, whether we are conscious of it or not.
The spiritual takeaway here is that spiritual development must be grounded in morality. By morality, I mean, basically, the Golden Rule * ): Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. If you want your own children to achieve their fullest potential, then be kind and supportive of the children of others. In all tyrannies, you have one group of people for whom one set of laws applies, and another group, a subservient underclass, who must follow a different set of laws. The USA was founded as a nation of laws, not of men * ). Since World War II, and the stranglehold over the US economy by moneyed interests, ( * * ) the USA has been a destablizing force, murdering and exploiting the planet for resources and corporate profit. The USA once had a chance, as the sole superpower, to promote peace throughout the world. But instead, it used its power and influence to lock developing nations in servitude, and force corporate control over the rest, bringing the planet several steps closer to a unified, fascist, new world order. ( * ). Pizzagate demonstrates that people, unrestrained by human laws or common decency, can resort to corrupting, sadistic practices. With no meaningful limits to their conduct, people can and do engage in the most brutal behavior. Not all, but some. These transgressions become a plague upon society that infects and compromises the body politic, the soul of the nation. A nation and its people must make every effort to root out such abuse. A nation aligned with its spiritual purpose, must adhere to some form of charity and reciprocity that apply to all of its citizens, and with the other nations with which it has dealings. Inherent in true spiritual practice, and in whole body enlightenment, is the earnest commitment to save all beings, an example of which is the Bodhisattva Vow * ):
However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the defilements are, I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas are, I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is, I vow to attain it.
In the following I will repost and/or comment upon what I've found to be some of the more salient points of the investigation. I will direct you to several other websites if you wish to explore this matter further. Please assist in getting the word out regarding child sex trafficking among Washington, D.C.'s political elite. These are criminal sociopaths who have violated their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution -- our covenant with God -- and they have yet to be held to account.
Other Sources
BeepBeepTV - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beep+beep+tv
Comments
Notes
This page was first uploaded on 11-20-2016, last modified on 6-21-2017.
All contents and design by Kundalini & Cell Towers © 2016-2017
<<Hillary Clinton spoke to a group of donors in Manhattan Thursday and offered them, as an explanation for her loss, two factors. One was the letter from FBI Director Comey in the final weeks of the election. The other was Russian hacking of Democratic groups, which she said was an attempt to “undermine our democracy.” From the NY Times:
“Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the F.B.I. letter from Director Comey,” she said. The Russians, she said, sought to “undermine our democracy” through cyberattacks on Democratic targets… “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”
Hillary also said the hack by Russia was payback for her 2011 statement that a Russian parliamentary election had been rigged. Politico reported on that connection back in July but as I noted here, there was more involved than what Clinton said about the election. RT, a Kremlin-controlled news site, reported in December 2011 that Putin was very upset because evidence had emerged (from an email hack) that the State Department was paying an election watchdog for each problem it identified. Putin saw this as Hillary meddling in a Russian election:
Even before Russian election monitors had released their official review of the parliamentary vote, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was already out of the gate, criticizing the election process as “unfair.” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had harsh words for Clinton, saying she had “set the tone for some opposition activists, gave them a signal … and [they] started active work.” Speaking at a meeting of the Popular Front Federal Coordinating Council this week, Putin said that “representatives of some foreign states” were paying politically-active NGOs in Russia to “influence the course of the election campaign in our country.”
Meanwhile, shortly after Hillary spoke to Democratic donors in New York, the Washington Post published a piece by her former campaign chairman, John Podesta, which cranks up the outrage over the FBI’s “failure” to respond:
The more we learn about the Russian plot to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign and elect Donald Trump, and the failure of the FBI to adequately respond, the more shocking it gets. The former acting director of the CIA has called the Russian cyberattack “the political equivalent of 9/11.” Just as after the real 9/11, we need a robust, independent investigation into what went wrong inside the government and how to better protect our country in the future. As the former chair of the Clinton campaign and a direct target of Russian hacking, I understand just how serious this is. So I was surprised to read in the New York Times that when the FBI discovered the Russian attack in September 2015, it failed to send even a single agent to warn senior Democratic National Committee officials. Instead, messages were left with the DNC IT “help desk.” As a former head of the FBI cyber division told the Times, this is a baffling decision: “We are not talking about an office that is in the middle of the woods of Montana.”
That final link goes to a story which presents a more balanced picture than Podesta suggests. It’s true the FBI didn’t send anyone to the DNC initially but it did speak to someone there who sent memos up the chain about a possible hack. Those memos were apparently ignored by supervistors. When the FBI made multiple calls trying to follow up, the DNC did not call back.
Podesta’s letter demands a 9/11-style investigation of the events. Both Clinton and Podesta are framing this as an attack on America, but they are also consummate partisans. It’s fair to ask what they hope to accomplish by elevating this discussion right now. Even if you grant (which I would not) that their motives are pure, that doesn’t mean Democrats are above using this for more immediate, partisan ends like going after the scalp of the FBI Director. Given the swirl of recounts and calls to delay the vote of the electors, it’s hard to detach what Clinton and her former advisers are saying from the ongoing attempts to delegitimize the election.Photojournalism award, Turkish-style: The picture of a bleeding IDF soldier aboard the Marmara won Turkey's 2010 Photo of the Year Award in the News category; the contest was held by the Turkish photojournalism association.
Nine people were killed onboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship after IDF troops who raided it encountered violent resistance by "peace activists" armed with an assortment of weapons.
One of Turkey's largest websites, Milliyet, used the difficult image to create a puzzle for its readers.
The photograph shows a beaten up IDF soldier with his face and head bloodied while three Marmara passengers grab him and twisting his arm. The picture was shot by a Turkish photographer who hid copies in a hidden pocket and managed to smuggle them out of Israel.
The winning photograph of the bleeding Israeli soldier
Turkish media outlets did not blur the blood stains or the Israeli soldier's face.
The winning pictures were chosen out of 1,632 photos in six different categories. Prizes were handed out in the beginning of the month with Turkey's parliament speaker, deputy prime minister and various parliamentarians among those in attendance.
About a week after the incident, the Turkish media published photos of bleeding and beaten up IDF troops.Bug Description
Contrary to popular belief, the Linux kernel from kernel.org is not free software. It not only recommends non-free software but also actually contains it (i.e., software that does not respect your essential freedoms). Because of this, the default install contains non-free software. Here are some links with more info and lists of the non-free software in the kernel:
http:// www.freesoftwar emagazine. com/columns/ gnu_linux_ and_freedom_ nonfree_ software_ hidden_ in_your_ linux_distribut ion
http:// libresoft. es/Members/ herraiz/ blog/linux- is-not- free-software
http:// manulix. wikidot. com/kernel- blobs
http:// groups. fsf.org/ wiki/List_ of_software_ that_does_ not_respect_ the_Free_ System_ Distribution_ Guidelines
The mainline kernel does not meet the stricter Free System Distribution Guidelines, nor the Debian Free Software Guidelines, or even the promise made in Ubuntu's Philosophy. Even if by default, some non-free software is included or recommended, there should, at the very least, be a reasonably easy way to choose to have a fully free installation. Modifying the existing kernel is another option-- whichever makes more sense as long as a fully free install is, at the very least, possible. Ubuntu even has a free software only option available...which still contains binary blobs!
http:// www.gnu. org/distros/ free-system- distribution- guidelines. html
http:// www.debian. org/social_ contract# guidelines
http:// www.ubuntu. com/project/ about-ubuntu/ our-philosophy
Non-free software has been in the mainline kernel for some time, so until (and if) that is fixed, the Linux-libre kernel has already done the work of maintaining of fully free kernel which is used in a number of free GNU/Linux distros. Linux-libre is a project to maintain and publish 100% Free distributions of Linux, suitable for use in Free System Distributions, removing software that is included without source code, with obfuscated or obscured source code, under non-Free Software licenses, that do not permit you to change the software so that it does what you wish, and that induces or requires you to install additional pieces of non-free software. Ideally, the default kernel should be free, but otherwise a fully free kernel should be supported.
http:// www.fsfla. org/svnwiki/ selibre/ linux-libre/W9182 on the catapult of a CAM ship The Hawker Sea Hurricaneon the catapult of a CAM ship
CAM ships were World War II-era British merchant ships used in convoys as an emergency stop-gap until sufficient escort carriers became available. CAM ship is an acronym for catapult aircraft merchant ship.[1]
They were equipped with a rocket-propelled catapult launching a single Hawker Hurricane, dubbed a "Hurricat" or "Catafighter" to destroy or drive away an attacking bomber. Normally the Hurricane fighter would be lost when the pilot then bailed out or ditched in the ocean near the convoy.[2] CAM ships continued to carry their normal cargoes after conversion.
The concept was developed and tested by the five fighter catapult ships, commissioned as warships and commanded and crewed by the Royal Navy - but the CAM ships were merchant vessels, commanded and crewed by the Merchant Navy.
Origin [ edit ]
A Hurricane IA before launch during trials at Greenock, in 1941
The German Luftwaffe had Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft with a range of nearly 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km - 2,300 miles). After the Fall of France, these aircraft could operate from western France against British merchant ships in the Atlantic. Flying from Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, Fw 200s of I/KG40 could reach the convoy lanes west of Britain while staying outside the range of British land-based fighters. The Royal Navy had no aircraft carriers available to provide close air cover for the convoys. The Fw 200s could shadow convoys, directing U-boat attacks on them, or drop bombs on convoy ships, without opposition and to deadly effect.[1]
To counter this threat, the Admiralty developed the fighter catapult ship – a converted freighter, manned by a naval crew, carrying a single Hawker Hurricane fighter. When an enemy bomber was sighted, the fighter would be launched into the air with rockets, and fly up to destroy or drive away the bomber. Being large and slow, the Fw 200 became a rather vulnerable target. After the combat, the fighter pilot would bail out or ditch in the ocean near the convoy, and be picked up if all went well.[1]
The Admiralty had already experimented with this system. They ordered 50 rocket-propelled aircraft catapults to be fitted to merchant ships. The planes were Hurricane Mark Is, converted to Sea Hurricane IAs.[1]
The pilots for these aircraft were drawn from the Royal Air Force (RAF). The RAF formed the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit (MSFU) on 5 May 1941 in RAF Speke by the River Mersey in Liverpool.[1] Wing Commander E.S. Moulton-Barrett commanded the unit providing training for volunteer pilots, Fighter Direction Officers (FDOs), and airmen. After training, MSFU crews were posted to Liverpool, Glasgow, or Avonmouth where they assisted in loading their Hurricanes onto the catapults. Each team consisted of one pilot for Atlantic runs (or two pilots for voyages to Russia, Gibraltar, or the Mediterranean Sea), with one fitter, one rigger, one radio-telephone operator, one FDO, and a seaman torpedoman who worked on the catapult as an electrician.[1]
MSFU crews signed ship's articles as civilian crew members under the authority of the civilian ship's master. The ship's chief engineer became responsible for the catapult, and the first mate acted as Catapult Duty Officer (CDO), responsible for firing the catapult when directed. The single Hurricane fighter was launched only when enemy aircraft were sighted and agreement was reached via hand and flag signals between the pilot, CDO, and ship's master.[1]
The first four or five ships were taken into Royal Navy service as "Auxiliary Fighter Catapult Ships", and later conversions were officially named CAMs manned by merchant crews. The first CAM ship, Michael E, was sponsored by the Royal Navy while the RAF MSFUs were working up. After a trial launch off Belfast, Michael E sailed with convoy OB 327 on 28 May 1941. She was sunk by U-108 on 2 June.[3] The first RAF trial CAM launch was from Empire Rainbow, at Greenock on the River Clyde on 31 May 1941; the Hurricane landed at Abbotsinch. Six CAM ships joined convoys in June 1941. When a CAM ship arrived at its destination, the pilot usually launched and landed at a nearby airfield to get in as much flight time as possible before his return trip.[1] Pilots were rotated out of CAM assignments after two round-trip voyages to avoid the deterioration of flying skills from the lack of flying time during the assignment.[3]
CAM sailings were initially limited to North American convoys with aircraft maintenance performed by the Royal Canadian Air Force at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. CAM ships sailed on Gibraltar and Freetown convoys beginning in September, 1941, after an aircraft maintenance unit was established at the RAF base at North Front, Gibraltar. No CAM aircraft were provided during January and February 194 |
about when Iran may first test an intercontinental ballistic missile. But this time, the Pentagon no longer believes a future Iranian missile will be able to strike America. And another reason not to worry: Even if Iran does develop one, it'll probably suck.
The shift can be seen in a sentence in this year's Annual Report on Military Power of Iran (.pdf), first provided to Bloomberg by the Pentagon. The report warns: "With sufficient foreign assistance, Iran may technically be capable of flight-testing an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015." Which sounds scary. But it's actually a less gloomy estimate than the last Pentagon report on the subject, which came out two years ago.
Back then, the Pentagon said that Iran could produce a missile "capable of reaching the United States by 2015." Now, there's no reference to such a missile being able to hit any place outside of the Middle East or Eastern Europe, let alone America. All the Defense Department is saying is that Iran might be able to conduct its very first flight test of such a weapon. Then again, it might not.
Before you ask: This isn't just an accident of editing. Words are chosen very carefully in the Pentagon's assessment of the U.S.'s number-one enemy. This means Americans can sleep safely: The Pentagon doesn't believe an Iranian ICBM will obliterate the East Coast any time soon. The Pentagon also follows a shift from the United States' spy agencies, which used to hype Iran's missile threat to the homeland but then quietly hushed on the estimates.
And that's all moot without Iran acquiring "sufficient foreign assistance." Iran's not going to develop an ICBM on its own, the report suggests. It's likely North Korea regularly shares missile components with Iran, and has done so – to some extent – since supplying Iran with Scuds during the Iran-Iraq War. (.pdf) Problem is North Korea's long-range missile program has a 4 for 4 record of failures, including such missile stunts as blowing up prematurely and flopping into the sea.
Which may be because North Korea's missile program is in development hell, and that its rocket tests may not be tests so much, but as a means to show off. It's not quite vaporware, but the technical obstacles are so great, and North Korean understanding of how to fix them is so little, that even attempts to fix problems can cause more problems. Iranian engineers reportedly had a ringside seat to North Korea's most recent launch in April. But it's not clear how much information they gathered.
The report is less discreet about Iran's other ballistic missiles. Iran "continues to develop ballistic missiles that can range regional adversaries, Israel, and Eastern Europe," including a longer-ranged version of the Shahab-3, and a medium-range missile called the Ashura, the report notes. Iran's missile and rocket arsenal is also seeing "steady growth" and is becoming more accurate, with improved munitions. Iran is also getting better at targeting ships. The report also references Iran's "multistage space launche vehicles" as a potential platform for testing ICBM components. But that doesn't mean Iran is close to translating a space rocket into a workable weapon.
Iran, though, wants you think its missiles are pretty great. Iran's semi-official state news agency, Fars, responded to the Pentagon report by rounding up news about "a series of massive military drills." The news agency stressed Iran's weapons "should not be perceived as a threat to any other country," but on Thursday aired comments made last week from Iranian army Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, who said if the United States were to attack Iran, there are plans to use missiles to destroy all U.S. bases near Iran in a "swift and crushing response."
Hrm. But what about that 2015 timeline on the ICBM? The report wouldn't be the first to conclude that Iran was only a few years away. Note: That doesn't mean Iran isn't 10 years away, if Iran spends the money on a development program. But U.S. intelligence and military estimates have a track record of calling it short. We were supposed to see an Iranian ICBM in 2003, and another in 2010, and we're still supposed to see one in 2015.
A timeline is one thing, and a working ICBM is another. The military still thinks these may be possible, and relatively soon. Though it's worth it to be skeptical. And hitting grandma's house with one is something else.Following on from comments made by Bernie Ecclestone to Campaign Asia, which I analysed yesterday on this blog, I see that James Allen has confirmed that a revamped Formula 1 website will be launching in 2015.
Writing on his website, Allen said that, in response to falling viewing figures, Formula One Management “has now got a social media department at Ecclestone’s base in Princes Gate; it’s why they are investing in a new F1.com for 2015 and in the official F1 app, which has sold over 3 million editions. F1.com had 67 million unique users last season and that is set to rise this year. The new site is set to engage the younger audience, using all the social media tools Ecclestone refers to and will have a level of personalisation and fan engagement which is way beyond what is there today.”
> May 2013 – FOM “may consider live streaming online”
> September 2014 – F1’s Twitter page finally hits the 21st century
> November 2014 – Are FOM taking the first steps to create their own “F1 Network”?
I’m very happy to read this. Although I can not say this with any certainty, I imagine that we could see a new version of the Formula 1 website during the off-season. The current version has been around since 2007, with a few aesthetic changes along the way, so it is about time that it has a complete overhaul. It will be interesting to see how Facebook and Twitter will be integrated into the website, given that FOM/FODM does not have a Facebook presence at the moment. I doubt we will see YouTube integration, unless FOM take the step of creating a YouTube account, which is highly unlikely.
Even if Ecclestone himself does not care much about social media, it is good to see that those under him do. As usual, Ecclestone’s comments do undermine the work of those behind the scenes at FOM/FODM, which is unfortunate as it looks like a lot will change in the next 12/24 months in their digital world. The website revamp, will only help a new generation become more interested in Formula 1, which in my view is absolutely critical for the sport in the next few years and beyond.
AdvertisementsOn June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which concerned whether same-sex marriage is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution. Although the case did not address the right to bear arms, some pro-gun advocates began debating whether the Court’s reasoning and analysis had application to national concealed carry licensing reciprocity.
This is a reasonable question. If states that formerly did not sanction same-sex marriage now have to recognize all marriages from states that do, shouldn’t that also mean restrictive “may issue” concealed carry jurisdictions have to recognize concealed carry licenses from less restrictive “shall-issue” jurisdictions? Some commentators went even further, insisting that Obergefell has conclusively settled the national reciprocity issue in favor of gun owners.
Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. In particular, we strongly advise concealed carry license holders not to assume Obergefell provides them with the legal basis they need to carry without an in-state license in strongly anti-gun states such as Maryland, New Jersey, or New York. Doing so at this point would still subject the traveler to arrest and criminal prosecution.
This is so for a number of reasons, chief of which is that the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled squarely on the question of whether the Second Amendment protects the right to carry a loaded handgun in public, and if it does, whether states must recognize each other’s permits. The landmark cases of Heller and McDonald only concerned the question of handgun possession in the home.
Until the Supreme Court rules on the issue conclusively, certain reliably anti-gun jurisdictions can be counted on to exist in a state of denial and defiance. If states and lower courts can ignore a congressional statute like Firearm Owners’ Protection Act – and they do – they certainly can ignore arguments that the philosophical bases for interstate recognition of same-sex marriage compel interstate recognition of concealed carry permits.
But there is a lesson gun owners can draw from Obergefell. An uncontested fact mentioned in Chief Justice Roberts’s dissent in the case is that no society was known to have permitted same-sex marriage before 2001. Now, in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court has found it to be a fundamental right that cannot be overturned by any state legislature or popular referendum. Whatever one’s view of same-sex marriage, the incredible shift in this area shows what is possible when people dedicate themselves to a common cause.
That is the true lesson of the Obergefell decision for gun owners, who should not rest until Second Amendment rights are similarly respected in all 50 states. That is why the NRA will continue to lead the fight in the legislative, legal and political arenas to secure national right to carry reciprocity so that all Americans can defend themselves everywhere they are legally entitled to be.Soaring population will force millions to flee water shortages in search of refuge - and, according to new figures, Britain will be one of the world's 'lifeboats'. On the eve of a major population conference, Science Editor Robin McKie asks: could the UK cope?
Britain will become one of the world's major destinations for immigrants as the world heats up and populations continue to soar. Statistics from the United Nations show that, on average, every year more than 174,000 people will be added to the numbers in the UK and that this trend will continue for the next four decades.
By then, only the United States and Canada will be receiving more overseas settlers, says the UN. This increase in British numbers is likely to put considerable strain on the country's transport, energy and housing, experts warned last week.
"The US and Canada will be taking in more people than us every year by 2050 but they are huge countries," said demographer Professor Tom Dyson of the London School of Economics. "Britain, by contrast, is a small nation. We will feel the impact of all these people. There will be no getting out of it. Simply controlling our carbon dioxide emissions will become harder and harder as more and more people arrive on our shores. In addition, housing, water supplies and transport will be strained and will need greatly increased investment."
However, other experts say such increases could also produce benefits for the nation, bringing in immigrants who could provide a vital supply of young workers. These demographers point out that, by 2050, more than a third of the UK population will be aged 60 or over. By then there will be a desperate need for bus drivers, care-workers and others to keep the country running and immigrants could fill this gap.
In addition, there is the issue of humanitarian responsibility. Britain is likely to be one of the few nations to survive the worst effects of climate change while other nations, particularly those in the developing world, have their farmland and fishing grounds destroyed. It could be argued that the UK has a moral duty to provide shelter for as many refugees as our shores can support.
But deciding what numbers the country might support is a highly controversial issue and will be the focus of a conference on sustainable populations which will be held this week in London. Organised by the Optimum Population Trust, the meeting will hear that the United Nation expects that by 2050 the world will be inhabited by around 9.2 billion people, compared to its current level of 6.8 billion. Every day, the equivalent of the population of a large city is added to the numbers of humans, a rise that is now straining the planet's resources to breaking point.
At the same time, Britain's population will rise from its current level of 61 million to 72 million by 2050. The nation will then be the most populous in the European Union, outstripping Germany, whose population will slump from 82 million to 71 million people as its immigration figures plummet.
The idea that Britain could one day support such numbers has been questioned by Aubrey Manning, emeritus professor of natural history at Edinburgh University. "There are far too many people living in Britain already," he said. "Once our population passed the 20 million level around 1850, it became too numerous. That is the figure at which we could no longer sustain our population from our own resources. We are now three times over the limit and heading for more. We have long passed the line of sustainability. As for the planet, its maximum sustainable population is no more than 3 billion, I would say."
The rise in population indicates that the country is set for some considerable overcrowding. Britain's land area is only two-thirds that of Germany, yet it will soon support the same number of citizens. "This population rise, brought about by rising immigration, will strain our infrastructures - our housing and water supplies - and bring very little advantage to the nation," said Dyson, who will address the conference. "Nor do I think these extra people will be able to help in looking after our older people."
But these points were disputed by Tim Finch, head of immigration for the Institute of Public Policy Research. "A healthy economy sucks in young, educated people and that is what has happened to this country over the past couple of decades. These young immigrants have helped keep the country running as our population has started to get older and they will become more important as the decades go past and that ageing intensifies. The immigration system picks out the best and the brightest of immigrants and they will be of great service to Britain. That is just a fact."
The problem is that discussions of population numbers in the past have been associated with talk of eugenics and with attempts at controlling ethnic populations. As a result, there is little discussion today of the subject or its impact on the environment, a point stressed by James Lovelock, the distinguished environmental scientist. "The subject has become a taboo, a matter of political correctness," he said last week. "And that is dangerous, for the numbers of humans on Earth are going to be crucial to our survival."
Manning added: "We have stopped worrying about population because other issues - acid rain, climate change and others - have occupied our attention and because past fears of global food shortages were proved unfounded. But the subject will not go away. Our planet is now dangerously overpopulated."
Another conference speaker, Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum, in London, agreed. "We desperately need to bring down our emissions of greenhouse gases but the truth is we will never get the contribution of each individual down to zero. Only the lack of the individual can bring it to zero, and that is an issue for population control which we need to talk about openly and urgently."
Rapley will tell delegates that the Earth's population is now rising at a rate of around 80 million a year. "That is roughly the same as the number of unwanted pregnancies across the world," he said. "If we can prevent unwanted pregnancies, we can halt this spiral in our numbers."
To do that, contraception will have to become universally available - and political and religious opposition to birth control removed. If that happened, the world's population could be stabilised to around 8 billion by 2050, added Rapley.
But many climatologists believe that by then life on the planet will already have become dangerously unpleasant. Temperature rises will have started to have devastating impacts on farmland, water supplies and sea levels. Humans - increasing both in numbers and dependence on food from devastated landscapes - will then come under increased pressure. The end result will be apocalyptic, said Lovelock. By the end of the century, the world's population will suffer calamitous declines until numbers are reduced to around 1 billion or less. "By 2100, pestilence, war and famine will have dealt with the majority of humans," he said.
One of the few places to survive the worst impacts will be Britain. "Our climate will be one of the least affected by global warming," added Lovelock. "As a result, everyone will want to live here. We will become one of the world's lifeboats. The trouble, of course, will be that, even if we wanted to, we will not be able to pick up everyone. There will be some hard decisions to make."
Many experts predict that disaster will strike long before 2050. Last week, the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor John Beddington, said the planet faced "a perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages which could strike in less than 20 years. In a speech to the Sustainable Development Commission conference in London, Beddington said that one in three people were already facing water shortages and that by 2030 world water demand would increase by more than 30%; energy demands would increase by 50%. "There are dramatic problems out there, particularly with water and food, but energy also, and they are all intimately connected."
In the long run, however, humanity should benefit, said Lovelock. "If you look at our species over the past million years, there have been a number of major climatic events, some devastating. Between the Ice Ages, sea levels rose by 120 metres and tracts of land were flooded. Yet that period covers the time that early humans emerged and evolved into Homo sapiens
"Often our numbers were brought to catastrophically low levels by climate change and numbers were reduced to only a couple of thousand on a couple of occasions. Every time things got bad, our numbers plummeted and we improved as a species. That is certainly going to happen again over the next 100 years."
The world by numbers
1 million Britain's population in Roman times
6 million Britain's population around the time of the English civil war
47 million Britain's population in 1945
52,000 The number of tonnes of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere every minute
267 The average number of births every minute worldwide; the average number of deaths per minute is 118
78 million The planet's annual population increase, a number roughly equivalent to the population of Germany
1 million The number of chimpanzees in Africa in 1900. Today, thanks to habitat loss and hunting, numbers have dropped to around 15,000
38.4 The median age in the UK rose from 34.1 years in 1971 to 38.4 in 2003 and is projected to reach 43.3 in 2031. (The median is the age that separates the oldest half of the population from the youngest.)
10 billion The number of chickens eaten by man worldwide every year
500 million The number of ducks eaten every year
1.3 billion The population of China
1.2 billion India's population
500 million The population of the EU
74 million The number of barrels of oil pumped daily across the planet; 15 million tonnes of coal are dug every day
9 Between 2010 and 2050, nine countries will account for half of the world's projected population increase: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Bangladesh, Tanzania
• Sources: World Clock; Poodwaddle; UN Population DivisionStory highlights The men hold a meeting at Trump Tower in New York
Farage is the UK politician who led the Brexit movement
(CNN) Nigel Farage met with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on Saturday for what a Trump aide called "a very productive" meeting.
Farage, the head of the UK Independence Party and leader of the Brexit movement, was spotted in the lobby of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. He yelled out, "We're just tourists!" when reporters asked what he was doing there.
Later that day, Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said the two met in the President-elect's residence inside.
"I think they enjoy each other's company, and they actually had a chance to talk about freedom and winning and what this all means for the world," Conway said.
Farage later posted a picture on Facebook and Twitter of him with Trump, who gives a thumbs-up for the camera.
Read MoreTriumphant Trump eyes DC; establishment coup awaits him
Just when Americans thought the score in the GOP primaries was settled last week in Indiana, the powers to be still parsed their words. After all, the Hoosier Republican voters made their choice: loud and clear. They sent Lyin' Ted Cruz packin'; but not before the sole remaining challenger did a lot of cryin'.
According to the media, (the establishment's duplicitous mouth piece) in Indiana, Cruz was standing on familiar ground; make that holy ground when you consider that Lyin Ted's evangelical hordes were supposed to be the firewall that would finally stop Trump's meteoric rise dead in his tracks.
Cruz group hug of three flopped
Did not happen... Cruz's group hug of three at his'suspension' speech attested to his failure to attract any sizeable count of voters let alone the evangelical faithful. To wit, his religious core group fan base deserted him in droves. After Cruz's landslide defeat, not even one day passed before the leftie media was already proffering excuses to blunt Trump's victory. For starters there is the small matter of begrudging the real fact that Donald Trump is the 'presumptive' GOP nominee.
If they cannot accord him that small respect, than how are they going to accept 'The Donald' as Commander-in-chief? Call Trump the 45th President to be, so to speak (New Jersey Governor Chris Christie already heads Trump's White House 'transition' team); because that is the truth. Fresh polls taken Wednesday one after the other showed the same result: Donald Trump would thump the Democrat challenger in the general election; mattered little whether it was Hillary Clinton or the snake oil salesman, Bernie Sanders.
The Sandman would fare even better against screamin' Hillary
Those polls revealed more shocking news: The Sandman would fare far better in a head-to-head matchup than the always yellin', screamin' and schemin' Clinton. To likely voters, the results are not surprising. One would think that the GOP rank and file would herald the public opinion polls as good news. Was it not RNC chairman, Prince Preibus, who not that long ago declared the Party's official line was to coalesce around the delegate count leader? Trump indeed will far exceed the requisite 1237 delegates well before the Cleveland convention. 'Rules are rules' are they not?
That was not the case though. When the media cornered him to comment on his willingness to support Trump's candidacy, pipsqueak Priebus went deaf just before he became mute and then lame. Try as they may, none of the reporters could squeeze even a nuanced peep from him. Make that ditto for all of the other RINO big wigs. Bush et al even were not as taciturn: the transplanted 'Texans' disavowed Trump. Not important; Trump disdains their'support'. Most surprising of all was the current Speaker of the House's response.
So called Republican, Paul Ryan, just does not have it in him to pay respect to a colleague and true conservative in Donald Trump. On the contrary, Ryan went prime time on the nation's airwaves to impugn him. There he found his Judas Iscariot traitor's voice and sputtered "I am not ready to support Donald Trump". Ryan is 'not ready'? What bunk! Yet he was fully prepared and solely culpable of besmirching the 'presumptive' candidate. Ryan's act of betrayal should put all American patriots on notice as to where his loyalties reside. For certain, Ryan is battin' for the other side; do not interpret that to mean within his own party, either.
The Democrats are not a factor
Speaking of the 'other side', that phenomenon needs clarification. Despite the leftist media's protests and obfuscations, the Democrats are not a factor this general election. Hillary Clinton is neither a credible candidate nor a legitimate challenger. She has no voter base. Other than older women, a sprinkling of conflicted African Americans and a modicum of disillusioned Hispanics (many that are illegals), Clinton's matriarchal smoke-and-mirrors carnival act across the hinterland is not attracting fresh blood in terms of voters.
Sanders' freak show brings up the rear of the Democrat's gypsy caravan. Bernie should be ashamed. His pie-in-the-sky economics are nothing less than warmed over Marxism. No way can he fulfill his promise of 'free tuition' to the young electorate. Neither can Sander's fix Social Security. The Democrats have no right prescription for the nation's litany of other ills. Clinton has no clue. She is oblivious to the blight of ordinary Americans; her ignorance of overseas problems is equally palpable. Trump knows this. He will expose her for what she is: a failed Secretary of War, err, State. Her claim to the Oval Office is obtuse. Crooked Hillary is a war monger. The preponderance of evidence screams for criminal indictment. Her resume reads like a train wreck; it is replete with global conflicts she helped create; millions of innocents died. Then there is Benghazi...
About a year ago, Donald Trump made a statement to the media and to the other GOP candidates: None of them belong on the same stage with him. That same portent applies to the either Democrat nominee. The people are behind him alone; their loyalty ensures victory. Donald Trump will be the last man standing. The establishment had better brace itself. A tsunami fast approaches. Washington needs shakin'. Millions of angry voters will usher in the November 8th headline: America finishes first! Donald Trump wins Presidency by KO. Improves to 18-0!
MontresorPresident 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 bucked foreign criticism of his immigration policy on Friday, saying the U.S. does not listen to other countries on the subject.
"We don’t listen to other countries telling us how we should be running our immigration," the president said during a rally in Pensacola, Fla.
The president went on to tout border security under his administration.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We want the strongest borders you've ever seen. We're gonna have such borders. We'll have borders on top of borders," he said to applause.
"One by one we are finding the illegal alien drug dealers, the gang members, the thieves, the criminals and the killers preying on our children, preying on everybody, and we are throwing them the hell out of our country or we are putting them in prison," he continued.
Trump went on to list a series of policy goals regarding immigration, including the House legislation named for Kate Steinle, who authorities said was killed in San Francisco in 2015 by an immigrant in the country illegally. He spoke for several minutes about what he called the injustice of the "not guilty" verdict of the man charged in her death.
"It's time for Congress to adopt a pro-American immigration agenda. Every member of Congress should be asked where they stand on these issues. Blocking funds to sanctuary cities. I don't want to give sanctuary cities money. Passing Kate's law to put repeat offenders behind bars for a long period of time," the president said.
"Increasing the number of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers, who are fantastic, and border patrol officers so we can dismantle vile criminal gangs like, as I said, MS-13, animals," he continued.
"Ensuring that new immigrants to our country are financially self-sufficient and will not be on welfare the day they come in. And as I said, ending chain migration. We want a system that is merit-based. They come in on merit. They don't come in a lottery system," he said.
Building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border proved to be one of Trump's cornerstone campaign promises, and has galvanized his supporters.
Critics have accused the administration's immigration policy of being isolationist and anti-immigration.
Updated at 9:11 p.m.As we enter the final week of the Summer Split, there is still plenty left to fight for in EU LCS. After a 4-0 week, our team has automatically secured a spot at the European finals, which will take place next month in Kraków, Poland. Splyce also have one foot in the semi-finals as they currently have a four-point cushion over fnatic, who will face our team on the final day of the Split.
In week 8, there were three teams – G2 Esports, Giants and Splyce – winning both matches, so it is no surprise to see players from these sides leading the charts. Lennart “Smittyj” Warkus and Son “S0NSTAR” Seung-ik were among the top performers and top gold earners in the league, with Splyce’s Jonas “Trashy” Andersen also putting in big numbers for the third week in a row.
Looking at the champion pool, we can see once again just how powerful Nidalee is in the current meta as the Bestial Huntress was the most banned champion in the league for the third consecutive week. Gragas and Sivir were the two most picked champions in the league, alongside Lucian.
Scroll through the following infographic to find out what happened in Week 8 of EU LCS:
VIEW IMAGE IN FULL SCREENIt’s a fact of life: everyone poops. And yet society seems to have evolved some sense of embarrassment over letting people know that you’ve dropped a stinky load. We try to assuage these issues with things like private bathroom stalls and air fresheners in public restrooms. In fact, toilets in Japan will often have automatic noise makers to mask any embarrassing sounds that might slip past your posterior.
And yet still, a recent study shows that more than half of Japanese school children refuse to go number two until after they’ve returned to the perfect privacy of their own homes! They’ll hold it for hours rather than respond to nature’s call, their embarrassment about bodily functions eventually causing them to become chronically constipated.
The United Nations General Assembly recognizes November 19 was World Toilet Day. So what better time than right now to talk about people’s pooping habits? Recently, the Japanese home installments corporation, LIXIL, asked 1,250 boys and girls about toilet issues. The kids were all attendees at a Japanese elementary, junior high, or high school, and they had some truly eye-opening things to say about school bathrooms.
First and foremost, according to LIXIL’s survey, a total 53 percent of Japanese school children either “never poop in the school bathrooms,” or “only do so when absolutely incapable of persevering.” The next question is obviously “why refrain?”
Exactly half of the students who do not defecate while at school say that it’s because “[they] do not want other people to know.” In other words, they choose to hold back their bowel movements because they are embarrassed by their body’s natural functions. It’s not that these kids are somehow incapable of letting loose, but that they consciously choose not to. Apparently, more than 70 percent of all Japanese students tend to go to the bathroom in a group, so if anyone takes extra time in a stall, it’s obvious to their friends exactly what was going down. Not to mention, elementary school pranksters have a pretty nasty habit of peeking over the stall doors and announcing the identity of the occupant to the room at large. If any of these students feel embarrassed about holding up the line or causing a bit of a stink, it makes sense that they would try to avoid the situation.
▼Could it just be that some kids don’t know how to tackle these things!?
The second most common reason for holding in the terrible turds until back at home was because they are “unable to relax.” An impressive 46 percent of kids who don’t defecate at school basically said that their sphincter is too tight to allow it. Whether it’s some form of performance anxiety when their friends are loitering on the other side of the door, or whether it’s a problem with the toilets themselves is a little unclear. However, we do know that 60 percent of all Japanese students prefer using Western-style toilets, while a large number of school buildings are fitted with nothing but squatty potties. That sounds like a likely factor in these kids’ inability to go.
So what are the ramifications of refusing to do one’s doody when nature calls? Well, a quick Google search tells us that kids who hold it in for hours on end can cause themselves serious constipation, until they’re practically pooping pebbles. Generally speaking, the consequences aren’t too severe, but can lead to pronounced discomfort when their loaves are finally pinched. Unfortunately, this problem isn’t exactly something that’s easy to solve. But, I’m sure LIXIL will be happy to incorporate this data when designing future bathroom fixtures.
Source: tv asahi (Japanese)
Top image: Rakuten Inset image: KcpwindowonjapanChip in to keep stories like these coming.
An animal is most dangerous when it's wounded, they say, and the Conservative Party of Canada has been metaphorically bearing that out for months. Sinking steadily in the polls, it has sought to further impose its brand of sado-politics upon our long-suffering country, even against its own best interests.
In its dying days it has been showing its teeth, snapping and snarling: jamming the union-busting Bill C-377 through the Senate, tearing at the fabric of free collective bargaining with omnibus Bill C-59, spiking a transgender rights bill, and tabling legislation to forbid Muslim women from taking the oath of citizenship in traditional niqab dress. It passed Bill C-24, formally establishing two classes of citizenship.
It introduced an act to condemn some criminals to life without parole. It cribbed American voter suppression legislation to make it more difficult for First Nations, students and the poor to exercise their franchise. And of course there was the infamous Bill C-51, establishing a largely unaccountable political police with the power to override the Charter of Rights.
The Supreme Court is unlikely to allow any of these profoundly unconstitutional measures to last: Harper has already racked up a string of losses before them. But the rule of law, as we have seen during a seemingly endless series of scandals (which began, in fact, even before the 2006 election) and legislative jiggery-pokery, seems to be just a minor annoyance for the Conservatives when they're on a tear.
Like Parliament itself, in fact: since 2011, the Conservatives have shut down debate more than 100 times. Harper earlier distinguished himself as the only prime minister in Canadian history to be found guilty of contempt of Parliament.
Through all this, the Conservatives have been spending scads of taxpayers' cash on nakedly partisan advertising, activities and personal self-aggrandizement. Harper has surrounded himself with criminals and lowlifes to further his agenda. It all smacks of political racketeering. There ought to be a law.
But now the flailing of this dying regime has begun in earnest. A symptom: rejecting Ches Crosbie's candidacy in the Newfoundland Labrador riding of Avalon, leaving themselves with no candidate at all (the deadline for nominees was June 25). The province has no Conservative MPs at present. This isn't likely to improve the odds.
Then there's the Mother Canada monument, approaching Hallmark levels of kitsch, tearing a hole in a pristine national park; and the planned memorial to the victims of Communism, promising to similarly deface the nation's capital. If those monstrosities are actually built, it will cost the taxpayers millions.
And the attack ads. The Conservatives may even have broken their own law with the latest one, and things weren't made any better with senior Conservative spokesman Kory Teneyke's odd performance on national television.
There is no point trying to apply the rational-actor model to any of this. It defies rational explanation. But this sort of thing is not unknown in nature. We've seen this self-destructive behaviour before -- dealing blow after blow to veterans, who, we might think, should be a solid part of the Conservative base, or alienating senior citizens by raising the retirement age -- but these latest spasms are simply bizarre.
The wounded beast is dying, vomiting venom as life slowly drains away. We can put it out of its misery on October 19. Surely at this point it's the only humane thing to do.[Update]: A Good many people have been confused by the 128 GB/s speed of the stacked DRAM mentioned in our table. They have also confused it with the 1 Terabytes per second achievable speed mentioned by the CEO of Nvidia. The speed mentioned here is not the total memory bandwidth of a GPU once all Mem. Chips are in place and is the total memory bandwidth of one chip only. Notice that the table mentions GDDR 5 max as 28GB/s when we clearly don’t get just 28GB/s with GDDR5 GPUs.
[Editorial] Before I begin, my humble warning that this post might get a little technical. This generation of graphic cards is not about brute power, but efficiency and intelligent design. To achieve the maximum throughput while maintaining a very small foot print. Basically, true progress; and its not just about adding more transistors on a die. Nvidia demoed two critical technologies on GTC this year, namely NV Link and Stacked DRAM aka ‘3D Memory’. However they understandably failed to give a lot of technical details since the demo was for the general audience, but I will try to take care of that today, albeit slightly late.
Nvidia Pascal: Using CoW (Chip-on-Wafer) based 3D Memory to Achieve the Next Gen GPU
Lets begin with 3D Memory. Now most of you know what SoC (System-on-Chip) means, but now we have a slightly less used term which I will take the opportunity to explain. Basically the CoW (cue mundane bovine jokes) or Chip on Wafer design is a technique used to plant a single logic circuit directly over or under a stack of wafers. Basically the chips are stacked and Silicon punched through in vertical pillars called TSV (Through Silicon Vias) till the Control Die. In this case, it means that the DRAMs that are stacked will be controlled by a single logic circuit and henceforth referred to as a ‘Chip-on-Wafer’ design. In all probability the Nvidia 3D RAM will be using the JEDEC HBM standard, which funnily enough was developed by JEDEC and AMD |
the floor and he undid her bra and pulled open her jeans.
"When I realised that he really wanted to rape me I started kicking him with my boots. I was terrified," she said in an interview published on Monday in French weekly L'Express.
She said she had not pursued the case eight years ago because at the time, "everyone told me it would never succeed".
But she said that following the allegations in New York there was "perhaps a chance to finally be listened to".
"If I want one day to put an end to this hell that has lasted eight years, it needs to be tried in court," she added.
"I'm well aware that in these kinds of cases, where it's one person's word against another - without even mentioning people who are that powerful - suspects are often released."
Mr Strauss-Kahn's French lawyers said on Monday they had been instructed to file a legal complaint against Ms Banon for making false statements about "imaginary" events.
Presidential bid 'unlikely'
Mr Strauss-Kahn had been a leading contender to be the French Socialist Party's presidential candidate before his arrest in May.
Strauss-Kahn allegations 2006: Publication of Sexus Politicus, book by Christophe Deloire and Christophe Dubois, with chapter on Mr Strauss-Kahn and his tendency of "seduction to the point of obsession"
2008: Mr Strauss-Kahn admits an affair with IMF colleague; he admits an "error of judgement"
2011: Mr Strauss-Kahn arrested on 14 May in New York, accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid
16 May: Writer Tristane Banon comes forward to say Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to assault her in an interview nearly a decade before
1 July: Mr Strauss-Kahn freed without bail from New York house arrest French harassment claims increase
Concerns about the reliability of his accuser in New York have left that case reportedly in trouble, and led to speculation that he might return to French politics.
However, on Monday, Socialist Party spokesman Benoit Hamon said the idea that Mr Strauss-Kahn could now run for the presidency was "the weakest" of all possible scenarios.
Ms Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, herself a politician from Mr Strauss-Kahn's centre-left Socialist Party, said she had persuaded her daughter not to file a complaint at the time of the alleged incident.
But Ms Mansouret has said she is "revolted" by the gleeful reaction of many men in France to news the case in New York might fail.
Mr Koubbi told L'Express that he and his client had decided to press charges in mid-June, and that the timing of the decision was not linked to Mr Strauss-Kahn's US trial.
He had previously said it would not be filed until "later", to avoid any competition with the New York case against Mr Strauss-Kahn.
"I have always said that the French case and the American case ought not be linked," Mr Koubbi said on Monday.
Ms Banon is the god-daughter of Mr Strauss-Kahn's second wife, Brigitte Guillemette.A Houston escort agency companion can accompany you on a personal or business trip anywhere you want to travel. There is nothing quite as frustrating as being in an exciting new place, finishing your business for the day and being all alone. Exploring new surroundings is not the same when you have nobody to share your experience with. This is where a companion is in her true glory. She is the perfect person to explore the new culture with, discover the tastes of new and exotic food with and help you navigate your new surroundings.
Just imagine how much faster your business meetings will go when you know there is someone special waiting for you once they conclude. Imagine dancing on unfamiliar soil with a captivating and alluring courtesan from NYC, laughing together by candlelight as you experience the textures and tastes of unique new foods and walking through an unexplored city together beneath the night skies. You can hire transportation to drive you around so you see everything there is to offer. Just remember you will have to take your eyes off your scintillating companion every once in a while.
Even if your days are consumed by business, your nights will be magical adventures. Delight in the taste of a new wine together, dress like the locals and just enjoy your time together. A lovely companion makes the air taste sweeter, adds exhilaration to the breeze and makes the sun shine just a little brighter. You can have intelligent conversations or act like a boy still in school, feast on the exotic dishes or enjoy the simple local fare. No matter where you choose to go or what you choose to do, your companion will make certain you make the most of your time together.
The best part is when your business trip concludes, you will not have to face the long plane ride home alone. Your companion will be there to keep you company on the drive back to the airport, entertain you while you wait for your plane to board and make the trip home a lot of fun. The memories you made on your trip will have you eager to hire a companion the next time out of town business arises.Microsoft, that devilish litigation machine, now wants to win by summary judgment in the Seattle RAND patent case against Motorola on the next question to be tried, whether Motorola violated a duty of good faith as to its RAND licensing commitments. Motorola, naturally, opposes [PDF]. It wants its day in court with a jury, not just this judge, who keeps beating Motorola up. At least in Seattle courtrooms, it seems Microsoft can do no wrong. What Motorola tells the court is something I hope everyone will read in full, because it says that the reason Motorola sent Microsoft an offer to license its RAND patents is because Microsoft *asked it* to do so, pretending all was normal between them. Then when they sent their offer and the usual opening price, instead of discussing it, Microsoft immediately sued, claiming the price was too high. In short, Microsoft sucker punched them. Motorola calls it reverse hold up, which is what Apple was just found guilty of against Samsung at the ITC for essentially the same type of moves: Microsofts conduct suggests that it was engaged in reverse hold-up. As explained recently by the International Trade Commission in Samsung v. Apple, In reverse patent hold-up, an implementer utilizes declared-essential technology without compensation to the patent owner under the guise that the patent owners offers to license were not fair or reasonable. The patent owner is therefore forced to defend its rights through expensive litigation." The details are eye-opening. All of this, Motorola says, came about because it chose to use Google's Android instead of Microsoft's Windows for mobiles. There will be a hearing on this July 31, so if any of you are in the Seattle area and can attend, that would be awesome.
After reading reams and reams of newsprint and court filings about Microsoft claiming it's a RAND violation if a patent owner asks for an injunction, it turns out that Microsoft has RAND patents it sought, got, and enforced injunctions over -- against Motorola. Methinks Microsoft speaks with forked tongue, telling one story to the FTC, another to the ITC, and another to this Seattle judge, depending on what suits its best interests at the moment: Moreover, in June 2011, several months after Motorola filed three of its patent infringement suits and one month before Motorola filed suit in Germany, Microsoft argued to the Federal Trade Commission that SEP holders should be entitled to seek injunctions on patents subject to F/RAND commitments in order to maintain incentives for licensees to engage in good faith negotiations with the patent holder. (Dkt. 721, Ex. W, 13) (Any uniform declaration that such relief would not be available if the patent holder has made a commitment to offer a RAND license for its essential patent claims in connection with a standard may reduce any incentives that implementers might have to engage in good faith negotiations with the patent holder.) Indeed, Microsoft sought injunctions against Motorola for infringement of patents which Microsoft committed to license on RAND termsthe ActiveSync patents and computer file system patents. (Dkt. 723, Exs. B-C; Ex. B, 30:24-31:4, 31:9-32:23, 35:8-11; Exs. G-I.) For example, Microsoft asserted infringement of the 517 and 352 patents, which it promised to license in a non-discriminatory fashion and under reasonable terms and conditions. (Dkt. 723, Exs. B-C; Exs. G-I.) Microsoft is even currently enforcing an exclusion order issued by the ITC against Motorola on an ActiveSync patent, which Microsoft also committed to license on RAND terms. (Ex. F.) If, as Microsoft now contends, seeking injunctive relief is inconsistent with RAND commitments, then Microsoft is in violation of its own RAND commitments. This evidence is sufficient to defeat summary judgment and, again, is not dependent on whether Microsoft first appl[ied] for a license and then negotiate[ed] in good faith. Can you beat that? What hypocrisy. Actually, the law calls that "unclean hands": The unclean hands doctrine closes the doors of a court of equity to one tainted with inequitableness or bad faith relative to the matter in which he seeks relief, however improper may have been the behavior of the defendant. Adler v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, 219 F.3d 869, 876-77 (9th Cir. 2000) (citing Precision instr. Mfg. Co. v. Automotive Maintenance Machinery Co., 324 U.S. 806, 814 (1945)). Under this doctrine, plaintiffs seeking equitable relief must have acted fairly and without fraud or deceit as to the controversy in issue. Adler, 219 F.3d at 877 (citing Ellenburg v. Brockway, Inc., 763 F.2d 1091, 1097 (9th Cir. 1985)). Motorolas evidence supports a finding of unclean hands. So, there's another side to this RAND story, it turns out, and Motorola lays it out for the judge in full: Microsoft argues that Motorola breached its duty of good faith per se by sending two letters identifying Motorolas essential patents and setting forth Motorolas standard royalty rate of 2.25% on the price of the end product and by later seeking injunctions. But Microsoft omits all the facts that tell a very different story: First, Motorola sent these letters, as it had often done before, as part of the licensing discussions that sophisticated companies routinely engage in as part of the custom and practice of high-tech industries. Second, it was Microsoft that departed from that custom and practice by taking the unprecedented step of filing a breach-of-contract lawsuit just 20 days after receiving Motorolas letter, without making any counteroffer. Third, the timeline of this case did not begin with Motorolas letters in October 2010, but rather with Microsofts prior decision in October, 2010 to sue Motorola for patent infringement in the ITC and district court. It did so because Motorola had chosen the Google Android operating system for its smartphones rather than Microsofts commercially floundering Windows operating system for mobile devices. Fourth, the idea for the Motorola letters was Microsofts, not Motorolas: After filing its lawsuits, Microsoft asked Motorola to put its patents on the table, and Motorolaunder time pressure from Microsofts lawsuitscomplied. Fifth, the letters included Motorolas standard rate not in order to hold-up Microsoft but rather because that rate had been used in many previous bilateral negotiations with other companies. Sixth, by sending the letters, Motorola envisioned a back-and- forth discussion about both parties patents, with a wide range of possible outcomes if negotiations had proceeded. Seventh, Microsoft filed this lawsuit without making a single counteroffer or response of any kind, even though it knew well that opening offers are just that opening offers and that opening offers need not be on RAND terms. To the contrary, as Microsoft well knew, RAND rates and cross-licenses are reached as a result of an extensive negotiation process that involves consideration of many terms and not just a single royalty rate. It was Microsoft that short-circuited that discussion by its rush to court here. All this to punish Motorola for choosing to use Android instead of Microsoft's Windows operating system for mobiles. ***************** The Honorable James L. Robart UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
AT SEATTLE MICROSOFT CORPORATION, a Washington
corporation, Plaintiff, v. MOTOROLA, INC., and MOTOROLA
MOBILITY LLC, and GENERAL
INSTRUMENT CORPORATION, Defendants. _________ CASE NO. C10-1823-JLR DEFENDANTS RESPONSE TO
MICROSOFTS MOTION FOR PARTIAL
SUMMARY JUDGMENT OF BREACH OF
CONTRACT AND SUMMARY
JUDGMENT ON MOTOROLAS THIRD,
FOURTH, FIFTH, SEVENTH, EIGHTH,
AND NINTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES
AND SECOND COUNTERCLAIM NOTED ON MOTION CALENDAR:
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. REDACTED [Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Statutes, Miscellaneous: see PDF.] i-v Preliminary Statement Microsoft is not entitled to partial summary judgment on the disputed and fact-intensive question whether Motorola violated a duty of good faith as to its RAND licensing commitments. Contrary to Microsofts numerous suggestions in its motion, this Court has not effectively decided that issue through its earlier rulings in this case. Microsoft would take this Courts April 2013 decision, reached after lengthy discovery and a full trial, and impute its conclusions back to October 2010 as if Motorola knew or should have known of the Courts order. But whether the duty of good faith has been breached by a party is an an issue for the trier of fact, determined by reference to context and circumstances. 25 Wash. Prac., Contract Law And Practice § 5:12 (emphasis added). And numerous questions of disputed fact remain as to the actual facts of the parties respective knowledge and positions in October 2010. Microsoft argues that Motorola breached its duty of good faith per se by sending two letters identifying Motorolas essential patents and setting forth Motorolas standard royalty rate of 2.25% on the price of the end product and by later seeking injunctions. But Microsoft omits all the facts that tell a very different story: First, Motorola sent these letters, as it had often done before, as part of the licensing discussions that sophisticated companies routinely engage in as part of the custom and practice of high-tech industries. Second, it was Microsoft that departed from that custom and practice by taking the unprecedented step of filing a breach-of-contract lawsuit just 20 days after receiving Motorolas letter, without making any counteroffer. Third, the timeline of this case did not begin with Motorolas letters in October 2010, but rather with Microsofts prior decision in October, 2010 to sue Motorola for patent infringement in the ITC and district court. It did so because Motorola had chosen the Google Android operating system for its smartphones rather than Microsofts commercially floundering Windows operating system for mobile devices. Fourth, the idea for the Motorola letters was Microsofts, not Motorolas: After filing its lawsuits, Microsoft asked Motorola to put its patents on the table, and Motorolaunder time pressure from Microsofts lawsuitscomplied. Fifth, the letters included Motorolas standard rate not in order 1 to hold-up Microsoft but rather because that rate had been used in many previous bilateral negotiations with other companies. Sixth, by sending the letters, Motorola envisioned a back-and- forth discussion about both parties patents, with a wide range of possible outcomes if negotiations had proceeded. Seventh, Microsoft filed this lawsuit without making a single counteroffer or response of any kind, even though it knew well that opening offers are just that opening offers and that opening offers need not be on RAND terms. To the contrary, as Microsoft well knew, RAND rates and cross-licenses are reached as a result of an extensive negotiation process that involves consideration of many terms and not just a single royalty rate. It was Microsoft that short-circuited that discussion by its rush to court here. These material issues of disputed fact as to whether Motorola violated the duty of good faith and fair dealing preclude summary judgment on this issue. This Court should also deny Microsofts motion for summary judgment on Motorolas affirmative defenses. Contrary to Microsofts arguments, there is ample evidence supporting Motorolas claims. Statement of Facts I. MOTOROLAS COMMITMENTS TO THE IEEE AND ITU. As this Court is well aware, at issue in this case are Motorolas commitments to the IEEE and ITU. Motorolas Letters of Assurance to the IEEE provide that it will make licenses to certain of its essential patents available to all applicants on RAND terms and conditions. (Dkt. 721, Ex. Q.) The IEEE does not define what are RAND terms and conditions. In fact, its bylaws state that the IEEE is not responsible... for determining whether any licensing terms or conditions provided... are reasonable or non-discriminatory. (Id., Ex. R, 16.) Motorolas Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration for ITU-T/ITU-R Recommendation states: The Patent Holder is prepared to grant a license to an unrestricted number of applicants on a worldwide, non-discriminatory basis and on reasonable terms and conditions to make, use and sell implementations of the above document. (Id., Ex. S.) The ITU Policy and its licensing declaration form further state that negotiations are left to the parties 2 concerned. (Id., Exs. S-T.) Further, the ITU letter of assurance form expressly allows parties to condition their RAND obligation on the potential licensees willingness to grant a reciprocal RAND license to its own SEPs. (Id., Ex. T.) II. CONDUCT OF TYPICAL PATENT LICENSING NEGOTIATIONS. Horacio Gutierrez, Microsofts Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in charge of the Intellectual Property Group (Ex. A, 7:3-7)1, testified as follows: Microsoft as Licensor. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Microsoft as Licensee. [REDACTED] 3 [REDACTED] Time Limits on License Offers. [REDACTED] III. THE PARTIES LICENSING DISCUSSIONS PRECEDING THIS LAWSUIT. Microsofts motion for partial summary judgment omits the relevant facts preceding Motorolas October 21 and October 29, 2010 offer letters, which are more fully set forth in Defendants Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt No. 733, 2-4) and summarized briefly here. The Parties Licensing Negotiations Prior to Microsofts October 1, 2010 Litigation. Motorola had a license to Microsofts ActiveSync patents, which expired in 2007. (Ex. B, 81:1- 4.) The parties engaged in renewal negotiations for approximately three years (id., 81:20-83:3) during which Motorola repeatedly advised Microsoft that it had patents that read on Microsofts products. (Id., 23:21-24:12, 66:16-68:7, 74:24-75:20.) At no time prior to October 1, 2010 did Microsoft ask Motorola for more details about such patents. (Id., 72:5-10, 72:20-73:2.) By 2010, 4 all of Motorolas smartphone products used the Android mobile operating system, an open source code system offered by Google, rather than Microsofts mobile operating system, which failed to obtain adoptions at anywhere near the 90 percent market share Microsoft had acquired for its Windows operating system for desktop computers. (Ex. D, 14:25-15:5, 22:11-16, 22:14-23; 23:18-22.) On October 1, 2010, without prior notice, Microsoft sued Motorola, filing a complaint in the ITC alleging patent infringement by Motorolas Android smartphones (ITC-744 action). (Ex. B, 30:2-23, Exs. H-I; Dkt. 721, Ex. B.) Microsoft also filed a patent infringement action against Motorola in this Court asserting infringement of the same patents at issue before the ITC (1577 action). (Dkt. 721, Ex. C.) In both actions, Microsoft asserted its ActiveSync and computer file system patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,579,517 and 5,758,352) and other patents, including some of which that had never been the subject of prior negotiations, against Motorola. (Dkt. 721, Exs. B and C; Ex. B, 30:24-31:4; 92:13-16, 93:8-20, 97:1-98:14.) Microsoft sought an exclusion order in the ITC and an injunction in the district court even though it had committed to license its ActiveSync and computer file system patents on RAND terms. (Ex. B, 30:24-31:4, 31:9-32:23, 35:8-11, Exs. G-I; Dkt. 721, Ex. B.) Microsoft Invites Motorola to Present its Patents. After it filed its lawsuits against Motorola, Microsoft told Motorola it was interested in finding a resolution that would cover both parties intellectual property and in discussing a cross-license agreement. (Ex. B, 24:19-26:11, 81:20-82:8, 84:14-85:24, 89:24-90:21, 106:20-108:4, 109:17-110:7.) Microsoft conveyed to Motorola that it wanted to quickly resolve the parties dispute since the parties were already engaged in litigation. (Id., 111:7-112:22.)3 As is typical in patent licensing negotiations, Microsoft invited Motorola to present its patents for discussion, advising Motorola that part of the conversation to resolve the parties dispute "[REDACTED] 5 [REDACTED]." (Id., 84:17-24, 85:2-86:24, 89:24-90:21, 162:5-9; Ex. N, 38:16-40:5.) The parties also scheduled a meeting for October 22, 2010 to discuss a broad patent cross-license, which would include a discussion of both parties intellectual property. (Ex. B, 93:21-95:17, 96:2-11, 100:7-101:21.) This meeting was scheduled before Microsoft received Motorolas October 21, 2010 letter. (Id., 101:25-102:20.) The parties did not discuss which patents would be discussed at that meeting. (Id., 97:14-17.) Motorola Makes Microsoft a License Offer and Microsoft Files Suit Again. On October 21, 2010, in advance of the parties scheduled meeting, Motorola sent Microsoft a letter offering to grant Microsoft a worldwide license to Motorolas portfolio of patents and patent applications relating to the IEEE 802.11 standards, and identifying the patents and patent applications covered by that offer. (Dkt. 721, Ex. D.) On October 29, 2010, Motorola sent Microsoft a second letter, which offered to grant Microsoft a worldwide license to Motorolas portfolio of patents and patent applications relating to the ITU-T Recommendation H.264, again identifying the patents and patent applications covered by the offer. (Id., Ex. E.)4 Both letters offered to license these patent portfolios at a royalty rate of 2.25%, and stated that the offers would remain open for 20 days. (Id., Exs. D and E.) Contrary to its typical practice of responding to a potential licensors offer, Microsoft did not respond to Motorolas October 21 and 29, 2010 offer letters. (See Dkt. 721, Ex. F, 20:3-6; 63:4-8.) [REDACTED]. (Id.; Ex. B, 117:17-24, 159:7-21.) The parties then proceeded with the already-scheduled October 22 licensing meeting. The meeting went forward and was [REDACTED] and indeed [REDACTED] to Microsoft. (Id., 115:17-116:3.) The parties did not discuss Motorolas standard-essential patents or Motorolas October 21, 2010 letter. (Id., 119:5-120:5, 160:10-12, 160:19-24.) 6 On November 9, 2010, without ever making a response or counteroffer, Microsoft filed the complaint in this action, asserting, among other claims, that Motorola breached its obligations to the IEEE and ITU by failing to offer to license its 802.11 and H.264 SEP portfolios on RAND terms. (Dkt. 1.) Microsoft did no analysis of what a RAND offer would look like before filing the case. (Ex. B, 151:10-24, 152:4-8, 149:7-150:17, Ex. 8.) Right after Microsoft filed its complaint, its executives told Motorola not to be concerned about the lawsuit, that it was [REDACTED] at Microsoft. (Ex. E, 39:8-22; Ex. N, 40:6- 18.)5 IV. MOTOROLAS SUBSEQUENT LAWSUITS Motorola ultimately filed patent infringement cases against Microsoft in the Western District of Wisconsin, ITC, and Germany only after Microsoft had first sued Motorola in the ITC and this Court alleging patent infringement, then invited Motorola to present its patents for negotiation, and then sued Motorola again alleging breach of contract. (See Dkt. 733, 3-4.) Summary Judgment Standard Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 permits summary judgment only where there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, or in which only a question of law is involved. Denton v. BP W. Coast Prods., LLC, No. C09-1344-JCC, 2011 WL 1883805, at *2 (W.D. Wash. May 17, 2011) (quoting Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 3d § 2712). Summary judgment is appropriate if, when viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and therefore the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Aetna Health Inc. v. Fox, No. 09-5647, 2011 WL 2413267, at *1 (W.D. Wash. June 13, 2011) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)). All reasonable inferences supported by the evidence are to be drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. Davis v. Homecomings Fin., 7 C05-1466RSL, 2007 WL 1600700, *1 (W.D. Wash. June 1, 2007). Summary judgment should be denied when the non-moving party offers evidence from which a reasonable jury could return a verdict in its favor. Aetna Health, 2011 WL 2413267, at *1 (citing Triton Energy Corp. v. Square D Co., 68 F.3d 1216, 1221 (9th Cir. 1995)). Argument I. THERE IS A GENUINE DISPUTE OF MATERIAL FACT AS TO WHETHER
MOTOROLA BREACHED ITS COMMITMENTS TO THE IEEE AND ITU. Microsoft alleges that Motorola breached its purported contracts with the IEEE and ITU as a matter of law by sending the October 2010 letters offering to license its 802.11 and H.264 SEP portfolios at 2.25%, contending Motorola violated the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by engaging in commercially unreasonable conduct and by frustrating the purpose of its RAND licensing commitments.6 This Court should deny Microsofts motion because it applies an incorrect legal standard for breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing and ignores the context and the circumstances of both parties conduct. Under Washington law, a breach of contract is actionable only if the contract imposes a duty, the duty is breached, and the breach proximately causes damage to the claimant. Nw. Ind. Forest Mfr. v. Dept of Labor & Indus., 899 P.2d 6, 9 (Wash. Ct. App. 1995). The implied duty of good faith and fair dealing arises out of the obligations created by a contract and exists only in relation to performance of specific contract terms. See Badgett v. Sec. State Bank, 116 Wn. 2d 563, 569-74 (1991); (Dkt. 716, 7.) Washington does not recognize a free-floating duty of good faith unattached to the underlying legal document, id. at 570, and thus the duty cannot inject any substantive terms into the parties contract, id. at 569. Nor does the duty require parties to accept any material change in the terms of the contract, see Betchard-Clayton, Inc. v. King, 41 Wn. App. 887, 890-91 (1985). Whether the duty of good faith has been breached by a party is an 8 an issue for the trier of fact, determined by reference to context and circumstances. 25 Wash. Prac., Contract Law And Practice § 5:12 (emphasis added). The duty of good faith and fair dealing implied in every contract applies not only to the party alleged to have breached the contract, but also to the party seeking to enforce it. See Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 205 (1981) (Every contract imposes upon each party a duty of good faith and fair dealing in its performance and its enforcement) (emphasis added); see also Zuver v. Airtouch Commcns, Inc., 153 Wn.2d 293, 317 (2004) (Washington courts have long held that mutuality of obligation means both parties are bound to perform the contracts terms). [T]he obligation of good faith and fair dealing extends to the assertion, settlement and litigation of contract claims and defenses. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 205, cmt. e. As explained in the Restatement, the obligation is violated by dishonest conduct such as conjuring up a pretended dispute, asserting an interpretation contrary to ones own understanding,... [and] willful failure to mitigate damages. Id. A. There is a Genuine Dispute of Material Fact as to Whether Motorola Engaged
in Commercially Unreasonable Conduct. Microsoft argues that, as a matter of law, Motorolas October 2010 letters were commercially unreasonable because objectively too high compared with the rates and ranges established by this Courts April 19, 2013 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. (Dkt. 729, 13). This argument fails, for Washington law on good faith and fair dealing requires consideration of subjective as well as objective factors, and even if only objective factors were considered, there are still genuine issues of material fact that preclude summary judgment here. 1. Microsoft Improperly Focuses Only on the Amount of Motorolas October
2010 Offers and Ignores Other Relevant Factors. Microsoft cites not a single case finding breach of the duty of good faith based solely on the contention that the size of an opening offer is too high. There is none.7 To the contrary, 9 numerous cases find that the size of an offer alone is not dispositive of the reasonableness of the offer or of whether the offeror has breached a duty of good faith. See Alliance Atlantis Releasing Ltd. v. Bob Yari Prods., No. CV 08-5526-GW (SSX), 2010 WL 1525687, *12 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 12, 2010) ([A] low offer still qualifies as a good faith offer.); Warner Theatre Associates Ltd. Pship v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., No. Civ. 97-4914, 1997 WL 685334, *6 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 4, 1997) (Sotomayor, D.J.) (Nothing in the duty of good faith requires that parties to a negotiation propose only such terms as the other party is happy with.), affd, 149 F.3d 134 (2d Cir. 1998); BBS Technologies, Inc. v. Remington Arms Co., Inc., No. Civ. A. 05-98-DLB, 2005 WL 3132307, at *4 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 22, 2005) (emphasizing that just because one side views another sides settlement offer as unreasonable does not mean that the offer was made in bad faith); Realtek Semiconductor Corp. v. LSI Corp., No. C-12-03451 RMW, 2012 WL 4845628, *4 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 12, 2012) (applying this Courts reasoning in denying motion to dismiss a claim alleging breach of good faith in a RAND contract, but emphasizing that the royalty rate as compared to selling price was merely one relevant factor and that reasonableness turns on the entirety of the terms and circumstances) (emphasis added); (see also Dkt. 716, 11-12, 13-14.) Accordingly, Microsoft cannot establish a breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing based exclusively on the difference between Motorolas offers and the RAND rates and ranges determined by this Court. 2. The Jury Should Consider Subjective Factors in Determining Good Faith. (a) Washington Law Considers Subjective Factors. As this Court previously stated: [w]hile the court will not at this time set forth a legal standard with respect to Motorolas duty to offer its patents in good faith, it is likely that any 10 analysis of Motorolas duty will involve, at least in part, an examination of the intent behind Motorolas offers. (Dkt 335, 27 (emphasis added).) That is correct. The Restatement (Second) of Contracts Section 205, on which Washington law (and Microsoft) relies, see, e.g., Fairhaven Land & Livestock Co. v. Chuckanut Trails Water Assn, Case No. 60909-2-I, 148 Wn. App. 1046 (Feb. 23, 2009) (unpublished opinion), suggests that there is both an objective and a subjective component to assessing good faith and fair dealing. For example, the Restatement provides that, while [a] complete catalogue of types of bad faith is impossible,... willful rendering of imperfect performance is an example of bad faith. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 205(d) (1981) (emphasis added); see also Matter of Hollingsworths Estate, 88 Wn. 2d 322, 330 (1977) (finding that a party to a stipulated settlement of a will acted in bad faith when he refused to accept a tax compromise not because he, in fact and in good faith, found the tax compromise unacceptable, but because he later decided he had made a bad bargain) (emphasis added); Cavell v. Hughes, 29 Wn. App. 536, 539-40 (1981) (holding that the record shows clearly that defendant did not proceed in good faith after signing the earnest money agreement because the defendant, inter alia, sought the advice of counsel for the specific purpose of frustrating the sale, and testified at trial that he wanted out of the agreement because he felt he had made a bad bargain by fixing a price that was too low) (emphasis added). (b) The Cases Cited by Microsoft Do Not Support Ignoring Subjective
Factors. Although Microsoft cites to several cases in its Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and its July 1, 2013 good faith brief to support its assertion that only objective factors should be considered (see Dkt.No. 729, 11; Dkt. 715, 5-8), those cases both support Motorolas argument, and are factually distinguishable. For example, Microsoft cites to Scribner v. Worldcom, Inc., 249 F.3d 902, 910 (9th Cir. 2001), for its assertion that a showing of subjective bad faith is not required. (Dkt.No. 729,11; Dkt. 715, 5-6.) But Scribner in fact supports the consideration of subjective factors in determining good faith. There, the Ninth Circuit held that a corporations stock option committee breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing when the committee, 11 which had discretion to interpret the terms with cause or without cause used in an options contract between employer and employee, determined that the employee was terminated with cause, preventing the employee from being able to immediately exercise his stock options. Scribner, 249 F.3d at 909-11. The court considered the committees motive or purpose, finding that the employee has presented ample evidence demonstrating that rather than making a good faith effort to determine whether his termination had been with cause or without cause based on language of the Plan and his justified expectations, the Committee chose its desired result based on a desire to facilitate the sale of the division in which the employee worked. Id. at 910-12 (emphasis added). In any event, Scribner is factually distinguishable because it involved the committees discretion to |
Peyton Thompson.
Trufant is expected to compete for the starting right cornerback position.Over the offseason, the Falcons let three of their top five cornerbacks leave in Brent Grimes (Miami), Dunta Robinson (Kansas City) and Christopher Owens (Cleveland).
Now, all of the Falcons eight draft picks are signed and the team can turn its focus to working out a contract extension for quarterback Matt Ryan.As the sole programmer behind Polytron's widely-acclaimed Fez, Canadian game developer Renaud Bédard had his work cut out for him in creating a perspective-shifting 3D world using his home-grown Trixel engine. But for his next project, he's teaming up with Montreal-based audiovisual artist Aliceffekt and Henk Boom of Phosfiend Systems to create a very different (but also familiar) game experience.
Waiting For Horus is a work-in-progress from the group, and it immediately evokes the raw, cathartic glee of fast-paced mutiplayer arena games like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3. It's a genre we haven't really seen much of lately, with most modern shooters like Call of Duty relying on realistic theme park-style set pieces and Ramboesque, action movie storytelling. But designer Aliceffekt has given Waiting For Horus a rough but charming style all its own, featuring stark, heavily-stylized environments and a cast of robotic tanks that seem vaguely similar to the ones in Ghost in the Shell. He and Henk Boom are also currently working on FRACT, another unique and slick-looking game that's equal parts Myst and analogue synthesizer.
"The speed of 'Quake' inside the world of 'Jet Set Radio Future'"
Oddly enough, the project started as a way to the pass time while waiting for Adhesive Games' highly-anticipated mech combat game, Hawken. "I was really excited to play Hawken and wanted a toy to keep busy since it's release," says Aliceffekt, aka Devine Lu Linvega, who is joining his teammates this weekend at the TOJam game hackathon in Toronto. "But I guess we eventually forgot about Hawken and sought more fast paced multiplayer games like Gunz to inspire us. Our plans for it are still sharpening, for now, we just want a sick game that we can play with our friends on weekends."
Describing the game as having "the speed of Quake inside the world of Jet Set Radio Future," the group recently released new gameplay footage from their most recent closed beta session, and it's looking like we're in for some intense and stylish hair-trigger deathmatches some time in the near future. The game is currently being developed for both Mac and Windows, and If you're looking to jump in on the next playtest, keep your eyes peeled on the game's Facebook page.Al Peterson
2017-12-02 01:43:15 -0500
GERRY WATERHOUSE commented 10 hours ago.
…so what is the point of retweeting them, except to incite hatred, anger or fear? There is no educational value here, nothing new to learn, no new points to be made.
- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Gerry, I have to disagree with you here. As a teacher myself I know the value of repetition in order to facilitate remembering a fact. That is all he was doing. Those on the left have a problem with facts. They prefer feelings to facts.
The first pillar of leftiedom is the refusal to learn from mistakes. The second pillar of leftiedom is that they refuse to learn from other people’s mistakes. Hence the need for some repetition in the futile hope that something of the truth might sink in.
You know the old line… “Those who don’t learn from their history are doomed to repeat it”. Well our nation is going to do some repeating since we aren’t learning and we aren’t learning because we don’t repeat the truth to ourselves enough.
Just today I was reading through my Mom’s yearbook from her time in teacher’s college ( what was then called Normal School) in 1944-45. The school president, G.R. Anderson, said, “When peace comes let us be ready to see that it is established on sure and certain foundations. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations of Canadians, by every sound and legitimate means, to guard against a recurrence of the present tragedy and sacrifices. Each has a responsibility here, but perhaps no group has a greater one than the teacher. In the past too much has been taken for granted and teachers are prone to consider that the product of our schools are ready to accept and discharge their responsibilities as citizens. We now discover that in in taking all this for granted we have made a grave mistake.”
Evidently we are still taking it for granted and have learned absolutely nothing.
They are not sleeping though poppies grow in Flander’s fields.
commentedPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) - Alabama Psychiatric Services confirms it will end services on February 13, 2015. It cites a decrease in funding from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a change in how the insurance company covers behavorial health services as the reason for the closure.
An employee at the Madison facility confirmed the closure earlier today, as did several patients. It's estimated the closure will impact approximately 30,000 patients statewide.
In north Alabama, APS also has facilities in Cullman, Decatur and Florence. The Madison location is on Lanier Road off Hughes Road.
The company posted this message on its apsy.com on Wednesday afternoon:
"After over thirty years of service to our clients for their behavioral health needs, APS will be ending services on Friday, February 13, 2015. It has been our privilege to have offered services to our clients across Alabama, and to have been a critical part of the behavioral health service delivery system across our great state. At the request of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, we opened offices throughout Alabama. Unfortunately, due to a decrease in funding from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama and a change in its model of providing behavioral health, we are not able to continue our mission. We would have liked to have given both our patients and our employees more notice of our closure, but this was not possible under the circumstances. APS is making every effort to provide care and transition patients to other providers and our own providers who join or develop their own practices. APS is cooperating fully with other organizations to facilitate the resolution of this intense period."
Please enable Javascript to watch this video
APS did not mail out letters. We're told there were several copies of this two-page letter available for patients to read in the Madison facility:
WHNT News 19 is told several doctors at the Madison branch will form their own practice.
If you can offer insight about how the APS closure affects other avenues of health care, please email news.department@whnt.com. We plan to pursue more coverage in the coming days.
Editor's Note: In our initial report, we stated the closure of APS would possibly affect 200,000 people statewide. That was an estimate from an employee. Figures released a few days later by the Alabama Psychiatric Physicians Association put that figure at approximately 30,000 people.I’ve continued my foray into Sam Adams’ 2011 Longshot series. I’ve always loved the premise, but this year’s batch has left something wanting from me (I really liked last year’s lavender and black IPA batches). I had another perfectly good, but not a knock-your-socks-off beer in Corey Martin’s A Dark Night in Munich, a Munich dunkel style. It’s currently got an 83 on Beer Advocate.
As my palate has changed, I suppose my overall appreciation for Sam Adams beers has changed as well. I still love nearly all of what they produce, but I often find myself wishing that their beers would have some more kick to them, whether in ABV or overall taste. Sam Adams certainly accomplishes a great balance, however, between something you’d want to have as a “unique” beer and something that will be enjoyed by the masses. I’ve found that this year’s Longshot series – while very good – falls into that category.
Dark Night in Munich starts off with a super-strong malt smell with maybe some yeast coming through as well. It’s mostly a light whiff, but if you really stick your nose in it’ll come out. Definitely some chocolate too. The mouthfeel was middle-of-the-road: not thin, but with some body to it that sticks around on your tongue.
The taste was easily more complex, but still led by a strong malt flavor. As the beer warmed it was a bit more balanced with caramel and also some bitterness at the finish. What I found most interesting was after I let the glass sit for about 20 minutes, the taste took on almost a barleywine-junior kind of flavor. Perhaps in the way that the big malt flavor was the star of the show. The difference in alcohol – Munich was 5.9 percent – gives you the “junior” side of that.
Here’s Corey Martin doing an interview with Austin Homebrew about his background and the Longshot process:
AdvertisementsAt a Cuban port in June 2013, the Chong Chon Gang took on secret cargo: some 240 tons of Soviet-era weapons.
Later, under the direction of diplomatic staff stationed in Cuba, the ship’s crew of 32 North Koreans layered thousands of bags of raw sugar over the weapons, concealing them from sight.
Many of the crew were employees of the state, according to a 2016 United Nations report, with salaries paid by a marine ministry in Pyongyang. They were tasked with smuggling home the load of arms by piloting the nearly 40-year-old merchant ship through the Panama Canal, where the ship’s officers had been instructed to declare only the sugar.
Acting on guidance from US officials, Panamanian authorities raided the ship as it waited at the canal’s mouth, arresting the crew and touching off multiple minor diplomatic crises.
The interdiction was a watershed moment for UN investigators, putting them on the trail of how North Korea used its shipping operations to support its weapons programs. Intelligence produced from the ship’s capture also transformed how UN member nations are policing North Korea, narrowing a once-significant channel for state smuggling.
In March of this year, tough new sanctions effectively instituted a worldwide stop-and-frisk of North Korean ships, requiring members to inspect all cargo passing to or from there, regardless of the vessel’s flag. In practice, that can mean seizing a ship and deporting its crew, as in an incident in the Philippines coming days after the sanctions were announced.
“It was like shining a flashlight very brightly for a few seconds,” says a person familiar with UN investigations into North Korea’s arms programs. “It was massive, key.”
New details about how US intelligence agencies took notice of the ship and apprehended it, and a deeper look at how the UN refocused its efforts in subsequent years, underscore why the interdiction was viewed as a watershed moment. And it gives a glimpse of the serious labors behind the West's containing of a state whose sporadic missile tests and bombast are often shrugged off by many Americans.
The case of the Chong Chon Gang exposed the imbalance of power between North Korea and its international adversaries. Not all the weapons seized from the ship were dilapidated, according to experts consulted by the Monitor, but even those still in their packaging dated back to the Soviet years – more like museum pieces than the stuff of a modern military.
Still, North Korean leaders have continued to forge ahead with weapons development in spite of such sanctions. On August 24, North Korea's military fired a ballistic missile into Japanese waters for the second time in a month, compelling South Korean president Park Geun-hye to say that the North's "nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer."
Some say that the ship’s cargo was linked to the state’s nuclear ambitions, pointing to indications that surface-to-air missile systems found on board were designed to defend its fledgling nuclear program.
“A nuclear weapons capability has to be viewed from a complete system perspective,” explains Graham Ong-Webb, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “In order to have a full-fledged capability, you have to have real system to protect assets.”
Dr. Ong-Webb served as an expert witness in a 2015 case stemming from the ship’s interdiction. In that case, Singapore-based Chinpo Shipping Company, Ltd. was fined $180,000 for transferring tens of thousands of dollars on behalf of the Chong Chon Gang’s North Korean operator.
Two surface-to-air missile systems recovered from Chong Chon Gang, the SA-2 and SA-3, could have been used by North Korea to guard nuclear production, storage, and missile sites, he testified then.
“The role of the SA-2 and SA-3 is very simple: to take down incoming fighter aircraft that can strafe and destroy these sites or bomb them,” he says.
“As it stands, North Korea has a significant number currently deployed to protect a range of critical infrastructure. It’s not a stretch to make this suggestion, because any government with nuclear weapons would want to protect them from being taken out by an adversary.”
The decades-old missiles "are not as dependable as newer systems. There are more misfires," he explains. "But one can imagine that Pyongyang would want to get hold of these missiles, because they’re relatively cheap. They will get the job done.”
The same could apply, he suggests, for two MiG-21s fighter planes also found on the ship. "They were training models, but we know through precedent that the MiGs on the vessel could be armed to take down other planes."
How the smugglers were caught
The Chong Chon Gang’s undoing may have been the proximity of its route to the US's heavily monitored underbelly. One person with direct knowledge of the incident, who did not wish to be identified because of sensitivities around intelligence in the case, said that the ship had been tracked by the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF), a surveillance unit based in Key West, Fla., and composed of staff from more than a dozen different law enforcement agencies.
“That was North Korea’s big mistake, doing this in the US’s backyard,” says the source.
The ship first came under suspicion by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a potential drug trafficking case, the source adds.
While the Chong Chon Gang sat in a Cuban port, JIATF called a meeting to discuss intelligence on the ship, says Dan Scott, a retired special agent for the DEA who was a member of the task force.
“I believe an initial informant told the DEA about a load of dope that was on the boat,” he says. A North Korea-flagged boat in Cuba was far from the agency’s profile of a typical drug-smuggling case, though. “The info didn’t get to JIATF until after it was suspected to be something else – that there were nefarious items on the vessel."
JIATF reached out to authorities in Panama, he recalls. “We asked the Panamanians, ‘Do you guys see this?’ ”
When the Chong Chon Gang reached the mouth of the Panama Canal, it lined up behind other vessels at the Port of Cristobál, near where the UN Office on Drugs and Crime kept an office. As it waited for its turn to pass, authorities from a Panamanian anti-drug unit asked the crew to let them aboard.
The crew panicked, cutting the electrical lines of the on-board crane so that the bags of sugar would have to be unloaded one by one, according to an account from the Panamanian security minister. After Panamanian anti-drug authorities pushed their way aboard past a resistant crew and uncovered containers of arms beneath a layer of sugar, the captain tried to commit suicide, possibly to avoid punishment, an expert later speculated. The captain and other members of the crew were eventually detained. Charges were brought against the three officers aboard, who were later determined to be the only sailors fully briefed on the mission.
Law and disorder
With Panama's favor to the US already done, authorities there may have wanted the courts to tread lightly with the sailors, so as not to inflame tempers in Pyongyang.
The three officers were initially convicted of arms-trafficking charges. A circuit court judge in Colón later struck down the verdict and ordered their release from a Panama City prison.
Roberto Moreno Obando, a prosecutor in the Panamanian organized crime unit who was assigned to the trial, says he filed an appeal shortly after the conviction was overturned, as well as a request to keep the three officers from leaving the country. But by the time the appeals court ruled, the three men had flown home. A year later, the captain and first mate were re-sentenced, in absentia, to 12 years in prison.
“This was not an issue to deal with in a small court in Panama,” says Mr. Obando. “Asylum or the human rights question [of their treatment upon returning to North Korea] was not discussed. They weren’t deported, they just left. They were free men.”
The boat's interdiction created diplomatic difficulties for the Cubans, too, revealing an ongoing barter agreement between Cuba and North Korea, under which their respective militaries would repair arms and swap items – in violation of sanctions, the UN later concluded.
Andrea Berger, deputy director of the Proliferation and Nuclear Policy program at the Royal United Services Institute, says the sugar used to hide the arms was also probably a form of payment for North Korean railway parts dropped off in Cuba by the ship upon docking.
“Meaning, the weapons and related parts had to be paid for,” says Ms. Berger. “There would’ve been something else that had to be negotiated.”
That squared with what a 2014 UN report had earlier concluded about North Korea’s prominence in the global black-market arms trade.
“Since 2009, the Panel has gathered evidence showing that [North Korea] is active in the refurbishment of arms produced in the former Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s,” according to the report. Customers tended to be authoritarian or rogue states, including Eritrea, Uganda, Tanzania, Myanmar, and Iran. North Korea's position in the market was “advantageous” because its prices were lower and its competitors fewer, concluded the eight experts who authored the report.
The UN experts also noted that North Korea sometimes turned to merchant ships, with their veneer of legitimacy, for illegal transactions. In March 2013, Japan seized five aluminum alloy rods from a Singapore-flagged ship, suspecting that they may have had application in nuclear centrifuges. Authorities in China later concluded that the rods had come from North Korea.
But documents recovered from the Chong Chon Gang in the aftermath of the Panama interdiction allowed investigators to peel away the layers of front companies under which Pyongyang's merchant ships were registered. They traced the companies – some corresponding to a single ship – to their operator, Ocean Maritime Management, which oversaw ships from offices based in China, Russia, Singapore, and even Brazil.
To avoid being tracked, investigators found, companies frequently changed their names. So did vessels, which also had the habit of periodically turning off their AIS signal, which is used by international maritime organizations to track ships.
The direct link to North Korea’s government came to light in late 2015, when Chinpo Shipping was fined by Singapore for facilitating payments for the Chong Chon Gang.
A representative of Ocean Maritime Management’s Singapore office told prosecutors that he had been appointed to the branch by the North Korean Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, adding that he “reported directly” to superiors in Pyongyang, according to the 2016 UN report.
“Ocean Maritime Management was a shell company for the North Korean government,” says Sandy Baggett, a prosecutor in that case who is now in private practice. “If a North Korean ship was going to carry freight from Russia to Sweden, or wherever, the person who wanted to ship the goods couldn’t pay North Korea directly, so OMM would instruct them to send the payment to Chinpo,” she says.
Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy
The high seas are a notoriously lawless place, and UN inspections requirements for North Korea-flagged ships may often go unheeded or partially enforced in some countries.
Still, sanctions likely caused North Korea to cut back on relying on its merchant fleet for military smuggling, says Ms. Baggett. “It’s become much, much harder for them to do what they did with the Chong Chon Gang, simply because their ships don’t have as much free access to ports anymore.”Yuri Gagarin: The winner of US-Soviet space race
When Gagarin was flying into space, no one even hoped that the cosmonaut would ever return
On April 12th, 1961 the Soviet Union achieved an incredible accomplishment: the USSR left the USA behind in the most prestigious race of all. Soviet citizen Yuri Gagarin became the first man, who orbited planet Earth in a manned spacecraft and returned home.
The date of April 12th is celebrated as the Cosmonautics Day in Russia. However, very few people know that only tragic events on the Baukonur spaceport in October of 1960 delayed the launching of a manned spaceship till April. Yuri Gagarin was supposed to fly into space in December. The launching of the Vostok spacecraft should have taken place on December 1960, according to the decree issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, dated October 11th, 1960, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper wrote.
A horrible accident occurred on the Baikonur launching pad about two weeks after the Soviet government issued the above-mentioned decree. A space rocket exploded during the launching: the powerful explosion burnt 268 people alive, including Soviet Marshall Nedelin.
Yuri Gagarin's heroic deed still evokes great respect all across the globe, even when US shuttle return to Earth in the form of fragments. When Gagarin was flying into space, the probability of a successful space launch was estimated at only 50 percent. Soviet specialists conducted six preliminary launches – three rockets blew up as a result of the tests. Sergei Korolyov, the director of the Soviet space program, set the date of the seventh launch with man on board the spaceship on April 12th, 1961. The USA was working on the launch of its own – it was slated for May 2nd the same year.
There were other variants of the Soviet space project: it was particularly suggested that Yuri Gagarin, the father of two daughters, should be replaced by Gherman Titov, who had no children, the Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote.
When Yuri Gagarin was leaving Earth, no one was sure if he was ever coming back to the planet. The Soviet news agency, Tass, prepared three national messages at once, just to be on the safe side. The first message was about the successful completion of the first manned space flight in history (which was eventually announced for the whole world later). The second message said that the spaceship did not enter the orbit, whereas the third message established the fact of death of the Soviet cosmonaut.
The accident risk was rather high for the Soviet spaceship. The Vostok's orbit was situated very close to the upper layer of the Earth atmosphere. If the engines of the spacecraft had stopped operating, it would have landed on the planet because of the “friction” against the atmosphere. In this case, however, the spacecraft would be flying for about a week and there would be no guarantee that the cosmonaut would survive the emergent landing. The food and air stock on board the spacecraft was enough for ten days, though.
The probability of a psychological breakdown was high too. Gagarin was not allowed to turn the radio transmitter off: the cosmonaut was talking to the Mission Control throughout 108 minutes of his flight. When Gagarin returned to planet Earth, he became the national hero of the USSR and a globally recognized person.
It is worth mentioning that Russia is taking great efforts in projects connected with the International Space Station as well. American astronauts say that Russia saves the ISS when it launches Progress and Soyuz rockets. US astronaut Michael Fincke said that he never forgets to give Russia credit during his lectures for American students.
Pravda.RuMicrosoft took matters in its own hands regarding a major cybersecurity issue. The company, with the blessing of federal officials, seized control of servers at two rogue hosting companies.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- If you thought "The Sopranos" was the quintessential modern-day mob drama, you haven't yet heard what Microsoft did on Friday.
Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) employees, escorted by U.S. Marshals, raided two Web hosting companies on Friday. Microsoft seized command and control servers and hundreds of websites used by the cyber Mafia to steal more than $100 million over the past five years.
The servers, located in Scranton, Pa., and Lombard, Ill., were the main tools the organized crime ring used to control a sizable chunk of the 13 million computers infected with a particularly nasty strain of malware. Called "Zeus," the computer bug is primarily used to steal users' bank account information.
Typically, raids against the mob and bank robbers are conducted by the federal government. Though those investigations usually result in arrests, they can take years to complete, and by the time they are acted upon, the bad guys have often already closed up shop and moved on.
Microsoft, by contrast, filed a civil suit against the crime ring on March 19, and the company was issued a warrant to seize the servers on March 23. That four-day turnaround is virtually unprecedented in the fight against cybercrime.
To accomplish that feat, Microsoft employed a clever legal maneuver. The software giant based its petition for the warrant on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, typically used against the Mafia. By using the RICO Act, Microsoft was able to go after anyone associated with the Zeus criminal enterprise.
"With this action, we've disrupted a critical source of money-making for digital fraudsters and cyberthieves, while gaining important information to help identify those responsible and better protect victims," said Richard Boscovich, senior attorney for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, in a statement. "Today is a particularly important strike against cybercrime that we expect will be felt across the criminal underground for a long time to come."
The Zeus malware is typically installed on PCs of unwitting users who click on phishing links or attachments in spam e-mails. Once infected, the Zeus malware installs a keylogger on the user's computer. When a user visits a banking or e-commerce site, cybercriminals can steal that person's credit card or banking information.
The Zeus malware also networks with other infected computers to form what's known as a "botnet." Cyber mob members typically use Zeus botnets to send out hundreds of millions of spam messages each month from infected users' e-mail accounts in hopes that more PCs become infected.
Security experts have described Zeus as the most successful bank robber of all time. Microsoft said there were 3 million computers infected with Zeus in the United States and 10 million others around the world.
In years past, Microsoft had unsuccessfully tried to take down entire Zeus botnets. But that proved difficult, considering the Hydra-like makeup of the botnet. Cutting off one of its many heads doesn't kill it.
This time, Microsoft isn't going for the kill. Rather, the company is hoping to analyze data stored on and sent by the servers to identify the organized cybercriminals and disinfect computers hit by the Zeus bug. It then will try to go after more and more servers, making operating conditions for Zeus botmasters increasingly difficult.
"This is a battle won, but the war is far from over," said Karim Hijazi, CEO of Unveillance, a company that monitors and attempts to commandeer botnets. "Even if it doesn't cure the problem, the awareness that Microsoft has built up from this action will result in a much more expensive domain for the bad guys to work in."
Hijazi said there was a small but noticeable dip in Zeus botnet traffic after Microsoft completed the raids.
The raids were conducted at Web hosting companies BurstNet, located in Scranton, and Continuum Data Centers in Lombard, which is just outside of Chicago.
Neither company knew of the raid in advance. Joe Marr, BurstNet's chief technology officer, said that without knowing specifically what to look for, there was no indication that one of his company's servers was acting as Zeus command and control devices. A spokesman from Continuum did not respond to requests for comment.
Microsoft partnered with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the National Automated Clearing House Association in its raids on Friday.After he reached base five times Saturday night in the Rangers' 10-1 demolition of the Mariners, Choo's on-base percentage for September is.571. He has taken up nearly full-time residence on the basepaths the past four games, reaching safely in 16 of his last 20 plate appearances and batting.800 (12-for-15) during that stretch.
ARLINGTON -- Shin-Soo Choo has been so reliable for the Rangers lately that his on-base percentage is almost 150 points higher than his "not-on-base" percentage this month.
ARLINGTON -- Shin-Soo Choo has been so reliable for the Rangers lately that his on-base percentage is almost 150 points higher than his "not-on-base" percentage this month.
After he reached base five times Saturday night in the Rangers' 10-1 demolition of the Mariners, Choo's on-base percentage for September is.571. He has taken up nearly full-time residence on the basepaths the past four games, reaching safely in 16 of his last 20 plate appearances and batting.800 (12-for-15) during that stretch.
View Full Game Coverage
"He's on fire," manager Jeff Banister said.
Add in Choo's.455 batting average in September -- the best in the Major Leagues -- and it's hard to overstate his impact on the Rangers' overtaking the American League West lead, which they maintained at 2 1/2 games after the second-place Astros came back to defeat the A's, 10-6, on Saturday.
"Just a complete hitter," Banister said of Choo's current at-bats. "He's not chasing, barrel on the baseball that's in the strike zone, seeing the ball exceptionally well, staying back -- all the things that we talk about as being a complete hitter. He is that right now."
It's a stunning turnaround for Choo, whose was hitting.194 with a.298 on-base percentage through his 27th game of the season on May 11. He hadn't improved much by the All-Star break, at.221 with a.305 on-base percentage on July 12.
But since then, Choo has hit.354 with a.469 on-base percentage.
"It's exceptional to watch. It's fun to watch. It's borderline incredible right now," Banister said.Well, Jakarta is flooding again this week in the wake of heavy rains, and this year looks to be a bad one. The city, with its booming population and economy, has been crippled by the floods, which are already higher than the 2007 deluge. The waters have reached the Presidential Palace. Thousands are evacuating. Cars sit abandoned in the impassable roads. Public transit has come to a standstill. Travel through the streets, even on foot, is nearly impossible in much of the capital. Forecasts call for an intensifying monsoon over the next few days, and the situation is bound to worsen. The government has declared a state of emergency through at least January 27.
Flood events in Jakarta are expected to become more frequent in coming years, with a shift from previously slow natural processes with low frequency to a high frequency process resulting in severe socio-economic damage.
Early last year, the World Bank issued an “ urgent flood mitigation report ” about the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta, along with a $189 million flood mitigation plan. The action was precipitated by a series of bad floods that hit every year in the monsoon season, and reached a peak in 2007. That year, rising waters which forced at least 350,000 of the city’s 10 million inhabitants from their homes, killed 70, caused a massive outbreak of disease, and resulted in some $900 million in damage. Such inundations, the World Bank report suggests, are going to become routine events in Asia’s 13th-largest city:
The problem of flooding in Jakarta is hardly a new one. It is a place defined by its relationship to water: 13 rivers flow through the city, and 40 percent of the current settlement lies below sea level. The Dutch, who took control of the area in the early 17th century and ruled for some 300 years, called their colonial outpost in this place Batavia, and proceeded to build an extensive canal system that echoed the one in their native country. Dutch engineers are part of the effort to maintain the canal network to this day, more than 60 years after Indonesian independence.
Today, that network – which the city still relies on to control flooding – is under terrible strain. Rising sea levels and extreme weather are worsening the city’s naturally precarious situation. And Jakarta’s waterways are clogged in many places with garbage and contaminated by the sewage that flows into them unchecked. The World Bank’s plan calls for dredging and rehabilitating 11 floodways and canals, as well as four retention basins. Repair and upgrading of floodgates and related infrastructure are also part of the mitigation effort.
But clogged canals and aging infrastructure aren’t the only factors intensifying Jakarta’s perennial flood crises. The city’s commercial success is, in effect, undermining it.
"The biggest problem is the drinking water is mostly groundwater-based," said Dale Morris, an American economist who works with the Dutch government on water management in the U.S. and is familiar with the nation’s flood mitigation efforts around the world. The rate at which that groundwater is being extracted is causing the city to sink by as much as 10 to 12 centimeters per year. The weight of all those new residential, commercial, and office buildings is also contributing to the subsidence, as is the constant excavation for construction of the wealthy new city. Jakarta is collapsing under the weight of its own success.
This week, one business leader estimated the economic impact of the flooding at perhaps $150,000 per hour. Employees simply can’t get to work, he told the Jakarta Globe:
[Deputy Chairman of the Jakarta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Sarman Simanjorang] declared that the floods could not be tolerated in the capital.
“In this case, we hope the central government will fully support the Jakarta administration in solving [this problem],” Sarman said. “If necessary, the president should establish a united team that coordinates facility and infrastructure development to free Jakarta from flooding.”
This week, as the water keeps rising, the scale of that challenge more apparent than ever.
Top image: Children play in a flooded area in Jakarta. (Enny Nuraheni/Reuters)Jim Joyce, the umpire whose missed call deprived Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game on June 2, is baseball's best umpire nonetheless, according to an exclusive ESPN The Magazine Baseball Confidential poll of 100 major league players.
In general, however, baseball players think the umpires are pretty good. Overall, 29 percent of the players surveyed gave the umpires a "B" grade, with 20 percent giving them a "C" and 16 percent and "A."
Players also were decidedly opposed to replay and overwhelmingly applauded commissioner Bud Selig for not overturning Joyce's call that kept Galarraga from being the 21st pitcher in history to throw a perfect game.
Joyce was named in 53 percent of the surveys, which asked players for the three best and three worst umpires in the game, as well as questions about instant replay and whether Galarraga's perfect game should stand. That beat runner-up Tim McClelland, who ironically was panned for his performance in Game 4 of last year's American League Championship Series. McClelland was named on 34 percent of the ballots.
Joyce, in his 22nd year in the majors, was the clear choice of National League players, with Jim Wolf (18 percent) second. Joyce and McClelland, a 27-year veteran, tied for first among American League players (52 percent) -- both were former AL umpires before baseball combined its umpires into one entity in 1999.
CB Bucknor was named on 42 percent of the ballots as worst umpire, leading that category. The total narrowly edged Joe West, who was named on 40 percent, and Angel Hernandez, who was named on 22 percent.
The survey was taken after Joyce's call, which came on what would have been the final out of a perfect game for Galarraga. Joyce called Cleveland's Jason Donald safe at first on a ground ball hit to first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who threw to Galarraga covering the bag. Replays showed Donald was clearly out.
Joyce apologized nearly immediately for his mistake. Players surveyed said it didn't impact their view of him.
"The sad thing about the Galarraga game is, Jim Joyce is seriously one of the best umpires around," one player said. "He always calls it fair, so players love him. Everyone makes mistakes, and it's terrible that this happened to him."
Bucknor, in his 11th season, was named the worst umpire by both American and National League players, with West and Hernandez second and third in both leagues. West, in his 32nd season, and Hernandez, in his 17th, work on the same crew; West is the crew chief.
West, who made headlines earlier this season when he criticized the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox for taking too long to play games, was named the umpire with the quickest trigger to eject players. He was named on 35 percent of the ballots, followed by Rob Drake (12 percent) and Bill Hohn (9 percent).
The survey also found players lukewarm -- at best -- on replay. Only 22 percent of players favored replays for calls on the bases, and only 36 supported replay on fair/foul calls.
And only 13 percent thought Selig should have given Galarraga a perfect game despite Joyce's botched call. Said one player: "As a pitcher, it was heartbreaking to see that. But the call had to be overturned on the field, not in the front office."Extraordinary results for the Conservatives in Scotland, where the party – under Ruth Davidson’s leadership rather than Theresa May’s – is doing extraordinary well taking 13 seats. Alex Salmond, former Scottish First Minister, has just lost to to a Conservative in Gordon. So has Angus Robertson who is the SNP leader in Westminster. Overall, the expectations are that the SNP will lose 20 of their 59 seats – the unionists had hoped to |
HideInHierarchy flag.
and events were not sent when selecting gameobjects with previews and when adding gameobjects to a scene if they had the flag. (none) - GI: Added A-Trous filter for the Progressive Lightmapper.
(none) - Graphics: Fixed an incorrect rendering on Metal after switching from a scene which called Shader.SetGlobalTexture with cubemap texture.
(927145) - Graphics: Fixed crash in player when using non RGBA32 format 3D textures.
(930666) - Graphics: Report an error instead of crashing when Mesh had invalid positions e.g. NaN.
(932940) - Graphics: Fixed Assert "Invalid mask passed to GetVertexDeclaration() when using post-effect" being triggered e.g. a custom post-effect.
(932065) - Graphics: Fixed camera rendering to a temporary RenderTexture from clearing the stencil bits when it should not i.e. for HDR cameras.
(923977) - Graphics: Fixed a crash when calling Graphics.SetRenderTarget with a RenderBuffer.
(926718) - Graphics: Fixed crash in CameraStackRenderingState::ReleaseResources e.g. searching in Hierarchy window.
(933768) - Graphics: Fixed D3D11 errors in scenes with a Camera having HDR enabled and depth-only clear.
(933203) - Graphics: Fixed #pragma target 4.0, 4.6, 5.0 not working on some Android devices.
(none) - IL2CPP: Fixed calling System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary 2 methods on native objects that implement Windows.Foundation.Collections.IMap 2 interface from managed code and calling Windows.Foundation.Collections.IMap 2 methods on managed objects that implement System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary 2 interface from native code.
2 interface from managed code and calling Windows.Foundation.Collections.IMap 2 interface from native code. (932981) - IL2CPP: Fixed calling Windows.Foundation.Collections.PropertySet methods that derive from IDictionary`2 interface from managed code.
(940906) - IL2CPP: Added an extra check for a method with a body but an empty instruction list to prevent a crash in IL2CPP.
(930414) - IL2CPP: Do not strip System.Reflection types used by Mono.
(938702) - IL2CPP: Prevent a NotSupportedException from occurring when System.Net.WebRequest is used with the.NET 4.6 profile on iOS.
(935563) - IL2CPP: Avoid stack overflow from occurring in Unity liveness logic.
(941950) - iOS: Fixed a crash when Low Memory was signalled very early.
(936504, 933588) - iOS: Fixed the underlying behaviour of the iOS player in order to make the Unity window to be the key window after an orientation change. This was causing problems when, for example, an attempt was made to open an URL when launching FBlogin through the Unity Facebook SDK when in portrait only autorotate state.
(947026, 940902) - iOS: Fixed Metal TextureUsage crash when Metal API Validation was enabled.
(938980) - Fixed an issue where NetworkTransport.SendMulticast caused Unity to crash.
caused Unity to crash. (945175) - OSX: Fix for memory leak in LocalFileSystemOSX::Enumerate when using AssetDatabase.CopyAsset.
(948069, 926730) - OSX: Fixed Metal VSync on OSX 10.13 to follow Quality Settings.
(925709) - Particles: Removed unnecessary sync between main and graphics threads improving performance when more than one camera is rendering.
(938951) - Physics: Fixed an occasional crash due to orphaned 2D physics contacts.
(916584) - Physics: Stop invalid warning being output to console when destroying a CompositeCollider2D component.
(928582, 941997, 795258) - Profiler: Fixed a memory leak when connection switched from player to editor.
(940368) - Scripting: Fixed an infinite compilation caused by being unable to delete files in Library/ScriptAssemblies on Windows.
on Windows. (923633, 944636) - Scripting: Fixed "Unity extensions are not yet initialized" assertions when opening a project on Windows.
(none) - Scripting: Fixed an issue with Unity not using the latest changes made to scripts after recompile in Unity on Windows.
(932039) - Scripting: Fix to avoid boxing of values when invoking UnityEvents if the types of the event and listener matches exactly.
(898636) - Scripting: Fixed an alignment issue for 64-bit integers and doubles on Android and other non-iOS ARMv7 platforms.
(634364) - Scripting: Fixed an internal compiler error due to yield in a lambda statement.
(940280) - Scripting: Fixed use of System.Net.WebRequest in OSX Standalone player.
(942459) - Scripting: Fixed a crash when invalid IL code was encountered.
(918046) - Scripting: Fixed a crash when Ldflda opcode is used and null check was missing.
(912607) - Scripting: Fix debugger error of "Unable to step" when trying to step over dead code blocks
(935726) - Scripting: Raise MarshalDirectiveException rather than aborting when invalid array marshaling directive is encountered.
(935563) - Scripting: Avoid stack overflow from occurring in Unity liveness logic (asset GC).
(940012) - Scripting: Fixed Marshal.StructureToPtr when a field type is a multidimensional array of blittable types.
(931981) - Scripting Upgrade: Report GC pause time correctly in profiler.
(935845) - Scripting Upgrade: Avoid allocating GC memory when calling List.Sort with Comparer`1.
(944305) - Scripting Upgrade: Fix "About" window not displaying correctly when using latest scripting runtime.
(941204) - Scripting Upgrade: Fixed a crash when using managed debugger on OSX.
(941391) - Scripting Upgrade: Fixed a crash when constructing delegate on null reference with virtual method target.
(926881) - Scripting Upgrade: Fixed a crash when inspecting values in managed debugger.
(944152) - Scripting Upgrade: Fixed a hang when closing Editor.
(921175) - Scripting Upgrade: Fixed a hang when closing Editor after opening bug reporter.
(933557, 931791) - Shaders: Addressed an internal issue that was causing the same shader to be built different as part of an AssetBundle on each successive build run. This only affected certain shaders and only occurred in macOS.
(918041, 914981) - UWP: Fixed web request not being sent.
(948876, 920816) - Video: (1) is added to VideoPlayer name when added with drag-and-drop.
(948877, 856784) - Video: Transcoding issues with uncompressed RGBA.mov.
(948878, 923258) - Video: Typo in VideoPlayer editor for Audio Source property tooltip fixed.
(944408) - Windows Standalone: Fixed Windows Standalone player failing to load Mono when built to a path with non-ascii characters in it with.NET 4.6 runtime.
Revision: b8e3f2d6c409A Pittsburgh developer plans to reproduce at least part of an East Liberty mural that is slated to be removed by the proposed renovation of a commercial building at 5900 Penn Ave.
The 8,500-square-foot mural,“Lend Me Your Eyes” by Jordan Monahan, covers two sides of the two-story building. It served as Novum Pharmaceutical Research’s headquarters until this spring, when the company moved to Station Square.
“I don’t like destroying art,” said Anthony J. Dolan of Alphabet City Development Co., Downtown.
Monahan could not be reached.
Dolan plans to close on the vacant building within the month. The first floor would include a single retailer, while the second floor would house office space.
Dolan said a retailer has signed a letter-of-intent to locate in the space, but he would not identify the company.
The mural would be a casualty of the renovation because of façade improvements and plans for large windows on the second floor to accommodate business tenants.
A portion of the mural would be reproduced on the building, possibly on a stair tower and perhaps other areas, Dolan said.
“I’m still trying to figure out the logistics,” Dolan said, noting he and the Sprout Fund, which commissioned the mural more than a decade ago, intend to seek help from Carnegie Mellon University to digitally scan and reproduce a portion of the mural.
The Sprout Fund has provided funding for 55 murals across the city over the years.
“It’s really great that (Alphabet City is) not just washing their hands of it, and that they’re thinking over how to maintain it,” Sprout Fund business manager Paul Street said.
The mural “greeted people to East Liberty for many years,” Street said. “Unfortunately, we always knew it would not have a permanent life. Public art is never permanent. As the city progresses and gets bigger and things rise and fall, things like this happen.”
Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine@tribweb.com.
Tom Fontaine is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Tom at 412-320-7847, tfontaine@tribweb.com or via Twitter.Pity poor defense attorneys.
Not only do they tend to work long hours for less pay than many of their colleagues. Their job also can often be worse than thankless.
At the extreme, it can leave them buried under a heap of contempt piled up by an unsympathetic and often half-informed public. Every time they end up defending a client who is accused of some sort of heinous crime, there is no shortage of people who have already made up their minds about the suspect’s guilt.
Hence the common questions which, if not posed directly to defense lawyers, are at least almost always floating around in the public mind: “How could you possibly take his side? Don’t you know what he did? I mean, really, how do you live with yourself?”
The next time Tom, Dick and Harry feel tempted to ask these sorts of questions, they should hold off at least until they’ve had a chance to watch all 10 episodes of Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” documentary. They may not necessarily come away from the experience with a burning conviction that Steven Avery or even his nephew, Brendan Dassey, is innocent of the murder of Teresa Halbach.
But they will have gained a new appreciation for the role defense lawyers play in our justice system. Most of all, they will have seen how an adversarial system like ours falls apart if defense lawyers do not do everything they are legally and ethically allowed to on behalf of their clients — even clients whose guilt seems established beyond the shadow of a doubt before they’ve had a chance to set foot in a courtroom.
Arguably, the most striking moments in “Making a Murderer” were not those suggesting that Manitowoc County officials were out to frame Avery. They were instead those showing the contrast between the legal representation that Dassey received from a public defender and that which Avery got from the two private lawyers he was able to hire using money the state paid as compensation for his wrongful conviction.
The point here is not to besmirch public defenders, many of whom make the best of often deplorable pay and work conditions to provide an invaluable service. Nor is it to add to the much-deserved praise already showered on Avery’s lawyers, Dean Strang and Jerome Buting.
No, the point is to show how having a weak defense serves no one well — not clients, not lawyers and not the general public. The overriding feeling after watching “Making a Murderer” was not one of outrage, but rather of profound dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction because the show makes it apparent we will probably never know what role Dassey played, if any, in Halbach’s death. The defense lawyer’s job was to riddle the prosecution’s case with as many holes as he could. If, following such an assault, the jury still chose to convict, so be it.
At that point, if you still believed the suspect was innocent, you could blame the jurors. You could blame state jury instructions that call for searching “for the truth” rather than “doubt.” You could no doubt blame a million other things.
But at least you could say that someone did the most he could for Dassey within the confines of our justice system. As it was, with the defense’s failing to knock down even the most obviously flimsy evidence against Dassey, you had no way of knowing if there was anything that might have actually stood up to scrutiny. Maybe something beyond his questionable confession could have linked him to the crime. Probably not, but now we are unlikely to ever know.
With Avery, the situation is completely different. Whatever you might think of his guilt or innocence, you can at least feel satisfied that his defense lawyers did their utmost to put his case in the best possible light — even going so far as to concoct a conspiracy theory involving much of the Manitowoc County criminal-justice system.
Above all, the contrast between the ways the Avery and Dassey cases were handled shows the dangerous waters defense attorneys enter when they start listening a little too closely to their critics and give into nagging doubts about whether they really should be defending someone who is “obviously guilty.”
Any time defense lawyers start questioning their roles, they should think back to “Making a Murderer” for a quick reminder of just how fickle public opinion can be. For there’s no doubt that, of the people who are now immovably convinced that Dassey and Avery are innocent, many are the very same ones who would have been happy to see the two hanging from the gallows back in 2007.
Tom, Dick and Harry also should keep in mind that our justice system simply doesn’t work when the defense falls down on the job. That’s the real lesson of “Making a Murderer.”Here in this article, we'll take a look at French social media terms. You can also download the list if you're pressed for time now. When you subscribe to the weekly newsletter, this vocabulary list is just one of the many freebies you'll get.
Sometimes their translation actually comes across as more accurate than the original English term and conveys the real meaning behind a word.
The French language seems to be having a hard time keeping up with all the new English technology-related terms. Thankfully we have the " office québécois de la langue française "(OQFL).
The good
Selfies = Ego-portrait
Ego-portrait---can it be even better? Epic win for Quebeckers!
to unfriend = amiradier
The verb "radier" in French means to ‘strike off / cross-off’. It sounds like "get-off of my list" in French. Very funny, no? (yeah, I don't have a life).
The bad
But sometimes the translation of English terms misses the mark (in my opinion).
OQFL is not the only one trying to come up with a French alternative for English terms, L'académie française is involved too. Unfortunately, the institutes cannot come up with creative ideas every time and often just translate the word directly without undue consideration, often resulting in words that sound a bit weird.
I’m referring to words like gazouillis = tweet or mot-dièse = hash-tag, which do not sound right in French. Indeed, I am not sure if these two words would be considered acceptable by a French native speaker.
The ugly
However, sometimes we have no choice other than to translate some English words. If we do not do it, it can be very awkward. "Pinner", such as (to pin) would be a big no-no. « Pinner » has a sexual meaning in French (pinner = to fxxx). So we have to use the French alternative "épingler".
But enough of this short introduction to the complexities of translating today’s fashionable jargon, let's learn some new French words related to social media.
Note: (CA)= Words used in Canada not in France.
Abonnée Subscriptions abonnement (n.m.) subscription Actualisation de statut Status Update Ajouter Add ajouter à sa liste d’ami(e)s un(e) ami(e) to “friend” ajouter ami ( e ) (fb terms) Add Friend amiradier; désamicaliser; décopiner (CA) unfriend amis en commun Mutual Friends annuaire (n.m.); répertoire (n.m.) directory application mobile (n.f.); appli mobile (n.f.) mobile application; mobile app bloquer Block clavardage (n.m.) (CA) / chatter chatting commentaire Comment compte Facebook Facebook account confidentialité Privacy connecté Connected connexion Log in contenu (n.m.) content (n.) contributeur (n.m.), contributrice (n.f.) contributor copier coller to copy and past créer Create de pointe state of the art Déconnecté Disconnected Déconnexion Log out Demandes d’ajout à la liste d’amis Friend Requests démodé outdated devenir viral go viral disponible available, free, flexible égo-portraits (CA) selfies en temps réel real time (adj.) envoyer un message to send a message Envoyer un Poke à… To Poke épingler ("pinner" has a different meaning in French) pin être connecté to be online être en évolution constante/ permanente to be changing all the time Exprimez-vous (“Express yourself”) (FB) What’s in your mind? faire face à to confront, face up to faire gagner du temps to save time faire parler de soi to get onesself talked about FAQ (n.f.); foire aux questions (n.f.) frequently asked questions; FAQ fermer (une) session to logout fil (n.m.); fil de discussion (n.m.) discussion thread; thread (n) flux d’activités (n.m.) activity stream foodographie food porn fouiner creep gazouillage (n.m.) (CA); tweetage (n.m.) tweeting gazouiller (CA); tweeter tweet 2 gazouillis (CA.); tweet (n.m.) tweet 1 Groupes Groups historique personnel (n.m.) activity log Identification Tag Identifier une photo To tag a picture J'aime Like Je n’aime plus Unlike la chance oppurtunity la compétence en informatique computer literacy la couverture médiatique media coverage la disponibilité flexibility, availability la messagerie computerised mail la page d'accueil homepage la toile / le web the Web la vie privée des personalités private lives of celebrities l'achat en ligne online shopping l'appartenance belonging, being a member of le bloggeur blogger le fichier file le fournisseur d'accès service provider le mel, le mél email le mot de passe password le moteur de recherche search engine le piratage illegal downloading le pirate informatique hacker le réseau network le vecteur d'information vehicle for information l'ère informatique (f) information age les amateurs de bonne cuisine/ foodies foodies les données (f) data les ragots, les potins gossip l'essor growth l'internaute (m) web user, surfer médias sociaux (n.m.) social media Membres Members Mot de passe Password Mot-dièse Hash-tag Mur Wall navigeur, surfer to browse, surf ne plus suivre unfollow Nom d’utilisateur Username Nom du groupe Group Name nouveau (nouvelle) new partager to share Photos de profil Profile Pictures poster quelquechose sur le mur de quelqu’un to post something on somebody’s wall Publier Publish Rechercher des amis Find Friends rechercher la gloire to seek fame rédiger to compose (post) Rédiger un commentaire Add a description réépingler repin répondre au courrier to reply to emails réseau social social network réseautage social (barely use) social networking Retirer de la liste d’amis Unfriend retweet (n.m.); gazouillis partagé (CA) retweet; RT retweeter to retweet reviné revined s’abonner subscribe s'abonner to subscribe Sans filtre (instagram) NoFilter sauvegarder to save se connecter to login s'identifier to login Signaler/bloquer Report/Block simplifier la vie to make life easier s'inscrire to sign up, to register Suggérer des amis Suggest friends suivre le mouvement to jump on the bandwagon suivre to follow Supprimer Remove taguer quelqu’un sur une photo to tag somebody in a photo tenir au courant to keep informed un abonné, une abonnée (for twitter/instagram...) a follower un blog a blog un commentaire a comment un compte account, username un contact a contact un fil d’alimentation en nouvelles RSS an RSS feed un fil de discussion a discussion thread un forum a forum un hashtag a hashtag (keyword for searching, following a conversation or marking a topic) un lecteur a reader un lien permanent a permalink un mot de passe password un news feed, une alimentation en nouvelles (quebec), un flux a news feed un profil profile un réseau social social network un suiveur, une suiveuse (CA) a follower un sujet tendance a trending topic un tableau de bord a dashboard un utilisateur user un(e) abonné(e) a subscriber une communauté community une mise à jour du statut a status update une photo du profil a profile photo utiliser à des fins mercantiles to make use of for a profit Voir les liens d’amitié See Friendship
Want more French vocabulary? Get a copy of my vocabulary e-bookMARSHFIELD, WI (WTAQ) - A Dance Team coach in central Wisconsin has been fired, for using a routine with Robin Thicke's popular "Blurred Lines" in the background.
Lisa Jolin was let go from the Marshfield School District in September, after an edited version of the song was used during a dance routine at the high school's first football game on August 23rd.
That was two nights before Thicke performed the song while Miley Cyrus did a controversial dance at the MTV Video Music Awards.
In a statement, Marshfield Superintendent Peg Geegan said, "Action was taken based on appropriate reasons which followed district protocol."
That doesn't satisfy students and parents who defended Jolin. They said she brought a measure of respectability to the dance team -- which the parents and participants created without much help from the school system.
Kathy Hennick, whose daughter Leah is the team captain, said she didn't see it as egregious because Jolin edited the music. Leah now coaches the team, choosing music and arranging choreography for upcoming routines.
Jolin suspects that phone calls from just a few concerned parents cost her the job. As she put it, "I think if 3 to 5 people called, the district should have backed me up. It was 250 people, then yeah, they had to fire me."
The school district has re-posted the job. There's been no interest so far.Rhode Island is on the brink of enacting legislation that would automatically register all eligible voters when they interact with the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles, making it potentially the ninth state to embrace an idea that could significantly expand the franchise.
The state Senate on Friday approved an automatic voter registration measure unanimously passed by the state House in May. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) is expected to sign the bill.
“Automatic voter registration is one of the innovations Rhode Island can and should institute to engage more of the public with the democratic process. It would make participation easier for first-time voters, and help reduce the incidence of would-be voters being turned away at the polls,” state Sen. Gayle Goldin (D), who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, said in a statement. “True democracy depends on encouraging all citizens to vote, and finding ways to eliminate the roadblocks that prevent them from doing so. Automatic registration will help bring Rhode Island closer to that ideal.”
Oregon was the first state to implement automatic voter registration last year and while it’s too early to assess its impact, there are already signs it leads to more engagement in elections. Separate research has shown simply making a choice the default option increases the likelihood participants will choose it.
Legislation was introduced in 32 states so far in 2017, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Advocates say the idea picked up steam amid an increased focus on elections and efforts to purge voter rolls.It's Monday, March 2nd, the first day of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and I can't help but notice a common refrain: "I'm already tired." N
By most accounts, it hasn't been a terribly brutal day, especially not by convention standards. But the developers, acquaintances, and friends I encounter seem worn down, deflated. Maybe it's pre-dread at the thought of the several-day work slog ahead (plus a weekend of PAX East on top of it, for some), but the weariness seems pervasive. It's like baggage many of these people showed up with at the airport. N
San Francisco's Moscone Center is stuffed with people shuffling between panels, sessions, and meetings. Attendee badges jingle as they walk by. Many of these people haven't seen each other for quite some time, and they're ecstatic to be around each other again after months, or even years, of being spread out across the globe. There's excited waving, a little hollering, and yes, even some hugs. This is a common GDC occurrence, but it too is restrained by a feeling of heaviness. I hear some of it. Some conversation change from "Omigosh it's so good to see you" to "You've been through a lot lately. We all have" and "I hope you're doing alright." N
At a packed, swelteringly hot evening indie game showcase, one press friend makes it especially explicit: "I don't think I want to work in games anymore," he says before a sigh that feels bottomless. "I'm just not feeling it anymore. I'm not sure what I want to do next." N
It's been a tough bunch of months for a lot of people in the gaming community. GamerGate has taken a toll for people on many sides of the thing. So too has vitriol and negativity on social media, countless layoffs, and a general uncertainty about where games are headed—how to be reliably successful on Steam, mobile, and even consoles. There's a lot to be stressed about. There are a lot of reasons to be tired. And I had to admit, that Monday, I was a little tired too. N
But I go to GDC to get a feel for things. I can't know everything about Where Gaming Is At in a single week where I can't hope to talk to each and every one of the more than 25,000 developers filling the Moscone Center. I can, however, get some snapshots. I can see where I'm at, too. N
It's early morning on the second day of GDC, and I'm taking a Lyft from my house to the convention center. The driver, a man who appears to be in his 40s, a widening patch of skin peeking through the remains of his hairline, notices my attendee badge. He asks what it's all about, and I tell him I'm headed to the Game Developers Conference. He replies that he used to play console games a lot— Halo, mostly—but these days he mostly sticks to mobile stuff. He says he likes to use games as a way to bond with his son, and I ask him what they play together. "Lots of Clash of Clans," he says. "And some Minecraft and Crossy Road." The usual suspects, in other words—one of which even had a big budget N It's early morning on the second day of GDC, and I'm taking a Lyft from my house to the convention center. The driver, a man who appears to be in his 40s, a widening patch of skin peeking through the remains of his hairline, notices my attendee badge. He asks what it's all about, and I tell him I'm headed to the Game Developers Conference. He replies that he used to play console games a lot—Halo, mostly—but these days he mostly sticks to mobile stuff. He says he likes to use games as a way to bond with his son, and I ask him what they play together. "Lots ofClash of Clans," he says. "And someMinecraftandCrossy Road." The usual suspects, in other words—one of which even had a big budget Super Bowl commercial
I ask if he's heard of some of Device 6, brilliant story game 80 Days, or even the once fairly popular Ridiculous Fishing. He replies saying that, nope, they don't ring a bell. He mostly gets recommendations by checking out the App Store's top sellers from time-to-time. He rightly observes that it doesn't change much, but he doesn't have time to do a whole bunch of research. N I ask if he's heard of some of our favorite mobile games like ultra-stylish experimentDevice 6, brilliant story game80 Days, or even the once fairly popularRidiculous Fishing. He replies saying that, nope, they don't ring a bell. He mostly gets recommendations by checking out the App Store's top sellers from time-to-time. He rightly observes that it doesn't change much, but he doesn't have time to do a whole bunch of research.
This, I hear from people who make mobile games, is common. It is sometimes nearly impossible to get people's attention, especially on the App Store—even if your game is unique or rock-solid or elegantly simple or blindingly pink. To make matters worse, major players duke it out for prestigious top ten slots like Godzilla tussling with King Kong. They have a way of pushing everyone else aside. N
He continues: "But you know, games have all these… things that force you to stop in them now. Like, if you want to play more you've got to pay or wait hours. Do people get mad about that?" N
"Yeah, kind of a lot," I reply. N
"So why do they keep making games that way?" he asks. N
"Why do you keep playing them?" I reply. N
"Huh," he says after chewing on the question for a moment. "Good point." N
It's night on the second day of GDC. The game is called PSHNGGG. "Like… like the sound a sword makes?" I ask no one in particular. Yes, Past Nathan, like the sound a sword makes. N
It's beautiful in its elegance. I mean that, too: beautiful. It looks like this: N
You and an opponent play as these sort of tetherball sword things, and you spin around hacking, slashing, and riposting—making your sword bigger and smaller at will—to force your opponent to the other side of the level. It's simple. It's brutal. Each time the swords clash—"PSHNGGG!"—sparks fly and anime-inspired lines race in the stark yellow background. I'm not sure if I've felt more satisfying impacts from another game, ever. Each one rings. I can practically feel them in my teeth. N
The game is the result of Snowpiercer, unfortunately. But creativity is often born from constraints. A tight time limit and the claustrophobic insides of a train fit that bill nicely. PSHNGGG is a brilliant example of that, a diamond squeezed from coal. Crafted under pressure, it shines. N The game is the result of Train Jam, a now-annual game-making event that crams a bunch of GDC-bound people on a train for 52 or so hours. During that time, they make games and, well, that's about it. Not all trains are as entertaining as the one fromSnowpiercer, unfortunately. But creativity is often born from constraints. A tight time limit and the claustrophobic insides of a train fit that bill nicely.PSHNGGGis a brilliant example of that, a diamond squeezed from coal. Crafted under pressure, it shines.
Playing at a house where some friends are staying, I get in close on one of the game's developers. My blade is nearly as small as can be while hers swings in wide, almost hypnotizing arcs. We clash. Flashes from the screen light up the dark, crowded living room we're playing in. One, two, three clean hits as I swing my toothpick dagger of a sword around much more quickly than the developer. I taste victory, and I know I earned it. More importantly, I know exactly how I did it. Every mechanic, every technique I figured out, makes near-instant sense. It's a gorgeous game, in so many ways. N
Throughout GDC I'll hear about 60-hour games and games as services and DLC plans and sketchy monetization strategies. I'll play some cool games, too. Nothing, though, will beat this single, perfect moment. People made a game for the sake of making a game, and it was goddamn beautiful. 1 s we were up there last week trying to shop our game around and get some interest, and the saddest part is that we made it premium, a simple single purchase game with 24 levels; but had a hard time finding funding to finish it because publishers were like "It's not free-to-play? Well, we'd be more interested if you could come up with a freemium sales strategy." So much for making a game to just make a fun game. The pressure to monetize is ridiculous, and it's sort of heart-breaking for 3 guys, who spent almost a year working for nothing on a game, to be faced with something that (despite it being actually good and playable) is pretty much DOA in the vast pile of bodies that is the mobile game market. so yeah, i'm kinda' done with games, i don't know what i'm going to do next...in cali there's always a need for firefighters... (T_T) bfishy View discussion >> N Throughout GDC I'll hear about 60-hour games and games as services and DLC plans and sketchy monetization strategies. I'll play some cool games, too. Nothing, though, will beat this single, perfect moment. People made a game for the sake of making a game, and it was goddamn beautiful.
It's the third night of GDC, the annual Wild Rumpus party, a madhouse of deafening noise and neon color. After greeting a number of friends and acquaintances and saying, "WHAT? CAN YOU SAY THAT A LITTLE LOUDER?" about a thousand times, I end up having a conversation with a game developer whose career is doing moderately well, but hasn't quite taken off yet. N
She's worried—not about whether she'll find bigtime success, but rather what'll happen if she reaches that point. "I've seen what happens to women like Anita Sarkeesian," she said. "I don't know if I could handle that." N
She ponders if maybe it would just be better to keep a low profile. I don't really know what to say to that, so I don't say anything. Peppy dance music continues to rock the dark building like an earthquake, but it's a sobering moment. Eventually, we go our separate ways. N
The theme of the Wild Rumpus party is "Everything is going to be OK." There are big glowing signs on stage. It's clearly in reference to what a lot of people have been through over the past year. But, especially, after having that conversation with that developer, I can't help but feel like that declaration and all the associated revelry is premature. Everything is not OK yet. Things are different. What we used to consider "OK" is dead, or maybe it never existed in the first place. N
Can everything ever truly be OK, or at least close to it? I think about it for a moment. Perhaps the signs are meant to be a little ironic, as opposed to sincerely reassuring. Or maybe they're aspirational. Maybe a better sign would've been, "Everything might get better eventually, I hope." I guess we'll see. 2 s This made me think of a quote from Fallen London that I've always found charming in its realist yet still hopeful stance: Blackie62 View discussion >> N Can everything ever truly be OK, or at least close to it? I think about it for a moment. Perhaps the signs are meant to be a little ironic, as opposed to sincerely reassuring. Or maybe they're aspirational. Maybe a better sign would've been, "Everything might get better eventually, I hope." I guess we'll see.
It's the middle of GDC's #1ReasonToBe panel, a tradition that started in 2013 after 2012 saw the hashtags #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe explode on Twitter in response to queries about women's experiences in gaming and game development. The room is pin-drop silent, but its collective muscles are tensed, ready to explode into applause and cheers at any given moment. The women up on stage are saying some damn powerful stuff. N
Legendary game designer Brenda Romero—who's worked on everything from Wizardry to Jagged Alliance to N Legendary game designer Brenda Romero—who's worked on everything fromWizardrytoJagged Allianceto board games that make people want to puke from guilt —stands up. With the aid of a slideshow, she shares a brief story. It's called The Parable of The Mountain Lion.
"That's a mountain lion," she deadpans, pointing to what is, sure enough, a picture of a mountain lion. The audience chuckles. "And that's my house," she says, pointing at the picture's background. N
"I know it's a mountain lion because it has a tracking collar on it. You can go to the Santa Cruz Puma Project and find out where that guy goes. We also have bobcats and raccoons. We have a mountain lion." N
"The odds of me being eaten by the mountain lion are, [in my head], 100 percent," she says. More audience laughter. "But the actual odds are closer to this," she says, pointing to a slide that reads "0.000000001 percent." N
"And that is far too much. Even though the odds are near-impossible, I find that knowing there's a mountain lion on my property affects my behavior. I think about it. I've actually stopped exercising outside, and I have become afraid for my family. Fundamentally, even though the odds are tiny, I have stopped being who I am and enjoying the space I'm in." N
"This has to change, because I don't think the mountain lion's going to kill me, and I don't think he's going away. But the fear has to." N
The final speaker of #1ReasonToBe stands up. Her name |
a $30m budget, it made $80m worldwide. It starred Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent who found herself in the middle of the war against drugs.Getty Images
If you’re the type of person who relies on mysterious-sounding locations of stars to determine your personality and outcome in life, get ready to be shocked.
The field of astrology, which is concerned with horoscopes and the like, felt a major disruption from astronomers, who are concerned with actual stars and planets. The astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium Society found that because of the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth, the alignment of the stars was pushed by about a month.
(More on TIME.com: See if your horoscope will change with the “new” Zodiac model.)
“When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces,” noted Parke Kunkle, a member of the group’s board. Your astrological sign is determined by the position of the sun on the day you were born, so that means everything you thought you knew about your horoscope is wrong.
It turns out that astrology has had issues from its inception. (Aside from the fact that it tries to link personality traits with positions of the stars.) Ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, but wanted only 12, so threw out Ophuchicus, the snake holder. Libra didn’t even enter the picture until the era of Julius Caesar.
(More on TIME.com: See the most surprising pictures of 2010.)
According to the Minnesota Planetarium Society, here is where the real signs of the Zodiac should fall. Get ready for your world to change forever.
Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17. (Yep, this one is new — read all about the Ophiuchus way of life here)
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
(More on NewsFeed: See the counterpoint from American astrologers)This is part of the “Git While You Sit” series, a play on Google’s Testing on the Toilet. It’s intended to fit on a printed page. Currently Chrome doesn’t seem to correctly print columns, but Firefox does.
Sometimes, git does something unexpected while merging or rebasing. It might seem like git misunderstood a rename, but it’s far more likely that git did the “right” thing after all. Here are a couple of examples I’ve seen recently.
First case
When rebasing, conflicts might occur before renames:
o---o---E---F---G (master) \ A---B---RENAME---C (feature *)
When the current branch is feature, and running git rebase master, what happens is that the commits from feature will be cherry-pick ed onto G in order - A, B, RENAME, and C. If a conflict occurs in B, in a file that was later renamed (in RENAME ), conflict resolution will have to happen using the original name. If there was a massive reworking, it might be simpler and more sensible to merge in this case.
Second case
It wasn’t a rename, it was a copy.
--o---E----F [MODIFY]----G (master) \ \ A---B [COPY]---C---D---M (feature *)
In this case, the user thought he renamed dir1/file.xml to dir2/file.xml in B [COPY]. Then, when he merged master into feature, he expected that the modifications in file.xml in F [MODIFY] would, as part of the merge in M, be applied to dir2/file.xml. This would indeed have happened if B had a move operation. However, it doesn’t make sense for git to merge the changes from a copy of a file, so it didn’t.
The fix here was to undo the merge:
$ git reset --hard D
…and then edit the commit:
$ git rebase -i A
…and set B to edit instead of pick. Amend the commit for B so that it doesn’t just create dir2/file.xml, but also deletes dir1/file.xml. If it’s indeed the same file (or has very similar contents), this will be automatically detected as a rename during log and merge operations.On January 1st, 20 states will raise their minimum wages, lifting the pay of over 3.1 million workers throughout the country. New York, meanwhile, will have already raised its minimum wage on December 31st. In nine of these states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington) the increases are routine—the minimum wage in those states is “indexed” for inflation so that each year the minimum is automatically increased to account for rising prices. The increases in the other 11 states, plus DC, are the result of changes to minimum wage laws—either legislation passed by state lawmakers or referenda passed directly by voters at the ballot box. Later in the year, another half-a-million workers in Delaware and Minnesota will also get a raise as legislated increases take effect there.
As the table below shows, the increases range from a 12-cent inflation adjustment in Florida—raising the minimum to $8.05—up to a $1.25 increase in South Dakota that will lift the state floor to $8.50. The smaller inflation-linked increases will lift pay for the roughly 4 to 7 percent of workers with wages at or very close to the minimum. The states instituting larger increases, however, will see a more sizeable portion of the state workforce getting a raise—such as in Minnesota, where the $1.00 increase later in the year is expected to lift pay for nearly a fifth of wage earners in the state.
All told, these increases will provide workers with $1.6 billion in additional wages over the course of the year. This added pay represents a modest, but significant, boost to the spending power of the affected workers, many of whom have children and families to support.
Even in the states where the minimum is simply being adjusted for inflation, the buying power of low-wage workers is being preserved, so they can still afford the same quantity of goods and services year-to-year. Given that consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economy, this automatic adjustment of the minimum wage each year should be a no-brainer. Just as workers across the spectrum need regular pay increases so they can continue to afford their basic needs, businesses need a customer base with growing incomes if they’re going to thrive and expand. And because minimum wage increases overwhelming benefit low- to moderate-income households, they’re an easy way to put more money in the pockets of families that are likely to go out and spend it right away. As the last column of the table shows, the $2.5 billion in added wages generated by next year’s increases will translate into about $1.1 billion in economic growth as those dollars ripple out through the economy.
It’s encouraging that five states—Alaska, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont—and the District of Columbia that have larger increases taking effect next year also enacted indexing that will take effect in future years. As shown in the map below, this will bring the number of states with some form of indexing up to 15. The map also shows that as of the new year, 29 states and the District of Columbia (as well as a number of cities and smaller municipalities) will have minimum wages above the federal minimum of $7.25. At that time, 60 percent of all U.S. workers will be in states with wage floors above the federal.
All this action at the state level speaks to how broadly voters and policymakers throughout the country recognize that the federal minimum is too low. At $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage is worth roughly 23 percent less than it was worth in the late 1960s, and its eroding value has led to more and more workers turning to federal safety net programs because they’re paid too little from work to make ends meet. Given that the country has grown vastly richer and more productive over the past 45 years, there’s no reason why workers in any state should be getting paid less today than their counterparts a generation ago.
The good news is that states aren’t waiting for the federal government to act. This is the first time in history that so many states will be raising their wage floors in the absence of a federal increase, and the first time since 2008—when states were raising their wage floors in anticipation of the last federal increase—that so many states will be above the federal minimum. But many other states still have minimum wages at or below the federal minimum, and states with minimum wages that aren’t indexed will see their wage floors erode in the coming years. We need a national wage floor that ensures a decent level of pay for work regardless of what state one lives in. That’s why Congress should follow the example set by voters and legislators in their home states and raise and index the federal minimum wage—fixing this problem once and for all.
Note: This post has been updated from an earlier version. The previous version incorrectly accounted for state minimum wage increases that took place in 2014. The figures and table have been updated to correctly account for these increases. The earlier post also incorrectly stated that the DC minimum wage will take place on January 1. It will take place on July 1.
Although originally scheduled to take effect on January 1, the Alaska minimum wage increase will not go into effect until February 24th. This should not measurably change the statistics for Alaska listed in the table. Additionally, tens of thousands of workers in the District of Columbia will also get a raise next July when the District minimum wage rises from $9.50 to $10.50. Estimates for DC are not included here because data challenges make identifying affected workers in the District more challenging, although a ballpark estimate would be roughly 100,000 workers.A baby girl entered the world on an interstate in Vandalia, Ohio. Her father helped her mother give birth along the road.A 911 call shows the frantic moments as the operator instructs the father on how to deliver the infant. Watch the video above to hear the 911 call.First responders arrived three minutes after little Hanna Marie entered the world. They helped keep her and her family warm in the frigid temperatures.Vandalia Fire Department Chief Chad Follick told station WDTN, "It was so cold this morning we wanted to make sure that we wanted to make sure we got the baby wrapped up quickly and got to a warm medic unit."Hannah Marie was taken to a local hospital and the whole family is doing fine.Officials say it couldn't have gone any better. Follick said, "It's definitely a great way to start your shift. Of all the things that could've happened at 7:40 this morning, that's one of the ones that you want to see happen so you can go on with your day on a positive note, and they've definitely have done that."CHICAGO (Sept. 20, 2013) – The U.S. Women’s National Team will face New Zealand in a pair of friendly matches on Oct. 27 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco at 3:30 p.m. PT and Oct. 30 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio at 7:30 p.m. ET. Fans can follow both games on ussoccer.com's MatchTracker and on Twitter via @ussoccer_wnt.
The matches will bring the USA and New Zealand together for the first time since the quarterfinal of the 2012 Olympics, a 2-0 U.S. victory in Newcastle, England, on goals from Abby Wambach and Sydney Leroux.
The match at Candlestick Park will mark the first game for the U.S. Women in San Francisco during the team’s 28-year history and first game in the Bay Area since 2007 when the USA defeated Japan 4-1 on July 28 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. The only match the U.S. Women have played in the Bay Area outside of San Jose came on July 4, 1999, a 2-0 semifinal victory against Brazil in the FIFA Women’s World Cup at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto.
The USA last played at Columbus Crew Stadium in 2011, also against Japan, a 2-0 victory in May of that year. The U.S. Women are 4-1-0 all-time at the venue, which has been a fortress for the U.S. MNT during World Cup qualifying. One of the wins for the U.S. Women at Crew Stadium was a 3-0 victory against North Korea during group play at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“New Zealand is a much-improved side over the past few years,” said U.S. head coach Tom Sermanni, who saw quite a bit of the Kiwis during his two stints as head coach of Australia. “Qualifying for World Cups and Olympics have helped them significantly and now they are a very composed and competitive team that plays with a great deal of confidence.”
“On the heels of a fantastic U.S. Men’s National Team ‘Dos a Cero’ victory over Mexico, we are thrilled to welcome the U.S. Women’s National Team back to Crew Stadium,” said Crew President & General Manager Mark McCullers. “Much like the U.S. Men’s National Team, the women are accustomed to a strong home-field advantage at our venue. Along with the greater Columbus community, our organization is privileged to deliver a venue with significant historical ties to the sport of soccer and the success of our National Teams. We look forward to providing another patriotic atmosphere for the U.S. Women against New Zealand.”
Ticket information for the game in San Francisco will be announced next week. Fans can sign-up for early notice regarding tickets by joining U.S. Soccer on Facebook or Twitter.
Tickets for the game in Columbus go on sale to the public Friday, Sept. 27, at 10 a.m. ET through ussoccer.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers throughout Central Ohio (including many Kroger stores), as well as the Crew Stadium ticket office (open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Groups of 20 or more can obtain an order form at ussoccer.com or call 312-528-1290. Ultimate Fan Tickets (special VIP packages that include a premium ticket, a custom-made official U.S. National Team jersey with name and number, VIP access to the field before and after the game, and other unique benefits) are also available exclusively through ussoccer.com.
As a sponsor of U.S. Soccer, Visa is pleased to offer all Visa cardholders access to an advance ticket sale for the Columbus match before the sale to the general public. This advance sale starts Thursday, Sept. 26, at 10 a.m. ET and runs until Friday, Sept. 27, at 8 a.m. ET at ussoccer.com. Visa will be the only payment method accepted through the Visa presale and is the preferred card of U.S. Soccer. Terms and conditions apply.
Next up for the U.S. Women’s National Team is a match against Australia in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday, Oct. 20. The USA’s first game in San Antonio since 1996 will be broadcast on NBC at 12:30 p.m. CT.
Tickets for the game in San Antonio go on sale to the public tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 20) at 10 a.m. CT through ussoccer.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers throughout San Antonio (including many HEB and Walmart locations), as well as the Alamodome ticket office (open Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
Additional Notes:
The U.S. team, which is ranked No. 1 in the latest FIFA Women’s World Rankings, is 10-0-2 in 2013 and has scored 43 goals while allowing eight.
New Zealand is ranked 19th in the world and is a shoe-in to qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup when it hosts the Oceania qualifying competition from Sept. 10-20, 2014.
The USA actually lost its first-ever match against New Zealand by a 1-0 score on Dec. 15, 1987, and have since won nine consecutive games, the closest being a 2-1 victory in Frisco, Texas, on Feb. 11, 2012, in which the USA had to come from behind in freezing temperatures on two very late goals from Alex Morgan.[UPDATE NO.2, March 4, 7:50 P.M.: Santa Ana police have arrested suspect Juan Angel Rivera, 21, of Santa Ana, who will be charged with the murder of Nathan Joe Alfaro.]
[UPDATE NO.1, MARCH 4, 12:50 P.M.: The victim was Nathan Joe Alfaro, 23, of Westminster, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.]
A man was fatally stabbed in the chest last night at the Underground DTSA club in Downtown Santa Ana during the second act of a five band bill headlined by LA punk band Feels.
The incident on 220 E. Third St. occurred during a weekly installment of Top Acid Thursdays, a club night hosted by the DIY Santa Ana nomadic venue created by Chris Gonzalez. The suspect—described as a short, Hispanic man with long hair tied back in a bun—was seen aggressively moshing in the crowd during the show before a fight broke out in the underground club. The stabbing happened just after 10:30 p.m.
Laena Geronimo, vocalist/guitarist for Feels, says the suspect was definitely pissing off the the crowd with his one-man mosh pit while the second band Ghali was playing and was even attacking people on the outskirts of the room away from the band. “Not moshing in a punk way,” Geronimo says. “More like ‘this is my excuse to fuck people up’ kinda style.”
The unidentified victim was described as a bigger guy who tried to control the suspect who Geronimo says appeared to be under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident. Someone even got the suspect to leave briefly, Geronimo says. But then he returned moments later and a fight broke out.
“All of the [sic] sudden it became a dog pile on the stage, it knocked over the mic, the band was still playing, the drummer was still going and it was this crazy dog pile on the stage of people swinging at each other and trying to pull people off each other,” Geronimo says. She found out later that the suspect had a knife tucked in a sheath on his belt. The victim who was stabbed was apparently tangled in the dog pile with the suspect.
Since crazy brawls aren’t all that uncommon at punk shows, it took a while for people to notice that someone had in fact been stabbed. At some point, the suspect escaped the dog pile and walked out of the club. As of now, no arrests have been made
“I didn’t think it was that bad and then I looked at the floor and there was just blood dripping everywhere,” Geronimo says. “Then the paramedics came and were opening this guy’s shirt and putting him on a gurney. It was really brutal. There was blood everywhere, it was really messed up.”
The victim later died at UCI Medical Center in Orange. The coroner has not yet released his name pending notification of next of kin.
Top Acid recently held its one year anniversary at Underground DTSA. The club’s owners were not available for comment at this time. The incident definitely calls the club’s level of security into question, but Geronimo says it’s something that could’ve easily happened anywhere.
“It’s not like it had anything to do with the show, he just seemed like a guy who left his house wanting to hurt someone.”
The band weren’t aware the man stabbed had died until they were contacted by the Weekly. Today, they posted a heartbroken message to fans on their Facebook page.
“Let’s all take something forward from this,” the note concludes. “If your’e at a show and you clock someone sketchy who’s just out to hurt other people- just driven by violence and not music- head straight for the bouncer. Don’t get us wrong, we love mosh pits. Slamming into other people can be the most fun liberating thing in the world, and yeah sometimes people get hurt-but it should NEVER be intentional. If someone falls you pick them up- there’s an unspoken camaraderie in the pit. Fuck anyone who acts otherwise. Fuck this insane violence. We are sick with the understanding that this happened before our eyes.”Story highlights Sebastian Gregerson was charged with possessing a destructive device and receiving explosive materials with a license
The affidavit reveals the FBI began physical surveillance of Gregerson as early as January
Washington (CNN) A 29-year-old Detroit man was arrested by the FBI after allegedly attempting to buy grenades in addition to amassing a large arsenal of weapons, ammunition, tactical gear and training material "unlikely" to be used recreationally, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.
Sebastian Gregerson, also identified by the FBI as Abdurrahman Bin Mikaayl, was arrested on Sunday and charged with unregistered possession of a destructive device and the unlicensed receipt of explosive materials. The charges follow a 16-month investigation by the FBI, which was initiated after a confidential source "alerted the FBI that Gregerson claimed to have in his possession both grenades and bazookas," according to court documents.
The criminal complaint did not allege a motive for attempting to procure illegal explosives, but Gregerson described at one point to the undercover FBI employee "his plans for a full tactical response to law enforcement if they came for him, including the use of grenades," according to court documents.
Gregerson is due back in court for a detention hearing on Thursday. A message left with Gregerson's attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday.
According to the affidavit, Gregerson, over a period of eight months, had purchased 700 rounds of ammunition for an AK-47, tactical gear and clothing, videos used by military and law enforcement for tactical firearms techniques, military-grade splints for medical care, commercial-grade road spikes and other hardware typically used for combat training.
Read MoreIn a previous article, we discussed the nature and origin of money and how Bitcoin fits into this monetary theory; namely, we explored one of the many possible explanations for the origin of Bitcoin value. The theory we explored is the most popular prevailing Bitcoin value theory, which comes from Konrad S. Graf. His theory holds that Bitcoin value does indeed exist; not only does its exchange value exist, he says, but it also had a very real direct use value, which allowed it to become a medium of exchange per the regression theorem. This argument is intended to dispel any claims that Bitcoin value is not “real” because of a lack of use value, which would make it impossible for Bitcoin to become money under the regression theorem
However, there is another prominent thinker in the Austrian-Bitcoin community who argues that Bitcoin can become a money– and is in the process of doing so– without having a direct use value. This thinker is Detlev Schlichter, and he uses the history of paper money to support this argument. In this article, we will explore Schlichter’s argument and determine whether or not it adequately explains the origin of Bitcoin value.
The Origin of Money
The origin of money was not the product of government fiat– although today we do use money that is imposed upon us by government mandate– and it was not a deliberate invention on the part of an individual or a group of individuals. Rather, the origin of money arose spontaneously, from the market, as a result of individuals interacting with each other in order to satisfy their respective self-interests.
Before money arises in a market economy, individuals trading with each other must conduct their business through direct exchange, or barter. This type of exchange requires individuals to trade goods for other goods, rather than trading goods for money. For example, Farmer Brown is a pig farmer and Farmer Jones is a horse farmer. Brown needs horses but only knows how to raise pigs, and Jones needs pigs but only knows how to raise horses. If social capital is present (social capital is the growth and solidifying of social networks that comes from individuals interacting with each other in a non-monetary way. We do not have room for an in depth look at the importance of social capital, unfortunately.), and the two farmers know of each other’s skill in cattle and pork raising, then they can trade with each other and satisfy their needs. Thus, a direct exchange has taken place.
But there is a large problem with direct exchange, however. It is not often that individuals will be able to find someone who is willing to trade, goods-for-goods, with them. The reason for this difficulty is that, without a medium of exchange, the parameters for trade are very specific. If Jones needs pigs but Brown does not need horses, then no trade can take place between the two. This difficulty is known as a lack of a double coincidence of wants. And that lack is why money arises in a market economy.
Money can rise in any given community as long as there is a mutual demand for several objects. Individuals can then use these mutually desired objects to trade indirectly. For example, if corn is mutually demanded in Jones’ community, then Jones can sell horses to Farmer Smith for corn, and then sell the corn to Brown for pigs. Over time, the market will select the most saleable good, in this case it is corn, and it will become the money for that society.
Bitcoin Value Derived from Pre-Existing Money
Schlichter argues that this process does not need to take place in order for Bitcoin value to come forth in the market economy. Since money already exists in our global society, any medium of exchange can become a secondary currency and eventually replace the current money without going through the evolutionary process laid out by the regression theorem. Bitcoin value can come into existence by bootstrapping or “piggybacking” onto the prices of the existing money(s). Essentially, if people want bitcoins, then they can determine the Bitcoin value based on the existing price system. If people willingly pay $100 for 1 bitcoin, then the market value of Bitcoin is $100 per coin. Thus, the Bitcoin value has been established and will begin to fluctuate based on changes in the market.
Schlichter supports his argument for this process by referring to the history of the evolution of paper money. Presently, paper money has no direct use value, and the paper certificates themselves never had any direct, non-monetary, use value. Yet, individuals still readily accept the slips of paper and value them highly as money. Why is this? If, according to the regression theorem, money must have had a direct use value in order to become money, then how can paper money possibly achieve the level of valuation that it currently has? If we apply the regression theorem to paper money– more specifically, the dollar– then we will reach a certain point in American history, August 15, 1971, when President Nixon debased the dollar by completely removing its gold backing. This historic event points to the source of the fiat dollar’s value: its previous connection to gold. Once we reach the point where paper money was connected gold, we can then trace the regression of gold’s purchasing power to the point where it was valued solely as a consumer’s good, satisfying the regression theorem.
As we can see, Schlichter views the progression of money not as the disconnected evolution of individual monetary technologies, but as a long chain of successive events that determined the state of the present day. Paper money did not diverge from gold, but rather continued the evolution of monetary history. Therefore, Bitcoin value, although further removed from gold than fiat currency, did not arise independently of gold. Bitcoin value exists because it does in fact have a historical link to gold, which allows it to satisfy the regression theorem.
This theory is strong, and is a very accurate description of how Bitcoin’s purchasing power has progressed, but it does not satisfy the real question; the theory fails to answer why Bitcoin was ever linked to fiat currency in the first place. What impelled individuals to trade their fiat for Bitcoin? Additionally, the process of Bitcoin bootstrapping to fiat seems to have happened conversely to the process of the evolution of fiat. Paper money was backed by gold, and then that gold backing was removed. Bitcoin, on the other hand, was backed by no pre-existing money and then became backed by fiat. So Schlichter’s explanation of Bitcoin’s historical link to “real” money is not very satisfactory. Bitcoin had to have some use value that would have made it desirable to buy it with fiat currency. But what was it? These two major flaws in Schlichter’s theory make Graf’s argument– which was covered in the previous article– much more satisfactory in terms of determining the origin of the Bitcoin value. And yet, there is one major flaw in Graf’s theory as well, which will be discussed in a later article.
Here is a source for Detlev Schlichter’s theory on the origin of Bitcoin value.Munenori Kawasaki, 35, impending free agent, is thinking about returning once again to play in Japan next season, via report. A number of NPB teams have said to have shown interest in Kawasaki this year, but the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (the team he played for when he was still in Japan), of the Pacific League, will most likely have the higher chance in getting him back this off-season, other than his jersey number 52 (his old number) prepped and ready in case of a comeback, the Hawks are also preparing a 3-year deal worth 1.2 billion Yen (est. 11.650 million USD) just for him.
Kawasaki is currently looking for more playing time, and playing in NPB will give him just that compared to playing in the big leagues. Also, it looks like that Kawasaki is not getting used to the minor league life… especially long bus travels there in the States, leading to his consideration about returning home.
In 5 years at the Major league level, Kawasaki owns a batting line of.237/.320/.289 with 1 HR and 51 RBI in 738 PA (276 G, 633 AB). He played just 14 games with the Chicago Cubs in the regular season, hitting.333/.462/.429 in 26 PA (21 AB), he spent most of his time in the minors during the season. He was on the Cubs roster in the postseason and World Series, but did not make an appearance in any of their games.[Update] TOP is out of the ICU, moves hospitals to continue treatment, netz still idiots
TOP was recovering well last time there was news on his status, with him being declared conscious and stable by a hospital official. Thankfully, the good news continues recently, as TOP is out of the ICU and is well enough to move hospitals for continued treatment.
As he was being transported to the new hospital, he only apologized.
T.O.P's only words after being discharged from the hospital was "I'm sorry."https://t.co/2RzLD1nzRe — mes #TeamPinky (@OH_mes) June 9, 2017
Hopefully the recovery continues to go well and that people stop being dipshits, but I doubt it.
——
Update
Nope, they are still being dipshits, complaining that he’s coming out of the ICU in a wheelchair. I get the whole sick CEO cosplay stuff, but after the police backed down and the briefing by the doctors, this is just being a willful moron.
Seriously, why would the hospital let a patient who has been unconscious for two days walk out? Dude is not even being discharged for home, he’s being transferred to a different hospital. If they don’t put him in a wheelchair for his sake, then they’ll do it just for their own liability if nothing else.
I’m glad for some of these Korean and international netizens, though. Clearly they’ve never had a loved one admitted to the hospital for major surgery or a serious condition.by BRIAN NADIG
The recent budget cuts at Taft High School mean that teachers may not be available for classes that would be half-filled.
"We scheduled really tight," principal Mark Grishaber said at the July 19 meeting of the Taft High School Local School Council. "’AP Music Theory’ can’t run with 15 (students)." In the past that class may have been kept, Grishaber said.
The school lost eight teachers and one clerk through attrition, and except for the hiring of two new teachers, those positions will not be filled due to a projected loss of about $600,000 in the school budget from last year, Grishaber said. Some teachers will be paid extra to teach an additional class because it is less expensive than hiring a full-time teacher, he said.
The typical class at Taft this fall will have about 28 students, according to Grishaber.
The school’s budget is $21,341,507, but about an additional $250,000 may become available if Taft’s enrollment is higher than projected, and those extra funds will be allocated for capital improvements, Grishaber said. The school system is projecting an enrollment of about 3,210, but Taft officials have estimated enrollment of about 3,260.
The school system has cut the per pupil spending for all schools from a year ago, and Taft’s discretionary budget lost about $150,000 because fewer families registered for the federal free and reduced-cost lunch program. Schools are allocated funds for each student who qualifies for the program.
Grishaber said that there may be less incentive for parents to register their child for the program since free lunches are now available to all students and that fewer families in the area may qualify due to the relative affluence of the Far Northwest Side. Students who qualify for the program pay $18 for an AP exam, compared to the standard $90 fee, he said.
Parent LSC member Joe McFeely questioned the need for the school to maintain its director of school climate and culture with teaching positions being left unfilled.
Staff LSC member Mary Kay Cobb said that the director, Kat Hindmand, coordinates security efforts at the school and works with those students who would "fall through the cracks" if she did not give them guidance and support.
"I see it every day," Cobb said. "We have kids with huge, huge issues."
Grishaber said that under Hindmand’s leadership, teachers are being encouraged to resolve issues by talking to the student, and in some instances involving a parent, instead of seeking punishment. "No more are we saying ‘go to the dean,’" Grishaber said.
A student who is sent to the dean’s office will have a negative feeling about that class for the rest of the school year, and problems are more likely to persist, Grishaber said.
"There’s no longer a disconnect" between students and the administration, resulting in a positive atmosphere in the school and fewer disciplinary problems, Grishaber said. "We have no graffiti in he school," he said.
Grishaber said that students today are different from when he was in high school, when he "would have run through a wall" if a coach demanded. He said that getting a promise from student and shaking hands on the agreement can be much more effective than a detention or suspension.
Some LSC members asked Grishaber to provide the council statistics on the number of instances of student misconduct, such as fighting, that are reported each month.On Friday, Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson revealed his latest tattoo — a portrait of Hillary Clinton.
This is not a joke. Well, it is incredibly funny, but it’s not a joke in the sense that it’s an actual tattoo according to artist Jon Mesa of No Idols Tattoo.
"Wanted to get @hillaryclinton a Christmas gift so I got a tattoo of my hero. Thanks for being such a badass and one of the strongest people in the universe," Davidson wrote on his Instagram.
Clinton even commented on the tattoo, writing: "Thanks, @petedavidson. This makes it significantly less awkward that I’ve had a Pete Davidson tattoo for years. But seriously, I’m honored. Merry Christmas my friend."
Hillary Clinton responded to Pete Davidson’s tattoo of her face and I think Pete’s dead now. pic.twitter.com/Bisq3wKMSv — Jillian Sederholm (@JillianSed) December 16, 2017
As of publication, the photo has received more than 38,000 "likes."Longtime enforcer Tie Domi appeared on TSN radio yesterday afternoon, and wouldn't you know it, it was a good day to have opinions on the Leafs. But Domi didn't want to talk about the Leafs; he just really, really wanted to talk about Microsoft.
As Domi insisted multiple times, he wouldn't have come on the air if not for the fact that he's appearing at the grand opening of a Microsoft store in Toronto this week, and his radio appearance had been booked weeks in advance. Hosts Dave Naylor and Dave Feschuk did an admirable job of steering the talk to hockey, but Domi kept bringing it back to Microsoft.
You can listen to the full interview at TSN's site. Above, I've chopped it down to some of the more awkward Microsoft mentions. Matt Harvey would be proud.Winter 2018 Indy cars, bullet trains, supersonic aircraft... The Flash leaves them all in the dust! The Flash Box is stuffed full of exclusives featuring the fastest man alive.
The Flash Vinyl Figurine Designed to accompany the other vinyls from previous editions of World’s Finest: the Collection, this 1/12th scale figure has Flash in a heroic pose!
The Flash Gym Bag This small gym bag is perfect for taking a change of clothes and your love of the Flash with you everywhere you go!
The Flash Winter Hat Even Captain Cold can’t touch you wearing this stylish winter cap!
The Flash Coasters This set of four coasters features classic Flash images and logos. Perfect for keeping a ring off the table.
The Flash Tee You’ll feel like a real speedster in this exclusive T-shirt featuring the Flash in action.
The Flash Pint Glass This pint glass has the Flash in action all around it!
Speed Force Socks The speediest socks in town! Sport these socks featuring Flash’s red and yellow motif and |
from 2009 criticized the government for failing to use its "considerable leverage" and demanding those banks to take a loss as well, which could have made rescuing AIG cheaper for taxpayers.
Greenberg's complaint argues that the rescue of AIG, which wiped out shareholders, was premature. He says that foreign investors, including the Chinese and Singaporean governments, were ready to invest in AIG. They thought that the company was still a good bet. The trial might reveal more about how serious these offers were and whether the firm had a chance to save itself.
Paulson said on Monday that the Chinese did not understand how serious the crisis was at the time, and that they would have insisted on some kind of guarantee from the U.S. government as a condition of any deal.
Even if foreign investors could have been found who didn't insist on federal help, Greenberg would still have a difficult case to make. As Cox noted, it isn't the government's fault that AIG didn't insist on the best deal. Taxpayers aren't necessarily on the hook because the company's leadership negotiated poorly with the government.
Still, this case gives Greenberg a chance to argue that his company was healthier than the public was told, and a chance to put Paulson and the others on the stand.
"He can't spend in his remaining years whatever he would get," Cox said. "It's all about reputation, and the money is nothing."
David Boies, the acclaimed lawyer who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore and is now working for Greenberg, is likely to try to make an example of his remaining witnesses with relentless cross examination. Yet federal officials in the next financial crisis will probably be no more circumspect about bailing out failing firms, said Nicole Gelinas, a scholar at the Manhattan Institute.
"People going into finance and going into government have absorbed that what the government did in 2008 was the correct thing to do," said Gelinas, who worries that the resolution process laid out in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law won't prevent chaotic and potentially even more expensive rescues in the future.
Cox agreed. "They'll do the same thing," he said. "They'll squeeze the damn trigger."
Related reading:Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US business tycoon Donald Trump strongly opposes the wind farm plan
Consent for a wind farm off Aberdeen which is opposed by Donald Trump has been granted by the Scottish government, angering the US tycoon.
The £230m development consists of 11 wind turbines.
Mr Trump claims they would spoil the sea views for golfers on his course at Menie.
He responded: "We will put our future plans in Aberdeen on hold, as will many others, until this ridiculous proposal is defeated."
Mr Trump said: "We will be bringing a lawsuit within the allocated period of time to stop what will definitely be the destruction of Aberdeen and Scotland itself.
"This was a purely political decision.
Image caption Donald Trump wants to build a 140-bedroom hotel at Menie
"We will spend whatever monies are necessary to see to it that these huge and unsightly industrial wind turbines are never constructed."
He had previously threatened not to build a hotel at the resort if it went ahead.
Ministers said they were committed to a "successful and sustainable" offshore wind sector.
The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) project is a joint venture by utility company Vattenfall, engineering firm Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (Areg).
The project is aimed at providing enough energy for more than 49,000 homes.
The Scottish government said the centre would allow offshore wind developers and supply chain companies to test "cutting edge" wind technology before its commercial deployment.
'Secures place'
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Offshore renewables represent a huge opportunity for Scotland; an opportunity to build up new industries and to deliver on our ambitious renewable energy and carbon reduction targets.
No amount of bluster from US billionaires such as Donald Trump will hold Scotland back from becoming a cleaner, greener, job-creating nation Dr Sam Gardner, WWF Scotland
"The proposed European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre will give the industry the ability to test and demonstrate new technologies in order to accelerate its growth.
"It secures Aberdeen's place as the energy capital of Europe."
He added: "The EOWDC is the first offshore wind farm to pass through the new approvals process for offshore wind development and as such is a test case for the industry. The diligence and expertise of officials in Marine Scotland, among the statutory consultees and other interests should give confidence to the offshore wind industry and its supply chain that planning matters should not be a barrier to investment in Scotland."
EOWDC project spokesman Iain Todd said: "The Scottish government's most welcome approval for the EOWDC is extremely positive news for both Scotland and the UK's offshore wind industry as it helps position Scotland, the UK and Europe at the global vanguard of the sector.
"The project partners will assess the consent and associated conditions as part of the planning and programming for the next phase of the scheme."
Alex Salmond, the MSP for Aberdeenshire East, said: "I welcome this decision.
"The north east of Scotland is a world energy capital and in order to continue to prosper we have to be at the forefront of all forms of energy research - marine renewables, as well as oil and gas."
'Extend its reach'
Dr Sam Gardner, senior climate change policy officer at WWF Scotland, said: "Giving the go-ahead to this offshore wind test centre is the right decision, demonstrating that no amount of bluster from US billionaires such as Donald Trump will hold Scotland back from becoming a cleaner, greener, job-creating nation."
Robert Collier, chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said: "The north east is already established as a global hub for the oil and gas industry.
"The development of the EOWDC will enable the region to extend its reach with regard to offshore wind, further enhancing our renewable energy expertise and drawing upon our strong engineering and technology skills base.
"This is an important development for the region."As Hurricane Matthew swirled over the Caribbean yesterday (Oct. 3), the International Space Station caught a glimpse of the massive storm. The space station flew over the Category 4 hurricane at 4:10 p.m. EDT as the storm made its way north through the Caribbean Sea.
The International Space Station (ISS) spied on the potentially deadly hurricane from a safe orbiting altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers) using the lab's onboard, Earth-viewing cameras. ISS astronauts then tweeted the video shortly afterward. [Watch NASA's video of Hurricane Matthew here: Powerful Hurricane Matthew Seen From Space | Time-Lapse Video]
Cameras on the International Space Station captured this view of Hurricane Matthew yesterday (Oct. 3). (Image: © NASA)
Early this morning (Oct. 4), the storm made its first landfall in western Haiti, bringing winds of up to 145 mph (233 km/h) and a torrential downpour that forecasters said will amount to more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rainfall. Hurricane Matthew's eye is expected to reach Cuba later today, and some forecasts predicted the eye will reach the east coast of the U.S. by Friday.
On Sunday (Oct. 2) at 5:46 a.m. EDT, NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite measured Hurricane Matthew's clouds and rate of rainfall. This 3D image illustrates the heights of the cloud tops as well as the levels of precipitation. (Image: © NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce)
The ISS wasn't the only satellite observing the hurricane from space. NOAA satellite GOES-East has also been keeping an eye on the storm. Because this satellite has a geostationary orbit, it provides continuous imagery of the eastern U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean by constantly hovering over the same region.
NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite offers a less realistic, but much more colorful, view of the storm. The satellite flew over Hurricane Matthew on Sunday (Oct. 2) at 5:46 a.m. EDT and measured the precipitation expected to hit Hispaniola. The satellite estimated a downpour rate of at least 6.4 inches (163 millimeters) per hour and measured cloud tops as tall as 9.9 miles (16 km).
This animation of NOAA's GOES-East satellite imagery from Sunday (Oct. 2) to today, shows Hurricane Matthew moving through the Caribbean Sea and making landfall today over western Haiti. ( View video on YouTube.) (Image: © NASA/NOAA GOES Project)
"Heaviest rain was seen well to the east of Hurricane Matthew's center," Hal Pierce, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. "This area of strong, convective storms has been persistent over the past few days. This area of intense rainfall is due to convergence between the trade winds (prevailing easterlies) and the wind flow from the south with Matthew. This area of heavy rainfall with Matthew may cause devastating torrential rainfall as it moves slowly over Haiti."
Hurricane Matthew, an exceptionally powerful storm, will continue to slowly creep toward Cuba and the Bahamas before likely hitting Florida by the end of the week.
To watch the latest views of Earth from the ISS, check out our live stream of the ISS cameras and use our satellite tracker to monitor the station's location.
Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Transparent electronics (pioneered at Oregon State University) may find one of their newest applications as a next-generation replacement for some uses of non-volatile flash memory, a multi-billion dollar technology nearing its limit of small size and information storage capacity.
Researchers at OSU have confirmed that zinc tin oxide, an inexpensive and environmentally benign compound, could provide a new, transparent technology where computer memory is based on resistance, instead of an electron charge.
This resistive random access memory, or RRAM, is referred to by some researchers as a “memristor.” Products using this approach could become even smaller, faster and cheaper than the silicon transistors that have revolutionized modern electronics — and transparent as well.
Transparent electronics offer potential for innovative products that don’t yet exist, like information displayed on an automobile windshield, or surfing the web on the glass top of a coffee table.
“Flash memory has taken us a long way with its very small size and low price,” said John Conley, a professor in the OSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “But it’s nearing the end of its potential, and memristors are a leading candidate to continue performance improvements.”
Memristors: faster than flash
Memristors have a simple structure, are able to program and erase information rapidly, and consume little power. They accomplish a function similar to transistor-based flash memory, but with a different approach. Whereas traditional flash memory stores information with an electrical charge, RRAM accomplishes this with electrical resistance. Like flash, it can store information as long as it’s needed.
Flash memory computer chips are ubiquitous in almost all modern electronic products, ranging from cell phones and computers to video games and flat panel televisions.
Thin-film transistors that control liquid crystal displays
Some of the best opportunities for these new amorphous oxide semiconductors are not so much for memory chips, but with thin-film, flat panel displays, researchers say. Private industry has already shown considerable interest in using them for the thin-film transistors that control liquid crystal displays, and one compound approaching commercialization is indium gallium zinc oxide.
But indium and gallium are getting increasingly expensive, and zinc tin oxide — also a transparent compound — appears to offer good performance with lower cost materials. The new research also shows that zinc tin oxide can be used not only for thin-film transistors, but also for memristive memory, Conley said, an important factor in its commercial application.
More work is needed to understand the basic physics and electrical properties of the new compounds, researchers said.
This research was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.Jordan Spiz’ike ‘Bordeaux’ – Detailed Images
0.00 / 5 0 VOTES This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. The opinions and information provided on this site are original editorial content of Sneaker News.
It took nearly two decades to get an Air Jordan VII ‘Bordeaux’ retro, but not even a year for the colorway to then be copied over to another model. There’s plenty of the four pairs that led up to the AJVII in the Jordan Spiz’ike ‘Bordeaux’, so the colorway works out with some of Jordan Brand’s love of number patterns. Some have questioned if the tonal grey-based colorway could have been truer to the 1992 original, but you could just as easily argue that the degree of difference for each accent shade serves as both a nod of respect to that impeccable classic and a way for this pair to have a more unique identity despite its similarity to one of the great OG Air Jordans. Check them out in more images after the jump so you can decide for yourself and stick with Sneaker News for the solid US release date. via Air-Randy
Jordan Spiz’ike
Neutral Grey/Varsity Maize-Dark Charcoal-Sapphire Blue-Varsity Red-Black
315371-070
02/2012
$175Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., along with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and seven of their Democratic colleagues in the Senate, have introduced legislation to repeal a tax on so-called “Cadillac” health plans.
Sanders noted that he opposed the provision when it was included in the Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010.
“What was true then is true now,” Sanders said in a statement Thursday. “Imposing an excise tax on health insurance plans would be a disaster for millions of middle class Americans. Some have said that this tax only falls on ‘Cadillac’ health care plans, but the reality is that the plans this bill will tax are more like Chevrolets. Workers have fought hard to negotiate decent healthcare benefits, often in exchange for lower pay. This excise tax unfairly punishes them. The tax not only punishes hard working Americans, it is simply bad policy. We should make sure that all Americans receive affordable, high quality health care.”
The Affordable Care Act imposes a 40 percent non-deductible excise tax on health plans with values exceeding $10,200 in coverage for individuals and $27,500 for families. The provision is indexed to inflation and will rise automatically over time, with the potential to eventually affect all employer-sponsored plans.
The bill would strike the excise tax while demanding that repeal be paid for. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this provision would generate $87 billion over 10 years. Sanders contends the revenue should instead be raised through a surtax on the wealthiest people in this country, a provision that was included in the House version of the ACA. At the time, that provision was estimated to raise $460 billion over 10 years, more than five times the amount raised by the excise tax.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Al Franken, D-Minn., are cosponsors of the legislation.
The Cadillac tax is facing broad opposition on both the right and left. Earlier this month, a Republican and a Democratic senator introduced a bipartisan bill to repeal the Cadillac tax, Senators Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., as a companion bill to one introduced by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., in the House (see Bipartisan Senators Raise Pressure on Obamacare Cadillac Tax). Similar legislation has also been introduced in the House by Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H. A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the share of employers potentially affected by the tax could grow significantly over time—to 30 percent in 2023 and 42 percent in 2028—if their plans remain unchanged and health benefit costs increase at expected rates (see 1 in 4 Employers Could be Subject to ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax).Published: 18:58 EST, 10 March 2017 | Updated: 20:49 EST, 10 March 2017
Sashaying down the catwalk in their billowing patterned dresses and asymmetric coats, the models on the Balenciaga runway were the talk of Paris Fashion Week last weekend.
But it wasn't the eye-catching outfits that were on everybody's lips.
Instead, the audience found themselves staring at the girls themselves: stick-thin, with emaciated limbs, protruding collarbones and a haunted look in their eyes. And sadly, still typical in the world of fashion.
There was something in particular that had shifted the world's focus onto this particular catwalk.
Days before, the luxury fashion house found itself embroiled in allegations of exploitation and cruelty towards the young women who attended a casting call for the show.
Catwalk casting agent and industry veteran James Scully, who has worked with designers Stella McCartney and Tom Ford, fiercely criticised Balenciaga in a shocking post on the photo-sharing social network Instagram in which he accused the label's casting directors of treating girls like cattle at a meat market.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 An investigation by the Daily Mail has found that, accidental or not, abuse is rife in the fashion industry. Pictured above, three models walk in Fashion Week events around the world
'I was very disturbed to hear from a number of girls this morning that... they made more than 150 girls wait in a stairwell, told them they would have to stay over three hours to be seen and not to leave,' he wrote.
'In their usual fashion, they shut the door, went to lunch and turned off the lights to the stairs, leaving every girl with only the lights of their phones to see.
'Not only was this sadistic and cruel, it was dangerous, and left more than a few of the girls I spoke with traumatised... They refuse to be treated like animals.'
Scully accused another fashion house, which he didn't name, of trying to'sneak in' 15-year-old models (the minimum legal age is 16) to its show, adding: 'Too many of these models are under the age of 18 and clearly not equipped to be here.'
His claims sent shockwaves through the modelling world.
Leading figures including the supermodel Helena Christensen and Joan Smalls, one of the world's highest-paid models, lent their support to his campaign to name and shame brands and individuals who mistreat models, many of them vulnerable teenage girls.
British model and Vogue cover girl Edie Campbell, 26, said the purported behaviour at the casting was, sadly, nothing out of the ordinary.
'It's also probably not the most shocking example I've heard,' she said. 'I have witnessed a lot of upsetting things. I've seen girls be told to run laps around the studio.'
'The problem with fashion is that it is a very informal industry. Boundaries are crossed and it allows people to behave in ways that would not ever be accepted in any other 'work' environment. Because the girls are desperate for work then they are easily exploited.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 London-based model Rosalie Nelson, 25, has been modelling for six years and says she's lost count of the times she's faced abuse
'It is also a closed system. If you speak out, you are faced with the threat of never working again. And that is why what James is doing is so brave and should be applauded.'
Balenciaga was quick to distance itself from the allegations. In a statement the French fashion house said it had made 'radical changes' to the casting process and had stopped using the accused agency.
It had sent out written apologies to the models and added: 'Balenciaga condemns this incident and will continue to be committed to ensuring the most respectful working conditions for the models.'
For its part, the casting agency branded Scully's remarks 'inaccurate and libellous', insisting the girls were not locked in and that the darkness was due to a power cut.
But an investigation by the Mail has found that, accidental or not, abuse is rife in the fashion industry.
Leading British models have revealed they regularly suffer degrading and humiliating treatment at the hands of casting directors, agencies and photographers.
While some recount emotional manipulation and bullying, others claim to have endured physical and even sexual abuse at work.
Among the horror stories are the model who was drawn on with a permanent marker to show which parts of her body were 'fat'; the model who was made to run around a studio in stiletto heels until she collapsed; the hopefuls kept in a room for ten hours with no food or water; the models who had their hair hacked off without their consent.
Then there's the appalling story of the model who has permanently lost feeling in her toes after being made to stand all day in shoes that were too small.
And at a time when the fashion industry claims to be turning its back on super-skinny models, several of the women we spoke to confessed they had been ordered to lose weight — including a size 6 model weighing just 7½st who was dropped by her agency for being 'too curvaceous'.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 Casting director James Scully (pictured) accused two casting agents from Balenciaga of 'abusing' models in Paris
The revelations will certainly be eye-opening for the tens of thousands of youngsters (32 per cent of teenage girls in the UK, according to a recent survey) who are desperate to break into modelling.
Forget glitzy parties, jet-set lifestyles and glamorous photoshoots — the reality of this apparently alluring world is, it seems, very different from its glossy exterior.
London-based model Rosalie Nelson, 25, has been modelling for six years and says she's lost count of the times she's faced abuse.
'I've had chunks of my hair cut off without being asked if it would be OK,' she explains. 'I've been stabbed with needles and pins; my skin has been cut and pulled by clips.
'I've been to castings in London where there are hundreds of models and only a handful of chairs provided. Sometimes there will be a water dispenser or vending machine, but often there is nothing.
'I've been on shoots for up to ten hours where no food is provided. The underlying message is always that you shouldn't eat.'
One of her worst experiences came in 2014 at a major UK modelling agency — which she won't name — where Rosalie, a size 8, was told to lose weight if she wanted work.
'I did exactly that and lost over ten kilograms and two inches off my hips,' she says. 'When I returned to see this agency, they said I was making progress but they wanted me to "get down to the bone".
'I couldn't imagine becoming any thinner. I felt physically and emotionally drained.
'If I had been younger and more naïve, I might have pushed myself too far and caused more harm.'
Thankfully, Rosalie had the strength to walk away — and left not only the agency but high-fashion modelling for good.
Charli Howard, also 25 and from London, who has modelled for Harper's Bazaar and renowned photographer Rankin, has had similarly horrendous experiences.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 Rosalie said that one of her worst experiences came in 2014 at a major UK modelling agency — which she won't name — where she, then a size 8, was told to lose weight if she wanted work
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 Rosalie had the strength to walk away after being told to lose weight — and left not only the agency but high-fashion modelling for good. Rosalie said that many models fear speaking out because of the industry they're in
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 Rosalie warned that models need to'have thick skin and a strong heart and mind' to work in today's industry
'Nothing fazes me any more,' she explains. 'I've heard it all: inappropriate behaviour from men, horrible comments towards them on set, girls being told to lose weight when they are clearly anorexic.
'You become almost blasé — as though that behaviour is just 'part of the job'. But humiliation, bullying and degradation are not part of the job. Some people know they can get away with cruelty, because girls' hopes and dreams rest on their shoulders.'
In 2015, Charli — then between a 6 and 8 dress size — hit the headlines when she wrote an open letter to her former agency, accusing them of dumping her for being 'too big'.
'I refuse to feel ashamed and upset on a daily basis for not meeting your ridiculous, unobtainable beauty standards,' she declared.
'I am a human. I cannot miraculously shave my hip bones down just to fit into a sample piece of clothing or to meet "agency standards".
'I have fought nature for a long time — existing on nothing but energy bars and hot drinks — because you've deemed my body shape too "curvaceous".'
Charli, now signed to Muse Models in New York and a healthy size 10, says she has found an agency which supports and respects her. Others have not been so lucky.
In 2015, Ingrid Marsh, a 45-year-old mother from Crawley, West Sussex, spoke out about the horrific treatment to which she claims her daughter, 19-year-old Scarlett Gray, now a catwalk model for designers including Gucci, Prada and Valentino, was subjected at a casting.
'I was shocked to receive a phone call from my daughter in a very distressed state,' Ingrid explains. 'Apparently her hips had grown by a couple of centimetres. This happens to 17-year-old girls — it's called puberty.
'She was prodded and pinched in an effort to point out areas where she should lose weight. There is very little fat anywhere on my daughter's body. The area that was being pinched was, in fact, hip bone.'
Size 8 Scarlett, who was already underweight for her 5ft 10in frame, quit Elite, her agency at the time, in despair.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 He said the casting agents, Maida Gregori Boina and Rami Fernandes, were working for Balenciaga (pictured) and traumatized models, who told him about it afterward
Others report equally appalling behaviour. Mature model Amy Harber, 43, says she has had agents 'write on me with permanent marker to indicate where I am "fat" and need to lose weight', as well as having her portfolio thrown in the bin during a casting.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, other UK models claim they have been: Locked in rooms at auditions and castings, on one occasion for three hours; forced to work until they were so exhausted they fainted; and 'fat-shamed' by agents who refused to call them by name.
When one group of models, weak after several hours without food or water, ordered a pizza to the studio where they were auditioning, the casting director called them 'pigs' and sent them home.
Tellingly — and tragically — what unites these girls is their fear of speaking out, above all naming those responsible for such heinous behaviour.
'Models are afraid of speaking out because they worry they will lose work,' says Rosalie Nelson. 'Speaking out against the industry you work in is dangerous.'
Even when models have been cast for that all-important job, however, there's no guarantee the abuse will stop.
Charli Howard says agencies and designers often manipulate models with money.
When she lived in Paris at the start of her career, her agency took 70 per cent of her earnings, leaving her almost destitute and dependent on them for work.
'I was charged hundreds of euros to stay in a models' apartment, in a cramped room with a 15-year-old girl, with no indication of how much that would cost,' she explains. 'Things would be charged to my account with no receipt or explanation.
'When clients were months late paying me for a job, I was charged for the solicitor's letter that had to be sent.
'You'd be surprised how many people use underhand tactics when they can.'
Roswell Ivory, 28, a model based in Milton Keynes, had an even worse experience — this one at the hands of a predatory photographer.
She attended a photoshoot at his London studio in 2011, during which the photographer asked her a series of lewd and increasingly personal questions.
'He walked towards me with the camera repeatedly saying, 'you are vulnerable, you are very vulnerable', until he was right up to me,' Roswell recalls.
'I continued with the shoot as he had not touched me. We moved on to lingerie, where he repeatedly pushed [me] before standing above me with his crotch in my face.
'I got to my feet and dressed... As I walked out of the shoot, feeling numb and shaken, he forced me into a hug.'
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message +12 cully (right with model Hanne Gaby Odiele) said he feels the need to stick up for models
When she asked fellow models if they'd come across the photographer, more than 20 contacted her with chilling stories of his indecent behaviour.
The models reported their experiences to the police and, in 2014, the photographer was jailed for two counts of sexual abuse.
An astonishing 30 per cent of models report being touched inappropriately at work, while 28 per cent say they have been pressured to have sex with someone at work.
In no other industry would behaviour like this — and the behind-the-scenes horror stories — be so commonplace.
So, what do those in charge have to say? Karsten Edwards, managing director of IMM models — the London agency that represents Rosalie Nelson and supports her campaign for better treatment — insists he rarely comes across abuse.
'Unfortunately the nature of this business is that sometimes 500 people turn up where they need one girl, so lots of them are kept waiting. Nobody is forcing them to be there, so they could leave whenever they want.
'We can't check out every job or casting in advance. If we have negative feedback, we discuss it with the individuals involved or we try to avoid working with them again.'
But, he adds: 'Girls do exaggerate. They'll say they've been waiting for three hours when they only turned up an hour ago.
'You get girls moaning when they're earning £6,000 for a job and flying around the world. Lots of people would give their left arm for that.'
'Exaggeration' and'moaning' don't quite seem to cover the cruelty and exploitation models claim they face daily, yet Edwards's views are shared by many in the industry.
'It's tough out there,' he says. 'But you've got to put it in context. A lot of girls are living their dream.'
As for those who still long to break into this world, Rosalie's advice is blunt.
'Being a model, you come across more rejection than I could ever have imagined,' she warns.
'To be prepared for castings, you need to have thick skin and a strong heart and mind.
'You might be asked to change your hair, change the way you speak, asked not to speak, asked to dress differently. You need to be ready to be criticised just for being yourself.'
A cautionary tale indeed for young girls whose dream of being a model is, in reality, something of a nightmare.Francesco, publicly an Android developer at Novoda, is an undercover multi technologist who likes to hack with all kinds of systems and watches too many TV shows. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
Creating an onboarding for your app can get slightly tricky when combining Lottie with a ViewPager. What if we could get rid of all the nuances and just import an animation, drop some configuration settings and enjoy life? In our previous "Whole Lottie Love" blog post, Chris Basha showed us how to leverage Lottie to deliver pixel-perfect animations for onboarding screens with some basic setup and minimal coding. Let’s take the next steps to simplicity.
Introducing Spritz
In order to maximise code reuse and deliver high quality onboarding animations, here at Novoda we developed Spritz, an Android library that lets you effortlessly attach a ViewPager to a LottieAnimationView. Spritz will do the heavy lifting, automatically triggering animations when the user enters a page and transitioning to the next page as they scroll.
How to make a perfect Spritz
So what do you need to create a beautiful animation for your onboarding?
a Lottie animation, containing all the steps for your onboarding pages and transitions in a sequential way
a ViewPager with the appropriate number of pages set
with the appropriate number of pages set a splash of code
Then do some stirring, and that's it. Really, you don't need anything else.
Let us guide you to show you all the steps to prepare the tastiest Spritz ever.
Lottie animation, your prosecco
In order to make a successful Spritz that will make your guests jealous, your animation has to have one "step" for each transition between pages in the ViewPager.
When the transition to a new page has completed, you can optionally start a new "autoplay" step that will be played once the ViewPager has settled on the page.
For instance, if you have 3 pages the structure of your animation will be something like:
The duration of each "autoplay" and "swipe" segment is not mandated, and can differ from page to page. Keep track of the duration of each segment, and make sure they appear sequentially in the After Effects comp.
It’s good practice to avoid still frames on “swipe” segments, as the user will see no reaction as they’re sliding across the screen. Since this segment will usually be animated based on the user swipes, it’s a good idea to use a linear interpolation in “swipe” sections, as it will follow the user’s gesture matching its speed more closely.
An example of how the animation is triggered by swiping through a ViewPager : as soon as the swipe animation completes, the autoplay starts._
Once you have created such a comp in After Effects, you can export it to Lottie as explained in Chris’ blog post.
ViewPager, your glass
Add a ViewPager to your layout, right after your LottieAnimationView. Remember the ViewPager has to be on top of the LottieAnimationView, or touch events will be handled in a weird, unreliable way.
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent"> <com.airbnb.lottie.LottieAnimationView android:id="@+id/animation_view" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_centerInParent="true" app:lottie_autoPlay="false" app:lottie_fileName="my-lottie-animation.json" /> <android.support.v4.view.ViewPager android:id="@+id/viewpager" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" /> </RelativeLayout>
A splash of code
The last step is to tell Spritz what are the steps that we baked in the Lottie animation.
Let's start by retrieving a Spritz builder by setting the target LottieAnimationView :
Spritz.Builder builder = Spritz.with(lottieAnimationView);
Let's then use the builder to set the steps with the appropriate durations of each "autoplay" and "swipe" sub-steps. This is done by calling withSteps() with our comp’s SpritzStep s:
Spritz.Builder builder = Spritz.with(lottieAnimationView).withSteps(spritzStep1, spritzStep2, spritzStep3);
Creating the steps is easy, too. For example, a step that has an autoplay animation of 1 second and a transition animation of half a second would be built in the following way:
new SpritzStep.Builder().withAutoPlayDuration(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS).withSwipeDuration(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).build();
The offsets between one step and another (within the full animation) will be automatically calculated by the library, which means that adding one step in between your pre-existing ones, or changing their order, won't introduce a significative diff in your code outside of the withSteps() method call.
In the end, just call builder.build() to retrieve your configured Spritz instance.
A full Spritz configuration will look somewhat similar to:
spritz = Spritz.with(lottieAnimationView).withSteps( new SpritzStep.Builder().withAutoPlayDuration(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS).withSwipeDuration(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).build(), new SpritzStep.Builder().withAutoPlayDuration(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).withSwipeDuration(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).build(), new SpritzStep.Builder().withAutoPlayDuration(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).build() ).build();
Stirred, not shaken
Once you have created your Spritz configuration object, simply attach the ViewPager in onStart() :
@Override protected void onStart() { super.onStart(); spritz.attachTo(viewPager); spritz.startPendingAnimations(); }
We are also calling spritz.startPendingAnimations() to make sure that any autoplay animation in the currently selected page is animated correctly.
Symmetrically, don't forget to detach your ViewPager from the Spritz instance in onStop() :
@Override protected void onStop() { spritz.detachFrom(viewPager); super.onStop(); }
Congratulations, you just made your first onboarding screen using Lottie and writing (almost) no code!
Get a taste of Spritz
Here's how a simple yet tasty animation looks like in our demo application:
So go ahead, install our demo app, "Taste of Spritz", from the Play Store and try it yourself!
To use the library in your app, simply include the following Gradle dependency:
dependencies { implementation('com.novoda:spritz:1.0.0') |
ia had a.444 slugging percentage and.295 True Average.
If you were anything like me, you were hoping that Pedroia would pick his power back up, but that optimism was cautious. After all, the previous two seasons were marred by injury: thumb soreness and then ligament sprain, a whole bunch of bumps and bruises, wrist inflammation and then finally surgery. Having no frame of reference for "first dorsal compartment release with tenosynovestomy," I'm not sure if any of us knew what to think. If injury helped to limit Pedroia the last two years, then that itself becomes part of the projection, maybe. It would at least be hard to project health, right?
As players ranging from Wil Myers to Derrek Lee can attest, wrist and hand injuries can definitely sap power, but only temporarily. As Nomar Garciaparra can attest, it isn't necessarily temporary. And that matters, because it's hard to see doing something like this without making maximum use of one's hands and wrists (along with every other body part):
Your browser does not support iframes.
Reading the tea leaves, then, we have reasons to doubt and reasons to believe Pedroia's power surge. Is this some evidence that Pedroia's thumb and wrist woes were responsible for a power outage that was temporary? Or, after years of trend lines and background on aging curves to look at, how much do you trust a little extra power after just two months?
A few weeks ago, batted ball velocity made it look like Mike Napoli was due for a bounce back at the plate -- maybe it can also help us sort out if Pedroia is going as well as his.444 slugging mark would indicate. Here are the buckets used when looking at Napoli:
Speed 31-74 mph 75-89 mph 90-99 mph 100+ mph Tracked Balls 2416 4780 4995 3594 Hits 529 1048 1626 2147 Batting Avg.219.219.326.597 Slugging Pct.245.258.483 1.180 Errors (%) 47 (1.9%) 59 (1.2%) 68 (1.4%) 45 (1.3%)
And here's Pedroia so far this season, with MLB percentages also from the Napoli study:
Speed 31-74 mph 75-89 mph 90-99 mph 100+ mph MLB, % of tracked balls 15.3% 30.3% 31.6% 22.8% Pedroia, of 125 (%) 19 (15.2%) 36 (28.8%) 58 (46.4%) 12 (9.6%) Pedroia BA.222.167.446.833 Pedroia SLG.222.167.643 1.755
With the exception of being particularly shift-able or shift-proof, sustaining BABIPs higher or lower than league average are a function of two things: foot speed (beating out infield hits), and hitting the ball hard. Slugging percentage is kind of a different animal, however, although it still relies on those two things. Infield hits don't much help there, and it's rare to leg out a home run - so while foot speed can help a player take an extra base, slugging percentage is probably more a function of hard hits.
Related Articles In June, Baseball Begins Again Sparky Anderson once warned people not to pay attention to anything that happens in MLB until June 1, when the… More»
Dewey Evans was captain consistency If you spend your whole career (minus one year) with a team, put up All-Star numbers for the duration and find a… More»
MLB's Luckiest and Unluckiest Hitters Luck plays a role in baseball more than any other major sport, as a hard hit ball can be hit right to a fielder,… More» These arbitrary buckets make it look like Pedroia struggles to hit an average number of the hardest hit balls, but even with the small numbers, it's remarkable how well he fits MLB averages. If you think of some of the 100+ mph batted balls as being moved into the 90-99 mph bucket, the rest is an exact match. Pedroia's foot speed is far from a liability, and he has had eight infield hits already this year -- and maybe that's enough for us to say that his.307 BABIP overall isn't that lucky.
Where comparing batted ball velocity to league averages made Napoli look particularly unlucky, however, it looks like Pedroia has been spectacularly lucky with respect to the bases he's totaled in the 100+ mph and 90-99 mph buckets. Without testing more players and having a much longer time period to go on, there's no easy way to know whether individual types of players might routinely fare differently as far as batted ball data is concerned -- and yet, it's really hard to come up with a rationale for why.
In terms of hardest-hit balls, then, Pedroia probably has been lucky -- two of Pedroia's 90-99 mph batted balls have turned into home runs, which is about what we should expect, but with 5 of his 12 batted balls tracked at 100+ mph turning into home runs -- he's probably not going to continue to put the ball over the fence at the same rate for the rest of the year. That's the bad news.
The good news: in terms of balls tracked at 75-89 mph, Pedroia appears to have been unlucky, his.167 slugging well below the.258 for MLB. And it's not like he happens to have had a bunch grouped toward the bottom of that velocity range, either; 24 of the 36 batted balls in that bucket were 85 mph or faster. Pedroia has actually been cheated in terms of the more softly-hit balls. It's a big enough difference that if you were to use apply MLB averages for slugging to how Pedroia's batted balls have actually been distributed among the four buckets, you'd get an "expected slugging" of.448 -- actually a bit higher than Pedroia's.444.
In terms of home runs, we shouldn't expect Pedroia to finish the season with over 20 -- if his batted ball velocity profile stays more or less the same, he might finish around 15. If batted ball velocity is any guide, however, Pedroia is back -- and he's bringing the extra base hits with him.
***
Ryan P. Morrison is a co-author of Inside the 'Zona, and a writer at Beyond the Box Score.Following USC's 56-28 victory over Colorado, White was escorted up the Coliseum tunnel by police officers. White was visibly upset, yelling that he wanted to see athletic director Pat Haden and shouting that USC was, "Selling out."
See the video of White in the Coliseum tunnel with police (no audio):
Once White was completely out of the tunnel and out on the driveway leading to Bill Robertson Lane, he started repeatedly yelling, "Fire Haden!" White was also yelling that by the time he was done, "Sark is either going to quit or be fired."
He went on to say that he was going to have everyone he knows calling USC.
After White left, he took to Twitter and continued his tirade.
@ADHadenUSC u are a coward and USC should fire your punk ass — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 19, 2014
I can't believe @ADHadenUSC kicked me out of #thecoli shook my hand then had me escorted out. I'm still at a loss for words!!! — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 19, 2014
I can't believe this???? for the 1st time in my life I'm truly embarrassed to b a #TROJAN I've done Wayy to much to b treated like that???? — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 19, 2014
Last week during USC's near fourth quarter collapse against Arizona, White Tweeted derogatory statements towards head coach Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox.
Yo our defensive coordinator is fuckinh horrible. Who is he — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 12, 2014
I don't give a fawk fire his ass today. Do him like they did lane. Fire his ass before he get on the plane — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 12, 2014
Lame ass prevent defense will do it to u eveytime. Justin Wilcox u stink. Ur play calling is absolutely fucking horrible — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 12, 2014
This is on coaching and coaching only. We are horrible — LenDale White (@THEREAL_LENDALE) October 12, 2014
Despite the public displays of displeasure with the team's performance in Tucson, White was seen on the field at the Colorado game with a valid sideline pass. However, that sideline pass would not grant him access to the Coliseum tunnel or the USC locker room where White was attempting to go.
During the game White seemed to be in much better spirits and he was seen all over the Coliseum taking photos and signing autographs for fans.
He also started the day on what appeared to be good terms with Steve Sarkisian, at least according this Tweet.
But at some point in the evening, the relationship between White and his former school went south.
Even before White made it to the Coliseum tunnel, he was expressing his displeasure at the USC administration. He talked to USCFootball.com beat writer Dan Weber on the field after the conclusion of the game.
"I was 41-2 here... when you win like that you can do what you want," White told Weber.
Trojan running back Buck Allen told Weber that White had been very complimentary of him as a running back, saying he was "smooth" and a combined a bit of both Reggie Bush and LenDale White. But Allen wasn't aware of what White had said last week on Twitter about the coaching staff.
"You know I don't do social media at all," Allen said, "So I don't know about any of that."
See what Trojan fans are saying hereThe injured Nashville Predators mascot poses with the team's ice girls. Photo credit to the Nashville Predators.
The Nashville Predators have a player out of the lineup. He's not going on long-term injured reserve; then again, he doesn't count against their salary cap anyway.
“We’re not sending him down to Milwaukee for conditioning,” said vice president of marketing Danny Shaklan.
Scroll to continue with content Ad
The ‘him’ they refer to is the Predators Day One mascot Gnash. The furry creature – or the guy in the suit – suffered a broken leg during offseason training and has been on the shelf from doing normal mascot duties for 6-8 weeks.
“Believe it or not I pack on a few pounds in the offseason and I try to get down to my playing weight by opening night,” Gnash said through his official spokeswoman, Alexis Witman. “I honestly love my job and watching someone else do it is extremely difficult.”
While the Predators could have easily put another guy in the suit and most casual fans probably wouldn’t have known the difference, the person who plays "Gnash," who refuses to identify himself publicly, nixed the idea, and said he wanted to stick around and help game presentation as much as he could.
So at Predators games, the same guy is still in a suit – albeit now in a wheelchair – rolling to sections, mugging for photo shots with fans and still trying to pump up the crowd at Bridgestone Arena.
The only difference is that he now has help. Other mascots, such as Aubie the tiger from Auburn and Big Red from Western Kentucky, have come in for games.
The person who plays Gnash, who has been in the suit for over 10 years, takes his job very seriously and hosts mascot camps during the summer. Many of the mascots who have flocked to ‘Smashville’ to help are his former pupils.
Added Shaklan, “I mean, Gnash is a part of Smashville. When you take him out, you take a little piece of Smashville out.”
Story continues
As corny as this may sound, it’s actually true.
The person who plays Gnash, essentially has ‘mascoting’ down to a science. It’s his career. Whether it’s flying onto the ice on a four-wheeler or repelling from the ceiling, the guy in the suit shows no fear – and the fans in Nashville love it.
"Gnash is adored by the fan base because he's the identity, the constant of the franchise. Players become heroes and then villains, faces around the arena change, but Gnash is always there. Without Gnash's energy, the game experience off the ice changes dramatically,” former Cell Block 303 member Codey Holland said. "Kids may or may not point out players other than (Shea) Weber or (Pekka) Rinne, but they immediately know who Gnash is."
With the injury, Gnash has been confined to a wheelchair for Predators home games this year. While this could be construed as being done for effect, it’s actually necessary. The human in the suit cannot put weight on his leg while in the costume, so he has to be rolled around. Still, the team has had some fun with it.
“You just make modifications,” Shaklan said. “In musical chairs, it was the first time Gnash has ever won at Bridgestone Arena. He didn’t get up the entire time.”
Fans have also used it as a way to connect with the mascot. Injured ones come up to Gnash and ask him to sign their cast, or people in wheelchairs take photos with him.
“They understand mascots get hurt too,” Shaklan said.
The players on the team have bought in as well. The Predators filmed a hospital visit for Gnash with Shea Weber and Pekka Rinne, and there’s a ‘Rocky’ style training video with forward Mike Fisher, who is out until late November with a ruptured Achilles.
“Well, I am prehistoric and I know the day will come when I might have to retire,” Gnash said through his spokeswoman. “I have always said when the team hoists its 10th Stanley Cup I will start to think about retiring.”
As for a timetable, Gnash seems to hope to get clearance soon from doctors at Vanderbilt University hospital. The belief is he will be back in time for Nashville’s return from its six-game roadtrip on Nov. 11.
Said Gnash, “If he gives me the go ahead you will see everything you expect from me at the games. My ropes are checked and my ATV is gassed up, all I need is (the doctor’s) permission.”VANCOUVER — Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella apologized today for saying on the weekend that he hoped Sweden would beat Canada in Sunday’s Olympic men’s hockey final.
Tortorella had made the remarks following Saturday’s Canucks’ practice at Rogers Arena, noting that it seemed likely that Dan Hamhuis and Roberto Luongo were not going to play for Team Canada in the final.
“I hope Sweden wins because I don't think Hammer is going to play judging from what's happened and I don't think Louie is going to play,” Tortorella, an American, said on Saturday. “So I don't give a (bleep) right now because they're not playing. I just want them back here. I hope Danny (Sedin) scores two goals and (Alex) Edler gets three assists and Sweden wins so they come back feeling good about themselves because it's going to help us. That's all I'm concerned about right now.”
Today, Tortorella opened his post-practice session with the media by issuing an apology to those who were offended by his comments.
“If I have insulted anybody that certainly wasn’t my intention and I think all of you know that,” Tortorella said today. “But I did. It was a careless use of words and I should be more cognizant. I want to clear that up. It’s my privilege to be here and I think I did insult people. That’s the furthest thing from my mind. It’s a great country and … It was a careless use of words. That’s on me, I hope I can clear it up today.”
Tortorella reiterated that he feels privileged to coach in Canada.
“As I said when I was hired here, it is an absolute privilege to coach in Canada and I still feel that,” he said. “I love everything about it. I love the pressure, I love the scrutiny, all the second-guessing, all the stuff that comes with it. I couldn’t be happier.”
Tortorella said he sent a text to one of Team Canada’s coaches apologizing for his remarks.
bziemer@vancouversun.com
Twitter.com/bradziemerIt has been apparent for some time, though many have tried to argue differently, that we are deeply entrenched in a war here at home. This isn’t the war on terror (my sympathies go out to all the victims of last night's Manchester Arena bombing); this war is much more subtle and perhaps even more difficult to combat. This is the war for your mind.
Before we continue, I need to make one thing abundantly clear: ‘Journalism’ in America is dead. More than that, it has been co-opted into a weapon to be used against the American people. U.S. mainstream journalism is patient zero of a zombie outbreak and its trusting readers are the victims on who's brains it feeds. Dramatic? Maybe, but it is important to point out that outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and TV stations CNN, MSNBC and FOX News all have agendas that they push in hopes of guiding the actions of the population. They manufacture consent, outrage, anxieties, and hopes. More and more they dictate truth rather than seek it out.
Mainstream media is such played out terminology that I hesitate to use it in this piece, as I don’t want you, dear reader, to shut down at its utterance. It is a fitting term, but perhaps it would be better if I used a different phrase, perhaps 'corporate media' would be a better description? It is all semantics, but the important thing to note is that in America, you don’t have a choice in your news coverage, only the illusion of choice. This has been repeated so often I don’t wish to spend much more time on it, but I will say this: If you don’t want to believe that major corporations and private billionaires would use their media platforms to control narratives (and in turn the population), that does not mean others are conspiracy theorists, it suggests you are a coward and a fool... but ignorance is bliss, so I wish you well.Since 2015, ASERT has observed and followed a DDoS Botnet named Flusihoc. To date very little has been published about this family, despite numerous anti-virus and intrusion detection signatures created by various vendors. Flusihoc has remained persistent with multiple variants, over 500 unique samples in our malware zoo, and continued development. Flusihoc is a versatile C++ malware capable of a variety of DDoS attacks as directed by a Command and Control server. We have decided to take a look at this malware family due to a recent uptick in observed activity. This post will discuss this family, its features and observed activity over the years.
Possible Chinese Origin
The geolocation of the identified C2 addresses and static attributes of the malware suggest that Flusihoc may be of Chinese origin. Looking at Flusihoc samples, we find debug strings such as:
C:\Users\chengzhen\Desktop\svchost\Release\svchost.pdb
bearing the word Chengzhen which translates to the phrase, “to become true”, in English from Chinese. Additionally, other samples contained debug strings and values which included Chinese characters. Looking at PE resources of samples we find a large portion of samples have Chinese_Simplified language resources. It is important to note these points could be part of the attacker’s intentional effort to mislead researchers.
Command and Control (C2) Communications
Flusihoc communicates with its C2 via HTTP in plain text. An example C2 communication looks like:
The C2 uses a command structure based on numbers; the bot will receive a number and respond appropriately based on the command associated with that number value. The communication strings are separated by "|" characters and terminated with the string "end". ASERT identified the following numbered commands: 1 - Requests the bot to send infected system information; this command will prompt the bot to return information such as, operating system name, CPU details, RAM size and network speed. 22 - Tells the bot to check for attack payloads and send a "null" to the C2 if it has not previously received a payload. If the bot responds with a “null”, the C2 will send a blob of text which the bot will parse out and use for its attack payloads. If the bot already has an attack payload it will send an "end" to the C2. 333 - Gets attack status and will prompt the bot to send a "Busy" or "Idle" message based on if it is actively attacking a target. 4444 - Commands the bot to stop the current attack Additionally, the C2 will send a command in this format to initiate an attack:
<attack command #>|<target>|<port>|<# of threads>|<uri>|<attack type>
…end
DDoS Attack Types
Flusihoc is capable of 9 types of DDoS attacks:
SYN_Flood (1)
UDP_Flood (2)
ICMP_Flood (3)
TCP_Flood (4)
HTTP_Flood (5)
DNS_Flood (6)
CON_Flood (7)
CC_Flood (8)
CC_Flood2 (9)
These attack types are sent by the C2 in string format for the bot to parse and issue attacks based off of. The mechanisms used to conduct these attacks vary by attack type and variant primarily utilizing Winsock2 from the Windows SDK.
Observed Improvements and Changes
Removed then Re-Added Persistence
Early variants of Flusihoc such as this sample available on VirusTotal used a persistence registry entry in 'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'. However, in later samples, this persistence mechanism is not present in a large portion of samples. This may be to evade detection however, it also makes it harder for the bot to restart after a system reboot. In newer samples, we see the Flusihoc authors bring back this persistence mechanism, presumably due to the difficulties maintaining persistence after the run entry was removed.
Encrypted C2 Address
Flusihoc also transitioned from a plaintext C2 to a RC4 encrypted C2 address in later variants. In a sample with a March 2017 compilation date, available on VirusTotal, we can see the C2 address in plaintext:
However, we see an encrypted C2 in a newer sample on VirusTotal with a compilation date in April 2017. In this sample, the C2 looks similar to the March 2017 variant however, instead of a plain text C2, we have an encrypted C2:
The bot then calls a function that employs standard RC4 encryption to decrypt the C2 value with a key. In the case of this sample the RC4 key was "crealloc" which we found within the byte ptr of the RC4 decryption function seen below: The RC4 function is standard and when given the above encrypted C2 value and the key you will get the C2 address of: Main[.]dresou[.]net
Download and Execute Functionality
In the same sample from April 2017, we found new functionality where the bot will download and execute a file using the Windows API functions URLDownloadToFileA, WinExec and ShellExecuteA. If the file ends with "exe" it will download a file from the provided URL and execute it.
If the file name does not end with "exe", it will run it with ShellExecuteA using the "open" operation.
This feature allows the botnet controller to update Flusihoc malware or download additional malicious files remotely.
Campaign activity
C2s Discovered
Using our botnet infiltration system, ASERT has tracked 154 different C2s associated with Flusihoc issuing 24,137 attacks commands since July 2015. 48 C2s are still active as of Sept. 2017. below are the C2s generating the most attack commands:
wm[.]sshtdk[.]com
1211[.]sshtdk[.]com
121[.]sshtdk[.]com
pp[.]sshtdk[.]com
qq[.]sshtdk[.]com
The majority of C2s observed geo-locate to China with most of the attack commands directed towards target URLs within China. A cursory review of the target URLs does not reveal any obvious correlation between targets suggesting this family is likely part of a financially motivated booter service in China.
Observed DDoS Activity
Arbor ATLAS infrastructure collects anonymized DDoS attack data from nearly 400 globally distributed service providers running the Arbor SP/TMS Platform. Leveraging ATLAS, we are able to measure a portion of the botnet's attacks. Since July 2017, we can correlate observed Flusihoc attack commands with 909 subsequent DDoS events reported into ATLAS. The peak attack size was 45.08 Gbps seen on July 6th, 2017. A majority of the DDoS attacks involve TCP SYN over port 80, 1-1023 and 443. These events have an average attack size of 603.24 Mbps usually launching around 14 different attacks per day.
Conclusion
Flusihoc is likely a Chinese DDoS botnet which primarily focuses on targets in China. Analysis suggests this botnet is part of a regional DDoS service based on the variance of targets. This malware family has been around since at least 2015 and has been associated with over 154 C2s. Flusihoc, although not the largest DDoS botnet, would still be capable of causing problems given the fragility and brittleness of so many sites, servers, services, and applications. These DDoS attacks can be mitigated by Arbor solutions like Arbor SP/TMS.
Indicators
Samples:
41f1c2b942fb8c78d9d3b9e339480970ead06241
2ff3eab0892325b936beee70d8625c4e8d50d7c0
6a1863abded29f1151db7f1eebe33298adbcb793
C2s:
Main[.]dresou[.]net
wm[.]sshtdk[.]com
1211[.]sshtdk[.]com
121[.]sshtdk[.]com
pp[.]sshtdk[.]com
qq[.]sshtdk[.]com
Yara Rule:This article was written by Alex Mayyasi, a Priceonomics staff writer
Raffling off a house in San Francisco—a city of skyrocketing rents and homes that sell above the asking price—is a bit like promising a desert dweller a lifetime supply of water.
But the billboards and advertisements around San Francisco are no mirage: someone really is raffling off a “San Francisco dream house.” An organization holding a lottery will pick the winner of an eight-bedroom, three story house on Friday April 29.
Normally it is illegal for anyone other than a local government to hold a lottery. The city of San Francisco does raffle off spaces in affordable housing as they become available—at no cost. But the Dream House Raffle is not run by the city.
Instead the organization raffling off a mansion in San Francisco is—bizarrely—a nonprofit that organizes dance performances, art shows, and film screenings: the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Raffle tickets cost $150.
Yerba Buena is not the only nonprofit raffling off expensive homes. Organizations are raffling off cars and homes by taking advantage of a loophole in California law—a loophole that allows Yerba Buena to raise around $4 million by selling $10 million in raffle tickets. Nonprofits in other states with similar laws have done the same.
The marriage of charity and gambling has raised tens of millions of dollars for nonprofits. Is that a good thing?
An Unintended Consequence
Dream House Raffles in California owe their existence to a legal loophole, and holding one requires a level of legal dexterity that we rarely associate with nonprofits.
When Californians voted to allow nonprofits to hold raffles, the idea was to sanction the type of modest fundraisers that nonprofits regularly hold: raffles where supporters of a local organization try to win small prizes like donated baseball tickets or homemade cookies.
Until 2000, these raffles were actually illegal. Legally, raffles are indistinguishable from lotteries, and as is the case in many states, California banned all lotteries except the state lottery.
(When companies like Coca Cola hold sweepstakes, they get around these restrictions by giving raffle tickets to anyone who asks for one—hence the “no purchase necessary” disclaimers you hear in ads.)
In 2000, Californians voted on and passed an amendment to the state constitution to allow nonprofits to hold raffles. As a Californian deputy district attorney explained at the time, the idea was to avoid the common situation in which police theoretically should “shut down the Boys and Girls club” for holding a small raffle.
To prevent nonprofits from turning into lottery companies, the amendment included some restrictions. In California, nonprofits that organize raffles must be at least a year old, report the financial details to the state, and spend 90% of the raffle proceeds on the organization’s programming. (Professional lotteries typically give away 50% of the raffle proceeds as prizes.)
This last restriction would seem to limit nonprofits to raffling off donated items. Yet the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has held a Dream House Raffle annually for eight years, and no one is donating a house. In 2014, the last year for which data is publicly available, Yerba Buena sold $3.6 million in tickets but spent $5.7 million on running the raffle and giving out prizes.
So how do they do it?
“It’s more of a bookkeeping thing than anything else,” says Brian Yacker, who advises nonprofits as the managing partner of YH Advisors. Nonprofits like Yerba Buena spend 90% of the money from the raffle tickets on their charitable work and use money they’ve raised from other sources to pay for the prizes, advertisements, and other expense. By doing so, they follow the letter of the law.
In an email, Charles Ward, the Chief Development Officer of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, confirmed this. “Raffle expenses are budgeted as a part of our general operating expenses each year,” he writes, “so we are always in compliance with the state's 90/10 rule.”
In other states, no loophole is required. Tennessee law, for example, only requires that 25% of the raffle proceeds go toward charitable causes; in Minnesota, it’s 40%. Massachusetts law just states that a “reasonable” amount of the proceeds should fund the nonprofit’s work.
This year's dream house, which is located in the St. Francis Wood neighborhood of San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Even with the advantage of amenable state law, it’s no mean feat for a nonprofit with a budget of $15 million to hold a $10 million raffle—as in the case of Yerba Buena. That’s where some fancy legal work comes in.
Yerba Buena does not buy a house every year, and it is unlikely that it has ever given away the dream home that it advertises on fliers and billboards. Instead, as SFGate has reported, the organization finds someone who is trying and failing to sell their expensive home. The homeowner signs a contract with Yerba Buena agreeing to potentially sell their house, which would allow the nonprofit to give it to the winner of the contest.
But no one ever takes the dream house—for two reasons. One is that Yerba Buena protects itself by writing into the fine print that contestants can only win the dream house if Yerba Buena sells a minimum number of tickets. (A practice that the Better Business Bureau has criticized.) The other is that the grand prize winner can instead choose a cash prize equal to 50% of the raffle proceeds.
Since taking the dream house comes with a big tax bill, winners always choose the money. SFGate failed to find any winners who moved into the San Francisco dream homes, and this seems to be the case nationwide. “I believe that with most, if not all, [dream house raffles] around the U.S., the winner takes the cash,” says Brian Yacker, a lawyer who works in nonprofit law. “I don’t recall a winner taking the house.”
This is more or less the the formula for raffling homes or expensive cars: optioning the grand prize, advertising it with an asterisk about selling a minimum number of tickets, and ultimately giving out cash rather than the house. “That’s the only way I’ve seen it done,” Yacker says.
No one knows how many nonprofits run big ticket lotteries. Nonprofits have to report to the state when they hold raffles, but multimillion dollar raffles are hidden among the many modest raffles run by churches, high school booster clubs, and other small organizations in each state’s database. The office of the California Attorney General declined to offer any data on the number of dream house raffles.
But these raffles put up numbers approaching that of real lotteries: Yerba Buena sells close to $10 million of lottery tickets each year. A dream house lottery in Illinois awards a $1 million grand prize. Special Olympics Southern California has earned $4.5 million from three dream house raffles.
And these raffles’ size entail the risk that nonprofits’ raffles will come with all the downsides of gambling.
Gambling for a Cause
Although it seems odd for an arts center to run a multimillion dollar gambling operation, it’s no more odd than states outlawing gambling except their own $40 million jackpot lotteries.
Nonprofit raffles like Yerba Buena’s Dream House giveaway fit into an American tradition of turning to gambling to raise money for causes people don’t want to pay for. When the American War of Independence began, the Continental Congress tried (unsuccessfully) to fund it with a $10 million lottery. Due to early Americans’ opposition to taxation, all 13 colonies held lotteries to raise revenue and finance the building of churches, infrastructure, and most Ivy League Universities.
“Playing the lottery,” researcher and consultant Roger Dunstan wrote in a study of gambling, “became a civic responsibility.”
Today, Americans do not regard buying state lottery tickets as being a good citizen. But the justification for state lotteries and the occasional casino remains that it will fund good works. Often they are presented as a way to augment school budgets.
It’s an odd justification—by the same logic, states could monopolize the sale of cigarettes, heroin, or beer to raise money for schools and parks.
The homepage for the Dream House Raffle organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yet the most common objection to state lotteries is that they are a “tax on the poor.” The poorest and least educated Americans buy the majority of lottery tickets, spending 5% of their income on tickets. We expect the government to protect the vulnerable from payday loans and hidden credit card fees. Yet state governments run lotteries that tempt those same people with taglines like “Give your dreams a chance!”
So does Yerba Buena’s raffle depend on the same ugly phenomenon?
According to the center’s Chief Development Officer, Charles Ward, it does not. Ward says they target high-income people—since the raffle tickets cost $150—and look for signs of over-buying.
Based on our unscientific sampling of San Franciscans, we’re skeptical of his claim that “it's pretty well-established in the minds of the public that the raffle is a fundraiser [for Yerba Buena].” Putting up billboards and bus ads that exclaim “Win a dream house!” and that do not highlight the center for the arts feels worrisome, especially since San Franciscans are being priced out of the city.
But $150 is not the right price point for attracting low-income customers like the state lottery, and we did use public documents to corroborate that most raffle participants are high income.
When Californians voted on the amendment that legalized raffles like Yerba Buena’s Dream House Raffle, opponents said that its passage would allow the rise of sham nonprofits that exist to run gambling fundraisers. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, however, is no faux charity. It is an established nonprofit that runs a prominent community space and received $3 million in funding from the city in 2015. And its raffle seems more focused on wealthy patrons than the financially vulnerable.
That said, a lot more fundraising money is being spent on billboards and cash prizes than California law ever intended.
Your Philanthropic Dollar
If you donate a dollar to charity, or buy a box of Girl Scout cookies or a Yerba Buena raffle ticket, how much of that money do you expect to go toward a nonprofit’s cause?
When Californians voted to allow raffles, they expected 90% of the proceeds to go to charity. The fact that legal maneuvering makes it possible to spend most of the money on prizes and running the raffle—60% to 80% in the case of Yerba Buena—violates this expectation.
It’s hard to say whether too little money is going to charity in this case. Attorney generals, journalists, and the public have heaped scorn on professional fundraisers who hire telemarketers to dial for donations while only giving 10% or less of that money to charities.
But in that situation, people feel misled because they thought they were giving a direct donation. Most participants in Yerba Buena’s raffle probably would not be shocked to learn that a good chunk of their $150 raffle ticket goes toward the cost of the $4 million cash prize. And since the cost of raffle tickets is not tax-deductible, taxpayers are not subsidizing these fundraisers.
Most fundraisers have significant costs. When nonprofits hold $100-a-plate fundraisers, at least a quarter of |
liberty. He's fallen for the get-rich-quick scheme of the hucksters in Washington with their snake oil promises of freedom in the homeland (if they can just spy on us enough), equality (if we all sacrifice enough), democracy (you simply get The Man to tell your neighbor how to live), immigration (The Man decides who gets invited to the party), justice (Big Pharma and the DEA choose your medicine and your punishment) and security (torture Muslims and rape and kill their women and children too). This is considered a solid basis for the procurement of liberty?
Most people can't admit they've been had because it's too humiliating and painful, especially if you've lost a limb or a loved one to the war machine. It's too much work to try to extricate one's self from the machine of government now. It reminds me of a woman I once knew who had supported Jim Bakker and his Praise The Lord house of cards. She kept sending in her payments even after he was arrested for fraud! Her reasoning was that if she stopped 'donating,' she wouldn't get her free stay at the PTL Hotel, which I doubt she got anyway and had already more than paid for. They had sold far more 'free stays' than they could accommodate anyway. They must have taken a leaf out of the government Social Security playbook. Just keep paying, cross you fingers and maybe you'll get yours.
The U.S. Government is so far in debt it can never dig itself out even if it wanted to, which it doesn't because 'deficits don't matter.' It has inflated away 95% of the value of its currency by manipulation of the money supply and in so doing has created one fragile economic bubble after another. It has overextended its empire into nearly every corner of the globe and made mortal enemies every step of the way.
Here in metro Detroit, real estate is in the toilet'houses are cheaper than cars. Auto industry jobs are disappearing by the tens of thousands and the evaporation of livelihood goes out in waves in supporting industries. I have lived here all my life and I've never seen so many empty houses; some don't even have 'for sale' signs. Economically we are heading for ground zero without a shot fired, due totally to the'something for nothing' world improvers and the dupes who fell for their song and dance. Anyone half awake is wondering if they can't just 'get theirs and get out' unscathed like in a deal going sour. It doesn't work that way. My Dad always said that if you dance to the music you have to pay the piper, and boy, oh boy, have we racked up a tab!
No piece of paper protects my liberty, just as no piece of paper kept me faithful to my husband or protective of my children. If something greater isn't fueling my living, then what I am is not free nor worthy. That something greater is sadly uncommon in modern America. Government is basically made up of thieving, morally decrepit whores who come in the night to steal, kill and destroy. Like Snow White, humanity, en masse, has been put into a poisonous slumber of dependency on government. Contrary to popular belief in the second coming of the Clintons, there is no princely wake up kiss coming in the 2008 election. There is a kiss coming, but it's more like the one the doomed guy gets from the Godfather. The average politician, as my Dad would say, has the'morals of an alley cat,' and I'm not talking about their sex lives.
Anything valuable is worth fighting for, and freedom is valuable indeed. Without it, there is really nothing else worth having. Freedom won't come to you in the mail like a cheap life insurance policy, and it won't protect you from inside a frame under glass in the halls of Congress or from the sworn statement of politicians no matter what you believe. It won't ride up on a white steed. It is paid for in blood and its cost is dear. Many have died to obtain it. You may have to die trying to retrieve and protect it. This is not an appealing idea, but many people die under the heel of tyranny too.
If liberty is valuable enough for thieves in government to come after, isn't it worth another look, America?This new X-ray image of the center of the Milky Way is dominated by the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A. The black hole and several massive young stars in the chaotic region are creating the surrounding haze of superheated gas that shows up beautifully in X-ray light.
In visible light, the gas and dust would hide the stars from sight, but the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals new details, including mysterious structures called X-ray filaments (identified in the image to the right on either side of Sagittarius A). The filaments may be analogous to solar flares or could be magnetic structures of some sort.
An annotated version of the image above is available, as well as a high-resolution version and a flyby animation.
See Also:
Follow us on Twitter @betsymason and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.The Congressional Cannabis Caucus is a bipartisan registered Congressional Member Organization in the United States Congress, which was formed during the 115th United States Congress in 2017. The caucus was founded by Republicans Dana Rohrabacher and Don Young and Democrats Earl Blumenauer and Jared Polis. The goal of the caucus is to harmonize federal laws that prohibit medical and recreational cannabis use with state laws that permit it.
Background [ edit ]
Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California, coauthored the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, which was passed by the 113th United States Congress in 2014. The amendment prevented the United States Department of Justice from using its funding to challenge states that have approved medical cannabis laws.[1] Meanwhile, Earl Blumenauer, a member of House of Representatives from Oregon in the Democratic Party, supported Oregon Ballot Measure 91 in 2014, legalizing recreational cannabis in Oregon.[2] Rohrabacher endorsed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which legalized recreational cannabis in California in 2016,[3] and acknowledged using medical cannabis to treat his arthritis.[4]
In 2016, Blumenauer and Rohrabacher agreed to form a congressional caucus to streamline cannabis reform legislation at the federal level, considering it a states' rights issue.[5] In February 2017, Rohrabacher and Blumenauer launched the caucus with Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, and Don Young a Republican from Alaska.[6][7][8] The caucus intends to increase medical research into cannabis and change regulations on banking and taxation for cannabis businesses.[9]
In the 116th Congress, Rohrbacher and Polis left Congress and were replaced by Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California, and David Joyce, a Republican from Ohio, as co-chairs.[10][11]
References [ edit ]Retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.
A separate report showed US producer prices climbing in July at the fastest pace in five months, although falling energy prices pointed to muted inflation pressures, Reuters reports.
The gain in retail sales was the largest since February and well above analysts' expectations. Economists polled by Reuters had expected retail sales to rise 0.3pc.
The report bolsters the view that the slowdown in economic growth during the second quarter will prove temporary.
"It's a welcome sign for the economy," said Joe Manimbo, a market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.
It also offers some relief for President Barack Obama, whose November re-election bid has been imperiled by a weak jobs market. Republican challenger Mitt Romney is focusing his campaign on the weak economy that has plagued Mr Obama's presidency.
"The reports suggest that the US economy continues to grow, although at a slow pace," said Vassili Serebriakov, senior currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York. "The numbers moreover reduce the possibility of Fed action at the next meeting."
Job creation in the United States slowed dramatically in the second quarter as consumer spending cooled and economic growth slowed. Job creation accelerated last month although the unemployment rate still rose to 8.3pc.
Pointing to a strong increase in consumer spending during July, the so-called core measure of retail sales - which excludes autos, gasoline and building materials - rose 0.9pc. That was the biggest gain since January.
Strength in consumer spending could help corporations doing business in the United States. Home Depot raised its fiscal-year earnings outlook on Tuesday as tight cost controls helped the world's largest home improvement chain to offset sales weakness and beat Wall Street's profit estimates in the latest quarter.
In July, sales of motor vehicles and parts rose 0.8pc. Receipts at electronics and appliance stores increased 0.9pc. Sales of building materials gained 1.0 percent, while receipts as gasoline stations advanced 0.5pc.
Excluding cars, sales climbed 0.8pc.
Still, dark clouds continue to loom over the economic outlook. The eurozone's debt-ravaged economy shrank in the second quarter after flatlining in the first, a report showed on Tuesday.
US small business sentiment fell for a third straight month in July as owners worried about sales revenue, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. The NFIB index eased to 91.2 last month from 91.4 in June.
Europe's debt crisis appears to be slowing growth around the world, including in China, and has pushed oil prices lower this year.
The producer prices report reflected the drop in oil prices.
While prices rose for light trucks, pharmaceutical drugs and cigarettes, the gain in the overall index was muted by a drop in energy prices.
The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index climbed 0.3pc last month. Analysts polled by Reuters expected the index to increase 0.2pc.
The increase was driven by gains in consumer goods, with light trucks up 1.6pc and pharmaceuticals up 0.9pc.
Higher food costs also fueled the gain in the overall index. US crops have been struck by a drought in parts of the country.
Energy prices, however, fell 0.4pc last month. They were down for a fifth straight month in a trend that has been cooling inflation pressures. Wholesale gasoline prices fell 3.1 percent in July.
While overall inflation has cooled recently, core inflation has held at higher levels. Some policymakers at the Fed worry that further moves to lower borrowing costs could fuel higher inflation, though the central bank has said it was ready to do more to help the economy if needed.
The fall in energy prices is likely to help the economy as lower costs for fuels and other input prices leave companies more money to spend on other things, such as equipment or even hiring.NEW YORK -- Two full games, plus two more innings. A total of 561 pitches. And when it was finally (FINALLY!) over, the worst team in baseball had its 17th win of the season.
The Miami Marlins sure worked hard for this one.
In the longest major league game in more than three years, Adeiny Hechavarria hit an RBI single in the 20th inning and Miami outlasted the New York Mets 2-1 on Saturday, well after Matt Harvey left with lower back tightness following another stingy start.
"It was amazing," winning pitcher Kevin Slowey said. "It was an amazing game."
Steve Cishek retired Daniel Murphy on a fly ball to the left-field warning track for the final out of a game that took 6 hours, 25 minutes. It started 5½ hours before the Belmont Stakes -- about 13 miles away -- and still ended around an hour after winner Palace Malice crossed the finish line.
The last big league game to go as long also involved the Mets, according to STATS. It came when they beat St. Louis 2-1 in 20 innings on April 17, 2010.
It was the longest game by far in the history of Citi Field, which opened in 2009, and it matched the longest in Marlins history -- a 7-6 loss to the Cardinals in 20 innings on April 27, 2003.
"You play 20 innings, you've got to win that game," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said.
Harvey and Miami's prized rookie, Jose Fernandez, hooked up in a pitchers' duel early. And when neither punchless lineup could break a 1-all tie, the only saving grace for both teams was that neither had played since Wednesday and both had fresh arms in the bullpen.
By the 13th inning, the game had been turned over to a pair of starters: Slowey and Shaun Marcum for the Mets. Both were originally scheduled to start Saturday before getting skipped when Friday night's game was rained out.
A scattered crowd of 20,338 had dwindled perhaps into the hundreds by the time the stadium sound system played Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go" not long after the 14th-inning stretch.
Some of the fans who remained chanted "Let's Go Home!" as the Mets came to bat in the 17th. But it took three more innings to decide this one, and it was Miami that came out on top.
"The whole team spirit was up," said Rob Brantly, who caught the entire game and finished with four hits. "We were still having fun in the dugout and still cracking jokes and keeping the energy high.... Still had enough energy to string some hits together and get that run."
Placido Polanco, Brantly and Hechavarria hit consecutive singles with one out in the 20th off Marcum (0-7), who had retired 16 in a row to that point. He gave up five hits in eight stellar innings with seven strikeouts and no walks.
"I definitely wasn't expecting to pitch eight innings," Marcum said. "I wasn't tired. That pitch to Hechavarria was a pretty good pitch. He went down and got it."
Slowey (2-5) was just as tough. He struck out eight and walked none in seven shutout innings before Cishek got three straight outs for his sixth save.
Inept at the plate, the Mets went 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position -- a team record. They stranded 22 on the bases.
After taking all three games from the Mets at home last weekend for their first sweep of the season, the last-place Marlins improved to 7-3 against New York this year. They are 10-41 against everyone else.
"I think moving forward, guys can kind of reach back in their mind and say, that 20-inning game we didn't give up. If we're not going to give up now, we're not giving up," Slowey said.
On his last pitch in the seventh, Harvey said he felt a little tightness in his right hip where it meets his lower back. He singled in the bottom half and seemed to run somewhat gingerly to second base on an inning-ending groundout.
He warmed up for the eighth, but then there was a mass meeting on the mound that included a trainer, manager Terry Collins and the entire Mets infield.
Harvey finally gave up the ball -- reluctantly, it appeared -- and walked to the dugout. Brandon Lyon was given all the time he needed to get loose, then he wriggled out of a jam to keep the score tied.Muhammad Ali prepares to light the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Photo by Michael Cooper/Getty Images
President Obama’s Sunday night Oval Office address about ISIS and the threat of terrorism included a reminder that most Muslims are not jihadists and that many are valued contributors to U.S. society:
It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim-Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose. That kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values plays into the hands of groups like ISIL.
Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes. And, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that.
Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was skeptical about one of those claims in particular.
Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
As many, many people immediately pointed out, Trump appeared to have forgotten that the man who at least at one point was the world’s most famous athlete, Muhammad Ali—who was chosen to essentially represent the entire United States by lighting the Olympic flame the last time the Summer Olympics were held here, in Atlanta in 1996—is Muslim. As are basketball legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon and many other past and present stars.
Muslim athletes—can you imagine?Research suggests phytonutrients, specifically phenolic compounds, within fruit may be responsible for the putatively positive antioxidant benefits derived from fruit. Given the prominence of fruit juice in the American diet, the purpose of this research was to assess the antioxidant density of fresh fruit and 100% fruit juice for five commonly consumed fruits and juices and to compare the adequacy of 100% juice as a dietary equivalent to whole fruit in providing beneficial antioxidants. Antioxidant density was measured using an oxygen radical absorbance capacity method on six samples assayed in triplicate for each fruit (grape, apple, orange, grapefruit, pineapple), name-brand 100% juice, and store-brand 100% juice. One-way analysis of variance and Tukey's honestly significant difference or Student t test were used to assess significance (P<0.05). Antioxidant density (mmol TE/100 g) of apple, orange, and grapefruit was 23% to 54% higher than the mean antioxidant density of name-brand and store-brand juices for each fruit; however, only apple and grapefruit exhibited significantly greater (P<0.05) antioxidant density than either of their name-brand or store-brand juices. In contrast, the mean antioxidant density of name-brand grape and pineapple juice was higher than fresh grape or pineapple fruit; however, both fresh grapes and commercial grape juice contained significantly more (P<0.05) antioxidants than store-brand grape juice. Regardless of the convenience of fruit juice, results support the recommendations of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for increasing fruit servings in the whole fruit form due to their provision of beneficial antioxidants and fiber with approximately 35% less sugar.
Copyright © 2013 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Welcome to the Reptile House
All reptiles are cold-blooded creatures and in winter they hibernate under logs or discarded building material or in burrows in soft earth, where they can keep warm and out of the sight of predators.
On cold days, reptiles are very slow moving and make easy meals for foxes, badgers, buzzards and their many other predators. To warm up their bodies in the morning, reptiles bask in the open: they gain their body heat from the sun rather than from the food they eat. On very hot days most reptiles retreat to damp shady places to avoid overheating.
Species featured on this site:
A bit more about Reptiles
At least once per year, generally in the summer months, reptiles shed their scaly skins, a process known as sloughing (pronounced'sluffing'); in doing so they are not only able to grow bigger but also to get rid of skin parasites. The skin is not the only part of a reptile that gets renewed regularly: they also grow new teeth continuously.
Several kinds of lizards, including the Slow Worm, are able to grow replacement tails if their original tail gets broken off, although the replacement tail is not an accurate replica of the original. When cornered by a predator the lizard can even release its own tail, which snaps at a special weak point and continues wriggling in front of the predator, distracting it and allowing the lizard time to scurry off to safety.
Some reptiles lay eggs, while others(in Britain just the Adder and the Common Lizard) are viviparous, which means they give birth to live offspring.
The jaws of a snake are surrounded by extremely flexible skin and are uniquely able to separate entirely. By temporarily dislocating its jaw, a snake can swallow its food - small mammals, amphibians or birds' eggs, for example - whole, without chewing it.
Reptile conservation and the law
In the UK reptiles are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. It is an offence to intentionally kill, injure, sell or advertise for sale any of Britain's six native species; and, because they are so rare and need extra protection, it is an offence even to possess, handle, capture or disturb smooth snakes and sand lizards. Under certain circumstances a special licence may be granted to allow researchers to study the rarest of British reptiles. The relevant authority for England is Natural England, and for Wales the licensing authority is Natural Resources Wales.
There are also strict laws controlling the import and keeping of exotic reptile species. In particular, anyone who keeps exotic reptiles is prohibited from releasing them into the wild, where they might have a damaging effect on native species. Relevant legislation includes:
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 The Endangered Species Act (Import & Export) 1976
Other Reptile Websites
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK
British Herpetological Society
National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme
Government Agencies active in mammal conservation include:
Natural Resources Wales
Natural England (formerly English Nature)
Scottish Natural Heritage
The Environment Agency
Reference Sources
Matching the Hatch by Pat O'Reilly (2017) - learn all about aquatic insects and other small water creatures that feature in the diet of reptiles.Backbench Conservative MPs are already restless over Britain's membership of the European Union and high petrol taxes.
Now the Prime Minister could face a rebellion over his plans to stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in English shops and supermarkets.
Two thirds of Conservatives MPs voted against the smoking ban in 2006, claiming it encroached on personal freedoms. Conservative critics today claimed Mr Cameron's plans to raise the price of alcohol were another example of a "Big Brother" policy that would penalise moderate, middle-class drinkers.
Christopher Chope, a Conservative MP, said the Government should not be trying to "interfere in a perfectly legal activity".
"I don't think it will actually sort out problem drinking at all," he said. "The government shouldn't be trying to say some consumption is good and some is bad. It's another example of a Big Brother policy."
Philip Davies, another Conservative backbencher, said the proposal was "the most ludicrous thing the Government has ever suggested".
"I believe in the free market and I don't believe in the nanny state," he said. "If anybody thinks this is going to stop binge drinking they need their head examined. I am sure that most of my colleagues in the Conservative Party feel the same.
"When families are struggling to survive at the moment with their bills the last thing they need is the Government interfering with the cost of alcohol."
The Downing Street diktat has led to intense Whitehall discussions and disagreements over how the minimum price, which has widespread support among the medical profession, can be introduced. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is said to favour taxing drink on the basis of alcoholic units. The Business Department has warned that forcing firms to charge a minimum price could be illegal under European law.
Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, favours a voluntary approach, but he has been overruled by Mr Cameron, although the compulsory scheme might fall foul of government lawyers.
Under the proposals, ministers could copy Scottish proposals, which would ban the sale of alcohol below 45p a unit, or bring in a more sophisticated system of taxes based on the number of alcohol units contained in the drink.
Both options would cost drinkers an estimated extra £700 million a year, with any extra tax revenue potentially going to the NHS. The Daily Telegraph understands that the Prime Minister personally ordered the radical “big bang” approach, which will be included in the Government’s forthcoming alcohol strategy. It was due for release next month, but has now been delayed until February.
A recent official study found that setting a minimum price of 30p per unit would prevent 300 deaths a year, 40p about 1,000 deaths, and 50p more than 2,000 premature deaths.
The minimum price would be accompanied by an “aggressive” public health campaign and a more draconian approach to curtailing the sale of alcohol in shops, pubs and clubs.
Last month, a group of 19 leading medical organisations warned that “pocket-money prices” for alcohol were endangering thousands of lives every year.
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, doctors from the British Medical Association and Royal College of Physicians claimed that minimum pricing for alcohol would be the most “simple and effective mechanism” for tackling the problem.
Following the warning, the Prime Minister said he would “look very carefully” at how to tackle the problem of cheap alcohol.
Historically, governments have been reluctant to look at minimum pricing because of concerns about the legality of the move and accusations of promoting a “nanny state” culture. Mr Cameron may also face criticism from Tories unhappy at any move to carry out such an intervention by raising taxes.
The Coalition has already banned supermarkets from selling alcohol at a loss and introduced higher duties for super-strength beers and ciders. But lager can still be sold for about 38p a can and wine for £2 per bottle. Dr Sarah Wollaston, an MP on the Common’s health committee and a former GP, said that alcohol misuse was costing the nation £20 billion, or £800 for every family. She has campaigned in Parliament for minimum pricing, arguing that alcohol abuse was the “single largest cause of deaths among young people.”
“Most health experts feel that changing pricing is the most effective way of achieving results,” she said.
Figures published earlier this month showed that twice as many people were being treated in hospital because of alcohol misuse compared with 10 years ago.
Alcohol is linked to more than one million admissions to hospital each year, about 13,000 new cases of cancer and one in four deaths of people aged 15 to 24.
Gavin Partington, of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said there was “no evidence [a minimum price per unit] will tackle alcohol misuse”.
The association would rather see “enforcement, education and a series of policies to address the root causes of alcohol misuse”, he added.Barbra Streisand Bitch Attacks Flight Attendant
Barbra Streisand -- Bitch Attacks Flight Attendant
EXCLUSIVE
Barbra Streisand's female dog just got herself into serious trouble at 36,000 feet -- attacking a flight attendant aboard a billionaire's fancy private jet... and it was so bad, the victim needed stitches.
The perp is a bitch named Sammie -- Barbra's 12-year-old Coton de Tulear... who accompanied Streisand on Tuesday during a flight from NYC to DC on a PJ owned by billionaire investor Ron Perelman.
Our sources tell us... a female flight attendant noticed the dog and went over to pet her, but Sammie snapped, biting the woman's hand... puncturing the skin and opening a wound that required stitches.
We're told Barbra IMMEDIATELY apologized to both Ron and the flight attendant -- but everyone forgave her and the injured woman is expected to make a full recovery.
#StillNotAsPainfulAsTheGuiltTripShare:
Again I hear talk everywhere that Islamist terrorism is a reaction to Western imperialism. It’s supposedly got nothing to do with radical Islamists. I have to wonder if why Korea and Vietnam didn't start pumping terrorists into the world as an aftermath of the horrendous wars there, why oil producers in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa didn't start pumping terrorists into the world in reaction to western meddling there.
The world didn't know of jihad till after WWII when it became evident that future security of states would henceforth depend on the security of their oil supplies, whether to power their economies or to fuel their militaries. There is oil all over the world and there has been competition and conflict to secure that oil, but only the oil of the Middle East drives global terrorism. The cause is Saudi Arabia, which has used its oil revenues to drive fundamentalist radicalization of Muslim societies all over the world, infesting them with mosques and seminaries that disseminate Saudi scripted fundamentalist, hateful perspectives. Every major Muslim terrorist organization in the world is connected to a web in the center of which sits Saudi Arabia. This social re-engineering and radicalization of Muslim societies by the gold-laden, oil-drunk Wahabbis is so successful that even the liberals of the West run to blame their own governments entirely for the rise and spread of Islamist terrorism.
So many Muslims died in the Iran/Iraq war, but the slaughter of Muslims by Muslims is never mentioned by the Chomskyites. They go straight to, and only to, the American involvement. Janjaweed Arab militias conducted genocide against blacks in Sudan, killing about 300,000 people, to say nothing of rape, but nothing is said about that either. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan committed genocide in Bengal and killed, at most conservative estimates, 300,000 people in just a few months, and now carries on a slaughter of Muslims in Balochistan, but that’s not heard about either. Most of those who died in the second Iraq war were killed not by American GIs, but by Muslim militias intent on preventing the establishment of a state that left them out of the loop, and by the mutual slaughter of each other by Shias and Sunnis. But we put all the blame on America's shoulders.
In every case where the West can be blamed, it is blamed totally, including for the behaviors and actions and brutality of barbarians who were savage to begin with. In any situation where the West can’t be blamed, the whole thing is swept under the carpet and forgotten (as Darfur and East Pakistan have been) and the drumbeat of blaming the West for barbarism practiced by Muslim fanatics carries right on.
The West is not without fault. But it is dishonest to assert that the Islamist terrorism is merely a backlash to Western foreign policy. The other party at the table is radical, oil fed fundamentalist Islamism.
In the West, after every instance of slaughter by a crazed Islamist, liberals run to call for tolerance towards ordinary Muslims innocent of the crime. It is the West that welcomes immigrants from Muslim countries and guarantees their freedom to practice their faith and to live their lives without persecution. It is the West that makes peace with its former enemies at the first opportunity. See the relations of Germany, Japan, Italy, Vietnam, and South Korea with the US. The West welcomes immigrants en mass from enemies, both former (Russians flooded into the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union) and present (so many Iranian students in the US). It is the West that takes in Muslim refugees escaping from slaughter by Muslims as has been seen by the flow of Syrians into Europe.
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have not opened their own borders to the faithful fleeing the slaughter. There is no call in the Middle East for understanding and tolerance towards the West and non-Muslims. There is no voice allowed to call for moderation of Islamist hatemongering, to curtail the raging hatred that constantly spews out against the West. Those who disturb this order are subject to arrest, lynching, torture, and execution. Infidels are not welcome to come and live as equals, even while every kind of savage hatemonger runs around galvanizing the world of Islam into uncompromising hatred towards the infidels.
And yet we hold that Muslim terrorism is the West’s fault. The killing of Salmaan Taseer and the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo we are told was the fault of those who were killed, not those who did the killing. “They deserved to die for what they said” is the essential radicalism that is unique to the Islamic world. It illustrates that Islamist terrorism is not merely a reaction to “western imperialism.”
It’s not a one-sided situation of course. Western failures in policy are real indeed, some unforeseeable, some shortsighted, some shockingly amoral, others indefensible. Global compulsions on energy security are also real. The villainy of despots, tyrants, and clerics across the Muslim world is also real.
But it is also a fact that from Pakistan to the Northern Mediterranean, and on into the Muslim ghettoes of the UK, there is widely present bigotry, hatred, and contempt for the non-Muslim that is beyond reason, moderation and human decency. It spans across leaders, community organizations, and public sentiment. And it is both ignorant and dishonest to trivialize this while harping on about Islamist terrorism being merely a backlash to "western imperialism”.
Here in India we have Saffron fanaticism against Muslims that falls into the same trap of blaming imperialism, this one Muslim and from long ago. It is depressing indeed to be arguing on one hand against the unjustified bigotry against Muslims in India, and about radical Islamist terrorism to those who insist that it’s all America's doing.
The key here is secularism: the basic premise that people of diverse faiths can coexist in harmony thanks to a dispensation that makes a person's faith irrelevant to the purposes and objectives of society. Secularism is almost non-existent in the Muslim world and besieged by Hindutva in India, radicals of both faiths united in opposition to any social arrangement that humanizes people without regard to their faith.
Theocratic radicalism and barbarism has to be expected from societies that are hostile to the ideal and promise of secularism.Kamloops high schoolers lobbying to lower voting age
Sean Weller, 17, is one of the students pushing for Canada's voting age to be lowered. (BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)
May 14, 2016 - 2:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - Students at Westsyde Secondary School in Kamloops have been working to lower the voting age in Canada from 18 years of age to 16.
The students began the lobbying effort after a class project began to imitate reality. Now they’re contacting politicians on Twitter, writing letters and creating memes in an effort to change the law.
Sean Weller, 17, says a lot of his peers already have jobs and are contributing to the community, so he thinks they should have a say in who leads the country.
“We’re expected to have jobs,” he says. “We should have the right to be able to vote on who’s leading us.”
Jakob Schmientenknop, 16, agrees people his age are paying income tax, so they should have a say about who represents them in government.
“If you’re able to drive you should know how to vote,” Schmientenknop says, adding students would use the ability to vote for issues around town that impact them directly.
Saylyn Olson, 16, says lowering the voting age to 16 is appropriate because they’re already learning about politics in school.
“We do vote projects,” she says. “Then we actually get a taste of voting. Everybody gets interested.”
The students take Jeremy Reid’s social studies classes at Westsyde Secondary and he says the project started when he was teaching them about democracy and voting. When they discussed voting ages, the majority of students agreed it should be lowered.
To teach about how legislation works he had students write their own about lowering the voting age.
Reid says as they were writing the legislation they found out B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver was presenting a bill to the legislature and he was suggesting "pretty much" the same changes the students had come up with.
He says his students have received a tweet from local Liberal MLA and Health Minister Terry Lake suggesting the class should call him, though he says they aren’t sure how to proceed yet.
“They’re thinking about it,” Reid says. “I’m leaving this up to the students, I don’t want to make decisions on where we go with this completely.”
A similar bill has been proposed by NDP MP Don Davies in the House of Commons, he says, so it worked out as a good subject with which to engage students.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.TV
Wildlife expert Paul Rosolie will be filmed entering the belly of a giant snake wearing'snake-proof suit' for the special.
Nov 6, 2014
AceShowbiz - Discovery Channel has prepared another extreme stunt as its next offering. The network has announced new special "Eaten Alive", in which American wildlife expert and filmmaker Paul Rosolie is getting eaten alive by an anaconda while wearing a custom-built snake-proof suit.
The special has been filmed and will air Sunday, December 7. Rosolie reportedly covered himself in pig's blood to lure the snake. According to Entertainment Weekly, the "snake-proof suit" has a cord on the top of it presumably to pull Rosolie back out the snake's mouth after being "eaten."
The show has been criticized by animal welfare organisations which branded the stunt as "animal cruelty." Rosolie responded to the criticism with a tweet which read, "If u know me - I would never hurt a living thing. But you'll have to watch #EatenAlive to find out how it goes down!"During his radio show today, Glenn Beck came to the conclusion that God must destroy the U.S. because of the abortion rate in New York State, which he claims is "41 percent of all pregnancies."
Beck also said the U.S. deserved destruction because "we are aiding and abetting Saudi Arabia and these crazy Muslim Brotherhood people who are enslaving the world," notes RightWingWatch.org (video below).
Beck did not explain exactly how the U.S. is aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood, but the U.S. government does send financial aid to Saudi Arabia as it did under the Bush administration.
"He has got to destroy us," warned Beck. "We are becoming an affront to him in every step of the way. We are denying his existence. We are denying his power. We are slapping him in the face."
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
Later, Beck broke down in tears, begged God for forgiveness and asked God to "remember the faces |
. Had it not, Stockton’s schools would be on the chopping block, as they are in every other struggling city and county.
Furthermore, in California, cities don’t just levy a property tax; they also receive a portion of the state sales and use tax, a revenue stream not as diminished by the recession. In a shrewd move, Stockton passed a law many years ago that allocates one-quarter of its sales tax to transportation funding. Federal grants often require that the local governments have matching funds, and Stockton’s allocation law gives it a reserve with which to match federal transportation dollars. This tool alone means that its investment in economic growth will far outpace that of many other cities across the country that are, ironically, too poor even to be eligible for such matching grants.
Advertisement:
Stockton’s Mayor Johnston is an ever-hopeful politician—focusing on what her city has to offer, how much potential it has, and how hard the current administration is working. But even as California has helped in the aforementioned ways, they bear some responsibility for Stockton’s mess. “The state has been our worst enemy,” Johnston told me.
For example, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to send more criminal offenders to local jails instead of state prisons, transferring the cost of imprisonment to cities and counties. According to Johnston, because Stockton does not have the money or the space to take care of inmates, they often are forced to release felons back to the streets. This isn’t uncommon: Lobao and Kraybill found, in 2001 and 2004, that more than 60 percent of counties reported that mandated costs from either the state or federal government had created major budget problems.
It seems that if they can get its bankruptcy worked out, Stockton may recover fairly quickly as a result of its unusual financial resources, but most other local governments are headed for a longer struggle. As states transfer more costs to the local governments as part of state budget balancing, cities and other local governments are forced to make cuts to essential programs, and it is the cities that need their quality police, educational institutions, and health centers most that are the least likely to get help from the private market or government grants. Instead, as a result of shortsighted passing of the buck and fiscal constraints, these cities and local governments will drag our economy down for years to come.Healthy White Chocolate Sunflower Sesame Quinoa Energy Bites
Healthy White Chocolate Sunflower Sesame Quinoa Energy Bites — they’re rich, flavorful, delicious and super easy to make… no baking required! Plus, they’re refined sugar free, gluten free, dairy free and vegan too!
You can find the recipe here on my friend Katerina’s blog, Sincerely Katerina. I first “met” Katerina on Instagram what seems like foreverago. She always commented such nice and funny things, so I started following her too and OHMYGOSH… her food photography beats mine in a heartbeat, and her captions are literally the best. Her Instagram account makes me totally jelly (aka jealous). Now I’m in the mood for a Peanut Butter & Jelly… aaaanyways, go check her out because she’s awesome 😀
.
.
This is my first guest post ever, so it’s pretty much a big deal 😉
Okay, not really I guess, but for me it is. Hope you like the recipe!
.
With love and good eats,
.
-Jess
.The importance of Stiglitz’s contribution (and that of other dissidents) to the public debate cannot be overestimated. The news media and the Congress are ill-equipped to address the role of economic power in shaping policy. Both institutions are, in fact, unaware of the extent to which they themselves are subject to the influence of money.
Stiglitz describes the economic capture of regulatory authorities by the interests under their jurisdiction — and the more subtle intellectual capture of policy makers of all kinds. The calculated and purposeful shaping of public discussion allowed conservative analyses to dominate debate in the years before the collapse of 2008, and in the years since they have been dominant as well.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
It is not just democratic politics that is threatened by huge disparities in wealth and income. Much of Stiglitz’s book is devoted to demonstrating that excessive inequality amounts to sand in the gears of capitalism, creating volatility, fueling crises, undermining productivity and retarding growth. Just as discrimination results in the failure of a nation to make the best use of all its citizens, inequality, when it leads to inadequate schooling, housing and neighborhood conditions for large numbers of people, acts in a similarly destructive fashion.
Stiglitz succinctly summarized his own argument in a recent online column: “Inequality leads to lower growth and less efficiency. Lack of opportunity means that its most valuable asset — its people — is not being fully used. Many at the bottom, or even in the middle, are not living up to their potential, because the rich, needing few public services and worried that a strong government might redistribute income, use their political influence to cut taxes and curtail government spending. This leads to underinvestment in infrastructure, education and technology, impeding the engines of growth.... Most importantly, America’s inequality is undermining its values and identity. With inequality reaching such extremes, it is not surprising that its effects are manifest in every public decision, from the conduct of monetary policy to budgetary allocations. America has become a country not ‘with justice for all,’ but rather with favoritism for the rich and justice for those who can afford it — so evident in the foreclosure crisis, in which the big banks believed that they were too big not only to fail, but also to be held accountable.”
Stiglitz wrote “The Price of Inequality” at the height of the uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and the Occupy Wall Street movement here in the United States. These revolts against established power helped make him optimistic about the prospect of change in the future. But he seems more sanguine at the beginning of his book — “There are moments in history when people all over the world seem to rise up, to say that something is wrong” — than at the end, which concludes on a note of warning: “Time, however, may be running out. Four years ago there was a moment” — the 2008 election — “where most Americans had the audacity to hope. Trends more than a quarter of a century in the making might have been reversed. Instead, they have worsened. Today that hope is flickering.”
Circumstances in the summer of 2012 justify Stiglitz’s more apprehensive conclusion. Prospects for programs boosting public investment are virtually nil. Republicans stand a good chance of taking control of both branches of Congress after the next election. Their presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, may capture the White House. If so, his tax and regulatory proposals will most likely embody all that Stiglitz finds repugnant. Even if Romney loses, the American political system does not appear ready to respond to Stiglitz’s call to arms.
Stiglitz may prove most prescient when he warns of a society governed by “rules of the game that weaken the bargaining strength of workers vis-à-vis capital.” At present, he says,“the dearth of jobs and the asymmetries in globalization have created competition for jobs in which workers have lost and the owners of capital have won.” We are becoming a country “in which the rich live in gated communities, send their children to expensive schools and have access to first-rate medical care. Meanwhile, the rest live in a world marked by insecurity, at best mediocre education and in effect rationed health care.” Except for a brief period in 2008-9, when the stock market decline hit the wealthy the hardest, the trends would seem to be moving toward Stiglitz’s pessimistic vision of the future, with little prospect of change no matter who wins office on Nov. 6.1000x Faster Spelling Correction algorithm (2012)
Wolf Garbe Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 6, 2012
Update1: An improved SymSpell implementation is now 1,000,000x faster.
Update2: SymSpellCompound with Compound aware spelling correction.
Update3: Benchmark of SymSpell, BK-Tree und Norvig’s spell-correct.
Recently I answered a question on Quora about spelling correction for search engines. When I described our SymSpell algorithm I was pointed to Peter Norvig’s page where he outlined his approach.
Both algorithms are based on Edit distance (Damerau-Levenshtein distance). Both try to find the dictionary entries with smallest edit distance from the query term.
If the edit distance is 0 the term is spelled correctly, if the edit distance is <=2 the dictionary term is used as spelling suggestion. But SymSpell uses a different way to search the dictionary, resulting in a significant performance gain and language independence. Three ways to search for minimum edit distance in a dictionary:
1. Naive approach
The obvious way of doing this is to compute the edit distance from the query term to each dictionary term, before selecting the string(s) of minimum edit distance as spelling suggestion. This exhaustive search is inordinately expensive.
Source: Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan & Hinrich Schütze: Introduction to Information Retrieval.
The performance can be significantly improved by terminating the edit distance calculation as soon as a threshold of 2 or 3 has been reached.
2. Peter Norvig
Generate all possible terms with an edit distance (deletes + transposes + replaces + inserts) from the query term and search them in the dictionary. For a word of length n, an alphabet size a, an edit distance d=1, there will be n deletions, n-1 transpositions, a*n alterations, and a*(n+1) insertions, for a total of 2n+2an+a-1 terms at search time.
Source: Peter Norvig: How to Write a Spelling Corrector.
This is much better than the naive approach, but still expensive at search time (114,324 terms for n=9, a=36, d=2) and language dependent (because the alphabet is used to generate the terms, which is different in many languages and huge in Chinese: a=70,000 Unicode Han characters)
3. Symmetric Delete Spelling Correction (SymSpell)
Generate terms with an edit distance (deletes only) from each dictionary term and add them together with the original term to the dictionary. This has to be done only once during a pre-calculation step.
Generate terms with an edit distance (deletes only) from the input term and search them in the dictionary.
For a word of length n, an alphabet size of a, an edit distance of 1, there will be just n deletions, for a total of n terms at search time.
This is three orders of magnitude less expensive (36 terms for n=9 and d=2) and language independent (the alphabet is not required to generate deletes).
The cost of this approach is the pre-calculation time and storage space of x deletes for every original dictionary entry, which is acceptable in most cases.
The number x of deletes for a single dictionary entry depends on the maximum edit distance: x=n for edit distance=1, x=n*(n-1)/2 for edit distance=2, x=n!/d!/(n-d)! for edit distance=d (combinatorics: k out of n combinations without repetitions, and k=n-d),
E.g. for a maximum edit distance of 2 and an average word length of 5 and 100,000 dictionary entries we need to additionally store 1,500,000 deletes.
The Symmetric Delete spelling correction algorithm reduces the complexity of edit candidate generation and dictionary lookup by using deletes only instead of deletes +transposes + replaces + inserts. It is six orders of magnitude faster (for edit distance=3) and language independent.
Remark 1: During the precalculation, different words in the dictionary might lead to same delete term: delete(sun,1)==delete(sin,1)==sn.
While we generate only one new dictionary entry (sn), inside we need to store both original terms as spelling correction suggestion (sun,sin)
Remark 2: There are four different comparison pair types:
dictionary entry==input entry, delete(dictionary entry,p1)==input entry dictionary entry==delete(input entry,p2) delete(dictionary entry,p1)==delete(input entry,p2)
The last comparison type is required for replaces and transposes only. But we need to check whether the suggested dictionary term is really a replace or an adjacent transpose of the input term to prevent false positives of higher edit distance (bank==bnak and bank==bink, but bank!=kanb and bank!=xban and bank!=baxn).
Remark 3: Instead of a dedicated spelling dictionary we are using the search engine index itself. This has several benefits:
It is dynamically updated. Every newly indexed word, whose frequency is over a certain threshold, is automatically used for spelling correction as well. As we need to search the index anyway the spelling correction comes at almost no extra cost. When indexing misspelled terms (i.e. not marked as a correct in the index) we do a spelling correction on the fly and index the page for the correct term as well.
Remark 4: We have implemented query suggestions/completion in a similar fashion. This is a good way to prevent spelling errors in the first place. Every newly indexed word, whose frequency is over a certain threshold, is stored as a suggestion to all of its prefixes (they are created in the index if they do not yet exist). As we anyway provide an instant search feature the lookup for suggestions comes also at almost no extra cost. Multiple terms are sorted by the number of results stored in the index.
Reasoning
The SymSpell algorithm exploits the fact that the edit distance between two terms is symmetrical:
We can generate all terms with an edit distance We can generate all terms with an edit distance We can combine both and meet in the middle, by transforming the correct dictionary terms to erroneous strings, and transforming the erroneous input term to the correct strings.
Because adding a char on the dictionary is equivalent to removing a char from the input string and vice versa, we can on both sides restrict the transformation to deletes only.
We are using variant 3, because the delete-only-transformation is language independent and three orders of magnitude less expensive.
Where does the speed come from?
Pre-calculation, i.e. the generation of possible spelling error variants (deletes only) and storing them at index time is the first precondition.
, i.e. the generation of possible spelling error variants (deletes only) and storing them at index time is the first precondition. A fast index access at search time by using a hash table with an average search time complexity of O(1) is the second precondition.
with an average search time complexity of O(1) is the second precondition. But only the Symmetric Delete Spelling Correction on top of this allows to bring this O(1) speed to spell checking, because it allows a tremendous reduction of the number of spelling error candidates to be pre-calculated (generated and indexed).
on top of this allows to bring this O(1) speed to spell checking, because it allows a tremendous reduction of the number of spelling error candidates to be pre-calculated (generated and indexed). Applying pre-calculation to Norvig’s approach would not be feasible because pre-calculating all possible delete + transpose + replace + insert candidates of all terms would result in a huge time and space consumption.
Computational Complexity
The SymSpell algorithm is constant time ( O(1) time ), i.e. independent of the dictionary size (but depending on the average term length and maximum edit distance), because our index is based on a Hash Table which has an average search time complexity of O(1).
Comparison to other approaches
BK-Trees have a search time of O(log dictionary_size), whereas the SymSpell algorithm is constant time ( O(1) time ), i.e. independent of the dictionary size.
Tries have a comparable search performance to our approach. But a Trie is a prefix tree, which requires a common prefix. This makes it suitable for autocomplete or search suggestions, but not applicable for spell checking. If your typing error is e.g. in the first letter, than you have no common prefix, hence the Trie will not work for spelling correction.
Application
Possible application fields of the SymSpell algorithm are those of fast approximate dictionary string matching: spell checkers for word processors and search engines, correction systems for optical character recognition, natural language translation based on translation memory, record linkage, de-duplication, matching DNA sequences, fuzzy string searching and fraud detection.
Source code
The C# implementation of the Symmetric Delete Spelling Correction algorithm is released on GitHub as Open Source under the MIT License:
https://github.com/wolfgarbe/symspell
Ports
There are ports in C++, Crystal, Go, Java, Javascript, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Swift available.Will Prentice: "We use Swiss-made reel-to-reel machines borrowed from old radio stations and universities" Nick Wilson
A Nazi radio archive with more than 4,000 discs that have never been played, a collection of Beijing street sounds from the 90s and the voice of Florence Nightingale are among the British Library's six-and-a-half million sound recordings. The earliest are from the 1880s, recorded on wax cylinders that sit four storeys beneath the bustling streets of London, fighting off mould and decay. In a race against time before the most fragile recordings vanish forever, the archive is being digitised.
"Sound recordings are facing two ticking time-bombs – the formats are degrading and some are literally falling apart on the shelf," says Will Prentice, the softly spoken head of technical services at the British Library, who's leading the digitisation project. Another issue is redundancy: some of the equipment needed to play the recordings is disappearing – many formats, Prentice believes, have only ten years left. While anyone can access the archive and have the sounds digitised on request, the work undertaken by Prentice and his team will be showcased in an exhibition opening on October 6. Listen: 140 Years of Recorded Sound will include oral histories from both world wars and pirate radio recordings. But there's still a lot of work to do.
Advertisement
In the mid-50s, the British Institute of Recorded Sound began collecting this vast trove of recordings, before joining the British Library in 1983. Now, 1.5 million analogue discs, tapes and cylinders across 40 different formats are stored in the labyrinthian archive. "If you can think of something that you can hear, we've got something like it," Prentice says. Work is painstaking. In 2014 a team of five engineers started digitising the collection at a rate of 20 tapes per person per day. At that rate it was estimated the project would take 47 years to complete. To speed things up, the team launched Unlocking Our Sound Heritage, a project with the aim of raising £40 million. More than £18.8 million has been raised so far, which is being put towards saving the most at-risk recordings. An additional ten digitisation centres are being created across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, with each focusing on digitising their local collections. "We're excited about digitising things that are held in tiny pockets of England," Prentice says. "There's dialect and folk songs – Britain's really diverse for that." By 2019, Prentice hopes to have digitised around 7.5 per cent of the archive.
A unique recording of a jazz performance – a regional broadcast from 1950 – is the "most seen, least heard" recording in the archive, he says. The acetate disc has degraded beyond repair, showing what happens when you don't get there in time. The format was invented in the 1930s with a metal core and an outer resin of cellulose nitrate. When exposed to moisture, the resin contracts and peels off the metal, so rescuing the sound is impossible. Fortunately, much of the collection can still be saved. Among the archive are more than 10,000 minidiscs as well as digital compact cassettes, IBM drives and several dictaphone formats, many needing their own specialist playback device. These machines come from far and wide – with the help of eBay.
Advertisement
The eclectic mix of formats also means that each requires its own digitisation process. Gramophone discs, for example, were never standardised – their grooves can be wide or narrow, v-shaped or u-shaped, so to capture their sound a unique stylus is often needed that can replicate the same side-to-side movement of the disc's lateral grooves. All the technical processes and decisions made while the sound is being digitised – such as what speed it was played at or whether noise reduction was used – are documented on a spreadsheet. This then enters a searchable catalogue where, depending on copyright, it is made available to the public. More than 90,000 recordings can already be heard online free of charge.
Listening to the sounds is almost a form of time travel, Prentice says, and the importance of the material changes as the years pass. "You could've interviewed someone in the 70s about being unemployed and then 30 years later realise that the accent has died out." This impacts the way they are digitised – even the clicks and crackles are recorded rather than cleaned, so they can be heard exactly as they would have been heard at the time. "It's like a lens we're looking through. If you pretend the lens isn't there, you have no idea how it's distorting the truth," he says.
Prentice, who has been with the library for 17 years, doesn't have a favourite sound from the archive, but when pushed, one does come to mind. "Before the Russian Revolution they sent an engineer around the Caucasus, travelling partly on trains, partly on donkeys to make recordings of local music," he says. "Some of those are wonderful."Edmontonian Kurt Thomas was so concerned about what was happening to black men in the United States, that when he was pulled over by a police officer, he recorded the interaction. What happened surprised even him.
READ MORE: Philando Castile shooting wouldn’t have happened if he was white: Minnesota governor
Thomas posted the video on Facebook. As of Saturday afternoon, it had been viewed nearly 10,000 times.
Watch below: In the wake of recent police shootings in the U.S. that have renewed debate over race relations in America, a black Edmontonian recently posted his positive experience with a police officer to social media.
“So I just got pulled over for speeding,” Thomas says in the video.
“I’m going to keep this video going. Right now he’s got my licence, my insurance and my registration. I think he’s processing it. I just don’t want to be another statistic.”
Thomas said he felt the recording was his only way of protecting himself if a ticket for speeding in a construction zone on Whitemud Drive escalated into something more serious.
“I always feel tension when it comes to police officers,” he said. “I fit the demographic of the people I think receive the most difficult time with law enforcement.”
Thomas said even when he was a child, he felt officers were suspicious of him, even when all he was doing was playing basketball.
READ MORE: ‘We feel those injustices’: Rally held in Edmonton after deaths of 2 black men in U.S.
Less than a minute into the video, something unexpected happened. The interaction went as follows:
THOMAS: “Hi officer, how are you?”
OFFICER: “I’ve got a question for you. How do you like this car, other than right now?”
THOMAS: “What do you mean?”
OFFICER: “How do you like it? I’ve seen it around but I don’t know anyone that owns one, I just wondered how they are.”
THOMAS: “To be honest, it’s a great vehicle.”
The pair continued to talk about their shared passion for cars for a minute – then – before leaving, the officer had one last thing to add.
“We’ve just had too many people in big crashes this year so you’ve got to slow down,” the officer says in the video. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
It was the last thing Thomas expected to hear. He drove away with a speeding ticket in hand.
“I’m not even mad! I’ll pay it!” he said.
Ten minutes later, Thomas reflected on the incident in another video he posted to Facebook.
Watch below: In the wake of recent police shootings in the U.S. that have renewed debate over race relations in America, a black Edmontonian recently posted his positive experience with a police officer to social media and then later talked about it in a separate post.
“That is how a police officer is supposed to do their job. I’m telling you man, God works in mysterious ways. These last 72 hours, I completely lost all my faith in police.”
But in the span of just a few minutes and one traffic stop, an officer gave him a fresh perspective.
“I believe that this guy did his job at a high level. He conducted himself with a high level of class, courtesy, respect and professionalism,” Thomas said.
“He deserves a raise, he needs a promo. He deserves something!”
Acting Edmonton Police Chief Tony Harder said officers undergo sensitivity training as part of the community policing initiative.
“Our training is very high with our members in terms of the different groups. Making sure we understand them. Especially now, with so many new people coming into the country with different backgrounds and different understandings of the police.”
Harder added things are different here compared to the United States.
“Our policemen are not expecting to find a firearm at every call or in most interactions – which really is the case in the United States, especially in some states with open carrying,” Harder said. “So it’s a completely different environment with firearms here.”
READ MORE: Alton Sterling shooting: Graphic video shows moment Baton Rouge police fatally shot man
Thomas agreed.
“I’m blessed to live here. I love the fact that my mom moved to a country where we’d rather shoot pucks than people.”
As for his interaction, Thomas said he hopes other police officers follow the example of the one he encountered on the Whitemud.
“This is by far the best experience I’ve ever had interacting directly with police and that’s why I felt – especially in the wake of everything happening in the world right now – I had to say something,” he said.
“He’s going to go home happy to his wife and kids. I’m going to go home happy and alive! Everybody wins!”Doomfist, is set to to make his way onto the live client in the coming week, but Blizzard plans to continue testing and patching the Overwatch's 25th hero before his official debut.
In the previous PTR patch, Blizzard toned down Doomfist's mobility with a nerf to the travel distance of Rocket Punch by approximately 20 percent at all charge levels. Even with the nerf, this ability still packs quite the punch, pardon the pun, as it is able to not only act as a gap closer, but also a means to damage an enemy and dish out even more pain if the target slams into a wall. In a stealthy patch this Wednesday, Blizzard have added a means for players to gain even more mobility with Rocket Punch, that is if they can pull it off.
According to a post by Redditor wifitoaster, players can now jump at the end of Rocket Punch to cancel the ability's animation and carry the momentum forward. When properly executed this will grant approximately an extra 10 meters of distance to the ability. Similar to a 2D fighting game character, this technique will require practice in order to get the timing just right. Jumping too early will prematurely cancel the ability while attempting to cancel the animation too late will result in simple regular jump at the end of the ability. If performed properly, the momentum can carry Doomfist even further mid air to make for some crafty flanking paths that would otherwise be impossible for most heroes.
There are no official patch notes from Blizzard, but given how the developers described how they had designed Doomfist with the mindset of emulating the feel of playing a powerful 2D fighter, such a feature inspired from the FGC is likely an intentional addition as it provides that extra level of depth that the community has come to expect from a melee-centric character.
Image credit: Blizzard EntertainmentYour browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
Meet Russel Hawkins. He loves to vape. He grows chilis, and has a freshly ground bag of Carolina Reapers. Do you see where this is going?
The Carolina Reaper is widely regarded as the hottest pepper on Earth. It clocks in around 2.2 million Scoville units (for contrast, a jalapeño maxes out at a mere 20,000SHU.) As though three huge rips of spicy, spicy vape juice wasn’t enough, Hawkins also snorts a line of the Reaper powder and rubs some of the residual juice in his left eye. The man clearly has no regard for his personal health and well being.
Advertisement
There are a few “spicy” eliquid flavors on the market, but none that I could find containing actual peppers. That’s probably because capsaicin—the chemical that makes chilis hot—is a powerful irritant, and the lining of human lungs was by no means designed to be in contact with it. Please do not do try this at home. Don’t let your loved ones or worst enemies try this. It’s just plain stupid.Due to fog in neighbouring states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi, 12 trains of North Western Railway were running late in Rajasthan from 30 minutes to 14 hours. (Representational Image)
Severe cold wave conditions sweeping across the state since last weekend abated today giving little respite to people in Rajasthan while Sikar recorded the lowest temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius last night, a MeT report said today.Mercury has risen by one to five degrees Celsius at most places in the state due to abatement in north-westerly cold winds since yesterday, the report said.Due to fog in neighbouring states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi, 12 trains of North Western Railway were running late in Rajasthan from 30 minutes to 14 hours, its CPRO and DGM Tarun Jain said in Jaipur.Hawarah-Sriganganagar train was running 14 hours late followed by Sultanpur-Ahmedabad by 8 hrs, Hawarah-Jodhpur/ Bikaner by 4 hrs, and many others by 30 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes, the CPRO said.The time table of Jodhpur-Varanasi train has been changed to avoid foggy weather, he said.The induced upper air cyclonic circulation over north Rajasthan and neighbourhood now lies over north Rajathan, and it may cause mercury to fall again, the report said.Meanwhile, Churu recorded minimum temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, Udaipur 6.2, Sriganganagar 6.5, Jodhpur 7, Bikaner 7.6, Jaisalmer and Ajmer 7.8 each, Pilani 8.5, and Kota 9.4 degrees Celsius.People in Jaipur also have a sigh of relief as the mercury shot up at 9 degrees Celsius last night as compared to 5.4 degrees yesterday. A new feeble western disturbance as an upper air system would affect northern region by December 19 and mercury may fall again in the state by then, a forecast said.UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee is confident that there will be no controversy in his interim title fight with Tony Ferguson thanks to the absence of judge Adelaide Byrd.
Byrd came under heavy criticism for her scorecard that awarded Canelo Alvarez a 118-110 decision that eventually led to a split-decision draw in his fight with Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas.
Many in the combat world felt that Golovkin had won the fight, but Byrd's controversial scorecard meant she believed Canelo had won 10 rounds against the Kazakh.
As a result of the whole controversy a potential rematch between the two middleweight boxers is in the works. Byrd was disciplined by Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett, and has been removed from UFC 216.
That comes as good news for Lee, who will battle Ferguson for the interim lightweight title at the event, with the winner expected to face Conor McGregor.
"I'll tell you what, I'm glad Adelaide Byrd is off my damn card," Lee told BloodyElbow. "I'm fighting a Mexican, too. Look, she had me shook."
"I'm glad they made the right decision and threw her off the card. I don't necessarily think there was any conspiracy, or nothing crazy like that. I just think she's a Canelo fan."
The "Motown Phenom" added that he believed Canelo was initially winning the fight but later scored the contest in favour of Golovkin.
"I thought Canelo was winning the fight, too, in the early rounds, but then in the later rounds GGG definitely took over," he explained. "I would have maybe scored it 7-5 for GGG. I can see 6-6, so I wasn't upset with the score, but 10-2? That's fookin [sic] crazy."
"I'm so glad that they threw her off my card because I'm fighting a Mexican too, a Mexican that likes to push forward. She ain't going to give me a fair shake, so I'm happy with the decision to pull her off the card. That's for damn sure!"
UFC 216 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on 7 October.
A flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg will be the co-main event of the night.In RxJs we often deal with multiple streams, but the end consumer typically only subscribes to a single stream. In this article we will look at ways to combine multiple streams into a single stream.
There are many ways for RxJs streams to converge on a single stream, but in this article we will look at flatMap, forkJoin, merge and concat.
Concat
Concat will combine two observables into a combined sequence, but the second observable will not start emitting until the first one has completed.
In my sample I am concatenating two timer observables using concat.
let first = Observable.timer(10,500).map(r => { return {source:1,value:r}; }).take(4); let second = Observable.timer(10,500).map(r => { return {source:2,value:r}; }).take(4); first.concat(second).subscribe(res => this.concatStream.push(res));
The emitted values are very simple, but we will receive all the values from the first observable before we start receiving values from the second. Below is a diagram showing the order of emitted events. Values from the first observable are in shown in green and values from the second observable are in blue.
Merge
Merge is similar to concat, but it will interleave the emitted values instead of completing the first observable before starting the second one.
let first = Observable.timer(10,500).map(r => { return {source:1,value:r}; }).take(4); let second = Observable.timer(10,500).map(r => { return {source:2,value:r}; }).take(4); first.merge(second).subscribe(res => this.mergeStream.push(res));
In the diagram you can see the values from both observables interleaved with alternate green and blue boxes.
forkJoin
We use forkJoin to execute observables in parallel. One common use case of this is making multiple http requests in parallel. In my sample I am forkJoining two very simple observables, but the key point is that the subscriber won't receive any values until both observables have completed.
let first = Observable.of({source:1,value:1}); let second = Observable.of({source:2,value:1}); Observable.forkJoin(first,second).subscribe((res:Array ) => this.forkJoinStream = res);
If we want to compare this to promises it would be similar to $q.all() from Angular 1.x
In the diagram we see that both observables completed before we received the result.
flatMap
flatMap is how we handle dependencies between observables. My sample is contrived, but I am returning a value from the first observable that is needed by the second observable to calculate a sum.
Like I said this example is contrived, but if we compare this to promises, flatMap is how we would create the equivalent of promise chains. The code can be seen below.
let first = Observable.of(10); first.flatMap((operand1) => { return Observable.of(operand1 + 10); }).subscribe(res => this.flatMappedStreams = {msg: '10 + 10 ='+ res});
As always there is a live demo.
I have also put the code on Github.The Trace, April 2014
Kylie Jaxxon’s The Trace, until recently located on the region of Celestial Realm, has appeared in a few articles in this blog, although I’ve never actually written directly about it. Given Kylie has now moved to a new homestead region she has named, appropriately enough, The Trace, I thought it high time I rectified matters and, with an apology to Kylie for my tardiness, actually sat down and produced a post on her home.
And it is certainly worth writing about; The Trace, in its current incarnation, is nothing short of a splendid Second Life watercolour. The level of composition here is extraordinary, from the lay of the land through the selection and placement of buildings to the region windlight settings, all of which come together to present the visitor with a most remarkable and natural coastal setting, which could have been lifted from almost anywhere in the western world, but which had me thinking of somewhere on the New England coast, or perhaps situated on England’s Norfolk coast (even allowing for the offshore islands!).
The Trace, April 2014,
The west side of the island is low-lying sand dunes, waterlogged here and there and bearing wild grasses across them. A tide laps idly against the sand, and gulls wheel overhead (do have local sounds enabled when visiting).
A little further inland sit several beach houses, all mounted on sturdy wooden piles, suggesting these low wetlands can be subject to high tides or |
of the environmental community, of the government community!” she exclaimed. “Have we ever had anybody put together a refuge plan in this god damn nation? Hell, no, we haven’t! But it happened here and it happened in Harney County.”
The rancher begged residents “not to destroy everything we’re doing because we have to make a stand for everything in the god damn past.”
“This is our time now! It is not what we did 100 years ago or 60 years ago or 30 years ago!” Marshall shouted. “It’s our moment right now. We don’t know our future, but I’ll tell you what. It’s better than what we had.”
“Let’s try to keep going, let’s not get caught up like I’m pissed as hell right now,” she added. “And my boots are shaking, but I’m proud to be a rancher and I’m not going to let some other people be my face!”
“I am me! This is my home!”
Watch the video below.SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Forty gay couples in South Dakota applied to be married during the first month following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized such unions across the country, according to data provided by the state Department of Health.
The number of marriage licenses issued to gay couples in South Dakota represents about 5 percent of the 839 licenses issued to all couples from June 26 to July 27, The Associated Press found in its analysis of the data.
Although the numbers pale in comparison to bordering Minnesota, where more than 1,600 licenses were issued in August 2013 when same-sex marriage was legalized there, gay rights advocates called the statistics reflective of the barriers the gay community still faces in South Dakota and other conservative states.
Nancy Rosenbrahn, a Rapid City woman who became the public face of the fight against South Dakota’s ban on same-sex marriages last year, said she was amazed that 40 people had already been married, but noted that there are likely many more South Dakotans who haven’t applied because of concerns about being discovered in their communities.
Billy Mawhiney, treasurer for The Center For Equality in Sioux Falls, said he thought the lower numbers were appropriate and attributed them to the fact that neighboring Iowa and Minnesota legalized same-sex marriages years ago and that South Dakota law doesn’t include sexual orientation when prohibiting discrimination in employment and housing.
By comparison, gay couples in Minnesota made up almost a third of all licenses issued in August of 2013, the first month gay marriage was legal in the state after it was passed by the state Legislature in the spring.
Unlike South Dakota and other states, couples in Minnesota had several months to decide whether to apply for a license before it became legal. News reports also showed citizens from other states flocked to Minnesota to marry in 2013.
Rosenbrahn, who married her wife in Minneapolis last year, said gay South Dakotans have to feel they’re secure at their job and in their housing before they decide to go into a public government office and ask to be married.
“That’s a risky venture in South Dakota,” she said. “In Minnesota, hell no. You could go in and not have to worry about it.”
At the county level, half of licenses issued to same-sex couples in South Dakota have been in Pennington County. Five were issued in Minnehaha County, which includes Sioux Falls.
All other counties issued three or fewer licenses since gay marriages began in the state, which means at least 49 counties have not issued a marriage license to a gay couple. The state Department of Health doesn’t release license data at the county level unless at least four have been issued for privacy reasons.
Eleven of the same-sex couples consisted of two men and 29 were made up of two women.
This Story Filed UnderOn a brutally dangerous late spring day in 1945, a young Marine Corps rifleman ran across the scarred earth, through shrapnel coming from Japanese mortars on Okinawa, desperately looking for a foxhole in the hope of finding a fleeting moment of safety.
He was 18-year-old Bob Crane from the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, and being a sensible young man, he was scared.
“Petrified,” he said the other day.
At 90, having survived Okinawa as well as a long career in Massachusetts politics he is still struck by the randomness of fate.
“I end up in a foxhole with a guy from of all places in the world, Brighton. Leo Edward Kelly was the other guy’s name,” Bob Crane recalled with a laugh. “John Kelly’s uncle. Imagine that. And a great guy too.”
After the war Crane went to Boston College, put his name on the ballot for a seat in the Massachusetts legislature, won, got married, and began raising his family on Bigelow Street in Brighton. There, he was four doors down from the Kelly family, a growing tribe with a son, John—Leo’s nephew.
“I remember him,” Crane was saying. “I remember General Kelly very well as a little boy. Kind of a shy kid. Given the job he just got, I hope to God he’s over being shy.”
Their neighborhood was a familiar pocket and portrait of 1950s post-war America. Largely Irish and Catholic, nearly each apartment and almost every two-family home touched by the impact of World War II and Korea. There were more veterans on the block than there were hydrants. And there were gold star mothers too.
The sidewalks echoed a sense of duty and a sense of history just past. Memorial Day and July Fourth brought everyone and everything to a halt. And for those families that had lost a son in either war, Christmas Eve always had a touch of the tear for the boy, the brother, husband, or father lost.
Job security was paramount after the war. And city jobs—mailmen, firemen, cops—were sought after because they came with a routine, with benefits, with a predictable paycheck.
The great migration to suburbia was still a few years distant. Divorce was rare. Peer pressure was a strong factor in neighborhoods like the Oak Square section of Brighton and along Bigelow Street. The church—the Catholic Church—was still a moral force. Vietnam had not yet destroyed so much of our faith in government, our view of politics and politicians.
This was John Kelly’s world then and it is John Kelly’s world today as he takes over as White House chief of staff: devotion to duty, to the country, to the chain of command, to family, to loyalty, to honor, courage, to history, to the memory of those who sacrificed all.
This past weekend, General Kelly finally agreed to the request of the president of the United States to take the job as White House chief of staff. He and his wife Karen were in California visiting their oldest son, Marine Corps Major John Kelly who is about to be deployed to duty overseas.
He assumed his post Monday morning. By mid-afternoon, Anthony Scaramucci—who came out of the gate at the White House last week, loudly, profanely and with the delusion that he was vital to Trump—was gone after a tap on the shoulder and a quick conversation with John Kelly.
Today, General Kelly works for a commander in chief who could not be more unlike his chief of staff. Where Kelly symbolizes honor and honesty, Trump symbolizes expediency and duplicity. Loyalty is a stranger to this president. It is in Kelly’s blood. As Kelly has led Marines and lived history, Trump has flown solo and selfishly most of his life and has little or no grasp of history.
John Kelly knows what it’s like to be hurt, to suffer, to be damaged. Donald Trump seems to specialize in trying to hurt others, to make them suffer, to damage and humiliate with his weapon of choice, a tweet.
Many have asked and wondered how or why such an exceptional guy like General Kelly would take the task of trying to turn the absurdly incompetent, chaotic Trump presidency into a functioning vehicle. And the answer is simple and obvious: because he loves this country and does not want to have it fail or falter at the gate of a future filled with both promise and peril. His only ambitions are for America.
And on those long days when he might wonder why he took the job he will, no doubt, think of how he was raised on Bigelow Street in Brighton with his father John at the kitchen table and his mother Joan making breakfast and he will think of the son he often visits who is quite close to the White House, just across Memorial Bridge, in Section 60, Grave 9480 at Arlington: 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, United States Marine Corps, who died in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010. He was 29 years old.
Robert’s father, Marine Corps General John Kelly, still serves. Every day.Nicolas Batum will once again join the French National Team this summer. It was speculated that his tradition could be disrupted this year due to the superior labral tear that kept him out of the last 8 games of Portland’s season. Although he will not be resting up this offseason as some had hoped, it is still a very positive sign for Batum and the Blazers.
It is the most absolute confirmation to date that Batum’s shoulder will not require surgery. Even if he did need it, he would likely not be forced to miss any of the regular season, but he would certainly lose valuable time to improve over the summer. The standard recovery time after surgical repair of the labrum is 4-6 weeks for the cartilage to heal, and 4-6 weeks more for it to then reach full strength. Nicolas has not only dodged a 2-3 month bullet, he has found himself in a position to get extra practice.
The only concern here is that he might over-do it. Tears, strains, and sprains are nothing to be trifled with. Chicago fans know all too well how a few minor injuries can become one big one (my condolences). Luckily, Batum is not under the same sort of pressure at this time, but it is always a bit unnerving when an athlete opts to play through pain. We’ll have to take it on good faith that Batum and his doctors know what’s what before he takes the floor for France in July.
Nicolas is one of the most well-rounded players in the league, and it is good to see him recovering so quickly. The only other player in the NBA to average a block, a steal, and a 3 all season was named Kevin Durant. Batum certainly has areas to work on (sloppy passing, off the ball movement, on the ball movement), but his versatility is the glue that holds the Blazers together. It looks as if, barring any bizarre setbacks, he will be 100% of his old self soon enough; maybe even better.
@davidmackaypdx | @ripcityproject | [email protected]The ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 offline finals will not be played in the newest patch, ESL pro gaming vice-president James Lampkin has revealed.
Last night, Valve released update 1.35.1.2 for CS:GO, which introduced the R8 revolver, increased round and bomb time to 1:55 and 0:40, respectively, and changed the behavior of assault rifles and pistols.
These changes will have a significant impact on gameplay, raising a genuine concern among the teams who will be in attendance at the ESL ESEA Pro League finals as some of them would not even be able to test the new patch before the event starts.
The Pro League finals will be played in the patch before 1.35.1.2
ESL has now put such concerns to bed as the tournament will be played on the previous patch - a decision that was made after consulting with players.
"With the number of game play changes and weapon changes, we all felt that this is really important to maintain the competitive spirit of the event given the amount of money and prestige on the line," James Lampkin wrote on Reddit.
The Pro League finals will kick off on Thursday at 19:00 with the first match, pitting Team Liquid against EnVyUs. The full tournament schedule can be found here.The quantity of data exchanged via communications networks around the globe is growing at a breathtaking rate. The volume of data for wired and mobile communications is currently increasing by 23% and 57% respectively every year. It is impossible to predict when this growth will end. This also means that all network components must constantly be made more efficient.
These components include so-called modulators, which convert the information that is originally available in electrical form into optical signals. Modulators are therefore nothing more than fast electrical switches that turn a laser signal on or off at the frequency of the incoming electrical signals. Modulators are installed in data centres in their thousands. However, they all have the disadvantage of being quite large. Measuring a few centimetres across, they take up a great deal of space when used in large numbers.
From micromodulators to nanomodulators
Six months ago, a working group led by Jürg Leuthold, Professor of Photonics and Communications already succeeded in proving that the technology could be made smaller and more energy-efficient. As part of that work, the researchers presented a micromodulator measuring just 10 micrometres across – or 10,000 times smaller than modulators in commercial use (see ETH News).
Leuthold and his colleagues have now taken this to the next level by developing the world’s smallest optical modulator. And this is probably as small as it can get: the component operates at the level of individual atoms. The footprint has therefore been further reduced by a factor of 1,000 if you include the switch together with the light guides. However, the switch itself is even smaller, with a size measured on the atomic scale. The team’s latest development was recently presented in the journal Nano Letters.
In fact, the modulator is significantly smaller than the wavelength of light used in the system. In telecommunications, optical signals are transmitted using laser light with a wavelength of 1.55 micrometres. Normally, an optical device can not be smaller than the wavelength it should process. “Until recently, even I thought it was impossible for us to undercut this limit,” stresses Leuthold.
New structure
But his senior scientist Alexandros Emboras proved the laws of optics wrong by successfully reconfiguring the construction of a modulator. This construction made it possible to penetrate the order of magnitude of individual atoms, even though the researchers were using light with a “standard wavelength”.PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Pennsylvania Attorney General is investigating the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, following a city controller’s report showing irregular spending.
The Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia spent more than $300,000 for travel related to Pope Francis’ visit two years ago — more than four times what it had disclosed earlier, according to findings in the city controller’s final report on the fund.
This is yet another torpedo in the water over the fund, a nonprofit that collects marathon fees and private donations.
Butkovitz says the fund has been slow to respond to his requests for information, which fund officials deny.
Butkovitz has accused former officials, including the fund’s ex-executive director, Desiree Peterkin Bell, of using it as a slush fund during Pope Francis’ visit two years ago.
“What is the big secret? It was a civic function. It was promoted as something that would be a great asset to Philadelphia’s international reputation,” he said.
Butkovitz has taken heavy fire over his papal probe.
Former Mayor Michael Nutter previously called him a “liar, snake and hypocrite.”
Peterkin Bell has in the past denied any wrongdoing.
The controller claims she ducked policies for awarding grants and says two credit cards were wired to the fund, with exceptionally questionable purchases.
He is also calling foul on current leadership at the fund, claiming they’ve stopped cooperating.
He’s unlikely to finish his investigation so he’s counting on Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
“He’s got dual powers, he’s got criminal investigatory power and he also has specific authority to investigate charities,” said Butkovitz.
Shapiro’s office says it has opened an investigation. The fund recently announced a re-organization to avoid irregularities in the future.Kenji Eno was always very anti-Sony and pro-SEGA back in the day. So much so that his franchises turned out to be exclusive and the man would go on a media rampage to put down Sony when he could. He is known for his horror SEGA Saturn titles like Enemy Zero and D (which later got a sequel on Dreamcast).
“I felt betrayed when Sony was treating me like that, so when I heard that the Sega vice president was a very interesting guy, he and I met and created this whole plot. My original conditions to make the game exclusive for Saturn involved my earlier story about supplying 1,000 Saturns for the blind people, and also to have Sega’s president appear onstage, personally, for the event. That was the original plot, and that was what was going to happen until the last minute, but he had a board meeting at Sega, and they were like, “OK, you’re actually appearing?” Like, Sega is a big, successful company, and a high-up management-level guy in that kind of company appearing in a situation like that isn’t good, so everybody stopped him. So he appeared in a video rather than in person.” – Kenji Eno tells 1up in a exclusive interview back in 2008.
Cause of death is said to be heart failure brought on by hypertension. Its funny how ahead of his time he was, one of his conditions to make his games exclusive to Saturn was for SEGA to give a 1,000 Saturn’s to blind people. He even created a game for them called ‘Real Sounds: Kaze No Regret‘ for the Saturn that was later re-released on Dreamcast.Yves Boisvert is a columnist with La Presse.
--------------------------------
What a difference a niqab makes. The piece of clothing that few Quebec voters have ever seen first-hand is derailing the New Democratic Party's election campaign in the province.
Story continues below advertisement
The Orange Wave was poised to sweep the province even more than it did in the 2011 federal vote. It was expected that a majority of Parti Québécois supporters would vote for the once-reviled "centralist" party. The NDP worked hard, indeed, to seduce the nationalist and progressive voters, stealing mainly from the Bloc Québécois.
And then the highly niqab issue came along. Media headlines have many people believing that the Federal Court of Appeal, in its Sept. 15 ruling, "allowed" women to wear face veils in citizenship ceremonies.
In fact, the predictable six-paragraph decision, issued from the bench, simply confirmed a technical ruling that had been rendered last February, in which the Charter-protected freedom of religion was not even discussed. The legal point is very narrow: Can a 2011 policy that bans the wearing of niqabs in citizenship ceremonies overrule a government regulation that allowed for the "greatest possible freedom in religious solemnization" during those ceremonies? The answer is legally obvious: No. If the federal government wanted to ban the wearing of face veils at citizenship ceremonies, all it had to do was change the regulation itself.
But who cares about the legal "details"? The court unwillingly came to the rescue of the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois. Consider where Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair stand on this "value" issue, says a Conservative radio advertisement that has just aired in Quebec.
And in a controversial television ad that melds the "dark" issues of oil sands and identity, the Bloc argues that the niqab is "one drop too many."
Recent opinion polls show the operation is paying off for the Conservatives in targeted ridings, mainly in the Quebec City area. The Bloc got a little bit of oxygen, but still seems to have a difficult time getting one or two MPs elected. Interestingly, the Bloc has traditionally positioned itself to the left of centre. But on some military issues (such as bombing Islamic State fighters) and identity, it now makes common cause with the Conservatives. Thus it is difficult to track how voters are circulating from one party to another.
These shifting opinion polls are making the New Democrats very nervous. Door-to-door seduction has been tougher lately for NDP candidates. Many have publicly expressed their "discomfort" with their party's stand on the niqab issue, although they "fully" support Mr. Mulcair. Every radio interview, however, seems to make their case more difficult.
Story continues below advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
On Wednesday, NDP candidate Danielle Landreville in Joliette posted a comment on Facebook that "as a feminist" the issue was "troubling" her. The posting was erased in the afternoon.
NDP strategists try to stay calm. After all, they can draw comfort in the one big, steady trend in opinion surveys that has survived this prolonged campaign: the desire for change.
They can also point to the past provincial election, in 2014. The incumbent PQ government had proposed a "charter of values" aimed at banning religious signs for public servants, teachers, hospital staff and so on. The Liberals won the election, with the PQ tallying its worst result in 40 years.
The niqab issue may provoke passions and revive identity politics. But at the end, the NDP hopes, the big question to answer at the ballot box will still be: Harper or not Harper?An Indian state minister has come up with a controversial way to shine the light on the country’s long-standing issue of domestic violence.
Gopal Bhargava, India’s minister for social justice, handed out 700 wooden paddles to newly-married women at a recent mass marriage ceremony in Madhya Pradesh, central India.
Bhargava told the women that if their drunken husbands did not desist their advances after being told “no,” they should beat them away with the paddle.
The bats, known in Hindi as “mogri” and traditionally used to beat dirty laundry, were engraved with phrases including “police won’t intervene” and “for beating drunkards.” Bhargava says they are now “multipurpose.”
Speaking to the AFP, Bhargava said he wanted to highlight the abuse women in rural areas were facing from alcohol-fueled husbands. “Women say whenever their husbands get drunk they become violent. Their savings are taken away and splurged on liquor,” he said.
“If a family gets 100 rupees, and then at least 50 rupees are spent on the alcohol.”
Bhargava said the wooden paddles are not intended to provoke women or instigate them to violence, rather “the bat is to prevent violence.”
He added: “You can use it below the belt.”
As well as the 700 paddles distributed at the wedding, Bhargava has ordered 10,000 to be distributed to recently married women and their family members.
While liquor is not banned in Madhya Pradesh, the Indian government is increasingly regulating alcohol consumption across the country.
Four states in India have some type of alcohol ban in place. In April, the Supreme Court banned all shops from serving alcohol within 1,600 feet of major roads, according to CNN. The country also regularly enacts dry days when no liquor is sold, often on holidays or on the day of an election.
Crimes against women in India rose by 34% between 2012 and 2015, with more than 34,000 cases of rape reported in 2015 alone, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
In 2016, the Gulabi Gang, a women’s group “intended to punish oppressive husbands, fathers and brothers, and combat domestic violence and desertion,” launched a campaign to prevent the sale of alcohol.Medical researchers have finally provided scientific backing for a truth that advocates have known for years—that performing genital reshaping surgery on intersex children at birth or soon after is harmful. A study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that large numbers of intersex adults are dissatisfied with the results of childhood genital surgery; the study's authors recommended that surgical decisions be postponed until adolescence or adulthood, when the patient can give informed consent. Despite such conclusive findings and harrowing accounts from young people speaking out about the abuse they experienced at the hands of medical providers, involuntary genital cutting remains routine throughout the world.
A person has an intersex condition, or difference of sexual development (DSD), if he or she is born with a body that is different from what most people expect for a male or female child. Such anomalies can include atypical genitals, chromosomes, or internal sex organs. When a child is born with atypical genitals—whether that means a clitoris that is larger than usual, a penis with a urethra that doesn’t come right to the tip, or genitals that do not look obviously male or female—it is common for doctors to perform genital surgery in infancy to make the genitals look more “normal.” This is done because doctors and parents are distressed by the appearance of atypical genitals, and they believe “normalcy” will make the child's life easier. Often, doctors and parents also believe that making the genitals look more typical will prevent “gender confusion” or homosexuality. By performing involuntary, non-lifesaving surgeries on intersex infants, these perhaps well-intentioned doctors are blatantly violating their patients’ rights and in some cases the law.
Additionally, genital reshaping surgeries often don’t work out as planned. They can cause lifelong physical and psychological pain, scarring, lost sexual sensation, and many other problems. Sometimes the procedures also involve involuntary sterilization. Sometimes the child rejects the gender assignment, and these surgeries are not reversible. Intersex adults who have lived through these procedures argue that only the affected person can decide whether to take on these risks, and they believe—like the study’s results conclude—that genital reshaping surgery should not be done until the child is old enough to participate in the decision-making process.
Thanks to the work of an emerging cadre of advocates for people with intersex conditions or DSD, standards of care are starting to change. An international consensus statement by medical professionals recommends a more restrained approach to genital surgery. It also recommends telling patients and parents the whole truth about their condition and treatment, which has not always been the practice. Doctors and parents are now questioning the wisdom of early genital surgery, and the practice is increasingly considered controversial (but it is still widely done).
Many parents report that they were not given full information when asked to make medical decisions for their intersex children, particularly about the controversies around genital surgery. Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) is one leading legal advocacy group working to make sure that parents receive complete information and that the rights of children with intersex conditions are protected when medical decisions are being made. Part of this work is to make sure that doctors know that some involuntary procedures commonly performed on children with intersex conditions are in fact against the law. Another part is to help their clients recover from the abuse they suffered masquerading as medical care.
A few years ago, an intersex woman approached AIC with a request. She was born with atypical genitals as a result of a medical condition. In an effort to make her look like a “normal” girl, her doctors had removed her clitoris in infancy. They told her parents never to tell her what had happened. Throughout childhood she was exposed to humiliating displays at the teaching hospital where she was treated, being made to show her genitals to one resident physician after another. Such treatment was standard for children like her. As an adult, she decided to take action to be sure that nothing like this happened again. She didn’t ask to sue her doctors, though. She wanted an apology.
AIC asked the hospital workers to listen to the woman’s story. At first they were defensive. They argued that they had done their best for the patient and followed accepted protocols. After extensive negotiations, two leading hospitals and the prominent physician who had overseen her care recognized that she had suffered real harm as a result of her treatment, and they offered sincere expressions of regret. To our knowledge, these are the first such apologies. Unexpectedly, the physicians involved in this process are taking action on their own to improve care, to be more aware of privacy issues, and to reduce unnecessary interventions. Hearing her story and the act of apology helped them to see intersex patients in a new way.
The Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, a coalition led by the Open Society Foundations, recently applauded AIC founder and executive director Anne Tamar-Mattis for her work in exposing the degrading and abusive medical treatment of intersex children. We hope the medical community will take a step back to read the latest studies and listen to the voices of advocates and patients themselves.The State Department on Monday took Malaysia off a list of countries with particularly egregious human trafficking records, clearing the path for the country’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, one of the top political priorities for the Obama administration.
The move to officially upgrade Malaysia from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in the department’s annual report on human trafficking came despite scant evidence that the country has improved oversight of the businesses that enslave workers within its borders. It has raised concerns among some anti-trade activists that the decision was made for purely political reasons.
The trade promotion authority that Congress approved, which was signed into law by President Obama in June, came with a condition: No country on Tier 3 of the human trafficking report could get “fast-track” status for trade agreements signed with the United States.
In other words, trade deals with a Tier 3 country could not go to Congress for a guaranteed up-or-down vote without the possibility of filibuster or amendment. Malaysia is one of 12 countries negotiating TPP. The White House tried on multiple occasions to neutralize this language without success. So the State Department’s upgrade for Malaysia could be seen as a Plan B.
The shift has been rumored for weeks. Malaysia controls a key oil shipping lane to China, and the U.S. sees it as a key strategic partner in efforts to neutralize China’s growing influence in Asia.
The Communications Workers of America, which opposes TPP, condemned the Obama Administration for “placing the completion of the TPP ahead of human trafficking concerns.” Furthermore, CWA legislative director Shane Larson said the change “tramples on our country’s basic values. … We simply should not be rewarding bad actor countries like Malaysia with inclusion in trade deals.”
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who wrote the anti-trafficking provision into the trade promotion authority, pronounced himself “profoundly disappointed” with the change on Malaysia in a statement. He suggested that the report was “subject to political manipulation,” and vowed hearings, investigations and potentially legislation on the issue.
Despite the White House’s contention that trade deals like TPP are “the most progressive in history,” it appears to be overlooking significant forced labor violations to get it passed.
In 2014, the State Department demoted Malaysia to Tier 3 status for being a destination “for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking.” Malaysia’s 4 million foreign workers are threatened by large smuggling debts and confiscated passports that put them at the mercy of recruiting companies. Women in particular, recruited for hotel or beauty salon work, are routinely coerced into the commercial sex trade. And forced labor runs rampant in agricultural, construction and textile industries, producing the same goods that would get duty-free access to U.S. markets under TPP.
There is little evidence that anything has changed for Malaysia’s foreign workers. Just a couple months ago authorities discovered a mass grave of 139 Rohingya Muslims, who fled discrimination in Burma and were sold into slavery upon their escape. Trafficking enforcement remains weak; in April, U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun criticized the country for doing too little to stop slavery. The Wall Street Journal found persistent forced labor abuses on Malaysian palm oil plantations in an article published Sunday.
The State Department’s 2015 report reads almost exactly like last year’s with a few words changed, the way middle school students avoid plagiarism for book reports. But they allege that, while “the Government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking … it is making significant efforts to do so.”
The total evidence for this includes amendments to an existing anti-trafficking law that were not passed into law by the time the report was written; a pilot program to aid trafficking victims housed in government facilities; and increased investigations and prosecutions of trafficking operations, even though convictions in 2014 fell by more than half compared to the previous year, from nine to four.
Caption: An abandoned people-smuggling camp in Malaysia.Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 15 (CNA) Taiwan's Tourism Bureau is stepping up its efforts to promote the country's streamlined visa application procedure in Indonesia, in the hope of attracting more tourists from the Southeast Asian nation.
Officials from the bureau's representative office in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur visited Jakarta Thursday to meet with Indonesian travel agents and air carriers to brief them on the details of the new visa procedure.
Under a promotional scheme launched by the bureau, people will get a free Easycard with a stored value of NT$888 if they buy a package tour worth US$1,000 or more with a travel agency working with the bureau.
Taiwan launched the new visa application procedure Nov. 1, 2015, targeting tourists from five countries in Southeast and South Asia -- Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India.
Under the new procedure, tourists from the five countries no longer need to submit documents on work and finances with their visa applications, as long as they travel as part of a group tour arranged by select travel agencies working with Taiwan's Tourism Bureau.
In addition, tourists from the five countries traveling as part of incentive tour packages provided by enterprises are eligible for the new application procedure.
(By Chou Yung-chieh and Y.F. Low)
ENDITEM/JUgh. I hate the battle of the bulge. When you’re a mom, it feels like a never ending fight. When you’re a working mom, it’s Mission: Impossible. Hence, my case against the gym. Let me explain.
I track my diet. I work out as much as my schedule allows, but yet and still, my body holds onto the extra pounds like magnets to a refrigerator. I’m not the only mom who faces this problem.
After months (and I do mean MONTHS) of working out, tracking my calories and drinking ONLY WATER, I lost only about five or six pounds.
“You need to work out more.”
“You need to get more rest.”
“You need to stop stressing.”
Gee, really?! THANKS, Captain Obvious.
You wanna know who this helpful “advice” comes from? Friends who don’t have kids or full-time jobs. When they’re busy doling out this well-meaning, albeit, naïve advice, I just nod and smile, but on the inside, I’m fantasizing about choking them because I’m tired, cranky, sore and HUNGRY.
When I tell them that my schedule is too busy or that I’m not really able to make it to the gym for two hours a day, five days a week, they just scoff a little and tell me I’m making excuses.
EXCUSES? Ok, friend, let’s pick apart my excuses and relate them to your wise little nuggets of wisdom (mmm chicken nuggets…).
“You need to work out more.”
Really, childless friend? You think it’s just THAT easy to “work out more”? Let me describe my working mom morning routine to you. My 4-year-old wakes up at approximately six o’clock in the morning. From there, my 2-year-old gets up. We, as a collective household, begin a mad dash to eat breakfast, do hair, wash up, get dressed, and get out of the house before 7:45. Don’t think that’s hard? I’d like you to bring your butt over to my house in the morning and observe that routine. I guarantee you’ll be tired and frazzled by just watching.
Oh. Don’t forget to take the dog out before you leave the house unless you’re ready to come home to a “surprise” on your already-abused carpet.
Thanks to the fact that my job is one hour (that’s right, ONE HOUR) away from my house in traffic, I don’t get home until close to 6pm. My kids get bathed and put down for bed around 7pm. During that brief time that I’m home in the afternoon, I’d like to spend that time WITH THEM.
You see, my young children have just spent 90% of their waking time with someone else. That brief hour and a half of the day that I get to see them is kind of important for us…so no. As a mother, I can’t spend that time working out. I won’t allow my time with my kids to dwindle down to nothing just so that I can work out more. The one thing people without children don’t understand is that being selfish isn’t a luxury parents have. Yes, childless person, you are selfish. No one is faulting you for that. You’re supposed to have the luxury of selfishness when you don’t have kids. You’re allowed to be because you’re the center of your known universe. My kids are the center of mine. Chew on that.
“What about after the kids go to bed? Surely having both kids in bed by 7:30 means you have time to work out.”
Well, yes. That’s the time I normally attempt a workout. If neither of my kids wake up and interrupt (due to teething, bad dreams, a cold, an ear infection or general fussiness), I can manage to make it through MAYBE a one-hour workout on my half-broken elliptical, but one hour is my limit.
One hour is all I can manage.
“Why? You don’t go to bed that early, do you?”
Well, no. But I have two very active children who make it a point to tear my house apart every day. There’s dishes that need to be done, food that needs to be stored, toys that need to be put away, floors that need to be mopped/swept, clothes in need of washing, folding and ironing, bathrooms that need to be sanitized…oh yeah, and I have a husband that might want me to pay attention to him for a couple of minutes a day too.
I get up early, get kids ready, fight through traffic, work, fight through traffic again, come home, bond with kids, then work out for as long as I can before it’s time for me to start trying to put my house back in order. You see, when you become a mother, you and your body get bumped down on the priority list. In fact, I doubt I’ll meet a mom who puts herself within her top four list of daily priorities.
I once went 15 hours without eating simply because I FORGOT. Who does that?
A mom, that’s who.
Let’s get a head count from the amount of moms who read this blog who have literally been so busy they |
. He began to describe to the British the enormous scope and ambition of the Biopreparat system, which included developing new genetically-engineered pathogens. His revelations were quietly shared with the United States as well.
The Berlin Wall fell November 9, and on December 2-3, President Bush met Gorbachev at the Malta summit. There were many pressing issues, including the future of Germany and Gorbachev’s waning power at home. Bush did not discuss with Gorbachev the disturbing reports about a Soviet biological weapons program.
At the same time, Soviet officials realized that Pasechnik could unmask many of their secrets, and they began to steel themselves for questions. Weeks after the Malta summit, a conflict broke out among Soviet officials about how much to say to the West about the Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak.
Document 1 - A reference note, or spravka, on the reasons for the Sverdlovsk outbreak. This draft internal memorandum, dated Dec. 19, 1989, notes the persistent questions from abroad and at home about Sverdlovsk. The memo says there was a high-level discussion about how to respond, and the decision was made to keep up the cover story that the anthrax outbreak had natural causes. However, the memo hints at the possibility that the military compound was linked to the outbreak.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection]
On January 5, 1990, the Soviet Foreign Ministry, under Shevardnadze, made a very modest effort to bring some more openness to the issue. The ministry circulated a draft Central Committee resolution to 15 people. The ministry proposed telling the West that the Sverdlovsk accident was under investigation and suggested exchanging some information with the United States about this and other questions surrounding biological weapons.
Document 2 - Ministry of Defense strongly objects. In this January 10, 1990 memo Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov objects to the Foreign Ministry’s proposals for more openness about Sverdlovsk and biological weapons. Yazov says there was no accident at the military compound and there should be no exchange with the Americans, because this would contradict all the Soviet claims that it never had biological weapons.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection] Document 3 - Foreign Ministry retreats. In this memo, dated January 11, 1990, Viktor Karpov, a deputy Foreign Minister, pulls back, saying that the language in the resolution was “unfortunate ambiguous wording.” It is stricken from the resolution.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection] Document 4 - Central Committee staffers comment. An excerpt from a memo in which two Central Committee staffers, one of whom is Katayev, comment that Karpov should not have circulated the draft resolution and claim that he had “no right to disclose” information about biological weapons.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection]
The United States and Great Britain, now in possession of Pasechnik’s disclosures, quietly confronted the Soviets. On May 14, 1990, the British and American ambassadors in Moscow, Sir Rodric Braithwaite and Jack F. Matlock Jr., delivered a joint démarche, or formal protest. Among others, they took it to Alexander Bessmertnykh, Shevardnadze’s First Deputy.
Document 5 - The Bessmertnykh notes. These are the detailed notes made by Bessmertnykh about the U.S.-British demarche. The two ambassadors said that they had information the Soviet Union had a large-scale, secret program in the field of biological weapons.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection]
The demarche got the Kremlin’s attention. The next day, May 15, 1990, Lev Zaikov, the Politburo member for the military-industrial complex, sent a typewritten letter to Gorbachev and Shevardnadze. Although Gorbachev’s role in the biological weapons program is not clear up to this point, the Zaikov letter shows that he was informed of some details on this date.
Document 6 - The Zaikov letter to Gorbachev. In this important memo, which he wrote at Gorbachev’s request, Zaikov puts a very selective spin on the history and activities of the Soviet germ warfare program. It is evident from the letter that Soviet officials lied not only to the world, but to each other, including the president of the country.
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection]
For more analysis of the letter, see The Dead Hand, pp. 346-348.
Two days later, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III was invited to join Shevardnadze on a sightseeing trip to Zagorsk, a town forty-three miles northeast of the Kremlin with a famous Russian Orthodox monastery. Baker had prepared a short paper outlining what the United States knew.
As they cruised to Zagorsk in Shevardnadze’s ZIL limousine, flying Soviet and American flags on the front, with no aides but two interpreters in the car, Baker raised the issue of biological weapons and handed the paper to Shevardnadze. Baker recalled that Shevardnadze said, in the present tense, “he didn’t think it could be so, but he would check it out.”
The issue of biological weapons came up again at the Washington summit. On Saturday, June 2, 1990, President Bush and Gorbachev had a private discussion about it at Camp David.
And in July 1990, Baker gave Shevardnadze yet another paper outlining American concerns about biological weapons.
Shevardnadze was scheduled to meet Baker in August at Lake Baikal. On July 27 and again on July 30, 1990, a group of officials gathered at Zaikov’s office in Moscow to draft the talking points that Shevardnadze would use to respond to Baker.
Document 7 and Document 8: Shevardnadze’s talking points for Baker on Aug. 1, 1990. Shevardnadze essentially continues the cover-up. He says, “We have no biological weapons.” Document 7 is a draft, and Document 8 consists of Shevardnadze’s actual talking points. In his memoirs, Shevardnadze alluded to this moment: “If anything, Jim could have had some doubts about my honesty, in connection with an unpleasant story I do not intend to tell here.” He added, “Lying is always unproductive.”
[Source: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Katayev collection]
The Shevardnadze response was followed by a long negotiation which resulted in the first U.K.-U.S. visits to the Soviet biological weapons complex in January, 1991. But the Western experts who visited came away with even deeper suspicions that a massive germ warfare program existed.
The stonewalling would continue even after the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
For more, see The Dead Hand.Europe’s freedom champions Britain, France and Germany have all clamped down on their citizens’ internet liberties, it’s claimed.
While the trio pale in comparison to China, Iran and Russia there has been a gradual worsening of online freedoms in the last year, say Freedom House (FH).
It came as the watchdog also revealed elections in 18 countries, including the US, were influenced by disinformation campaigns over the last 12 months.
FH ranked countries from 0 to 100 according to their control of what people said, did and shared on the web, with a zero indicating complete freedom.
Hungary was the worst of the European countries it studied, but France, on 26 points, was just three behind Budapest.
Its increase was linked to blocking content that was judged to incite or condone terrorism after a series of jihadist attacks rocked the country.
There were 874 requests to block sites between March 2016 and February 2017, compared with 312 during the previous period.
Content was also restricted in Germany to combat fake news about the country’s refugee influx and election.
Legislation was passed to allow social networks to be fined if they failed to remove content judged to be terrorist propaganda, fake news or hate speech.
The UK, meanwhile, has restricted users’ rights by “monitoring information flows” in a bid to combat terrorist and hate speech online, say FH
“European countries have been quick to legislate in the wake of terrorist attacks, introducing measures that could compromise security for everyone,” said the report.
“Anti-terrorism legislation passed in Hungary in July 2016 requires providers of encrypted services to grant authorities access to client communications.
“The United Kingdom’s Investigatory Powers Act, passed in November 2016, could be used to require companies to “remove electronic protection” from communications or data where technically feasible.”
Britain’s home secretary, Amber Rudd, speaking after terrorist attacks in London over the summer, said “real people” did not use the encryption provided by the likes of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging service.
The report continued: “Restrictions on encryption continued to expand, perpetuating a trend that Freedom on the Net has tracked for a number of years. At least six countries – China, Hungary, Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam – recently passed or implemented laws that may require companies or individuals to break encryption, offering officials so-called backdoor access to confidential communications.
“Encryption scrambles data so that it can only be read by the intended recipient, offering an essential layer of protection for activists and journalists who need to communicate securely. But even democratic governments often perceive it merely as a tool to shield terrorist and other criminal activity from law enforcement agencies.”Adel Taarabt may wear Queens Park Rangers' No7 shirt but he follows a long line of sublimely-skilled old-fashioned No10s who have graced Loftus Road over the past 45 years. Call them playmakers, fantasistas, attacking midfielders or inside-forwards, but I doubt any supporters have been so blessed as those of the west London club whose glorious memories of Rodney Marsh, Stanley Bowles, Gerry Francis, Tony Currie, an ageing but still inspirational Trevor Francis and Roy Wegerle, have been burnished by the outrageously gifted Moroccan's performances this season.
When signed by Tottenham Hotspur as a 17-year-old four years ago, the Spurs manager, Martin Jol, called him "a wizard", saying, "on the ball I don't think there's another talent like him in England". If that sounds hyperbolic, it was positively downbeat compared to the praise of his agent, Rudy Raba, who set the bar ludicrously high. Raba, of course, earns his money by fluffing his players' egos and talking up their capabilities but even so his assessment that "in France he is considered the new Zidane" took flattery to an absurd extreme.
During Taarabt's brief cameos for Spurs he didn't even look like a team player never mind the second coming of Zidane. He had good control and an array of ball-juggling skills that marked him out as the sort of footballer Ron Atkinson used to call "amusement arcades", all tricks and deft flicks but very little game intelligence or positional awareness. He seemed destined for a career of peripheral self-indulgence, a YouTube showboater and gimmicky solo act who could not integrate his astonishing artistry into a team.
The fans loved him, as they always love those whose skills are unattainable. You could look at Jermaine Jenas, say, and delude yourself into thinking "I could do that". With Taarabt you could never fool yourself that what he can do with the ball is within your reach. But Jenas came much closer to fitting Harry Redknapp's requirements and the overwhelming majority of managers with that option would have made the same judgment.
Last season he was loaned to QPR and signed a long-term deal in the summer. There he has transformed himself from a player whose career seemed to be all about personal glory to one at the heart of the team. He has even been handed the captaincy. He remains mercurial and full of barefaced cheek, but he now lays the ball off at the right time more frequently, takes up clever positions and is cool as you like in front of goal.
And credit here must go to Neil Warnock, who has lightened up considerably since moving to London with Crystal Palace. There was no room for "show ponies" in his earlier gameplans, let alone building a team around a player who can still be inclined to sulk.
Other ball marvels who have had to knuckle down, such as Joe Cole, have appeared sedated, as if curbing instincts has robbed them of their special quality. But Taarabt continues with his dragbacks, Cruyff turns, sidesteps and even unveiled a "rainbow flick" against Reading, where he knocked the ball from his right instep on to his left heel and arced it over his head. When added to his imperious dribbling, crossing, shooting, greater discipline and awareness, his 15 Championship goals and 13 assists, make him the division's outstanding player.
Alec Stock signed Marsh in 1966 from Fulham and faced the same scepticism that Warnock endured at the start of the season, when he persuaded Taarabt to leave Spurs. In his autobiography, A Little Thing Called Pride, Stock remembered the derision his decision brought but there are echoes of the Moroccan's attributes for a team in Stock's explanation of his recruitment policy. "Immediately he [Marsh] had signed there were people in the game who took great delight in telling me what was wrong with our new player," he wrote. "'He's a clown', they said. 'He doesn't like hard work and he isn't consistent.' I wasn't particularly looking for consistency. I wanted style and imagination."
Taarabt brings style and imagination in abundance to Rangers and joins a list of other great Caesars who thrived at second division level, such as Blackpool's Tony Green and Alan Suddick, Port Vale's Ray Walker and Manchester United's Gerry Daly. Green and Daly were equally effective in the First Division, the former's career-ending injury when playing for Newcastle United continues to be lamented at St James' Park, where older fans still talk about his mesmerising dribbling.
The cynics may say wait until Taarabt plays consistently in the Premier League before passing judgment and there are callow, petulant edges to his character that his on-field maturity has not yet eradicated. But the signs are encouraging and QPR supporters know a good thing when they see one. After all they have had the good fortune to witness so many in the past.accused by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan +
Swaraj India +
Amanatullah had resigned from the party's PAC +
NEW DELHI: The split in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got deeper on Tuesday as party's founding member Kumar Vishwas and Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia took to media to lash out at each other.Vishwas, who has beenof hobnobbing with the BJP and the RSS, questioned party leaders as to why no action had been taken against the Okhla MLA.He said Amanatullah was merely a "mask" behind those hatching conspiracies against him."Had Amanatullah Khan said anything like this against Arvind or Manish, he would have been shown the door in 10 minutes," Vishwas said.Minutes after Vishwas's attack on the party leadership, Sisodia came out in defence of the party and lashed out Vishwas for airing his grievances in front of the media."Volunteers understand who is Kumar Vishwas helping by airing his grievances through media," Sisodia said, adding, "Vishwas was invited to party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meet but he didn't turn up.""If he has a problem with the party, he should raise it in the party forum," he said.Earlier, an emotional Vishwas said, "If someone had spoken against Arvind or Manish, the party would not have been silent."He also denied to tender an apology to anyone for the video in which he had apparently attacked AAP convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for the latter's past stand on Indian Army's operations.As per the reports, AAP had issued a gag order against some of its leaders, including Kumar Vishwas, and the latter broke his silence, saying, "I will speak out whenever required".He accused Okhla MLA of spreading false propaganda against him to demotivate the party cadres and said "I will not be affected by any negative campaign against me."Vishwas also ruled out any ambition for the top posts in the Delhi government or party."I have conveyed this to Arvind, Manish (Sisodia) and I reiterate it today that I don't want to become chief minister, deputy chief minister or AAP's national convener."I don't want to join any political party or(political party founded by expelled AAP leader Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan)."I don't know what you want to do, but I don't want to do this," Vishwas told reporters outside his Ghaziabad residence.Vishwas said the fighting in the party will leave the volunteers demotivated."Five years ago, we didn't sign up for this. Today, we have disappointed a major section of our grassroots workers. Neither I, nor they signed up for this. There are many who left their jobs to volunteer for us," an emotional Vishwas told reporters.Earlier in the day, several AAP MLAs, including Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra met Vishwas, seeking to pacify him.However, it appeared to have yielded no results. Vishwas also remained adamant on Khan being sacked from the party.on Monday night.This comes days after Amanatullah accused Vishwas of plotting to turn 34 AAP MLAs against Kejriwal. He had also accused Vishwas of acting at behest of BJP, which was ready to pay Rs 30 crore for each AAP turncoat legislator.Following this, as many as 37 AAP MLAs demanded Kejriwal to sack Amanatullah.The MLAs also demanded a probe to ascertain on whose behest Amanatullah made such a statement.Kejriwal also came in defence of Vishwas calling him a younger brother."Kumar is my younger brother. Some people are trying to drive a wedge between us. They are enemies of the party. They should refrain. No one can separate us," he had tweeted.NDP leadership hopeful Niki Ashton says she is expecting twins in early November, shortly after her party selects a successor to Tom Mulcair.
Ashton said Wednesday she is looking at a three-month leave available to her as an MP, though she plans to remain engaged in her work and remain in Ottawa should she become the party’s new leader.
She also has yet to determine whether an interim leader in the House of Commons would be needed during that period.
Ashton said she believes much media attention has been paid to her pregnancy, but she hopes Canadians will also hear about her policy positions.
“I would recognize there is a uniqueness to it, but … it also reflects a bias that often comes up with covering women in politics – an immense amount of attention on one’s personal life, appearances rather than the substance,” she said in an interview Wednesday.
“In the work that we’ve done across the country, the events we’ve hosted, there are many, many good wishes and also sharing of advice on pregnancy,” she said, adding conversations swiftly move into how to get the NDP on track to “fighting the issues that matter.”
The federal NDP will also have to consider the possibility of an interim leader in the House should Jagmeet Singh win the race.
Earlier this month, the Ontario legislator told The Canadian Press he’s strongly considering waiting until 2019 to seek a seat in the House.
“I would be happy to spend the time while I am not a sitting member to campaign across the country, to get to know the issues, to get know the different ridings … spending that time speaking with people, reaching out to them,” he said, adding this move would be reminiscent of late leader Jack Layton.
Layton became leader in 2003, but he did not seek a seat in the Commons until the federal election the following year.
Singh, Ashton and rivals Ontario MP Charlie Angus and Quebec MP Guy Caron, are preparing for a French-language debate this Sunday in Montreal.
Ahead of the event, Caron released a plan on Wednesday detailing his plans to rebuild support in Quebec.
It includes a pledge to modernize the party’s Sherbrooke Declaration – a policy affirming the province’s right to self-determination through a simple majority vote.
Caron said it is important to update the party’s offer to the province based on its “national character”, including to enact legislation on obligation of bilingualism among Supreme Court judges.
“Without significantly increasing the number of seats the NDP holds in Quebec, our chances of taking power in 2019 are virtually nil,” he said in a statement.
The NDP currently holds 16 seats in Quebec – well below the 59 it claimed in its historic 2011 breakthrough in the province under Layton’s leadership.
The final debate of the race will be held in Vancouver on Sept. 10, a little over a week before NDP members start casting ballots online on Sept. 18.
Ashton said she plans to take part in the debate remotely due to flying restrictions that apply at that point in her pregnancy, adding the party has been accommodating.
NDP National Director Robert Fox said Wednesday the party is aware of the situation regarding Ashton’s participation in the Vancouver debate.
“We are exploring different technical options that would allow her to participate from a distance, but the exact form that this participation will take is unclear at this point,” he said in a statement.
The party also made accommodations earlier this month to allow Angus to deliver a pre-recorded video statement during a debate in Victoria, B.C. due to a terminal illness in his family.Hillary Clinton continues to widen her lead over Donald Trump after the presidential candidates shared the debate stage for the first time one week ago.
In a new Politico/Morning Consult survey of likely voters taken Sept. 30 through Oct. 2, the Democratic nominee leads her Republican rival by 6 points, 42 percent to 36 percent. It’s a sizable swing since the pre-debate poll which showed Trump leading by 1 point, underlining what a rough week it was for the New York business mogul.
Related: Clinton Bests Trump in Debate, Half of Likely Voters Say
Likely Voters Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2016 Sept. 22-24, 2016 Sept. 15-16, 2016 Sept. 6-8, 2016 Hillary Clinton 42% 38% 42% 41% Donald Trump 36% 39% 40% 39% Gary Johnson 9% 9% 8% 10% Jill Stein 3% 4% 3% 3%
Clinton’s surge has been largely driven by her boost among independents. Before the debate, Trump led Clinton by 12 points (35 percent to 23 percent) among independents, but over the weekend, she narrowed that margin to 5 points (30 percent to 25 percent). She also retains a 9-point advantage among women, whereas Trump is pulling even with Clinton among men.
Similarly, white voters have migrated toward Clinton since the debate. She still trails Trump among white voters, 37 percent to 41 percent, but that’s a tangible improvement from the week before, when he was leading her by 11 points with those voters. Meanwhile, Trump’s struggles with minorities continue. He was the first choice for just 27 percent of Hispanics, while half backed Clinton. The disparity is even greater among black voters, 76 percent of whom backed Clinton, compared with 8 percent who chose Trump.
This week also appears to have been decisive for millennial voters. One of the more common story lines of the 2016 presidential campaign trail is that the Democratic nominee has struggled to engage young voters, and before the debate she led Trump by 8 points among voters age 18 to 29. But following the debate, that lead has ballooned to 32 points. She is the top choice for 51 percent of millennials, compared with 19 percent who back Trump.
Third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein continue to garner similar levels of support. The Libertarian Johnson was the first choice for 9 percent of voters, while 3 percent are backing Stein, the Green Party nominee. And while those numbers aren’t high enough to earn them a spot on the debate stage, their presence in the field continues to affect the margin of the race. When voters were only given the options of Trump and Clinton, the Democratic nominee had a slightly larger lead over the Republican, 46 percent to 39 percent.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), both candidates are still relative unknowns to voters. One-third of voters still haven’t heard of or have no opinion of Pence, while more than four out of 10 voters (41 percent) said the same for Kaine. The Republican vice presidential nominee holds a slight edge over the Democrat when it comes to popularity. More than one-third of likely voters (35 percent) have a favorable view of Pence, compared with 30 percent for Kaine. But, Pence’s negatives — at 32 percent — are slightly higher than Kaine’s (30 percent).
The national Morning Consult survey polled 1,778 likely voters from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 for a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. See the toplines and crosstabs.Yale University students and supporters demonstrate against what they see as racial insensitivity at the Ivy League school on Nov. 9. (Ryan Flynn/Associated Press)
Trigger warning: I’m about to commit a microaggression. Maybe a macro one. Here goes: Yale students worked up over an e-mail about Halloween costumes, grow up. Learn some manners. Develop some sense of judgment and proportion.
The Yalies are all spun up over Halloween costumes — specifically, an administrator’s suggestion that an official e-mail cautioning against offensive outfits was unwise and, indeed, infantilizing. The e-mail, from Silliman College Associate Master Erika Christakis, was caveated and respectful.
Still, she wondered, “Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious?... And the censure and prohibition come from above, not from yourselves! Are we all okay with this transfer of power?”
Her husband Nicholas, the Silliman College master, suggested an alternative approach, Christakis wrote. “If you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.”
This mild questioning backfired, spectacularly. Irony alert: Christakis was arguing to empower the students to decide how to dress themselves. In response, these supposedly adult students behaved like, well, infants, demanding an apology from both Christakises.
On Nov. 5, Yale University students gathered to protest over faculty members' e-mails regarding culturally sensitive Halloween costumes. One student confronted Nicholas Christakis, the master of Silliman College. (Greg Lukianoff/FIRE)
When that was not forthcoming, they — well, some of them — had a tantrum. If you think I am exaggerating, watch the video of students confronting Nicholas Christakis (http://ow.ly/UtS2F). “Walk away, he doesn’t deserve to be listened to,” says one student, perfectly capturing the mind-set of intolerance. “Who the [expletive] hired you?” another screams at Christakis. “You should not sleep at night, you are disgusting.”
To criticize this response is not necessarily to say that Erika Christakis was correct. No doubt, Yale can be an uncomfortable place for minority students. After her e-mail, the campus was roiled by an accusation, still disputed, that a fraternity turned away African Americans trying to get into a party, saying it was for “white girls only.” In that context, the equities of avoiding offense to fellow community members and promoting free expression may tip in the direction of the former. Suggesting that students be mindful and considerate of how their costumes might offend others may be appropriate, not disempowering.
But this is precisely the important discussion Christakis was attempting to launch, and what going to college is — or should be — all about. The possibility of this reasoned interchange is foreclosed when a tempered communication is greeted by vitriol and outrage.
The Yale episode is important because it reflects disturbing twin trends across higher education: suppression of speech that is unwelcome and overreaction to offensive episodes.
The recent events at the University of Missouri reflect the second trend. Yes, the racial climate there sounds awful: the student body president being called the N-word; a white man shouting racial slurs at a black group; a swastika drawn with feces. No student should have to tolerate living in such a hostile environment.
And yet, the response — a hunger strike by graduate student Jonathan Butler to force the university president to step down — seems disproportionate to the offense. Not the offense of racial slurs — the offense of the university’s reaction. University President Tim Wolfe failed to get out of his convertible when student protesters swarmed it during the homecoming parade. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin waited too long to condemn the N-word incident.
This hardly feels like George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door. Indeed, it hardly feels like University of Louisville President James Ramsey dressing in a poncho and sombrero for Halloween. Yet, Wolfe is out, and Loftin is stepping aside.
Hundreds of students rallied in solidarity with minority students at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., on Nov. 9. (Facebook/John M. Hagedorn)
More complicated factors may have been at work in Missouri. The football team exercised its economic muscle to demand Wolfe’s ouster. The faculty was revolting against Loftin over budget cuts. But the punishment seems disproportionate to their supposed offenses.
Writing in the Atlantic recently, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt warn of the new “coddling” of college students: “A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense.”
College is not supposed to be a “safe space,” as one Yale student demanded. It is supposed to be a provocative environment — broadening, not sheltering. When professors have to worry about showing famous paintings with topless women (degrading), and when they are instructed that “America is the land of opportunity” constitutes a microaggression, something is seriously amiss.
And that is scarier than any Halloween costume.
Read more from Ruth Marcus’s archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Gameplay Will Be Revealed At Gamescom
By Spencer. July 30, 2012. 2:17am
Square Enix is giving Final Fantasy XIV a reboot and a new subtitle. If you missed it, here’s a teaser of what Final Fantasy XIV will be like later this year. We’ll get a better look at Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn during a gameplay presentation stage show with Director/Producer Naoki Yoshida. Yoshida will also be around for signing sessions on Friday and Saturday. (Bring your Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road cards since Yoshida worked on that too.)
Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman: Absolution will also be on display to play. Square Enix Europe also has the new PC version of Final Fantasy VII with the character booster feature on their lineup, which will be released as a digital download in the future.Make simple Christmas tree ornaments from glue! It’s time for some easy Christmas crafts for kids and these Christmas tree ornaments are deceptively easy to make. They also make great suncatchers for window decorations. We love hanging ours on the tree because the colors from the Christmas tree shine through and make the ornaments shine even more.
Today we’re joining up with my blogging friends from All Things Kids to bring you fun and easy Christmas activities for toddlers and preschoolers! Check below for more fun activities.
Affiliate links provided for your convenience, see my disclosure for more info.
These trees are based off of the heart suncatchers we made in the summer. This craft is great for preschoolers but it’s simple enough that even toddlers can easily do it!! Also be aware before you start, this craft takes several days to dry.
Glue Suncatchers: A Christmas Tree Ornament Craft!
Materials:
Set out your cookie cutter on a piece of parchment or wax paper & the have your kids fill the cookie cutter with glue.
We then added beads and sequins to the glue. After they added all the decorations they wanted on their Christmas trees we set them in an area where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
As I mentioned above it takes several days for these to dry, two of ours took 2 days and one took 3 to be dry enough for us to pop them out. I’ve found that they pop out easier if I do it as soon as the glue dries vs waiting a few days after it dries completely. Ours popped out with no issues, just push them out gently along the edges.
Once they are dry and popped out you can use a knife or a pen to poke a hole in the top and add a piece for string to hang it.
Tada! That’s one adorable Christmas tree ornament that is sure to brighten any window or look great on your tree!
Here’s some more Christmas crafts from my blogging friends:
Stackadoo Printed Christmas Tree Cards from Frogs Snails & Puppy Dog Tails
Pipe Cleaner Christmas Trees from Craftulate
Tape Resist Christmas Presents from House of Burke
Children’s Books about the True Holiday Spirit from All Done Monkey
Christmas Memory Countdown from JDaniel4’s Mom
Recycled Ornament Garland Craft from Sugar Aunts
Looking for more crafts and activities? Check out our index for 100+ plus kids activities! Find activities by theme, materials, skills, age and much more!T
his is Singular Focus, a four-part video series chronicling Chris Weidman’s training as he prepares to defend his UFC middleweight title against Vitor Belfort on Saturday, May 23. In this third installment, Chris takes us inside the study of his opponent.
*
The first thing I do when I book a fight is I go to the internet and I print out a picture of the guy and put it on my refrigerator. And then I see a picture of the guy looking at me, my family and my kids in the eyes every morning, and I list reasons why I’m gonna win this fight — why I can’t make excuses and why I have to go to the gym and work hard.
This is a physical game of chess. We’re all strong. We’re all athletes. For 25 minutes, I have to play that physical game of chess. And if for one second I lose focus and I think of something else, that’s a second that I could be on the floor.
I keep my mind focused on the goal, and that’s to go out there and dominate.
Watch more of Chris Weidman’s Singular Focus here.Image caption Earlier this month Chief Constable Iain Spittal (l) and PCC Barry Coppinger (r) announced a major overhaul of the force's professional standards department
Cleveland Police acted unlawfully in monitoring the phones of two of its former officers, a tribunal has ruled.
A judge found the legislation it used, normally reserved for anti-terror investigations, was not proportionate.
The force said it was justified as there had been tip-offs to journalists, which may have been a criminal offence.
But the United Kingdom Investigatory Powers Tribunal found there was no proof of this, and no evidence of any legal advice to support its actions.
On 5 January, the force announced a major overhaul of its professional standards department, and apologised to the two Northern Echo journalists after admitting to unlawfully accessing their private phone records.
But it claimed it was within its rights to use the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) legislation to secretly monitor the calls of two of its officers in 2012.
However, judges at the tribunal in London were critical of the force, and copies of the judgement are now being sent to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
'Specialist lawyers'
The report, which was due to be published on Tuesday, was briefly released on Monday.
In response, Chief Constable Iain Spittal said: "Although I have already contacted the people affected by this and said sorry, sorry on its own isn't enough.
"Because of this, the Police and Crime Commissioner and I announced earlier this year an expert review of the professional standards department and all RIPA use over the past six years."
A spokesman said a change in the law introduced in 2015 means police must now obtain judicial approval to view journalists' telecoms records in cases where they are trying to identify their sources.
Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger said: "I accept this judgment of the hearing and I am concerned to read of the mistakes that the force made in the actions it took five years ago.
"The Chief Constable has apologised to those affected and it is right that this was done.
"What is important now is that the force understands how it got it so wrong and ensures that doesn't happen again.
"A team of specialist lawyers has now been appointed to review any similar monitoring of calls over the past six years. We will publish their findings."Deforestation was not the direct cause of the Great Irish famine of mid 19th century, but it was the start of a chain of events that led to it. In this article, I show the condition of "overshoot" that Ireland was in at the time of the famine has much in common with the "overshoot" condition our world is in today.
What shall we do for timber?
The last of the wood is down,
…..
There’s no holly nor hazel nor ash here
But pastures of rock and stone
The crown of the forest is withered
And the last of its game is gone.
From “Kings, Lords and Commons”, by Frank O’Connor (1903-1966), (reported in McCracken, 1971).
1. Introduction
Today, we are more concerned about being overweight than about not having enough to eat, at least in the industrialized world. Famines appear to us as events that occurred in remote ages, nothing that could happen to us in our enlightened era of progress and abundance. Yet, the last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Irish |
this, the electrons have to give off a lot of energy, which occurs in the form of X rays, a wavelength of light that is a million times more intense than sunlight.
These X rays travel down a silver tube, bouncing off mirrors and passing through other equipment that alters their size and shape and position. Like water from a fire hose, the light slams into Cahill's Mylar strips, which are mounted inside a lead-shielded room about the size of a walk-in closet. The X rays knock an electron loose from the different elements that make up the sample, each of which, in turn, emits a unique frequency--an atomic fingerprint, if you will--that tells the physicists exactly what elements are present.
For five and a half years, I avoided thinking about that bag in my closet, but over the two weeks I wait to get the results from Cahill's lab, I develop acute hypochondria. I wake up with a dry cough in the middle of the night and spend a solid fifteen minutes examining my tonsils for scarring. Instead of checking the latest Hot Stove news from the Boston Red Sox during lunch at my desk, I read EPA reports and conjure anything I can remember from AP chemistry. Before bed, I gorge myself on news coverage of September 11 victims, reading about their devastated families and then writing myself into the lead paragraphs as I drift off to sleep.
Finally, Cahill e-mails me an incomprehensible line graph tracking nanograms in the dust sample, plus a written analysis of the bag peppered with scary chemical formulas like CaSO 4. 2H 2 O and CaO 2 and SiO 2. Then he calls me on the phone. "I just want to tell you personally what a service you've done everybody," he says. My heart races. I wonder why he's telling me this again, wondering if he's stalling, wondering why he doesn't just come out and fucking tell me the bad news already. And then: "Basically, you just got a big blast of drywall. Which is harmless."
What? Come again now? Where are the freaky microtoxins that will enter my bloodstream and attack my heart? Where's all that lead from the Chinese electrical cords?
"We saw a tiny amount of lead on your bag," Cahill says. "I mean, it was tiny. We can say the lead levels present in the cloud itself were essentially zero."
So what did I breathe? Construction materials, for the most part: cement dust from the square-acre floors of the tower; aggregate materials, which basically means particulates of rock and gravel; and drywall, which is made of a calcium-based substance called gypsum. The coarsest particles, the ones I presumably spit up in the bank lobby, consisted of all three materials, but the finest particles--the ones that invade your deep lung, never to leave--were also mostly gypsum. And gypsum is safe for human consumption. Matter of fact, it's used to enrich bread with calcium, can be found in toothpaste and blackboard chalk, and helps coagulate tofu. Tofu, for chrissakes.
"That doesn't mean there's not some harm there, but it's a different kind of harm," Cahill says. "Your lung got loaded up with stuff and your mouth and throat got irritated for a short period of time. But that's better than bearing the enormous body burden of very fine metals working from your bloodstream to your heart."
Evidently, these very fine metals didn't enter the air above lower Manhattan en masse until weeks later, when all those smashed computer parts, electrical cords, ceiling tiles, and ballpoint pens began to smolder at extremely high temperatures deep below the street. When the South Tower came down, the massive concrete floors fell like a giant stack of pancakes, slamming into one another and driving the contents of the building straight down, but the air in the building blew out the sides, like a balloon popping when a fat man sits on it. The wind that the building exhaled was hurricane force, instantly aerating the drywall and the glass and some of the concrete, which coated me a few seconds later. "It's no different from when you blow up an old thirty-story hotel," says Cahill. "That's the same kind of dust cloud. Heck, the older buildings are probably worse because they have more asbestos."
When Cahill's done, I have a weird thought: Good news! About September 11! Not a lot of people can say that. I hang up the phone and decide to go for a little run around the outside of the building. It's approximately 20 degrees outside, but I'm too excited to sit behind a desk and get on with my life just then. The bogeyman is out of my closet. I'm not one of those people who is going to get sick from September 11 after all. Not yet, anyway. Sure, there are some things we don't know and may never know. Like the kids who grew up at Love Canal or under high-tension power lines, I might wake up in a few years with some unexplainable sickness, some crippling respiratory illness. What are you gonna do? For now, all I want is to feel the air rush in and out of my lungs.Selfless Improvement
Charlie Ambler Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 28, 2016
Magritte, 1958
“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real, and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.”
― Thomas Merton
I do not like the term “Self Improvement”, generally speaking. It is named in such a way that prevents people from actually doing the work required to live more fully. The word ‘improvement’ is like the word ‘progress’. It implies that the moment is not enough. It implies that you are not enough. And so you feel inferior right off the bat. You feel thirsty. This is no way to start a journey, and the quickest way to end it prematurely.
When we do things like meditate, exercise, eat well, give up bad habits, or love more mindfully, we are not becoming someone else or someone better. We are simply settling into our true selves. Everyone wants to live a valuable life. The difference between those who do and those who don’t is usually just a matter of reflection and effort. You are not becoming better, you are just settling into who you are and learning how to make this work for you.
This is a far more constructive way to approach “self improvement”. It lets us zone in on what we actually have to do today, rather than feeling embarrassed about the past or anxious about the future. What can you do today to ‘do you’? It might mean releasing an old grudge, quitting a bad habit, going to the gym, meditating, or just calling a loved on and saying hello. It could mean any number of things. But the key is that we don’t do these thing to improve. We don’t do these things to imitate great people or become someone who we’re not; that just leads us further away from the path. We do these things because they are the fabric of a meaningful life.
The idea of self improvement is a marketing sham; it often consists in simply making oneself better at making money, having sex, or feeling good feelings all of the time. This is a very shallow modern interpretation. We should reach further, and ironically that usually means scaling down our ambitions a bit and not being afraid to get our hands dirty. Instead of trying to change the world, try to make your world a compassionate and mindful place. Help you and those around you grow instead of thinking so abstractly. Do work that rewards you. Take risks and confront fears. Suffer when you have to. All of these behaviors strengthen your true self and help you access who you really are. It needs no improving, you’ve just lost it through countless layers of conditioning.
Get my book here.
Support Daily Zen with a monthly donation.
Get Daily Zen delivered to your inbox.LLVM-GCC Vs GCC - leonardo
View: Recent Entries. View: Archive. View: Friends. View: Profile. View: Website (My Website). December 14th, 2008 Tags: benchmark, c, gcc, llvm Security: Subject: LLVM-GCC Vs GCC Time: 09:54 pm
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/
So I have done few benchmarks myself, using (mostly) the C code. The code used is exactly the same for both compilers.
C souce code (from the Shootout site), and timings in OpenOffice format:
http://www.fantascienza.net/leonardo/js/llvm_vs_gcc.zip
In the nbody benchmark there's a large difference, I don't know its origin (I hope LLVM will fix those problems. And I hope LLVM will someday support exceptions on Windows too).
Generally for LLVM-gcc it's generally better to compile with -msse3 (without it some timings become quite bad, expecially for the mandelbrot benchmark).
Compilers used: LLVM-gcc V. 2.4 GCC V. 4.2.1-dw2 (mingw32-2) Compiler options used: GCC: -O3 -s -fomit-frame-pointer LLVM-gcc: -O3 -s -fomit-frame-pointer Benchmarks using FP numbers are compiled with -msse3 too. CPU used: Intel Core2, 2 GHz (32-bit mode). All benchmarks use only 1 core. TIMINGS GCC, best of 3: bintrees, n=15: 4.24 s fannkuck, n=11: 5.24 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (> NUL): 3.76 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (a): 4.17 s k_nucleotide, (d): 4.63 s mandelbrot, (c) n=4_000: 2.49 s meteor_contest_ccp, n=2_098: 0.12 s meteor_contest_c, n=2_098: 0.17 s nbody, (c) n=10_000_000: 5.92 s nsieve, n=12: 5.47 s nsieve_bits, n=13: 4.31 s partial_sums, (c) n=7_000_000: 5.77 s recursive, (c) n=12: 5.82 s reverse_complement (b) (> NUL): 1.77 s reverse_complement (b) (a): 2.54 s spectral_norm, (c) n=3000: 6.78 s sum_file, input=71_974_912 bytes: 2.28 s TIMINGS LLVM-gcc, best of 3: bintrees, n=15: 4.26 s fannkuck, n=11: 5.45 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (> NUL): 3.69 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (a): 4.01 s k_nucleotide, (d): 4.71 s mandelbrot, (c) n=4_000: 2.40 s meteor_contest_ccp, n=2_098: 0.13 s meteor_contest_c, n=2_098: 0.14 s nbody, (c) n=10_000_000: 16.63 s nsieve, n=12: 5.47 s nsieve_bits, n=13: 4.15 s partial_sums (c), n=7_000_000: 6.52 s recursive, (c) n=12: 6.47 s reverse_complement (b) (> NUL): 1.90 s reverse_complement (b) (a): 2.60 s spectral_norm, (c) n=3000: 5.96 s sum_file, input=71_974_912 bytes: 3.28 s Key: (a) = to no existing output file. (b) = input generated by fasta with N=9_000_000. (c) = compiled with -msse3 too. (d) = from fasta file n=1_000_000 Note, useful as reference point: nbody.java, N=10_000_000: 5.48 s
After a suggestion I have compiled again all the programs with a more fitting march:
llvm-gcc -O3 -s -fomit-frame-pointer -msse3 -march=core2 Or: llvm-g++ -O3 -s -fomit-frame-pointer -msse3 -march=core2 Some timings are changed a little: TIMINGS LLVM-gcc core2, best of 3: fasta, n=9_000_000 (> NUL): 3.69 s ==> 2.75 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (a): 4.01 s ==> 3.08 s reverse_complement (b) (> NUL): 1.90 s ==> 1.88 s reverse_complement (b) (a): 2.60 s ==> 2.97 s
So overall there's an improvement. Ignoring the timings for nbody the total of the other timings (with -march=core2) is close enough to the total for gcc.
In the meantime LLVM developers have found the problem with nbody (and filed a bug performance report), the compiler doesn't inline the sqrt() in the following line, that is the most hot loop:
double distance = sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy + dz * dz);
See:
http://www.llvm.org/PR3219
For the Java code of 'nbody' see also here:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=nbody&lang=all
You can find that reformatted nbody Java code into the zip too.
Using idea from the following two pages:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/kohsuke/archive/2008/03/deep_dive_into.html
http://blogs.tedneward.com/2008/04/06/The+Complexities+Of+Black+Boxes.aspx
Installing the "self-extracting DEBUG Jar file", and then using:
java -XX:+PrintOptoAssembly -server -cp. nbody
I was able to find the asm code produced by the JavaVM for the nbody benchmark. It essentially uses only the SSE registers, and no floating point stack. It contains three inlines calls to the sqrt (but the program contains only two of them). At a first look, that asm doesn't look much different frm the asm produced by LLVM-gcc (but LLVM-gcc doesn't inline the call to the sqrt).
I have seen that the last C++ version of the nbody (you can find it too inside the zip) compiled with LLVM-gcc is able to run in 4.98 s, but it uses lot of intrinsics like __builtin_ia32_haddpd(), that will not be the best for future CPUs (while the Java code is perfectly general), in practice it's partially asm already.
Update 1: I have added CPU used, compiler version used, changed the title of the post a little.
Update 2: I have cleaned up timings and the graph, leaving only the ones with -msse3 for benchmarks that use FP numbers.
Update 3: I have added timings for -march=core2, link to bug
Update 4, Dec 19: I have added the Java code and relative asm and comments.
See a follow up: So far the Shootout site has refused to add a comparison between the LLVM compiler and the other ones:So I have done few benchmarks myself, using (mostly) the C code. The code used is exactly the same for both compilers.C souce code (from the Shootout site), and timings in OpenOffice format:In the nbody benchmark there's a large difference, I don't know its origin (I hope LLVM will fix those problems. And I hope LLVM will someday support exceptions on Windows too).Generally for LLVM-gcc it's generally better to compile with -msse3 (without it some timings become quite bad, expecially for the mandelbrot benchmark).After a suggestion I have compiled again all the programs with a more fitting march:So overall there's an improvement. Ignoring the timings for nbody the total of the other timings (with -march=core2) is close enough to the total for gcc.In the meantime LLVM developers have found the problem with nbody (and filed a bug performance report), the compiler doesn't inline the sqrt() in the following line, that is the most hot loop:double distance = sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy + dz * dz);See:For the Java code of 'nbody' see also here:You can find that reformatted nbody Java code into the zip too.Using idea from the following two pages:Installing the "self-extracting DEBUG Jar file", and then using:java -XX:+PrintOptoAssembly -server -cp. nbodyI was able to find the asm code produced by the JavaVM for the nbody benchmark. It essentially uses only the SSE registers, and no floating point stack. It contains three inlines calls to the sqrt (but the program contains only two of them). At a first look, that asm doesn't look much different frm the asm produced by LLVM-gcc (but LLVM-gcc doesn't inline the call to the sqrt).I have seen that the last C++ version of the nbody (you can find it too inside the zip) compiled with LLVM-gcc is able to run in 4.98 s, but it uses lot of intrinsics like __builtin_ia32_haddpd(), that will not be the best for future CPUs (while the Java code is perfectly general), in practice it's partially asm already.Update 1: I have added CPU used, compiler version used, changed the title of the post a little.Update 2: I have cleaned up timings and the graph, leaving only the ones with -msse3 for benchmarks that use FP numbers.Update 3: I have added timings for -march=core2, link to bug #3219, and fixed the key a little.Update 4, Dec 19: I have added the Java code and relative asm and comments.See a follow up: http://leonardo-m.livejournal.com/77877.html comments: Leave a comment
ext_138141 Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-14 10:31 pm (UTC) Thanks, very useful! Maybe you should post these results on the LLVM dev list to let them fix the problems with nbody?
I've only tried the nbody benchmark so far and I got similar results:
I have no exact numbers, but with gcc as 1.0 I had for LLVM
on a AMD 64 X2 4400+: around 1.5
on a Core2Duo (don't know the specs): around 2.0
I even compared llvm-gcc with my own compiler (with a LLVM backend) and both produce approximately the same results here. So I don't think that it's something frontend related.
On which CPU did you run the tests? (Reply) (Thread)
leonardo_m Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-14 10:58 pm (UTC) You are welcome. The CPU used is a Core2 at 2 GHz.
Later I may show such results to the LLVM dev list.
Your ratios are less extreme than mine. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
(Anonymous) Subject: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 12:22 am (UTC) Very useful data.
I'm wondering how Java manages to beat even GCC at what I presume is a numerical benchmark. Is the Java version using some kind of special native code numerics lib or something? (Reply) (Thread)
ext_138158 Subject: Re: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 12:23 am (UTC) That was me by the way. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 05:17 pm (UTC) It can be interesting to go read the asm instruction run by the JavaVM here. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-19 01:08 pm (UTC) Added into the zip the asm coming from the JavaVM. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 12:26 am (UTC) No, Java isn't using anything special (Java 1.6.0_06).
The same result can be seen on the Shootout site too, test it yourself:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=nbody&lang=all (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
igouy Subject: Re: Great data Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 03:53 am (UTC) Those old benchmarks game measurements also show Oberon-2 nbody (source code translated to C then compiled with GCC) and G++ nbody faster than Java. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
(Anonymous) Subject: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 02:46 am (UTC) It looks like your llvm-gcc is defaulting to targeting really old CPUs. Make sure to pass -msse2 or later to all compiles. If you build llvm-gcc yourself you can get this by configuring llvm-gcc with '--with-arch=nocona --with-tune=generic'. This is how llvm-gcc is built on Mac OS/X for example. (Reply) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 12:28 pm (UTC) It looks like your llvm-gcc is defaulting to targeting really old CPUs.
You are probably right, but I have used the llvm-gcc pre-compiled for Win as it comes from the site.
Make sure to pass -msse2 or later to all compiles.
Thank you for the suggestion. As you can see I have already used sse3 in most of the benchmarks that use floating point numbers: mandelbrot_sse3, nbody_sse3 and partial_sums_sse3 (one of such timings isn't present in the graph). The only missing ones are recursive and spectral_norm:
Timings'recursive': GCC, n=12: 5.88 s GCC, -msse3, n=12: 5.82 s LLVM-gcc, n=12: 7.95 s LLVM-gcc, -msse3, n=12: 6.47 s Timings'spectral_norm': GCC, n=3_000: 6.78 s GCC, -msse3, n=3_000: 6.78 s LLVM-gcc, n=3_000: 6.70 s LLVM-gcc, -msse3, n=3_000: 5.96 s
I'll soon update (and clean up) the graph with this new data. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
_asl_ Subject: Re: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 09:18 am (UTC) > You are probably right, but I have used the llvm-gcc pre-compiled for Win as it comes from the site.
Correct, we need to support everything for pre-compiled binaries, thus it was built to generate 'generic' i686 code by default. -msseN is not always enough - please consider adding -march=foo compiler option (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 05:02 pm (UTC) I have compiled all programs with:
llvm-gcc -O3 -s -fomit-frame-pointer -msse3 -march=core2
(or llvm-gccg++).
With the following good/bad changes:
fasta, n=9_000_000 (> NUL): 3.69 s ==> 2.75 s fasta, n=9_000_000 (a): 4.01 s ==> 3.08 s reverse_complement (b) (> NUL): 1.90 s ==> 1.88 s reverse_complement (b) (a): 2.60 s ==> 2.97 s
Unfortunately now the comparison is skewed still, because my modern MinGW (based on GCC 4.2.1) doesn't support core2.
I'll update the page soon. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
_asl_ Subject: Re: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 05:43 pm (UTC) what's about -march=nocona? (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: SSE vs FP Stack Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 06:00 pm (UTC) I generally avoid to use things that I don't understand. What's -march=nocona for? (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
igouy Subject: Misleading allegation Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 03:47 am (UTC) > the Shootout site has refused to add a comparison between
> the LLVM compiler and the other ones (in particular GCC.
> While it compares the Intel compiler against GCC)
The only C implementation in the current benchmarks game is GCC.
http://alioth.debian.org/forum/message.php?msg_id=181218 (Reply) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Misleading allegation Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 10:02 am (UTC) The only C implementation in the current benchmarks game is GCC.
So, it's time to add the LLVM too to the tested backends. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
igouy Subject: Re: Misleading allegation Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 06:05 pm (UTC) FAQ Why don't you include language X?
"We have no ambition to measure every Python implementation or every Haskell implementation or every C implementation - that's a chore for Python enthusiasts and Haskell enthusiasts and C enthusiasts."
GCC works fine as an example C implementation for the benchmarks game.
You want to compare C implementations and I applaud you actually bothering to make the timings needed - but don't criticize others for not taking on that chore.
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/faq.php#measurementscripts (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Misleading allegation Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 06:28 pm (UTC) FAQ Why don't bla bla bla...
I don't care of your FAQ. A FAQ isn't a replacement for human kindness, or even common sense. At the moment your site is probably the best of its kind, so it's seen by lot of people as a reference, and it's used a lot. Hopefully some people will create a site more open than yours. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
igouy Subject: Re: Misleading allegation Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-15 06:48 pm (UTC) > A FAQ isn't a replacement for human kindness, or even common sense
Was it unkind to applaud you actually bothering to make the timings needed?
> Hopefully some people will create a site more open than yours.
You could always do that yourself, or create a C comparison like the Great Ruby Shootout
http://antoniocangiano.com/2008/12/09/the-great-ruby-shootout-december-2008/ (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
(Anonymous) Subject: Analysis of n-body Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 06:48 am (UTC) There's been some analysis of the slowness you're experiencing on n-body and some of the other floating-point benchmarks, and we think we've found the explanation:
On Linux, math functions like sqrt() set the errno global variable, which means they cannot be lowered into native instructions. GCC does something smart and emits code to determine if errno will not be set (in the common case), and if so uses a hardware instruction. Otherwise it calls the real function. LLVM does not yet do this.
For what it's worth, this problem does not manifest on Mac OS X, where the math functions do not set errno, so the call is always lowered to hardware instructions where possible.
You can track this problem at http://www.llvm.org/PR3219
--Owen Anderson (Reply) (Thread)
leonardo_m Subject: Re: Analysis of n-body Link: (Link) Time: 2008-12-16 05:01 pm (UTC) Thank you. I have given a look at the llvm-dev mailing list too. It seems an important enough "performance bug". I hope it will be improved. (Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
LLVM-GCC Vs GCC - leonardo
View: Recent Entries. View: Archive. View: Friends. View: Profile. View: Website (My Website).An inmate in northern Virginia died last week after being restrained and Tasered while being transported to the Alexandria Adult Detention Center, WNEW reports.
According to police, 37-year-old Natasha McKenna refused to comply with deputies’ commands while being transported from the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center to the Alexandria facility. Deputies then restrained and Tasered her.
Police said that she was immediately checked by medical personal on scene before being moved to another area of the detention center to await transport.
While there, she experienced a “medical emergency,” and EMS was notified. She was taken to a local hospital, where she remained on life support until Sunday night.
McKenna had been arrested for assaulting a police officer, but remained in jail because she was unable to pay bond. Sources told the Washington Post that, prior to the botched transport, she was being held in the Fairfax county jail’s mental health unit.
The Fairfax County Police have initiated an in-custody inmate death investigation.
“We anticipate a prompt and comprehensive investigation and will continue to update our website as new information becomes available,” Sheriff Stacey A. Kincaid said in a statement.Pen Museum
Jewellery Quarter Birmingham
Immerse yourself in the exciting world of pens and calligraphy and explore our amazing collection.
Over 5,000 objects related to Birmingham’s steel pen trade.
The Pen Museum tells the story of Birmingham’s important role in the information revolution.
Set in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, The Pen Museum is unique in the UK. It celebrates the legacy of Birmingham’s 19th century steel pen trade, where mass production first made mass communication possible. And through exports, made an enormous contribution to global literacy. In effect, this is where the world learned to write. Our museum is based in an 1863 Florentine Renaissance style former pen factory; 1 factory of 129 in Birmingham that once manufactured the majority of the world’s pens
Visit Us and discover how the Jewellery Quarter was home to many of the factories manufacturing the ‘Birmingham pen’ which supplied 75% of the world’s pens during the 19th Century.
Telephone: 0121 236 9834 Email: enquiries@penmuseum.org.ukTech Industry Events and Webinars
Find upcoming e-commerce and technology conferences, trade shows, workshops and webinars. Visit ALL EC Events today.
Cyanogen, best known for its FOSS Android-based OS, CyanogenMod, soon will provide caller ID screening and spam blocking directly from the native dialer on Cyanogen OS, the commercial version of its operating system.
These capabilities will be provided through the company's global partnership with Truecaller.
They will be baked into future smartphone devices preloaded with Cyanogen OS.
"I'm wondering whether Truecaller is addressing an actual need of smartphone users," mused Werner Goertz, a research director with Gartner.
Placing telemarketing calls to wireless phone numbers is illegal in most cases, and caller ID is available to smartphone users even without Truecaller, he told LinuxInsider.
On the other hand, the partnership "is a logical step" for Cyanogen, said Stephanie Van Vactor, an analyst at ABI Research.
It "strives to give the power of customization and choice to users," she told LinuxInsider, and Truecaller "provides a user with another tool to customize the phone calls they want to receive or not receive."
What Truecaller Offers
Truecaller is a global mobile phone community that lets users search for contact details from 1.6 billion phone numbers worldwide, given a name or phone number. It claims to have more than 100 million users who have replaced their mobile phone books with its app.
Truecaller is accessed through a website. Downloading Truecaller automatically protects the user against top spammers in the area.
The Truecaller client is available for several OSes, including Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, Firefox OS and Windows Phone.
Privacy Issues
Users may have concerns about Truecaller's privacy policy, which "is very difficult to find on its website," said Goertz.
The policy states Truecaller will collect the user's location, IP address, the smartphone's unique ID number, the operating system used, and the screen resolution when its app is installed.
That is monetizable information, Goertz said.
Truecaller's Security Black Hole
Security also might be a concern. Truecaller's app collects all the information in a user's contacts database and uploads it to the company's servers.
"It is nothing less than ignorant and negligent to believe that critical and sensitive data would not be stolen in this scenario," said Richard Blech, CEO of Secure Channels.
"Security cannot be an afterthought," he told LinuxInsider.
The Truecaller app uploads contacts without giving users a chance a chance to filter out sensitive numbers or names, noted Jimmy Shah, senior director of research at Zimperium.
"Maybe you have a friend with an unlisted number for privacy or safety reasons, and the app now places them at risk," he pointed out.
"There are services on the Web that crowdsource data about unwanted numbers for free," Shah told LinuxInsider. "Trading any privacy or secrecy away for the same end result seems like a troublesome bargain."
Truecaller's servers were hacked in 2013 -- apparently by the Syrian Electronic Army -- and 460 GB of data were stolen.
However, only tokens were stolen, Truecaller explained, which were replaced. Truecaller doesn't store passwords, credit card information or any other sensitive information about users.
In any case, users who don't want Truecaller don't have to be saddled with it. Cyanogen has said that all apps will be removable, even if they're preloaded, Van Vactor pointed out.
Taking On Android and the Big G
Cyanogen wants nothing less than to take Android away from Google, CEO Kirt McMaster reportedly has said.
The company has venture funding -- the latest being US$80 million in Series C funding raised in March.
Cyanogen is collaborating with Qualcomm to bring the features and UI enhancements of Cyanogen OS, its commercial OS, to some Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
The company also has entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft to integrate Office 360 and other Microsoft apps into Cyanogen OS -- a move widely seen as a bid to displace Google Apps from that operating system.
The partnership with Microsoft "does take away from the openness of the Cyanogen OS, but realistically, the company needs these types of partnerships to compete in the active market," Van Vactor said. "Hopefully... CyanogenMod will always be open."
Richard Adhikari has written about high-tech for leading industry publications since the 1990s and wonders where it's all leading to. Will implanted RFID chips in humans be the Mark of the Beast? Will nanotech solve our coming food crisis? Does Sturgeon's Law still hold true? You can connect with Richard on Google+.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Richard Leonard has vowed Labour would not form a pact with the SNP or back a second independence referendum under his leadership.
The MSP and former trade union official also vowed to introduce tough rent controls, a workers’ right to buy their companies and nationalise failing public services such as ScotRail and Royal Mail if elected First Minister.
Launching his leadership bid at City of Glasgow College yesterday, he promised that Labour would “rediscover our ethical socialist roots”.
Leonard, a former GMB union organiser who was elected to Holyrood in 2016, is competing against fellow MSP Anas Sarwar to become Kezia Dugdale’s successor.
(Image: Getty)
Dugdale dramatically quit the post last month after just two years in charge.
She said last year it was “not inconceivable” she could back Scottish independence if it was the only way to ensure the country stayed in the EU. She was thanked for her tireless service by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
And on Friday, Labour MEP David Martin called for groundwork to be laid for a possible coalition with the SNP at Holyrood.
But Leonard said: “For the avoidance of doubt, let me make it clear – there will be no ground ceded to nationalism at the expense of progressive socialism under my leadership.
“No coalition, pacts, or deals with the SNP. And no second independence referendum.”
The Central Scotland MSP claimed there had been a “decade of complacency” and a widening gap between the rich and poor under the SNP government.
(Image: Daily Record)
Leonard, seen as the left-wing candidate, said: “History shows that it has always been Labour in power, backed and supported by our wider movement, that has transformed Scotland before.
“And that’s why the only coalition I want to see is the one between the Labour Party and the trades union movement.”
Leonard vowed to take forward an industrial strategy which considers public ownership of ScotRail, Royal Mail, renewable energy and oil and gas.
He also pledged to bring forward rent controls to prevent tenants being exploited.
He said it would be called a “Mary Bar |
which LEDs are made, often with the careful addition of atoms of some other substance, require a different approach from that at Menlo Park. The sort of light they produce is fine-tuned by microscopic structures and the details of those extra atoms. Pace Edison, this sort of thing depends on a lot of figures—not to mention quantum theory.
The ability to understand the properties of materials at the tiniest scales not only lets people do old things better; it lets them do new things. In Edison’s day, using light to send messages was the province of the Aldis lamps that flashed messages in morse code from ship to ship. Laser diodes—semiconductor devices engineered to produce a much purer light than LEDs—can flicker on and off in a controlled way billions of times a second. In an astounding number of applications where information has to get from A to B—be those end points a DVD and a speaker, a bar code and a supermarket checkout or the two ends of a transatlantic fibre-optic cable—laser diodes are doing the work. For all its seeming abstraction, the virtual world is built on very real, very well-understood materials.
This is what some scientists describe as a “golden age” for materials. New, high-performing substances such as exotic alloys and superstrong composites are emerging; “smart” materials can remember their shape, repair themselves or assemble themselves into components. Little structures that change the way something responds to light or sound can be used to turn a material into a “metamaterial” with very different properties. Advocates of nanotechnology talk of building things atom by atom. The result is a flood of new substances and new ideas for ways of using them to make old things better—and new things which have never been made before.
University materials departments are flourishing, spawning a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and producing a spate of innovations (see box below). Many of these discoveries will fail to scale up from laboratory demonstration to commercial proposition. But some just might change the world, as light bulbs did.
Faster, higher, stronger
The understanding of the material world provided by a century of physics and chemistry accounts for much of the ever-accelerating progress. But this is not a simple triumph of theory. Instruments matter too. Machines such as electron microscopes, atomic-force microscopes and X-ray synchrotrons allow scientists to measure and probe materials in much greater detail than has ever been possible before.
A project at the International Centre for Advanced Materials at the University of Manchester shows such advances in action. In one of its labs scientists are using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to study the way that hydrogen atoms—the smallest atoms there are—diffuse into materials such as steel, a process that can cause tiny cracks. SIMS works by bombarding a sample with a beam of charged particles, which causes secondary particles to be ejected from the surface. These are measured by an array of detectors to create an image with a resolution down to 50 nanometres (billionths of a metre). It does not just reveal the crystalline structure of the metal—and any flaws in it—but also determines chemical impurities, such as the presence of hydrogen. “We can now do in an afternoon what we once did in months,” says Paul O’Brien, a professor at the university. The hope is that BP, the oil company which is sponsoring the centre, will get better steels for its offshore and processing work as a result.
As well as having ever better instruments, the researchers are also benefiting from a massive increase in available computing power. This allows them to explore in detail the properties of virtual materials before deciding whether to try and make something out of them.
“We are coming out of an age where we were blind,” says Gerbrand Ceder, a battery expert at the University of California, Berkeley. Together with Kristin Persson, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Mr Ceder founded the Materials Project, an open-access venture using a cluster of supercomputers to compile the properties of all known and predicted compounds. The idea is that, instead of setting out to find a substance with the desired properties for a particular job, researchers will soon be able to define the properties they require and their computers will provide them with a list of suitable candidates.
Their starting point is that all materials are made of atoms. How each atom behaves depends on which chemical element it belongs to. The elements all have distinct chemical properties that depend on the structure of the clouds of electrons that make up the outer layers of their atoms. Sometimes an atom will pair off one of its electron with an electron from a neighbouring atom to form a “chemical bond”. These are the kind of connections that give structure to molecules and to some sorts of crystalline material, such as semiconductors. Other sorts of atom like to share their electrons more widely. In a metal the atoms share lots of electrons; there are no bonds (which makes metals malleable) and electric currents can run free.
When it comes to making chemical bonds, one element, carbon, is in a league of its own; a more or less infinite number of distinct molecules can be made from it. Chemists call these carbon-based molecules organic, and have devoted a whole branch of their subject—inorganic chemistry—to ignoring them. Mr Ceder’s Materials Project sits in that inorganic domain. It has simulated some 60,000 materials, and five years from now should reach 100,000. This will provide what the people working on the project call the “materials genome”: a list of the basic properties—conductivity, hardness, elasticity, ability to absorb other chemicals and so on—of all the compounds anyone might think of. “In ten years someone doing materials design will have all these numbers available to them, and information about how materials will interact,” says Mr Ceder. “Before, none of this really existed. It was all trial and error.”
Latest discoveries Curiouser and curiouser IN the month of November 2015 alone, materials scientists alerted the media to more than 100 significant discoveries. Here is a small selection from the professional journals: • A type of crystal called a perovskite can be used to make light-emitting diodes that glow exceptionally bright. These could be used in lighting and displays. Hanwei Gao and Biwu Ma of Florida State University. Advanced Materials.
• Experiments with an exotic form of electronics called “valleytronics”, named after one of the ways in which electrons can move through a semiconductor, shows that the technology might be used to make ultra-low-power computers. Seigo Tarucha and colleagues at the University of Tokyo. Nature Physics.
• Quantum dots made from nanoparticles of iron pyrite, commonly known as fool’s gold, could help batteries charge up much faster. Cary Pint, Anna Douglas and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. ACS Nano.
• Biosensors made from graphene can provide high levels of sensitivity to help speed up the development of new drugs. Aleksey Arsenin and Yury Stebunov of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
• Materials called microwave absorbers are used to make detection by radar of objects such as stealth fighters more difficult. A new lightweight material with arrays of patterned conductors would greatly improve cloaking properties. Wenhua Xu and colleagues of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Journal of Applied Physics.
• A new class of “porous liquid”, which features permanent holes at the molecular level, could provide a number of practical applications, including capturing carbon-dioxide emissions from factories. Stuart James and colleagues at Queen’s University Belfast. Nature.
• Voltage-sensitive nanomaterials could be inserted into human tissue to gather information about how the brain functions and help diagnose injury and disease. James Delehanty and colleagues at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC. NANO Letters.
A walk through the labs of General Electric (GE)—the firm into which Edison’s trial-and-error-based businesses were merged in 1892—shows similar approaches already in practice. Michael Idelchik, the head of GE Research, points to new artificial garnets developed for use in body scanners. The scanners have to turn X-rays into visible light to create images, and the better they do so the lower the dose of X-rays the patient is exposed to. The company looked at 150,000 subtly different types of crystal that scintillate when subjected to X-rays before settling on a specific type of garnet which, it hopes, will make scans much faster—safer and more pleasant for the patient, more cost-effective for the hospital.
On top of the possibilities offered by single materials comes the potentially even richer world of combining them. Elsewhere in Mr Idelchik’s empire work focuses on replacing nickel-alloy parts for jet engines with parts made from ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs). Their strong chemical bonds mean ceramics can endure more heat than metals; at the same time, and for related reasons, they are more brittle. A CMC that combines a metal with a ceramic—GE is using silicon carbide—can get you the best of both worlds. The company hopes CMCs that need less cooling will mean more efficient engines that emit less carbon dioxide.
Computing power helps create such hybrids. It also helps designers understand how such novel materials can best be used. Many prototypes are now produced in virtual form long before a physical item is made, using software from companies such as Altair, a Michigan firm, Autodesk, a Californian one (see the “Brain scan” interview later in this report), and Dassault Systèmes, a French group. Engineers can model a chemicals plant, architects can “walk” clients through a digital representation of a building, and cars can be virtually test-driven on different roads and parked alongside rivals’ vehicles in street scenes.
All this greatly speeds up product development. The software is powerful enough to take the properties of the materials used into account, allowing it to calculate things such as loads, stresses, fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, thermal conditions and much more.
Manufacturers are only just beginning to realise the potential this offers, says Jeff Kowalski, chief technology officer of Autodesk. Many firms simply adapt parts to use new materials, expecting to produce them with the same tools and processes as before. That gives “substandard results”, he reckons. It is when new materials are used to redefine production processes and enable wholly new types of product that things get really innovative, and cartoonists get to draw light bulbs over people’s heads.
Just the thing
Business is heading towards a world of “generative design”, says Mr Kowalski: engineers will set out what they want to achieve and the computer will provide designs to fit that purpose. As materials knowledge grows, computers will also find materials to meet the properties specified by a designer. The properties of materials may even vary throughout their length and breadth, because it is becoming easier to tinker with the microstructure. Some companies are already well on their way to offering such Savile Row tailoring of materials.On Nov. 29 of last year, as Justin Trudeau began to reveal his decision about an oil sands pipeline to Vancouver’s harbour, he announced he was a “grandson of British Columbia” with special ties to “our spectacular West Coast.” He then granted approval of the project while admitting many British Columbians would be “bitterly disappointed.”
Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette.
Most bitter, probably, were those British Columbians who voted Liberal in the last election thinking they were halting just this sort of project pushed by Harper Conservatives in the face of environmental cautions.
The go-ahead for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was one of many Liberal government decisions made in the past year that likely left such voters feeling betrayed. They include approved permits for the Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish, the Site C dam in northern B.C. and the Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas plant near Prince Rupert, as well as helping to defeat an NDP bill meant to protect wild salmon.
Analysts have noted that Trudeau and his government may pay a high political price for backing the Trans Mountain project, given the populous ridings it affects and the extra tanker traffic and safety risks it involves.
Add fall-out from the list of other decisions above, and critics are wondering if Trudeau is either taking environmentally minded B.C. voters for granted – or just writing off some of the province in order to please other parts of the country.
One of those political casualties could be Liberal MP Terry Beech, who criticized the Trans Mountain expansion in winning the Burnaby-North Seymour riding, through which the pipeline passes. In greenlighting the project, Trudeau attempted some damage control by praising Beech as one of the “most articulate and substantive critics” of the pipeline twinning, even as he made it clear by his decision that Beech held no sway.
Beech responded by going silent for a week, before emerging to say he now supported the decision. If he’s been licking his wounds, so may be other Liberal MPs in Lower Mainland ridings who won while presenting themselves as defenders of the local environment. Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam’s Ron McKinnon released a statement disagreeing with Ottawa’s plans for the Kinder Morgan pipeline prior to its approval, then backtracked a bit. Two Liberal MPs representing parts of Vancouver, Hedy Fry and Joyce Murray (a former B.C. environment minister) both expressed disappointment with the Kinder Morgan decision.
Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and First Nations leader, also represents a slice of Vancouver. Before being elected, she blasted the Site C dam project for trampling Indigenous rights, but when her government backed the project she was mum. On the Kinder Morgan expansion she wrote a letter to B.C.’s Dogwood Initiative in 2015 calling the project “misguided,” but has been silent since its approval.
Next door to Beech’s riding, to the east, sits Port Moody, whose MP is New Democrat Fin Donnelly. On a recent snow blanketed December day, Donnelly walked along the far eastern edge of Burrard Inlet and explained why protecting nature matters to his suburban constituents. Port Moody is “one of those areas that’s desirable for many reasons whether you want to live, work or play here,” Donnelly said as a seal splashed around 100 metres from shore. “But there’s definitely a tremendous ecological value to this area.”
The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will likely triple the amount of chemically thinned bitumen flowing to the area from Alberta, which could up tanker traffic in and out of the Burrard Inlet sevenfold.
Another big issue for his constituents, Donnelly said, is open ocean fish farms, which critics say can pose a threat to wild salmon. While there are no fish farms near Donnelly’s riding, he submitted Bill C-228 in Parliament on Dec. 6, hoping to see it pass with Liberal support. The bill would have required fish farms farther up the coast to move their operations into closed tanks rather than open-netted ocean enclosures to protect local salmon from any potential threats from the farmed Atlantic species.
The Liberals and Conservatives saw the bill didn’t get past second reading.
Supporting the bill was West Vancouver MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, a Liberal. In 2015 she told The Tyee reining in fish farms were one of the top concerns she heard from the doorsteps of her riding. The title of that article? “Tories Punished for Failing to Grasp BC’s Issues, Observers Say.”
Elements of a ‘perfect storm’
Donnelly wonders whether Trudeau, the Liberals and central Canada in general have any understanding of the will, culture and values of British Columbia’s southwest coast.
In defending his approval of sending more oil to B.C. and tankers into its waters, Trudeau was firm his government “won’t be swayed by political arguments” from locals or otherwise. A few days later, to an Edmonton room full of oil executives, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr suggested he’d send in the military to deal with those protesting the pipeline.
But the resistance, Donnelly says, isn’t simply coming from eco-activists wearing hemp pants and dreadlocks, and he think this is where a major flaw in the Liberals’ understanding of the region lies. He gestures, on this wintry day, to the communities hugging the Burrard Inlet, a mix of housing, nature and industry set against the backdrop of lush greenery and mountains. It’s all part of the third largest metro area in Canada, but many locals still have to deal with bears in their yards and deer on their roads.
“You have multi-million dollar homeowners that don’t want either their viewscape or the potential of an oil spill ruining their real estate and the value of their investments, then you have all the professions that afford those houses.”
Across the inlet from where Donnelly stands the shore is lined with homes, some of those on the water selling for more than $5 million. In 2015 the average household income of Port Moody topped $111,000, and it’s higher in other corners of Donnelly’s riding. Take Belcarra, a hidden little gem overlooking the fjord-like north arm of Burrard Inlet. Five years ago there household incomes averaged over $187,000.
Donnelly wonders why Trudeau and his party would risk angering such residents with money, resources and something to protect. Team these locals up with dedicated environmentalists and Indigenous peoples, and you have a potential “perfect storm” of pipeline oppositions, he believes. Don’t be surprised to see something like the recent anti-pipeline protests in Standing Rock, North Dakota, he said.
Revolt of wealthy along Sea-to-Sky?
At the same time, farther to the west of Donnelly’s riding, throughout Howe Sound and West Vancouver, some of the wealthiest people in the country are gearing up to fight the Liberals on their approval of the Woodfibre LNG plant.
The federal government approved the environmental assessment conducted by the province in March last year.
The project would process and export LNG from a plant near Squamish at the base of Howe Sound, threading large tankers through a sprinkling of islands in the inlet. Those islands and Howe Sound’s shores are dotted with homes with million dollar views of the “spectacular West Coast” Trudeau referenced.
Howe Sound’s marine life was once devastated by toxic mine spillage and effluent from a pulp mill, but now, says local resident Tracey Saxby, “The herring are coming back, that means the dolphins are coming back. A lot of people are realizing just what was lost and they don’t want to lose that again.”
Saxby helped organize My Sea to Sky, a citizens’ group opposed to the plant. She said Ottawa did not do its own due diligence of the provincial assessment’s quality and didn’t seemed fussed by the number of comments opposing the project during consultation.
Air and noise pollution, plus concerns over tanker safety are some of the issues listed by Saxby.
Saxby said the federal government’s approval came despite great opposition, including from municipalities in the region. Some of those communities even passed resolutions opposing LNG tanker traffic in the sound and her group has garnered more than 10,000 signatures opposing it.
But when the the project faced its federal hurdle, newly elected Goldsmith-Jones fell in line with her government’s position, backing approval.
One person who lives overlooking Howe Sound, savouring the landscape and firmly opposed to an LNG plant on its shores, is former B.C. Socred minister and veteran talk show host and commentator Rafe Mair. Last week Mair published a year-end letter on the website he helped found, the Common Sense Canadian, telling Justin Trudeau to brace himself for “general defiance in B.C. towards unfair treatment of their beloved province.”
On Tuesday Mair, who for many years published a column on The Tyee, said he takes exception to those who imply B.C. residents are “bad Canadians” for opposing pipelines. Any efforts by Ottawa to encourage British Columbians to accept projects like Kinder Morgan’s based on making a sacrifice for Canada will not work, Mair told The Tyee.
Wade Davis Endorsed Trudeau, Now ‘Profoundly Disappointed’ read more
He said British Columbians aren’t better but are different than the rest of Canada and wagered that behind closed doors many would say they are British Columbians first and Canadians second.
Like Donnelly, Mair predicted Trudeau and his government would face some well-organized and resourced opposition.
“Expect to see some top hats in addition to workmen’s caps,” he said. “That, I think, is the thing that Trudeau doesn’t understand. It’s not just the usual suspects that are involved in this.”
Back in Port Moody, Donnelly said the Liberals need to learn how to balance economic, cultural and ecological needs when dealing with coastal habitats.
That means starting to examine the cumulative effects of so many projects in one part of the country.
“You can’t just focus on one without thinking of the other two,” he said. “At what point do these energy projects get to the point where it’s too much? Where it’s too overwhelming?”
Ottawa’s string of decisions affecting the coast, Donnelly said, will likely come back to haunt at election time in 2019, particularly for a handful of Liberals who now own seats in the Metro Vancouver area.In a one-bedroom flat above a noisy San Francisco street, Scott Sigler is plotting a revolution in the world of books. Sigler is a science-fiction writer with a host of fans, who are described as "junkies" on his website. His work is gripping, pacy, and often stomach-churningly violent. He tells stories that are, as the saying goes, hard to put down.
But what makes Sigler groundbreaking is that most of his novels have never appeared in print. They are broadcast via a small cubicle containing an Apple Macintosh and some recording equipment. That is pretty much all Sigler has needed to become the world's most famous podcast author.
"I sit right here," he says, motioning to a small chair. "Sometimes I'll read for half an hour, sometimes more. I give special voices to each character, and try to make it sound over the top. I might use a guitar song, or heavy metal music. Then it goes online and people can download it for free."
Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month
One oddity of the internet revolution has been that, while it changed the face of popular music, authors and their works have remained relatively untouched. Some bookstores were rudely shunted out of business by Amazon, but the creative bit happens much as it always has; writers produce fiction that's packaged and sold in books. There has been no real market for electronic fiction.
Until Sigler. His novels were all first released as audio books, free for online subscribers to download, one episode at a time, over a few months. His first, Earthcore, notched up 10,000 listeners. Its sequel, Ancestor, managed 30,000. A third, The Rookie, cemented his status as a Dickens for the digital age.
This week, he will try to reach the traditional book-buying public with Infected, a physical book. The gory tale of a parasite from space that latches on to human hosts is published in the UK by Hodder as part of a five-book deal.
The book's progress will be closely watched. Most aspects of its marketing turn publishing wisdom on its head. Publishers tend to guard copyright jealously, but Sigler has released a free audio version online, and has let fans download a PDF version via his website.
Sigler's thinking – and this is the revolutionary bit – is that it's worth making commercial sacrifices to secure a fan base, because fans will always want physical copies of the books, even if they've already heard an audio version for free.
"The only way to get people's attention these days is to give them something for free," Sigler says. "If someone walks into a bookstore, why would they pick up a Scott Sigler when there's a Stephen King? They won't. So I give my content away, give readers a chance to try it for free. And if they like my stuff, then guess what: they'll go out and buy the book."
It has taken Sigler, 38, some time to persuade a major publisher to back his thinking. Having written since childhood, he began podcasting in 2004, after decades of failing to make it into print. "I was working in IT marketing, and had discovered podcasting when not many people knew about it," he says. "My theory was that I knew there was a market for my stuff, I knew some people would like it, so long as I could get it out there. If enough people listened, a percentage of them would become fans, and four or five years down the line, they'd pay to buy my books. That's pretty much what happened."
Now, visitors to scottsigler.com are part of an online community that helps to create a "buzz". That buzz can be managed to drive sales by manipulating the online marketplace through Amazon's sales charts. This is the second revolutionary element to Sigler's fiction.
Last year, a book version of Ancestor was published by a tiny firm that sells only via mail-order. Sigler made it to No 7 on the Amazon bestseller list (No 1 in sci-fi) by asking all his fans to buy a copy on the morning of its launch. The book only sold 2,000 copies (its entire print run), but they created a sales spike. "With no marketing budget, no advertising, no media coverage and an artist nobody's heard of, we managed to drive it up to No 7," Sigler says.
Sigler's success has been a boon to other podcast authors, who mostly publish on www.podiobooks.com. Several now have traditional book deals, with debuts coming from JC Hutchins, also a science-fiction writer, and the crime writer Seth Harwood.
Sigler seems to have star potential – and if the way he's selling Infected works, it could help the world of publishing to avoid the fate of the music industry in the online age. "Tech-nology will eventually change how books are written," Sigler says. "Now, hopefully, I'm ahead of the game. By the time people like Stephen King wake up to the internet, they'll be on an equal playing field to people like me."
'Infected' is published by Hodder (£6.99); other work is available on www.scottsigler.comA group of Dutch municipal officials from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Arnhem were attacked in Paris on Wednesday night. The officials are in Paris on a three-day trip to look at how the French counter radicalization in young people.
Correspondent Frank Renout told broadcaster NOS that the group had just finished a meeting in one of the problem areas in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis. They were walking to their next meeting, a few hundred meters away, when a group of young people attacked them.
The young people attacked them with pepper spray, fists and feet. One official sustained a head wound and one of their bags were stolen. The officials managed to get away.
The rest of the evening's meetings were cancelled, but the visit was not cut short. Their meetings will continue as scheduled on Thursday.Retailing is dead. Sales clerks are losing their jobs by the thousands. The employment picture for young people with only a high school education is going to get even worse. And all this is happening because of Amazon and its ilk, which are driving the shift among consumers toward e-commerce.
We’ve heard this story over and over in recent months: The echo chamber keeps repeating that the retail apocalypse is upon us.
And yet, according to one economist, Michael Mandel, it is all wrong. We have it backward.
Mr. Mandel is turning heads from Washington to Silicon Valley with a provocative and unorthodox argument: He asserts that the move toward e-commerce is creating more jobs than are being lost in the brick-and-mortar retailing industry — and that these new jobs are paying much higher wages than traditional retail jobs.
Mr. Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, contends that most economists are using the wrong job numbers to measure the e-commerce industry. He says that government numbers and conventional industry classifications don’t properly count all the jobs associated with e-commerce — in particular, the numbers miss large parts of the industry like fulfillment centers and distribution warehouses. As anyone who has noticed the growing volume of big brown boxes being delivered to people’s homes can imagine, facilities like that, which are tied to the e-commerce sector, are expanding rapidly.The Final Fantasy 15 ultimate collector’s edition is all sold out, and plenty of those who pre-orders it have flipped their copies on eBay.
You knew this would happen. As soon as Square Enix announced that only 30,000 will be made of that ultimate collector’s of Final Fantasy 15, lots of players placed their pre-orders and promptly offered their copies for sale on Ebay.
The $270 collector’s edition is being offered on eBay starting from $370 and all the way up to $650, more than double the asking price.
You can no longer buy it from official channels, of course, which leaves the market wide open for eBay resellers. There may still be some hope, however.
The game’s director, Hajime Tabata, wrote a message on the game’s Japanese Twitter, to let fans know there are internal considerations to produce more.
The message, translated by Siliconera, does not directly address the scalping issue, but promises to at least do something about the limited number of units.
“Hello, Tabata here. I’m truly grateful for those of you who checked out Uncovered: Final Fantasy 15.
“Things were as exciting as can be at the event, but I heard that those of you in Japan also got excited along with the long TV commercial. Again, the Platinum Demo has received a large number of downloads, and we truly thank you for that!
“And by the pre-orders for the Ultimate Collector’s Edition vanished in a flash, and we’ve received plenty of voices from those that weren’t able to acquire it. We are terribly sorry about that. At the moment, we’re continuing with internal coordination to see if we can somehow increase its production. We will make an announcement as soon as there’s any progress!
“Again, I’d like to let you know that we will follow protocol to handle what appears to be unusual orders that may seem like they were made for resale purposes. Once more, thank you for your continued support of Final Fantasy 15.”
Final Fantasy 15 is out September 30 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.Complex and facilities Edit
History Edit
Abuse and neglect of prisoners Edit
Inmate deaths Edit
Jason Echevarria Edit On August 18, 2012 Jason Echevarria swallowed a packet of powdered detergent that had been given to inmates to clean out their cells after there was a leakage of raw sewage from the toilets. Echevarria began vomiting and complaining of severe pain. Terrence Pendergrass, the supervisor of the unit, was told by a correction officer of Echevarria's condition. According to The New York Times, "... the captain told the officer not to bother him unless 'there was a dead body,' the complaint said". Several correction officers passed through his unit but he received no medical attention and was found dead in his cell the following morning. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide citing "neglect and denial of medical care". Jason Echevarria suffered from bipolar disorder and was housed in the unit reserved for mentally ill inmates. At one point he had been placed in solitary confinement after several suicide attempts.[85] Terrance Pendergrass was demoted and suspended without pay following the incident, and in December 2014 was convicted of one count of denying Echevarria medical care resulting in death. In June 2015, Terrance Pendergrass was sentenced to five years in prison.[86][87] In November 2015, Echevarria's family was awarded a $3.8 million settlement regarding the matter.[87] Ronald Spear Edit In 2012, 52 year-old Ronald Spear was awaiting trial on Rikers Island and due to kidney failure, he was detained in the North Infirmary Command (NIC). He walked with a cane and wore a bracelet that read "Risk of Fall". On December 19, 2012, Spear left his dormitory and demanded to see a doctor. Brian Coll, now a former correction officer, and Ronald Spear got into an altercation when Spear was told by the doctor that he could not be seen until later that day. Coll began punching Spear in the face and body. According to The New York Times, "Another officer grabbed Mr. Spear and with Mr. Taylor's help [Byron Taylor, former correction officer], pinned him down. The complaint says Mr. Coll kicked Mr. Spear several times in the head, and knelt down, telling him, 'Remember that I'm the one who did this to you'".[88] When a Rikers Island medical team reached Spear, he was unresponsive, and after failed attempts to resurrect him, he was pronounced dead. An investigation into the incident found that Brian Coll and two other correction officers conspired to cover up how Spear died.[89] In 2016, Brian Coll was convicted of one count of death resulting from deprivation of rights under color of law, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of obstruction of justice, one count of filing false forms, and one count of conspiracy to file false forms. Byron Taylor pled guilty to one count of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Anthony Torres pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and file false reports, and one count of filing a false report.[90] Bradley Ballard Edit Bradley Ballard, who suffered from schizophrenia and diabetes, was sent to Rikers in June 2013 on a parole violation for failure to report an address change.[91] In July he was sent to the psychiatric prison ward at Bellevue Hospital Center where he stayed for 38 days before being sent back to Rikers.[91] On September 4, 2013, Ballard was locked in his cell as punishment for making inappropriate gestures at a female correction officer. According to The New York Times, "the lawsuit said, 'Not a single nurse, doctor or other medical or mental health provider entered his cell'". On September 11, Ballard died at the age of 39, having been confined inside his cell for seven days without access to his medication or medical treatment.[91][92] When correction officers finally came to the aid of Ballard he was naked, unresponsive, and covered in feces. His genitals were swollen and badly infected, injuries suffered after he tied a band around his penis.[93] According to The New York Times, some 129 inmates, 77% of whom were diagnosed as mentally ill, suffered "serious injuries" in altercations with prison guards over an 11-month period in 2013. These injuries were "beyond the capacity" of the prison doctors to treat successfully.[94] Another Times article stated that "the lawsuit said, 'Rather than provide the critical care required' medical staff and correction officers 'who knew Mr. Ballard could not survive without medication, essentially stood by and watched as Mr. Ballard languished, deteriorated and ultimately died.'" In 2016, the city agreed to pay $5.75 million to settle the lawsuit.[91] Jerome Murdough Edit On February 15, 2014, Jerome Murdough, a homeless veteran in jail on an accusation of trespassing, was found dead in his cell. After being in jail for one week, he died from overexposure to heat. His cell was over 100 degrees, and he had taken prescription drugs which increase sensitivity to heat. Murdough had been complaining for hours about the heat, but was ignored by prison guards. Murdough had been arrested for camping out on the stairwell of a New York Housing Authority building during the freezing polar vortex of 2014; his bail was set at $2,500.[95] A settlement of $2.25 million occurred.[87][96] Rolando Perez Edit In January 2014, Rolando Perez was arrested for petty burglary and awaiting trial at Rikers. Perez suffered from a severe seizure disorder since the age of 16 and had taken medication to control his seizures ever since. Perez was being detained in solitary confinement after getting into a fight with another inmate. In an exclusive video, obtained by Eyewitness News, Perez is heard screaming for his medication. After being denied anti-seizure medication, at the age of 36, Perez was found dead due to seizure and heart problems.[97] Eugene Castelle Edit Staten Island native, Eugene (Sonny) Castelle, was battling an addiction to pain killers when he was arrested in Florida for heroin possession with intent to sell. This bust was in violation of the terms of a drug-related plea agreement in New York. On November 2, 2016 Castelle was sent to Rikers and was found dead six days later at the Anna M. Kross Center. According to Daily News, "An inmate told The News that Castelle had taken a dose of methadone, using another prisoner's prescription when he died. Castelle was vomiting and struggling to stand... Another inmate helped Castelle to 'the bubble' watch post to ask for medical help. The correction officer inside was sleeping, and angrily dismissed them both, the inmate said." The following morning, Castelle was found by a correction officer and medical staff unresponsive and died seven minutes later.[98]
In popular culture Edit
See also EditADVERTISEMENT
Under the debt deal signed into law this week, automatic across-the-board spending cuts — including $500 billion slashed from the Defense Department — will be triggered if a bipartisan "super committee" can't agree this fall on a plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the deficit. The Democrats' great hope going into this autumn's talks: That Republicans, presumably anxious to preserve the military budget, may accept tax increases as part of that deficit-reduction plan, even though they've refused to budge on taxes to date. A key factor: A growing schism among Republicans. Will the GOP's defense hawks overpower Tea Party fiscal hawks, and give in on taxes to save the Pentagon?
Republicans will have no choice: "I'm optimistic Republicans will defend defense funding," says Tina Korbe at Hot Air, "but that means they'll have to sacrifice taxes." The Democrats would rather stomach automatic cuts to domestic spending than agree to another deal without tax hikes. That means the GOP is likely to "cave on tax hikes" to avoid a deadlock that would undermine our military. That's a shame, in a way, since defense spending isn't |
also losing the ability to dispute a transaction. Presumably, they thought, the reason IPOs are so expensive or venture fund formation paperwork is so onerous is because all those lawyers and accountants are just getting rich sitting around pushing paper… a bunch of smart engineers in their 20s with no industry experience could certainly do their jobs, automatically, in a matter of months, with just a few million bucks of venture capital.
So far, not so much.
Don’t smart contract me, bro!
Kai Stinchcombe is CEO and cofounder of True Link Financial, a banking and investment service for seniors. In his spare time he enjoys hoping that, post singularity, a detergent delivery drone doesn’t self-execute a smart contract on his life, bitbleaching him from the sky into a hissing pool of unstructured data in exchange for a handful of bitcoins.Albion Hills Conservation Area is a top MTB destination on the NW side of Toronto. It offers a well cut variety of trails through a forested area of x-country ski trails with lots of single track trail added.
The terrain has a little of everything and as the name implies it has hills.
One can work up a sweat doing the 20 km race course which even pro MTB riders will love. Most of this course flows well, has bridges, steep climbs, twisty track, open areas, & a scenic view onto the pond. (which is now drained!?)
It has got some nice well cut switchbacks that are a blast to ride and a few new log roll overs, rock drops, and rock gardens added. (with optional easy bypass)
Recently a few route changes have made it even better. As with any area that is popular, has races, the trail is getting wider and roots are starting to get exposed making it a bumpy ride in sections.
Spring can have bugs. On warm weekends it gets busy.
It’s a easier Park Trail type of ride, if you stay on the x-country paths which are wide and rolling hills. There is lots of variety for the family, with various loops lengths you can pick as you ride in the shade of the woods.
Full amenities make the trail fee worth it. As a park it has camping right at the trailhead and decent services to change, shower, swim, a bike wash and have a snack by the chalet.
Take the paper map at the gatehouse as there seems to not be post maps except at the chalet. Sure the trails are marked well with numbers, but without a map for reference you may get lost.Home Capital Group Inc. hired bankers for a possible sale after the Canadian mortgage lender secured a $2-billion loan from the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to stem a run on deposits following a regulatory probe. Home Capital didn’t identify the lender in a statement Thursday, though people familiar with the process said the health care workers pension fund is backing the loan. The Toronto-based lender hired RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets to advise on “strategic options” after it secured the one-year loan, according to the statement.
HOOPP president and CEO Jim Keohane sits on Home Capital's board and is also a shareholder for the company.
A Home Capital sale could be the next step for the struggling mortgage lender facing allegations by Ontario’s securities regulator that it misled investors on disclosures tied to an internal probe that found 45 outside brokers falsified income information on mortgage applications. High-interest deposits have fallen over the past four weeks, making it harder for Home Capital to fund its mortgages. Read more: Home Capital shares dive with news of loan
Article Continued Below
Home Capital benches two key players facing OSC allegations A sale becomes more likely if the firm can’t raise guaranteed investment securities deposits, GMP Securities analyst Stephen Boland said earlier in a note. “We believe HCG’s ability to raise GIC deposits and maintain operations is uncertain,” Boland said in the note before Home Capital’s statement Thursday. “Unless GIC costs stabilize, a run off scenario or sale is a growing possibility.” The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) is a Toronto-based plan, which represents more than 321,000 health care workers in Ontario, with assets of about $70 billion. HOOPP president and chief executive officer Jim Keohane sits on Home Capital’s board and is a shareholder of the mortgage lender. Home Capital’s external spokesperson Boyd Erman declined to comment. Representatives for HOOPP and Keohane didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Richard Leblanc, a law professor at York University, said the loan appears to represent a conflict for Keohane given his two roles. “It’s a conflict, absolutely,” Leblanc said from Toronto. “An independent director should not have any commercial relationship with the entity at all. I mean, he can loan the money, but he should resign from the board.”
Article Continued Below
The one-year credit line from HOOPP has a 10-per-cent interest rate on outstanding balances and a 2.5-per-cent rate on undrawn amounts. The finalized agreement follows an announcement early Wednesday that Home Capital had reached a non-binding agreement in principle with an institutional investor for the loan. Home Capital is also required to make an initial $1-billion draw and pay a non-refundable commitment fee of $100 million. The loan is secured by a pool of mortgages originated by Home Trust, the company’s mortgage origination subsidiary. Boland said estimates on a sale price for Home Capital would be speculative, but said commercial banks may be interested. Home Capital’s market value has plunged to $445 million. “We think this is at a substantial premium to current levels,” he said. “We believe HCG’s book may be attractive to several banks that could run the business with materially lower funding costs, particularly if they have regulatory support for the deal.” Meanwhile, short-sellers are betting against Home Capital and rival mortgage lender Equitable Group Inc., with short interest positions surging since mid April. Shares of the two firms are the most shorted among Canadian financial companies, with investors having short interest in more than 56 per cent of the shares available to the public, according to data compiled by Markit. Genworth MI Canada Inc., a mortgage insurer, also has about 31 per cent of its stock shorted, the data show.Nati Harnik / Associated Press photo Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy resigned Saturday. Last July, his wife filed for divorce after nearly 29 years of marriage. Her divorce filing stated the "marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken."
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy resigned abruptly Saturday in a scandal involving thousands of calls to four women on his state-issued cellphone, including one woman who said she had a romantic relationship with the politician.
Gov. Dave Heineman announced Sheehy's resignation in a hastily called news conference Saturday morning. Sheehy, a Republican, had been considered the front-runner in the 2014 gubernatorial race and had been endorsed by Heineman.
"As public officials, we are rightly held to a higher standard," Heineman said. "I had trusted him, and that trust was broken."
Sheehy resigned after questions were raised about the cellphone calls with four women, none of whom were his wife, who filed for divorce last year. The calls, made over the last four years, were first reported by the Omaha World-Herald, which had made a public records request for Sheehy's phone records.
Records released Saturday by the governor's office show Sheehy made thousands of late-night phone calls to the women. He spoke with some of the women numerous times a day in conversations that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour, according to the records.
One woman he frequently called, Dr. Theresa Hatcher of Bellevue, told The Associated Press that she and Sheehy had maintained a long-term relationship after they met at a convention of emergency responders in Texas in 2008. As lieutenant governor, Sheehy leads the state's emergency management efforts, and Hatcher is an emergency room doctor.
"I thought I was the only one," she said. "Apparently, I was grossly mistaken."
Hatcher said she last talked to Sheehy about two weeks ago. She added: "Politicians can lie. Doctors don't lie."
Another woman Sheehy frequently called has had an apartment in Lincoln, the state capital. Her name appeared on a call box outside the building Saturday, but a man who answered the door said she didn't live there.
'Deeply disappointed'
Sheehy was the mayor of Hastings before Heineman selected him as his running mate. They were elected by a record margin to their first full term in 2006 and re-elected in 2010.
Asked for his reaction Saturday, Heineman said, "I've got a knot in my stomach. I'm deeply disappointed."
Heineman said he doubted Sheehy would run for the governor's office now.
"And no, I would not support him under the circumstances," Heineman said.
Sheehy did not appear at the news conference, and his state-issued cellphone was disconnected. A phone call to Sheehy's office went unanswered, and a message was not immediately returned.
Last July, Sheehy's wife, Connie Sheehy, filed for divorce after nearly 29 years of marriage. Her divorce filing stated the "marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken."
Heineman declined to answer questions about what had occurred that led Sheehy to resign. He also would not say whether he asked Sheehy to resign or if Sheehy acted on his own.
Heineman said he will begin the process Monday of looking for a new lieutenant governor.
If something were to happen to Heineman before he selects a new lieutenant governor, Republican Speaker of the Legislature Greg Adams would ascend to the governor's post.
Sheehy's announcement shakes up an already turbulent 2014 governor's race. Another Republican candidate, former Nebraska Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood, entered the race briefly but withdrew in December after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, a Republican, has also said he is leaning toward running.
Several Democrats have signaled an interest in running, including University of Nebraska Regent Chuck Hassebrook and Nebraska state Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha. In recent weeks, party activists have also approached state Sen. Annette Dubas, of Fullerton.
Sheehy changed his Twitter account settings to private before Heineman's press conference. Shortly after, his account appeared to have been deleted.Dish Network chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen said the satellite TV service provider could begin to build out its wireless spectrum in time to meet federally-imposed deadlines, adding that with new 5G technology, Dish doesn’t necessarily need a partner to do it.
Dish has long planned to use its vast wireless holdings to create its own high-speed network. But in the past Ergen has always said Dish would likely need a partner to help shoulder the cost. Now, with the advent of cheaper, more reliable 5G technology, his tune has changed.
On a conference call with analysts and reporters to discuss fourth quarter results, Ergen said Dish has already started preliminary work on the network build.
“We haven’t been standing still,” Ergen said, adding that Dish has been making preparations, including putting its spectrum in licensed bands, carrier aggregation and conducting some tests on the broadcast side for its 700 MHz spectrum.
“We feel pretty good about it,” Ergen said. “This is not our first rodeo.”
Most wireless companies are planning to launch 5G, which has smaller cell sites, greater capacity, less latency and better reliability, in the next few years. Already Verizon has begun trials of a service – which it plans to launch in select markets by mid-year -- and AT&T and Nokia have started testing 5G delivery of the former’s DirecTV Now OTT service.
According to some analysts, Dish’s first FCC deadline next month would require that it complete a buildout of 50% of the country. But that is an interim deadline – the real test will be in March 2020 when Dish is required to have completed the build out to 70% of the U.S.
Ergen said that March 2020 target is what the company is focusing on, likening it to Dish’s first plans to launch a satellite TV network.
“We decided in 1992 that we were going to build satellites and by 1995 we launched our first satellite and we were able to cover the whole country and utilize our licenses,” Ergen said. “It was a complex three-year build… My experience has been those things go a lot smoother when you spend a fair amount of your time planning and not just doing things and then changing things. We’ve spent a lot of time planning and we feel like we’re in pretty good shape.”
This isn’t the first time Ergen has reassured analysts that Dish was on track for the wireless buildout. Last June he told about 80 analysts gathered in a Denver hotel that plans were moving forward, which fueled optimism about the company and boosted the stock.
Dish hasn’t been able to work with a partner on the planning phase because of anti-collusion rules connected to the ongoing federal spectrum auction, in which Dish is among the participants. But Ergen said those restrictions are expected to be lifted in the next six-to-seven weeks.
“It’s all going to come together in the next couple of months,” Ergen said. “We will communicate to the FCC and The Street about what we are doing.”
Ergen added that while the focus has been on an organic buildout of the network, that doesn’t mean it can’t partner with other companies on certain aspects of the build.
“Even without M&A, as others build out, there are opportunities to do joint things,” Ergen said. “I am definitively saying we believe we have a plan to build out the part of the spectrum that is due in 2020. Obviously things could change, but we continue to believe we can control our own destiny. We do not need to do an M&A transaction to meet the buildout schedule.”Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Personally, I’m horrified by the fact that Goldman Sachs goons are in total control of the Trump administration’s economic policy. I’m also horrified that our new President’s first overseas trip will be to the terrorist state of Saudi Arabia, a autocratic, brutal monarchy with undeniable ties to 9/11. I’m likewise disgusted by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions’ oppressive and uncivilized relaunch of the misguided and disastrous “war on drugs.” Finally, I’m very troubled by the fact Mike Flynn attempted to disrupt a military operation using Syrian Kurds to rout ISIS in Raqqa because Turkey didn’t like it, given he was working as a paid agent of Turkey months earlier and never disclosed it.
There are a plethora of things to be deeply concerned about when it comes to Trump, yet the coup attempt against him being launched by elements of the deep state, corporate media and Hillary dead-ender Democrats is more concerning still. It’s obvious what’s happening right now is not a sincere attempt to hold a President accountable, or fight him on policy or personnel choices. Rather, this all seems to be a very deliberate and premeditated attempt to remove him from office.
What’s so troubling about what I just wrote is not so much that I think it, but that it’s becoming accepted truth by a growing number of mainstream Americans. For example, can you believe CNBC actually published a post with the following title?
Here are a few excerpts from the piece:
There is, indeed, a bombshell of a story coming out of the news that President Donald Trump revealed sensitive information during his White House meeting with Russian officials last week. But it’s not that President Trump committed any crime. The really alarming news is that the duly-elected President of the United States appears to be the target of a political coup. First, let’s be clear: President Trump has been sloppy, arrogant, and just plain misguided plenty of times during his short tenure in office — including the way he handled the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the hiring and firing of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. And if he did unnecessarily compromise the source of the sensitive information he shared with the Russians, shame on him. But a president cannot be removed from office for arrogance and sloppiness… Here’s the kicker: None of this is actually working where it counts. Again, we have not one piece of evidence of any impeachable act. And it’s not even truly working in the polls. President Trump’s approval ratings may be lower than any modern president this early in his tenure, but they’re still higher than they were throughout the election. If anything, these constant attacks coming from this obviously angry and potentially illegal place are only strengthening the resolve of Trump’s base of supporters. They elected a guy they believed was truly the enemy of the established political class. And right on cue, the established political class is stopping at nothing to prove them right. For all the things President Trump has said that have dragged down the level of our American political discourse, this sustained takedown effort is worse. And it’s not clear how this is going to end. Unlike President Trump, the leakers remain anonymous and thus unaccountable. They can presumably go on forever. And President Trump doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop fighting back or irritating and threatening his political opponents. But don’t fool yourself into thinking this is OK or even tolerable. The bottom line is that we have some very powerful people in Washington who really don’t like how democracy played out this time around and what they do to attack it next isn’t going to be any better than what they’re doing now. Luckily the American people remain wisely circumspect about all of this. President Trump’s polls aside, the voters are still giving him a decent shot to govern. And unaccountable people in Washington shouldn’t be trying to make that decision for us.
Once again, I want to remind you the above was published at CNBC. Sure it’s a vapid Wall Street oligarch-worshipping rag, but it’s still pretty mainstream.
Moreover, it’s not just CNBC writers and obscure bloggers such as myself who are coming to these sorts of conclusions.
For example, listen closely to what Dennis Kucinich had to say on the topic in a recent interview.
I agree with Dennis completely, and another troubling aspect of all this is that the hysteria incessantly being driven by the corporate press in its attempt to destroy Trump is distracting attention away from genuine scandals. For example, yesterday’s McClatchy story on Mike Flynn’s undisclosed work as a agent of Turkey, and how that may have influenced his foreign policy recommendations appears to be a very real and extremely concerning scandal. Yet it gets buried in the hyperbole and hysteria, and millions of people end up tuning everything out.
The road we’re headed down is unhealthy, counterproductive and extremely dangerous. As is typically the case, you can thank the corporate press.The son of a World War II veteran is on a mission to identify 15 soldiers who his father drew portraits of more than 70 years ago.
Ira Dube, a Navy veteran living in Colorado, told Fox News he’s been searching for the families of veterans who served with his late father, Sgt. Stanley Dube, in what he said was the 27th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army National Guard, 108th Infantry Regiment, in the 1940s.
Dube believes the portraits are of men who served in the 105th Infantry Regiment.
His search began in January 2017, after he found the portraits — of 17 different servicemen — in his sister’s attic.
The artwork, Dube said, is a way for the descendants of these American veterans to be able to “see how my dad saw their hero through his eyes.”
Three of the 17 drawings had identifying information on them — signatures of the men drawn.
He took the minimal information that he had to the internet, and, “totally out of the blue,” he discovered relatives of Joseph “Joner” Kratky — a soldier who was killed in action in June of 1944 in Saipan — who were “amazed” at the drawing.
Dube was also able to connect with the family of Joe “Solid Jackson” Orbe.
When he sent Orbe’s family the artwork, he included a note to the late soldier’s young granddaughter, saying: “Know your grandfather was a hero during a very difficult time in our country,” according to WPIX.
A third portrait, Dube said, had the last name "Reid" written on it. He was unable to read the first name.
“I keep going on to the sites, looking at pictures, trying to match sketches to those pictures,” Dube told Fox 21.
Dube told Fox News he believes the men in the drawings “were closer” to his father “as friends than maybe as comrades,” and thinks many of them are from New York or New Jersey.
He added that his father, while he didn’t speak much about his time in the war — “I don’t think anybody really did when they came back” — was always drawing or painting.
Throughout his many moves in life, whether it was to a new house or to a retirement community, Dube said it was “just amazing that my dad had kept them as many times as he moved during the decades.”
“They had to have a meaning in them,” he added of the artwork. Dube said Stanley continued to work on his art — even after suffering strokes — until his 80s. He passed away at 90 years old in 2009.
Dube has sent the artwork to the New York State Military Museum, which is eager to help find the family members of those pictured, he said.
“I want to return these sketches to these families,” Dube told PIX. “I’m sending the love he put into it.”
Those with information on the artwork can contact Ira Dube on Facebook or contact Jim Gandy, of the New York State Military Museum’s research center, at 518-581-5109.
Fox News' Alyssa Zauderer contributed to this report.WASHINGTON -- Rita Platt is a teacher in Wisconsin who moved to the small town of Osceola last year. She has gone through FBI background checks in the four states where she has been certified to teach, has her Social Security card, held a Wisconsin driver's license from 1984-1998 and currently has a driver's license from Iowa.
Despite all this, she is currently ineligible to vote in the 2012 elections in Wisconsin.
Platt is one of the growing number of people ensnared by the state's new voter ID law, which requires residents to show valid photo ID when they go to the polls to vote. While Platt is sure she'll be able to get her new license in time for the next elections, she's frustrated that in the end, she will be forced to pay more than $100, endure bureaucratic headaches and take time off from work in order to be able to carry out one of her constitutional rights.
Osceola is a small town in northwestern Wisconsin with a population of under 3,000 people. The two closest Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices are in the towns of Amery and New Richmond, which are approximately 30 minutes away, and rarely open. The Amery DMV is open from 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on only the first Tuesday of every month. The New Richmond DMV is open during the same hours on the second Tuesday of every month.
The closest DMV open full-time during business hours is the one in Hudson, a city about an hour south of Osceola. Platt and her boyfriend, who also needed to get a new license, went there on their day off from work, only to find out that the DMV's computer system was down that day.
"So we drove an hour there. No matter what documentation we had had, we couldn't have gotten our driver's licenses, which is a huge problem, because that's what -- $15 in gas both ways? We're upper-middle class, so we're doing fine. We're both teachers... But for some folks, that's an impossibility. So you have to have a car, you have to have enough gas to drive an hour there," she told The Huffington Post, outlining some of the difficulties involved in getting ID in order to vote.
Moreover, neither Platt nor her boyfriend, John Wolfe, had a certified birth certificate or a current passport, one of which is required to obtain a new license.
"My passport is long-expired," said Platt. "I have two small children. It costs money to re-up your passport, and I'm not going to be traveling anywhere until my kids are older... And I've moved every two years my whole adult life. I'm 42. I have no idea where my certified birth certificate is. I'm not sure I ever even had one, since I've never needed one before."
"It's not that I can't get my voter ID. I will get mine," added Platt, who said she is very active politically and has never missed an election. "It's just that there's a huge poll tax that's going to be upwards of $100 by the time I'm done."
Platt has joined a lawsuit challenging the voter ID law, known as Act 23. It is the second lawsuit challenging the law, and the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP is the lead plaintiff.
Milwaukee attorney Richard Saks, who is representing the plaintiffs, said while Platt's case shows the burden of the law, there may be thousands of other people in the state who will be unable to vote because they don't plan weeks and weeks in advance to vote.
"We know about people like Rita because they're the most motivated people," he said. "They're the ones who have already made the effort to register to vote for the election. There are scores of people like Rita who may not do anything about this until just a week before the election, by which time, it'll probably be too late to vote. They may hear about Rita's situation, or they may read about the requirements under the law, and they may decide it's too burdensome, takes too much time and is too expensive, and they might not even bother to get an ID."
Kristina Boardman, director of the Bureau of Field Services for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's DMV, told The Huffington Post she has spoken with Platt and she was able to look her up on the system. Since Platt had a Wisconsin driver's license in the past, she will be able to renew without showing proof of legal presence, although she will still have to make the extra trip to the DMV in order to get a new license.
"Generally, there is some confusion, and we're trying to make sure that well in advance of when this is required for the first election in February, people understand what they need to get a product," Boardman said about the voter ID law.
Beginning the week of Jan. 23, every county in the state will have at least 20 hours of DMV service. The DMV in Amery, near Platt's house, will be open two days a week for 10 hours each day.
Recently, the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune reported on an 84-year-old Wisconsin woman who has voted in every election since 1948, but may not be able to do so in 2012. Ruthelle Frank never received an official birth certificate, and in order to get one, she'll have to pay $20. However, as the paper noted, "The attending physician at Frank's birth misspelled her maiden name, which was Wedepohl. To get a birth certificate that has correct information, she will have to petition a court to amend the document -- a weeks-long process that could cost $200 or more."
More than 10 percent of U.S. citizens lack government-issued ID needed to vote in some states. Constituencies that traditionally vote Democratic are hit the hardest, with 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans without such documentation. Advocates of voter ID laws argue the measures are necessary to prevent voter fraud, even though the Department of Justice has found no credible evidence to suggest there is widespread cause for concern. Civil rights groups argue that these laws amount to a "poll tax" that prevents voters from going to the polls.Call it Bob Murray’s big decision.
With the NHL trade deadline set for April 3, nobody is under more intense scrutiny than the Anaheim Ducks GM with all-star forwards Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf both set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
While Murray has maintained publicly he wants to keep both players in the fold, he’s going to have cough up a lot of cash from the Ducks’ bank if Perry and Getzlaf are both going to stick around Anaheim past this season.
The belief is to keep Perry and Getzlaf, Murray is going to have to ante up with big, front-loaded contracts for both. You know, the ones that were a “hill to die on” during the CBA negotiations before the league decided it couldn’t afford to lose the season.
Many don’t believe — of the two — Getzlaf is going anywhere because he’s settled into Anaheim. There was talk before the lockout the two sides were close to a long-term agreement in the $60-million range. That hasn’t materialized yet.
As for Perry, it might be a different story trying to keep him. If he does leavem you’d have to think he surfaces with an Eastern Conference team. There were contract discussions last summer that didn’t get anywhere.
The Ducks are at a crossroads because these decisions will determine the direction Anaheim is headed down the road. Yes, this is the same as the Wade Redden/Zdeno Chara scenario the Senators faced in July, 2006.
Allowing Chara to go to the Boston Bruins as a UFA changed the organization. The best case for Murray is he’s able to keep both, but if they aren’t signed soon then he’s going to have to weigh his options at the deadline. That’s not ideal.
If Murray can’t get one or both signed, he may not want to lose them for nothing in the summer.
THIS N’ THAT
Many are wondering what’s going to happen to the Phoenix Coyotes now that the sale to former San Jose Sharks president Greg Jamieson has fallen through. Some NHL types believe commissioner Gary Bettman should fold the team this summer and hold a dispersal draft for the Coyotes under contract. Why, you ask, with Quebec City, Kansas City and Seattle just sitting there waiting to get a team? One league executive says the NHL may prefer to get expansion money — in the $400-million range per-team — from two of those markets plus from the group that wants to place a second Toronto area squad in Markham. Not sure if it will happen, but it doesn’t sound far-fetched. Just move Phoenix to Quebec City. That makes the most sense … What’s this we hear about Florida RW Alexei Kovalev having a hissy fit after being made a healthy scratch Thursday by coach Kevin Dineen? Many questioned the decision by GM Dale Tallon to sign Kovalev, especially with all those good, young players in Florida’s room … The heat is on Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff? Seriously, I don’t think so? I will believe it when I see it.
OFF THE GLASS
Nice to see the Montreal Canadiens back on track under GM Marc Bergevin and coach Michel Therrien, but what was owner Geoff Molson thinking. Why was former GM Pierre Gauthier allowed to create such a mess before making it worse by acquring D Tomas Kaberle (Montreal) and RW Rene Bourque (Calgary) before being give the boot? “Last season has to be one of the lowest points that franchise has ever reached,” said a league executive … Washington coach Adam Oates looks like a guy who could have used a training camp. Now, he’s sitting there with a team going nowhere and no goaltending. Should that genius GM George McPhee not have attempted to keep G Tomas Vokoun before he left for Pittsburgh? Over the last 10 years, Vokoun, who signed for two years at $2 million-per with the Pens, has the best save percentage and GAA of any goalie in the league. Most of those stats were with non-playoff teams.
RUMOURS DU JOUR
The San Jose Sharks have eight healthy defencemen now that D Brent Burns has returned from his lower body injury. There is talk Sharks GM Doug Wilson would like to add one more veteran winger before the trade deadline. Don’t be surprised if D Jason Demers is the odd man out if the Sharks decide to make a move … Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher could be ready to make a move to give his the inconsistent Wild a bit of a jolt. He already picked up C Mike Rupp from the Rangers last week, but may not be finished. Acquiring RW Devin Setoguchi from the Sharks before hasn’t worked out as planned and he could be moved. The 26-year-old was moved to the club’s fourth line last week because he hasn’t been living up to coach Mike Yeo’s expectations. There is talk Setoguchi is available, but he does have one year left at $3 million. Many believe part of the issue is the Wild overhyped the signings of LW Zach Parise and D Ryan Suter … Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutheford may make a move before the deadline. The Canes have plenty of skill on the blueliner, however, they’d like to bring in a bit more grit. D Joe “Uh-Oh” Corvo has been a healthy scratch and could be dealt along with D Jamie McBain.
Have a nice Sunday.
bruce.garrioch@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @sungarriochWith Lionsgate’s Conan The Barbarian 3D fast approaching, now is the perfect time for a trip down memory lane. This won’t be the famous Cimmerian rogue’s first cinematic venture and, Crom willing, it won’t be his last. Can Jason Momoa (Game Of Thrones, Stargate Atlantis) show us a new side of a character already well established in the minds of fans around the world? Can director Marcus Nispel (Pathfinder) breathe new life into the Hyborian Age?
Neither man has an easy job, they’re both stepping into the shoes of giants. Both Conan and his world of Hyboria have been the subjects of numerous adaptions before. From Robert E. Howard to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Roy Thomas and beyond, join me, your faithful chronicler, as we journey to an age undreamed of, when men were men, women were lusty and ethereal monsters roamed the land. This is…
The Conan Retrospective
Or: Bring me my wenches of reminiscing! Also: CROM!!!!
Part 1: The literary Conan
Conan’s father, author Robert E. Howard, had used the bronze-skinned, man-mountain, barbarian archetype before, and even had a stock character going by the name Conan several months prior, but it wasn’t until 1932 that he put pen to paper and went about the task of giving his creation an actual personality and a world to inhabit. “The Phoenix On The Sword,” published in the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales, marked the first appearance of the Conan we all know and love. Oddly, instead of setting his story at an early point in the Cimmerian’s life, Howard made the decision to have the tale feature a Conan in his mid-50s and already sitting on the fabled throne of Aquilonia, following a bloody coup.
This method of introducing his character allowed Howard a lot of freedom for future tales, since the endgame of Conan’s journey was already known, the fun would be in learning how an uncouth barbarian from the northern wastes of Hyboria could possibly end up ruling the fantasy equivalent of the Roman Empire. Both Conan’s future literary and cinematic chroniclers would use this — “…and in time he became King by his hand… but that is another story…” — leitmotif to keep fans salivating till the next installment.
In subsequent stories, Howard wrote Conan as a brash youth and a stranger in a strange land, unfamiliar with many of the local customs, and whose rash manner rubbed wrongly against other men. However, it’s important to note that Howard’s version of the character was never (oh, how can I put this nicely?) a dundering meathead.
“Duhrrrrrrrrrrr…”
The “barbarian” adjective was based on other people’s perception of the Cimmerian, to the “civilized” eyes of the courtesans and Lords of the city-states south of Conan’s homeland, this black-maned giant was nothing more than a beast, good only for a bit of sword-swinging before dying on some nameless battlefield. While Conan’s physical abilities are well documented, fans might be surprised to learn that Howard’s version of the hero possessed a mind nearly as sharp as his blade. In the roughly 20 or so adventures published in Howard’s lifetime, Conan is often seen writing correspondence or deciphering ancient runes and text. He is a tactical genius, leading Lord Of The Rings-size armies into battle with cunning plans of his own devising… and winning!
Sadly, this bit of characterization as gone the way of the dodo in the years since Howard’s death. It’s ironic that the perception others had of Conan during his adventures has now become the reigning school of thought when it comes to the general public’s view of the Cimmerian, i.e., big, dumb guy with a sword.
Worthwhile reading:
The Tower Of The Elephant
Considered by many to be Howard’s finest Conan yarn and exemplifying many of the best attributes of his run on the character, The Tower Of The Elephant starts off with a bit of drunken shenanigans. Following a tavern brawl, instigated when a foolish Kothish rogue dared insinuate that the Cimmerian wasn’t brave enough to ascend the titular tower, Conan meets up with Taurus, the infamous “King Of Thieves” and the pair busy themselves with a bit of B & E. Featuring a giant spider (there’s always a giant spider in these things), a garden filled with lions trained to mask their approach by never roaring, and the ever-popular mad wizard, The Tower Of The Elephant remains, even after 78 years, one of the crown jewels of the Conan universe. It’s been adapted countless times, by several writers, but the original remains the definitive version of the story.
Wow, Dumbo’s had some work done.
What variances were seen in the Conan comic book franchise?Reports on Joey Votto, Jay Bruce are good
Reds right fielder Jay Bruce is congratulated by first baseman Joey Votto on April 3 of last season. (Photo: Enquirer file)
Any report on the Reds going into this season will include the phrase: "If Joey Votto and Jay Bruce are healthy."
Votto was limited to 62 games by knee and quad injuries and hit a career-low.255. Bruce missed two weeks after knee surgery and |
at their lowest point since Barack Obama took office. Faith in most public institutions is way below historical averages, with only the military and small business doing better than average.
Perhaps most telling, over a third of Americans, including half of millennials, say they would leave the country for good if given the opportunity.
To take this metaphor a step further, think of the other planes that killed thousands when they struck the twin towers and the Pentagon as other Western countries that have veered off course. France has been ravaged by terrorist attacks over the last couple of years, in large part because of its inability to integrate immigrants and its embrace of a kind of multiculturalism that has many feeling that the country no longer has a national identity.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migrant policy resulted in the arrival of 1.1 million refugees in 2015. This influx has led to a rash of sexual assaults by Middle Eastern men against German women and a spate of terrorist attacks over the last couple of months that have left more than a dozen killed and many more injured.
But America’s problems run deeper than this. The Obama era has been defined by a lack of respect for constitutional checks and balances and the separation of powers. If Hillary Clinton is elected, this executive unilateralism would get worse not better. As Mrs. Clinton has said, “If elected president, I will do everything I can to protect the president’s executive actions and go further to bring more people relief and keep families together.”
The U.S. doesn’t need to suffer the same fate as those brave passengers on Flight 93. Nor does it need to kiss our constitutional system goodbye. The United States has an opportunity to fight back and avert catastrophe.
Unless all of us who are worried about the state of the republic regain control of the cockpit, this country doesn’t have a chance. Like flight 93, the country is headed for disaster. It’s time to run down the aisle and save Western civilization.
• Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer is chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Mega Man X5, known as Rockman X5 (ロックマンX5) in Japan, is a video game developed by Capcom. It is the fifth main installment in the Mega Man X series. It was first released for the PlayStation for Japan in 2000 and in North America and PAL territories the following year.
Mega Man X5 is set in the 22nd century in a world where humans coexist with humanoid androids called "Reploids". Daily life is under a constant threat of these Reploids going "Maverick" and participating in dangerous and deadly crime. After the events of Mega Man X4, the Maverick leader Sigma has been revived and seeks to unlock the true power of the former Maverick Zero and destroy the hero X in the process. To make matters worse, Sigma has set the space colony Eurasia on a 16-hour collision course with Earth. It is up to X and Zero to stop Sigma once again and save the planet from destruction. Like its predecessors, Mega Man X5 is an action-platform game in which the player controls either protagonist through a series of eight, selectable stages and wins the special weapon of each stage's boss. However, the game only offers limited number of stage attempts before the player must deal with the colony.
According to Capcom producer Keiji Inafune, Mega Man X5 was originally intended to be the final game in the Mega Man X saga. Critical reception for the game was lukewarm, with many reviewers agreeing that the stale gameplay formula will only further satisfy diehard fans of the series. Mega Man X5 was ported to the Microsoft Windows as retail packages in 2002 in both Japan and North America. It was also re-released in 2006 as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. Mega Man X5 was made available on the PlayStation Network as part of the PSOne Classics line for North America and Japan in 2014. It became available for Windows via Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch as a part of Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 (Rockman X Anniversary Collection 2 in Japan) on July 24, 2018 worldwide and July 26, 2018 in Japan.[6][7]
Plot [ edit ]
Like other entries in the series, Mega Man X5 takes place in "21XX", an unspecified year in the 22nd century, where humans have adapted to life with intelligent android dubbed "Reploids". Months have passed since the events of Mega Man X4. The series' primary antagonist, a "Maverick" Reploid named Sigma has been revived once again. Sigma begins conducting research on the origin and design of the "Maverick Hunter" Zero and decides to discover how to unlock Zero's true power, hoping to destroy Sigma's nemesis Mega Man X in addition. Sigma attacks the Maverick Hunters directly, intending to lose. When he does, he spreads a Maverick virus across the Earth, throwing it into chaos. Meanwhile, a Reploid mercenary named Dynamo is hired by Sigma to make the space colony Eurasia collide with Earth. The Hunters have only 16 hours to stop the collision. In order to prevent Eurasia from striking the planet, the Hunters pursue two options. The first option is to fire a powerful cannon called "Enigma" at Eurasia, vaporizing it. If the Enigma shot fails, the second option is to launch a space shuttle and pilot it into the colony, destroying it. To maximize their chances, X and Zero are dispatched to collect parts for the two devices with the aid of their new teammates Alia, Douglas, and Signas. The necessary parts to upgrade the Enigma and shuttle are held by eight Mavericks, and X and Zero must defeat them to claim the parts.[8]
Whether the Enigma and shuttle succeed or fail is randomly determined by the game, although the Enigma's chances of working successfully are low even with all its parts, while the shuttle has a much higher probability of succeeding assuming all of the parts are collected. Whether the Enigma succeeds or fails, a new virus appears on the Earth, noted by Alia as the Sigma virus combining with the scraps from the colony. If the Enigma or the shuttle succeeds, X and Zero proceed to hunt for the cause of the virus. If the shuttle fails or if the time expires, the colony crashes, nearly destroying the planet; Zero then is infected by the virus. In either case, once the location of the virus' origin is discovered, the Hunters investigate. X and Zero penetrate a bizarre underground fortress. In the fortress, X and Zero cross paths, where mutual suspicion and mistrust leads to a duel between the heroes.[9]
After the duel, the story diverges slightly. If Zero goes Maverick as a result of the virus, he sacrifices himself to save X from Sigma, and X continues on alone to defeat Sigma.[10] If Zero does not go Maverick, he saves X and himself from Sigma, and both have a chance to confront Sigma.[11] Mega Man X5 has three possible endings. If Zero goes Maverick, X defeats Sigma, but is badly damaged. A mysterious figure recovers him, but also deletes all his memories of Zero.[12] If Zero does not go Maverick, Sigma decides to make the Hunters' victory for naught by taking them down with him. X tries to save Zero but is ambushed by Sigma and both Hunters are critically damaged. Zero manages to finish Sigma off, then the endings diverge again depending on the player character.[13] If Zero defeats Sigma, he reflects on his origin and life before dying. If X defeats Sigma, he inherits Zero's beam saber weapon and continues to fight as a Maverick Hunter.[14]
Gameplay [ edit ]
The main gameplay remains similar to previous installments. Unlike X4, the player can freely switch between both the shooter X and the swordsman Zero while playing through the game.[15] Depending on which character the player uses to start it, the other one will be affected negatively with X losing his X4 armor and Zero losing his buster. There are four armors for X—his Ultimate Armor, the upgraded armor from Mega Man X4, and two others that must be assembled from capsules. However, X cannot wear parts of these armors separately. X can also no longer shoot his buster through walls, and each character has the ability to duck. Zero is able to find and enter Dr. Light's capsules, however, he cannot use the armor parts given, instead retaining the part to bring to X. However, if Zero reaches the capsule that contains X's Ultimate Armor, Dr. Light will offer the "Black Zero" Armor instead of the Ultimate Armor that enhances his abilities. Besides regular enemies and bosses, X and Zero can be chased by a phantom virus that will try to infect the characters. If X is sufficiently infected by enough viruses, he will enter a state where his health rapidly declines. However, if Zero is sufficiently infected, he becomes briefly invincible, with increased attack power. At any point between levels, the player has the option of firing the Enigma at the Eurasia.[16] If the Enigma misses, then the player has the option of launching the shuttle. Whether the crash is prevented or not is determined by random chance. If the crash is not prevented, the course of the story is changed. Due to the nature of the storyline, there are multiple endings. Whether X or Zero is used to defeat the last boss also affects which ending is seen.
Development [ edit ]
Mega Man X5 was originally meant to be the last game of the Mega Man X series. As stated by producer Keiji Inafune, "I had very little to do with X5. I just told the team to 'finish off the series with this title,' and left it at that. That's why the game itself has a real feel of finality to it."[2] However, Capcom decided to publish Mega Man X6 the following year, in which Zero survived his fight from X5, much to the dismay of Inafune.[17] Haruki Suetsugu, an artist for Mega Man X4, designed nearly all of the characters and promotional artwork for Mega Man X5. Suetsugu added various details to set the characters apart from one another.[2] X's new Falcon Armor was designed by Ryuji Higurashi, who wanted it to resemble a bird with beak-shaped chest piece, wings coming out of the back, and a talon-like arm cannon. Suetsugu designed the Gaea Armor, which was meant to resemble Sanagiman from the Inazuman manga series.[2] The Maverick bosses in the English localization of Mega Man X5 are named after members of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses.[2][18] Capcom voice actress Alyson Court, who was involved in the game's localization, came up with the new names as a tribute to her then-husband's love of the band.[19] For the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 release, the Maverick Bosses names were changed to translations of their original Japanese names.[20]
The musical score for Mega Man X5 was composed by Naoto Tanaka, Naoya Kamisaka, and Takuya Miyawaki. The Japanese version of Mega Man X5 features one opening theme, "Monkey", and one closing theme, "Mizu no Naka" (水の中, Inside the Water), both composed and performed by Showtaro Morikubo and his band Mosquito Milk.[21] All of the game's instrumental and vocal music was compiled on the Capcom Music Generation: Rockman X1 ~ X6 soundtrack released by Suleputer in 2003.[22] The theme songs were also included on the Rockman Theme Song Collection, published by Suleputer in 2002.[23]
Reception [ edit ]
Mega Man X5 was generally well-received, with IGN giving the game an 8.5 out of 10. However, they added that though the game was fun to play, it was "more of the same" from Capcom, and that Mega Man, like many other series made by Capcom, was being milked for as much as it was worth.[28] GameSpot similarly commented that "Fans of the classic 2D games will no doubt find much to love in X5, while those who can't get into the aging conventions and mechanics probably won't care a great deal for it."[15] The Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game was "unforgivably primitive".
According to the Japanese publication Famitsu, Mega Man X5 was the third best-selling video game in Japan during its release week at 46,033 copies sold.[31] It placed at number eight the following week with an additional 22,963 copies sold.[32] Media Create sales information showed that the game was 96th best-selling video game in Japan during 2000.[33] Dengeki Online reported that Mega Man X5 sold a total of 215,687 copies in Japan by the end of 2001, listing it as the 132nd best-selling game of the year in the region.[34] The game was eventually re-released as part of Sony's PlayStation The Best for Family range of budget titles in Japan.[35] Toy Retail Sales Tracking (TRST) sales data showed that Mega Man X5 was the fifth best-selling PlayStation game in North America for the month of February 2001.[36] The game was included on the North American Mega Man X Collection for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2006.[37]Jeri Ryan made a most indelible mark on Star Trek: Voyager when she joined the cast as Seven of Nine during the show’s fourth season. Some fans assumed that Seven of Nine was created only to add some va-va-voom to Voyager following the departure of Kes (Jennifer Lien) and, while the character surely turned heads, what with her form-fitting cat suit, Ryan and the writers made certain that Seven of Nine evolved into far more than eye candy. The character was tough, argumentative, opinionated, thoroughly capable of kicking butt and a great foil for several crewmates, notably the Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Plus, at times, a degree of vulnerability and/or warmth reminded everyone that Seven of Nine was, despite her cybernetic Borg implants, still human.
Since Voyager ended its run in 2001, Ryan has maintained a hectic pace – personally and professionally. On the personal front, Ryan is married and lives with her second husband, French chef Christophe Eme, and her children (Alex, by her first husband) and Gisele (with Eme), in Los Angeles. On the professional front, she’s appeared – as a guest star, recurring character or regular – on Boston Public, Two and Half Men, Boston Legal, Shark, Leverage and her current projects, Body of Proof, Mortal Kombat and Warehouse 13. StarTrek.com recently met up with Ryan in Rhode Island, on the set of her new series, Body of Proof, which co-stars Dana Delany and will premiere tonight on ABC. Over the course of a half-hour conversation, with three-year-old Gisele playing on her lap, Ryan happily recounted her days on Voyager and filled us in on her life today. Below is part one of our exclusive interview, and be on the lookout tomorrow for part two.
Let’s start with Voyager. What are the first things that run through your mind when you think back to your four seasons on Star Trek?
Ryan: The costume! Also, how much fun I had working with all the men on the show. They were all psychotic, all lunatics, and I loved them. I loved every single one of them and they were all so much fun to work with. It’s hard to stay in touch because we’re each all over the place, but we see each other once in a while at conventions, and they’re as crazy as ever.
The big question everyone seems to have about the Voyager finale, “Endgame,” is this: Did you buy relationship between Seven and Chakotay (Robert Beltran)?
Ryan: It’s not that I didn’t buy it... My problem with that relationship was that it came out of the blue. They had started the set-up of the relationship a few episodes earlier, in the episode (“Human Error”) where Seven was experimenting with her humanity on the holodeck. And so she sort of fell in love with Chakotay there. They said something like her could never have these sorts of relationships because she would die, or whatever. The next episode that we shot after that (“Natural Law”), Seven and Chakotay were stranded on some planet together. We specifically asked the producers – Robert and I – “Now, are we going to play this? Is this going to go somewhere? Because, obviously, we’d need to carry something over from…” And they said, “No, no, no, no! Absolutely not. Don’t play any of that. Nothing’s going to happen.”
So, after that one episode we never played any sort of attraction or anything between the two characters. And then, out of the blue, all of a sudden, they’re dating (in “Endgame”). That was a little annoying, especially when you’ve specifically asked about it and they said, “No, absolutely not.” Then, suddenly they’re in love. That was a little… It’s one of the frustrations of network television. And it’s how you learn, also. You have to try to be the babysitter and the protector of your character.
Did you keep your Seven of Nine cat suit or burn the damn thing?
Ryan: They didn’t let me keep the cat suit. I would have loved to have burned it; not so much the cat suit as the corset that was under it. But, no, they didn’t let me have that. I do, however, have an alcove. I figured, “That’s the least you can give me! Give me my alcove.” (Laughs). So I have it in my game room.
A lot of Star Trek actors, as their respective shows ended, worried about what might – or might not – come next. How concerned were you about life after Voyager, if audiences and/or casting directors would accept you as anything but Seven of Nine?
Ryan: Oh, God, that was the single biggest worry that I had when I took the job to begin with. Star Trek is notorious for pigeonholing its actors and them not being able to break out of that and go on to other work. So I was incredibly lucky that I went on to a David Kelley show immediately after Voyager ended. I was incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful, and I said to myself, “This is going to be OK. I’m going to work.”
You’d done a lot of film work before and during Voyager, but since you finished the show you seem to have concentrated on television. Is that by choice? Is it where the work has been?
Ryan: It’s in large part because of family. That stability of a TV series is really nice when you’ve got a family. Also, film and TV are two very different paces, at least for me. Here, on Body of Proof, we’re doing six to sometimes seven or eight pages a day. On Star Trek, we did eight pages a day, plus. And on a movie, you’re doing like two pages a day. So you can be doing the same scene all day. That, to me, after doing a TV pace for so long, is mind-numbing. It’s hard. It’s a tough adjustment. I have infinite respect for the people who can bounce back and forth between film and TV, but it’s not that easy for me.
You’ve got a toddler, your son, husband, a restaurant and a home in L.A. What the heck are you doing in… Providence, Rhode Island?
Ryan: You know what? Since I ended my maternity leave, which was a little more than a year ago now, I haven’t had a single job in Los Angeles. Everything has been on location. I was a month in Detroit. I was two months in Portland. I was in Vancouver. I was in New Jersey. I was everywhere but home. You go where the jobs are. Providence happens to be beautiful. It’s a beautiful place to be. But, yeah, it’s not the most convenient for commuting from L.A. because there are not that many flights, you have to fly into Boston, change planes and fly into Providence. There’s a three-hour time difference. It’s tough. So my little one is here with me half the time and she’s home half the time, and I make the commute.
Gisele is almost three. Your son Alex was about the same age when you started Voyager. How déjà vu all over again is it for you to have another young child on the set of another show?
Ryan: It totally is. Alex is 16 now. It’s not as easy at 40 as it was when you were 26, physically. But it’s a lot of fun, and she is amazing – (Ryan runs her fingers through Gisele’s hair and coos directly to her daughter) – right? I am dreading puberty, though. I’m terrified.
Tomorrow, in part two of our interview with Jeri Ryan, the actress talks more about Voyager, discusses Body of Proof and previews other upcoming projects, including Mortal Kombat and Warehouse 13.UPDATE: Who Is Robert Morrow?
Is Rick Perry Gay? Did Governor Perry have sex with strippers?
While Governor Perry’s camp hoped it would not happen, questions and rumors that Texas Governor and GOP Presidential Nomination Candidate Rick Perry is either Gay and, or, slept with strippers and escorts, have resurfaced after Robert Morrow, a Republican, Ron Paul For President Supporter, and the self-proclaimed President of The “Committee Against Sexual Hypocrisy,” or “CASH” took out this ad in the Austin Chronicle which reads:
“Are you a stripper, an escort, or just a young “hottie” impressed by an arrogant, entitled governor of Texas? Contact CASH and we will help you publicize your direct dealings with a Christian-buzzwords spouting family values hypocrite and fraud.”
And the Gay rumor was first mentioned last year by blogger Mike Stark, of The Stark Report, but for some weird and unknown reason, Stark stopped blogging about.
Here’s my video on the “Perry Gay” question:
But the important central part of Stark’s blog, the focus of this Zennie62.com blog post, remains unaddressed to this writing:
As I began looking into this, I repeatedly heard detailed rumors of a past gay relationship between the Governor and his former Secretary of State, Geoff Connor. A version of this story included Perry’s wife, Anita, catching Connor and Perry in the act and screaming at him the next day from her office phone. The most common retelling has it that the Governor was caught, struck a quick (and expensive) deal with his wife that allowed him to avoid an immediate trip to divorce court, and swore everyone involved to secrecy. I also learned of a new rumor making the rounds. Several sources told me they had heard that the Governor is in a current gay relationship with one of the two (male) chefs that Perry he keeps on staff at the tax – payer funded ($10,000 a month) temporary governor’s mansion. What’s interesting, given the longevity and evolving nature of these rumors, is that as far as I can tell, no media outlet has ever publicly asked the Governor the simple question: “Are you gay?”
And still, while Perry has been on the campaign trail this week, and acting like a smart-alec with respect to President Obama and Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke, the “Perry Gay” question has gone un-asked. The bet in this corner is that will remain the case, unless there is significant pressure from the Internet.
On top of the “Perry Gay” issue, is the “Perry Stripper Escort” talk.
The same Mr. Robert Morrow who’s the President of CASH, wrote a long explanation for his passionate campaign against Governor Perry, and writes “Adulterer Rick Perry is sitting on a keg of slut-fueled nitroglycerine that if it ever exploded, would make Anthony Weiner look like a mere pimple popping.” As recited in the Ellis County Observer of August 4, 2011 (another wild even on my birthday), Morrow’s comments make a worthy read:
Tea Party fraud Rick Perry Is Political Herpes By Robert Morrow Austin, TX 512-306-1510 I urge you to NOT vote for Rick Perry who is one of the biggest frauds and phonies in American politics. I am a 3-time delegate to the Texas Republican convention (2006, 2008, 2010) and I live in Austin, TX. Here why Rick Perry is completely unqualified to be president. The first thing you need to know about Rick Perry is that he is (or has been) a flagrant adulterer. Nor does Perry understand or appreciate free market capitalism and the importance of low taxes for all; Perry is a crony capitalist and he likes to spend and borrow lots of money. Perry does not respect parental rights (HPV mandate). The same man who is using a presidential prayer rally for his personal ambitions and who often spouts Christian buzzwords and Bible talk to advance his political career is a flagrant adulterer, having sex with women who are the approximate age of his daughter Sydney, age 24. Rick Perry’s Adultery (& his Arrogance) I know this because I am a patron of Austin strip clubs. My friends and excellent contacts in the Austin strip club community tell me that Rick Perry, a la Bill Clinton, has an enabling entourage who gets him “young hotties” to have sex with – both here in Austin and especially when he is on the road. I learned about this before the 2010 Texas primary. I had an attractive stripper tell me about her direct dealings with Rick Perry. She said that she was attempting a Monica Lewinsky-type act upon Gov. Rick Perry (oral sex) but that in her words Perry was “too coked up” to perform sexually! When it came time for the stripper to leave, Perry gave her an outrageous amount of money, so large in fact that it probably means that Perry is taking cash bribes or illegal gifts to fund his extracurricular activities. Perry is not a rich man and I doubt he is spending that much of his own money on the women. (Actually sweetheart real estate deals have made the man unusual money.) Another young woman, who has had direct dealings with Perry’s enabling entourage, told me that Perry is especially flagrantly adulterous when he goes on the road. She said that Perry has sex with the “young hotties” and that Perry and his entourage are literally having orgies in his hotel room. They are either calling escort services or picking up “young hotties” impressed by an arrogant, entitled governor of Texas. Recently a local Austin reporter was telling me that they had heard about Rick Perry and the strippers in 2006, but they never could nail it down. Well, consider it confirmed. Additionally, there are many people in Austin who are convinced that the man is a homosexual or has had gay affairs in the past. I have never met a man who has had sex with Rick Perry, but I have met women who have had direct dealings with Adulterer Rick Perry and his enabling entourage. Perry has most definitely been living a double life. That brings up another disqualifying characteristic of Perry: he is arrogant. Rick Perry knows his adultery rap sheet and liability more than anyone else. Perry is fully aware of the tremendous amount of risk this brings to the Republican party, his political career, his personal life and reputation. Yet, Rick Perry, drunk with arrogance and entitlement, presents himself as a legitimate presidential candidate when he is anything but that. Adulterer Rick Perry is sitting on a keg of slut-fueled nitroglycerine that if it ever exploded, would make Anthony Weiner look like a mere pimple popping. Side note: it is no secret in Austin that for years Rick and Anita Perry have been having marital problems (no wonder); but enabling Anita is wearing her “Hillary Clinton” boots as she supports his presidential run. Anita sure did not support Perry’s 2010 governor’s race, as she rarely went to campaign events and when she did she never smiled, had a robotic look on her face and obviously did not want to be there. At the moments of Rick’s greatest triumphs, Anita would be on stage with a blank look on her face, looking like a lost, unhappy child amidst all the cheering for Adulterer Rick. Anita’s behavior was so obvious that a local columnist John Kelso wrote an article about her never smiling on the campaign trail: “Somebody needs to goose Anita Perry to get a smile out of her.” http://www.statesman.com/news/local/somebody-needs-to-goose-anita-perry-to-get-1203160.html
For the rest of the Morrow post – which dives into more commentary on Perry’s flip-flopping politics, and less the substance that concerns the subject of this blog post click here.
While his is the work of a largely disgruntled Republican in Morrow, there must be some reason why traditional Republicans like Morrow and Karl Rove would come forward, speaking in the negative about Governor Perry. There’s also the matter of the people who were feeding rumors to Mike Stark last year, well before the 2010 midterm elections.
Something’s in the wind. Blowing.
Stay tuned.The Houston Texans moved up six spots to No. 7 in this week’s Power Rankings, the second-largest jump in the rankings heading into Week 2 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 10 spots).
It is the first time ESPN’s power panel has ranked Houston inside the top 10 since they were ranked No. 4 in Week 3 of the 2013 season.
Their win over the Chicago Bears had to be an impressive one for the power panel to move them up in the rankings so quickly. The Texans sacked Jay Cutler five times, allowed 4.8 yards per play, ran for 129 yards and saw what their season might look like with strong quarterback play and more than one dynamic wide receiver.
Let’s examine Houston’s case as a top-10 team in the NFL after seeing its new-look offense.
Osweiler’s clutch downfield throws
Brock Osweiler had an impressive debut for the Texans. He posted a 78.5 Total QBR against Chicago, the 11th-best QBR in the league in Week 1.
Much of the high QBR comes from Osweiler completing key passes deep downfield. His average throw Sunday traveled 11.7 yards past the line of scrimmage, highest in the league. Osweiler was the only quarterback who threw 20 or more yards downfield on over 20 percent of his pass attempts in Week 1.
One of Osweiler’s highlights of the day was a pass thrown 23 yards into the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins.
Osweiler had another highlight-reel throw on third down in the middle of the fourth quarter. This one was perfectly placed down the left sideline to rookie Will Fuller and it extended the drive that eventually gave the Texans a two-score lead.
Hopkins-Fuller a dynamic duo
The duo of Hopkins and Fuller at wide receiver could be one the best combinations that the Texans have ever had at the position. The Texans have never had multiple 1,000-yard receivers in a single season, but Fuller, who was the No. 21 overall pick in this year’s draft, got off to a great start.
Fuller became the first Texans rookie to post at least 100 receiving yards in a season opener. He showed impressive ball skills on the deep pass from Osweiler and great after-the-catch ability on his touchdown reception earlier in the quarter.
Osweiler’s screen pass to Fuller early in the fourth quarter was a low one, but the rookie was able to scoop up the pass and run straight through the Bears’ defense for the 18-yard score.
Houston’s wide receivers had one receiving touchdown on screen passes in the previous three seasons combined.
Miller finally featured
Lamar Miller never touched the ball 25 times in a game in 61 career games with the Miami Dolphins. In his debut in a Texans uniform, Miller set career highs in rushes (28) and total touches (32).
Miller was one of only two players who rushed for at least 100 yards in Week 1, with DeAngelo Williams being the other.
Looking ahead
The Texans play the Kansas City Chiefs in what should be one of the best matchups in the NFL in Week 2. ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Texans a 55 percent chance to win at home, the second-closest projected matchup of the weekend.
Houston has lost the past three meetings between the teams, including a 30-0 loss in last year’s wild-card round. The Texans’ new-look offense will be a much tougher test for Kansas City this time around. In the 30-point loss, Brian Hoyer threw four interceptions and posted a QBR of 1.7.Blowing from a gun is a [1]
The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen.
Blowing from a gun was a reported means of execution as long ago as the 16th century, by the Mughal Empire, and was used until the 20th century. The method was utilized by Portuguese colonialists in the 16th and 17th centuries, from as early as 1509 across their empire from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka)[2] to Mozambique[3] to Brazil.[4] The Mughals used the method throughout the 17th century and into the 18th, particularly against rebels.[5]
Arguably, the nation most well known to have implemented this type of execution was the British Empire, in its role as paramount power in India, and in particular as a punishment for native soldiers found guilty of mutiny[6] or desertion.[7] Using the methods previously practised by the Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th century,[8] with the most intense period of use being during 1857 sepoy mutiny, when both the British and the rebelling sepoys used it frequently.[9]
The practice is said to have been still in use in Afghanistan in 1930.[10]
Rituals
A commonly reported method of blowing a man from a gun is to tie him in front of the muzzle of the gun and then have him shot. Loading the cannon with an actual cannonball is on occasion reported; but, more commonly, the use of blank cartridge or grapeshot is attested. The following description of the manner of tying up the convicted is from Afghanistan, 7 July 1839, ordered by Shuja Shah, during the campaign against Dost Mohammad Khan:[11]
The three men were then tied with ropes to the guns, their backs against the muzzle. The rope, fastened to one of the spokes of the wheel, passed with a knot round the arms, over the muzzle of the gun, round the other arm, and then to the spoke of the opposite wheel, which kept the body fixed.
Although immobilizing a victim in front of a gun before firing the cannon is by far the most reported method, a case from Istanbul in 1596 alleges that the victim was actually put into the gun and executed in that manner.[12] Some reports exist that attest that on occasion, people were fastened to rockets and blown into the air. This is said to have occurred for a Brahmin under Hyder Ali's reign (1761–1782),[13] and also, in an 1800 treason case, in the Mahratta Empire.[14]
Things did not always work out according to plan at such executions; at a mass execution at Firozpur in 1857, there was an order that blank cartridge should be used, but some loaded with grapeshot instead. Several of the spectators facing the cannons were hit by the grapeshot and some had to amputate limbs as a result. In addition, some of the soldiers had not been withdrawn properly and sustained damages by being hit by whizzing pieces of flesh and bone.[15] In another case, a soldier who was to be shot managed to fall down just as the shot went off, with the resulting scene taking place:[16]
One wretched fellow slipped from the rope by which he was tied to the guns just before the explosion, and his arm was nearly set on fire. While hanging in his agony under the gun, a sergeant applied a pistol to his head; and three times the cap snapped, the man each time wincing from the expected shot. At last a rifle was fired into the back of his head, and the blood poured out of the nose and mouth like water from a briskly handled pump. This was the most horrible sight of all. I have seen death in all its forms, but never anything to equal this man's end.
Others reported with shudders how birds of prey circled above the execution place and swooped down to catch pieces of human flesh in the air,[17] while others were nauseated by the dogs loitering about the place of execution and rushing to the scene to devour some of the "delicacies" spread around as a result of the execution.[18]
The British in India
Before 1857
Blowing from a gun as a method of execution was used, perhaps most well known, by British troops during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British, however, had a long tradition prior to the 1857 rebellion of executing sepoys found guilty of mutiny or desertion in this manner. According to one historian, the British tradition began in 1760, when the government examined the modes of capital punishment in use. In the district of the 24 Perganas, it was found that the common military mode of capital punishment was flogging to death. Regarding blowing from a gun as an old Mogul punishment, the government opted for this technique, as being, relative to death by flogging, more deterrent, more public and more humane. Already in 1761, orders were given in Lakhipur "to fire off at the mouth of a cannon the leader of the thieves who was made prisoner, that others may be deterred".[19] Technically, in cases of court-martial, it seems that until 1857 the courts were composed of native officers rather than British, but it is added: " |
the Upper Chamber.
The newly appointed Independent senators bring a vast mix of expertise, professional and academic skills and solid government, private sector and community service experience to their roles. These individuals add their experience to those already in the chamber who also have successful backgrounds and years of constructive knowledge. Being originally appointed as a partisan does not negate one’s ability or wisdom of contribution. Both traditions are an important part of our legislative context. Having served as a “partisan,” I know first-hand that there are those whose independent-mindedness was not wiped away by virtue of sitting in an organized caucus. And I suspect that they too can see the value of better structuring the business of government since they fully understand that the business of government is actually the business of Canadians. I don’t think they would want Canadians to perceive the Senate as stalling government bills simply in order to flex partisan muscle.
Sen. Harder’s paper is a totally reasonable way for all senators to work together and ensure that a government bill is dealt with honourably and in a reasonable time frame – even when there might be disagreement on the merits of the matter.
Letting tactical delay, especially when deployed for partisan purposes, replace strategic debate, discussion, examination, considered hearing and ultimate disposition, is to bring the institution into unnecessary disrepute around its core function.
Hugh Segal is a former Conservative senator (Ontario) and Master of Massey College in the University of Toronto.The rand is currently at the mercy of external factors, analysts said on Friday.
They were responding to the rand hitting R16.20 to the greenback on Thursday before consolidating trade for the rest of the day at around R16.10/$.
At 10:38 on Friday the unit was trading at R16.03/$ from a close of R16.06 in the previous session.
“It’s not only South Africa, the world is an unhappy place,” Adam Phillips, independent treasury consultant at Umkhulu Consulting, told Fin24.
“In case you thought it is just the ZAR that has a problem, it is the world that has a problem at the moment. Overnight the Chinese authorities turned off the circuit breakers on their stock market and this was coupled with the central bank setting a slightly stronger mid rate on the yuan.”
Trading in Chinese stocks was halted for a second day this week after circuit breakers kicked in following a 7% drop in China’s CSI 300 Index.
The selloff was sparked by the Chinese central bank cutting its yuan reference rate by the most since August.
Read: R20 to the US dollar under Zuma?
“Stock markets in the Far East are all back in the blue today, as we end the first week of 2016 wondering what else can hurt markets,” said Phillips.
He said the Australian dollar was leading the recovery on Friday morning, which has helped the rand to move through R16.00/$ and trade down to R15.94.
According to Brett Birkenstock, director at Overberg Asset Management, the rand is the world’s most liquid emerging market currency and has felt the force of the global selloff.
“However, the rand is not alone and many other emerging market currencies have been dealt the same fate.”
He said the rand is, however, substantially weaker than it might have been had South Africa not experienced the Nenegate saga last month.
Nenegate is widely used as a reference to the firing and replacement of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene on December 9 last year by relatively unknown ANC MP David van Rooyen, who in turn was replaced four days later by Nene’s former boss Pravin Gordhan.
“The rand is yet to recover to pre-Nenegate levels,” said Birkenstock.
Economist Mike Schussler from Economists.co.za sketched a grim scenario for the South African economy should the rand lose 20% from its value against the greenback in 2016.
Last year the rand gave up 25.9% of its value.
“If the rand should fall just another 20% over the next year then by the beginning of 2017 a dollar would cost R20. That R20/$ is on the cards so quickly is frightening for the country.”
The rand has so far lost 3.65% of its value in the first four trading days of the year.
MMI economist Sanisha Packirisamy said the recent slide in the rand has been accompanied by a broader-based selloff across emerging markets in general triggered by recent currency moves in China.
The Chinese yuan traded at its lowest level against the US dollar since 2011, following poor economic data reflecting a contraction in China’s manufacturing sector for the tenth consecutive month in December 2015.
“Emerging markets most exposed to lower growth prospects and subdued commodity prices have seen the sharpest falls. Further ambiguity around domestic economic policy in an already-fragile local growth environment is likely to keep the SA rand under pressure in the near term,” she said.
Double-edged sword
A weaker rand will see the cost of imported goods for consumers rise, making it more expensive for consumers to purchase items such as imported electronics or other durable and semi-durable items sourced from abroad, warned Packirisamy.
Local consumers also won’t benefit from the slide in global oil prices to record low levels closer to $30 a barrel.
“This means that as the rest of the world get lower petrol prices, we get ones that are higher. It also means that wheat and maize prices have risen and will rise more. Things like a loaf of normal bread will go up and we risk some bread prices going to R20 a loaf within the next two years or so. This is a real, serious threat,” Schussler warned.
In addition, currency weakness and volatility exacerbate the low growth-sticky inflation conundrum. This is because sustained rand weakness poses a threat to the South African Reserve Bank’s inflation profile, which it has projected to average close to the upper target of 6% in 2016, said Packirisamy.
On the other side of the coin, the weaker rand is helping SA mines stay afloat and gold mines are probably making profits again as the gold price has held up more than coal or iron ore or platinum, said Schussler.
“We could see a boost in tourism (especially with the visa restrictions relaxed somewhat) and a boost for local exporters, but that is where the positives end,” said Birkenstock.
But, said Schussler, tourism should have benefited more as “some foreigners could literally buy some of our rural homes on their credit cards and R2 000 hotel rooms per night cost only £85 – that is less than a meal for two at a larney place in London”.
“It may well be a very hard year for the South African public,” cautioned Birkenstock.
More on the rand
Rand hits R16 vs dollar
Rand touches R16 vs dollar
Weak rand not Zuma’s fault – ANCYL
Rand crashes to lowest level ever as Zuma sacks finance minister(CNN) He is the man who lifted the lid on one of the biggest doping scandals in sport history.
The fallout from Professor Richard McLaren's two reports, which claimed there was an orchestrated program of cheating involving the Russian ministry of sport, Federal Security Service (FSB) and national sports and anti-doping bodies between 2011 and 2015, has been considerable.
Russia has arguably been embarrassed on the world stage and the majority of its track and field athletes remain excluded from international events.
Likewise McLaren's conclusion that the 2012 Olympics was "corrupted on an unprecedented scale," would have made for uncomfortable reading for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Given those ructions, perhaps it shouldn't be altogether surprising that there's also been a personal fallout for the Canadian law professor.
"I've received various threats by email sources, but I don't pay attention to those," McLaren tells CNN, speaking nearly 10 months on since the publication of his first report.
"I like to be careful about my personal well being, but I don't have any concerns.
"It's very common when something like this is produced and goes in the public domain to attack the messenger because by attacking the messenger you don't have to deal with the message.
"Well, it's time to deal with the message and forget about the messenger."
'You expect to be isolated'
The Canadian, who was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in May 2016, says he had "no idea" he would discover what he did when he first started his investigation.
The McLaren report said that more than 1,000 Russian athletes across at least 20 sports, including football, were involved in or benefited from doping, with medalists implicated not only at London 2012 but the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
His second report, published in December 2016, provided supporting evidence to his initial findings, with the Canadian claiming there was an "institutionalized" conspiracy in the country.
"When you take on a role like I've taken on you expect to be somewhat isolated," he said.
"You expect to be not be everybody's favorite person to see or talk with. That all goes with the territory.
"Alright, they may be bigger, stronger and more powerful, but I think they might find that there are lots of things that I can do as an independent person running this inquiry, which is now finished, which will require them to respond."
JUST WATCHED FC Zenit fans give team a fiery welcome home Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH
'Invigorated involvement of athletes'
McLaren has previously spoken about his frustrations with the lack of action taken by sports bodies in response to his findings and, four months after the publication of the second report, he still believes the response to his investigations continues to be "very slow."
In December, just days after he published his second report, a widespread boycott of the bobsleigh and skeleton world championships saw the event pulled from Russia and moved to Germany.
Amid all the politicking, McLaren is full of praise for the athletes for taking action.
"One of the great benefits that's come out of my work has been the new, invigorated involvement of athletes who are current competitors pushing their own sport organization to respond and be responsive to what's going on," he said.
"They're demanding responses from the people in charge of these organizations. I think that's a very positive, progressive step -- perhaps the most important when we look back in a couple of years' time."
Protecting clean athletes
McLaren's first report was met with denials from Russia and calls for more proof from the IOC.
Last August, he accused the IOC, via the Guardian, of misrepresenting his findings and said it did not speak to him or his team before deciding to let Russian athletes compete at Rio 2016, subject to certain conditions.
The IOC, choosing not to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes at last summer's Olympics, left the decision instead to individual sporting federations over whether the country's athletes could compete.
Athletics' governing body, the IAAF, extended Russia's ban in December, which had covered the Olympics, from international athletics competitions and in April said Russia was making "little progress" cleaning up its doping culture to secure its reinstatement.
However in March, Russian President Vladimir admitted that the country's anti-doping system had failed.
"The main thing is that despite the shortcomings in the work of [Mclaren's] independent commission, we should pay attention to what it did, to the results of its work," Putin was quoted as telling Russia Today.
JUST WATCHED Russia banned from Paralympic Games after appeal denied Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Russia banned from Paralympic Games after appeal denied 01:22
On Tuesday, McLaren, the IOC and WADA put forward a united front.
McLaren, IOC president Thomas Bach and WADA president, Sir Craig Reedie, issued a joint statement following a meeting between the trio in Lausanne to discuss a strategy for a more "robust and efficient" anti-doping system.
The statement said the IOC's "Inquiry Commission" would continue to investigate and address the "systematic manipulation" of the anti-doping system in Russia.
All Russian samples were, said the statement, under investigation by the "Oswald Commission."
"Our common goal is to do everything possible to protect the clean athletes so that such a systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system can never happen again," read the statement.(Image: ESA)
Three, two, one, lift-off! The countdown has immortalised launches as the most exciting part of space travel, but reaching orbit is only half the challenge. Re-entering Earth’s atmosphere is just as difficult, and can be deadly, as it proved for the unfortunate crew of the doomed space shuttle Columbia. Now the European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to try re-entry for the first time in 16 years, using a novel spacecraft.
I am in an Italian industrial estate on the outskirts of the old Roman city of Turin to see this craft, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle or IXV, prepare for its first planned launch later this year.
If the IXV turns out to be successful, it could be a major turning point for Europe’s presence in space. Re-entry is key for more advanced space missions, whether that be returning experiments from the International Space Station (ISS), bringing back rock samples from the moon and Mars, or anything involving humans. “There is no way Europe can put a man in something heading back to Earth without this technology,” says ESA’s Giorgio Tumino, the IXV programme manager.
Advertisement
ESA is currently dependent on Russia to carry its astronauts into orbit and back. And though ESA did successfully launch, and return to Earth, a copy of a NASA Apollo capsule in 1998, that vehicle did not get used again and the project was abandoned.
Hybrid perfection
The first thing I think when I see IXV is that it looks like someone chopped the nose off NASA’s space shuttle and stuck a pair of flippers on the back (see picture, above right). Soon I discover that, to some extent, that is what they did.
Most vehicles capable of resisting the immense friction and heat of atmospheric re-entry are capsules with no means of controlling where they land once descent begins – think NASA’s Apollo missions or the Dragon capsule made by California company SpaceX. The shuttle, with its ability to land like a plane, was a complex and costly exception. The IXV, a vehicle classed as a “lifting body”, is a cross between the two. “Lifting bodies are a hybrid,” says Tumino. “It has the simplicity of a capsule, because we do not have wings, but the performance is very close to winged vehicles.”
I don a fetching hair net, lab coat and plastic slippers and enter the cleanroom where IXV is being assembled. Set to weigh in at 2 tonnes once complete and roughly the size of a car, it is currently suspended on one side as if in the middle of a barrel roll. Lacking the protective covering that will shield it during its mission, a mess of wires spills out from every electronic pore. Visible are its all-important parachutes, tightly packed and ready to burst open and slow the craft’s decent.
Space for a stowaway
Though IXV could pave the way to Europe’s first independent astronaut mission, the craft before me is a scaled-down prototype. Peering inside, I reckon there’s just enough space for a curled-up stowaway, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Instead of being a people carrier, this craft is designed to test two technologies vital to future missions: a heat shield and two rear flaps that move up and down to provide manoeuvrability. When it launches in October from Kourou in French Guiana it will reach an altitude of 412 kilometres – about the same as the ISS – and fly almost entirely round the planet before re-entry. The craft is robotic and will adjust its trajectory on the way to splashdown to within a 20-kilometre-diameter circle in the Pacific Ocean, where a ship will be waiting to recover it.
If that test is successful, ESA hopes to build a new space craft that exploits the IXV technology. With bureaucratic wrangles ahead, it is not clear what form that craft will take, but a space plane that is based on the IXV but lands on the ground like an aeroplane, not in water, would fit the bill, and could be built within three years, says Tumino. It would not be crewed to start off with, but it would be able to refuel and could be used to maintain satellites and carry out microgravity experiments at much lower cost than on the ISS.
US looms large
As far as the technology goes, the closest comparison to this futuristic space plane is theX-37, a classified US military project that launches on a rocket and lands by itself on a runway. ESA insists there are no plans to militarise IXV, so its successor would be the only civilian example of such a vehicle.
Even at the heart of Europe’s space effort, though, the US’s dominance in space looms large. At the other end of the cleanroom are four cylinders, each large enough to swallow IXV whole and still have room for more. These are the cargo modules of Cygnus capsules, which belong to US firm Orbital Sciences, the other private firm that resupplies the ISS besides SpaceX.
The modules are built here in Turin on contract and shipped to the US for full assembly and launch. Cygnus and IXV are not directly comparable – Cygnus is designed to burn up on re-entry – but it is an instant reminder of just how far ahead the US is. Tumino hopes IXV will give ESA the boost it needs to start to catch up.
The European Space Agency paid for New Scientist‘s flights and hotel in TurinTribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson didn’t appreciate the accusation by Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi last week that the Yellow Jackets use illegal and dangerous chop-blocking techniques.
After Georgia Tech’s 35-17 victory Saturday, Johnson responded with sarcasm and a back-handed comment on the quality of the opponent he had just defeated.
On his radio show on 93.7 FM on Wednesday night, Narduzzi wondered how Georgia Tech can get away with illegal chop-blocking.
“They do a lot of high-lowing,” Narduzzi said. “It’s dangerous football, I can tell you that. You watch inside, if you watch our nose tackle, there’s times when a center is kind of hitting him up high and there’s a guy coming in from the other side, which is really illegal, but they never call it. I don’t quite understand how that happens.”
In his postgame news conference Saturday, Johnson made it clear he didn’t like the charge, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“As a conference rule, we have to have, like, four ambulances at our games because we hurt so many people,” he said tongue-in-cheek. “Come on. Played 10 years, I can’t remember anybody that’s ever gotten hurt out there playing. That’s just trying to get the officials to call something that ain’t there.”
Without making a specific reference to Pitt, Johnson added, “You want to know what’s dangerous? Dangerous is teaching your defensive linemen to hang onto offensive linemen when they’re trying to get to the second level, and then they get cut off. That’s dangerous.
“If that was my kid, I’d be upset if somebody told them to do that.”
When the coaches shook hands after the game, Johnson said he didn’t say anything to Narduzzi other than to wish him luck.
But Johnson had plenty to say to reporters.
Asked to comment further on Narduzzi’s accusation, Johnson said, “I’ll take the high road on that one.”
That was in reference to Narduzzi’s response to Penn State coach James Franklin who said earlier this season that beating Pitt felt just like beating Akron.
Said Narduzzi at the time, “They went low. We went high.”
Actually, what upset Johnson more than anything Narduzzi said were his team’s four lost fumbles in the game.
Johnson said the Yellow Jackets have to eliminate those mistakes “because against a good team, we won’t be able to survive.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review pitt football reporter. You can contact Jerry at 412-320-7997, jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter.Resist Tyranny with a “Death by a Thousand Cuts” Guerrilla Strategy
Dave Hodges
October 13, 2013
The Common Sense Show
The federal government is lost to the people. It has been compromised and taken over by the bankers. America’s only hope is to hang on to any remnants of our collective civil liberties, for as long as we can, lies in confronting tyranny at the local level. Subsequently, any successful revolution against a tyrannical government will be won at the local level. Every community in the country is in dire need of local activist groups who are willing to take a stand against unconstitutional encroachments into their lives. And who will start and lead these activist groups? Look in the mirror, you are resistance the tyranny which threatens life on this planet.
Any successful resistance against the globalists will be the result of the guerrilla warfare which employs the strategy of death by a thousand cuts.
Freedoms Phoenix Is a Solid Example of Effective Activism
There is a group in Phoenix that is loosely referred to as Freedoms Phoenix, which was created and is operated by Ernie Hancock. I am fortunate enough to be able to occasionally attend their monthly meetings referred to as the Arizona Breakfast Club, in which critical issues and timely guests are presented to an audience of Phoenix area activists as they eat breakfast. From these associations developed through this organization, tyranny is being confronted on a daily basis.
Freedoms Phoenix and Ernie Hancock are the real deal when it comes to getting in the face of governmental tyranny. They exemplify what it means to be an activist and actively fight for individual liberties. I began my writing career with Ernie Hancock’s organization over seven years ago and I have not looked back since Ernie gave me my first break in the alternative media.
Freedoms Phoenix Helped to Save My Community
My rural community, located 20 miles north of suburban Phoenix, comprised of 2,000 people, faced the real possibility of losing our homes and our properties, without one dime of compensation being paid to the impacted home owners. The perpetrators of this attempted public theft of private property can be credited to the corrupt forces of John McCain and his globalist colleagues.
Freedoms Phoenix was instrumental in helping me to report on the abuses of the McCain group at the same time that we were being censored by the mainstream media. Freedoms Phoenix also played a critical role in helping my community to obtain legal representation at a time when McCain had the entire legal community in Arizona afraid to take our case. Today, nine years after the governmental abuse against my community commenced, we are still in our homes and we have held the globalist forces of John McCain at bay. Every community needs an organization like Freedoms Phoenix. There are some organizatiosn in this country like Freedoms Phoenix, such as We Are Change, which are effective. However, there are not nearly enough of these organizations as tyranny continues to swallow this country one bite at a time.
Below is an example of the grass roots type of activism that Freedoms Phoenix advocates undertake on a daily basis.
An Example of In-Your-Face Community Activism That the Globalists Hate
One of the most objectionable police state practices being carried out across America is photo radar. A number of these criminal organizations, such as Redflex and ATS have been caught up in bribery scandals, faulty equipment and outright fraud.
One of the more colorful people in the Freedoms Phoenix group is an activist named Shelton Obadiah (AKA 4409), who maintains a Youtube channel at Youtube.com/RP4409, which is a site devoted to stopping the nonsense that has become known as photo radar. Obadiah likes to embarrass communities which employ photo radar which is nothing more than a money making scam designed to separate people from their hard earned money by local governments. All too frequently, photo radar usage results in tickets being issued under fraudulent conditions, it takes time away from police patrol hours and undermines the respect that the public has for law enforcement.
You might say that an issue like photo radar is trivial and I would say that you are dead wrong. Photo radar is an in-your-face big brother scheme designed to, not only rip you off financially, but to dehumanize you and subject you to the corrupt authority of a machine designed to control you and remind you that you are a prisoner of the state. Photo radar, drone surveillance, what is the difference? There is none, it is no different than the NSA spying on your emails and cell phone conversations.
Below is a video recorded on Obadiah’s cell phone from a confrontation he had last October with a photo radar operator and then a Scottsdale police officer.
The video shows Shelton walking up to a photo radar van and yelling at the man inside. “You all making money, pirates,” Obadiah said on the video. Moments later, the photo radar operator stepped out of the van. “You out making money you (expletive)? Get a life dude. Get a life,” Obadiah said. “You (expletive) stealing from people using a scam van. You are a thief.” A few minutes later, Scottsdale police officers arrive and there’s more discussion. “You’re typical, being a (expletive) dude,” Obadiah told the officer.
According to the police report, Obadiah “stood in front of the van’s camera and blocked his view of oncoming cars” for about 10 minutes, and that is why he was arrested. The video shows the policeman is a liar and made an unconstitutional arrest. This Scottsdale police officer is clearly an example of a police officer who has been “federalized” by DHS because his behavior is thuggish as opposed to being a servant of the community like our police used to be.
The driver of the scam van was actually fired by the Photo radar company ATS for getting out of the van and confronting Shelton. Shelton has been charged with disorderly conduct. I expect, however, that the charges will be dropped because his behavior does not meet the legal standards for disorderly conduct and the video clearly impeaches the officer’s arrest statement.
This is an issue about the First Amendment and the right of a citizen to verbally confront unconstitutional behavior. Shelton’s attorney Marc Victor stated, “You might not like his methods, might not like his language, might not like that he filmed it,” said Victor. “That’s fine. That’s what a free country is all about. It’s really going to be a sad day in America if a person like Shelton, expressing his political opinion, is found to be committing a criminal offense.”
Although a trial date in the case has not been set, it is clear that Shelton is not done making life uncomfortable for the traffic scam companies.
Does your community have an organization which actively confronts tyranny on a local level? If not, you might want to start such an organization.
As you will see, being an effective activist is not hard, it just takes a little investment of time, the use of a cell phone and some intestinal fortitude. Here is Shelton’s confrontation with ATS and the Scottsdale police.
One organization like Freedoms Phoenix and an activist such as 4409, makes some difference to the depth of tyranny that we are willing to accept into our lives.
Some will say that Shelton’s behavior is crude and unacceptable. I say that this is the first cut and we have 999 cuts to go. A thousand like-minded organizations would make controlling the American people an impossible task for the central bankers. We must resist tyranny in the trenches where we find it in our daily lives.
Guerrilla units of three to four people could begin to carry the kind of activism we see here by 4409. If your cause is committed to the spirit of freedom, in opposition to central banker led tyranny, these freedom-based groups would grow exponentially.
Our generation has lost the war to the central bankers on an international and national level. America, there is no America, you are living in an occupied country. This fight will continue beyond our days on this earth and on into future generations. This is what we have reaped for our collective complacency. However, there is one compelling reason to keep on fighting.
Thomas Paine once said, “If there is to be trouble, let it be in my time, so my child will know peace.”
This is what we are fighting for. We are not fighting for you to have more time to watch football or American Idol. Your future is sealed. Life as you know it will soon dramatically change forever. We are fighting so that our children will not live under a Stalinist or Mao type of regime. We should be teaching our children the tools that they will need in order to engage in the fight against tyranny. You brought your children into this world, it is up to you to fight for their future.
The brave people in the alternative media such as John Stadtmiller, Steve Quayle, Jeff Rense, John B. Wells, Doug and Joe Hagmann, Stan and Holly Deyo, Alex Jones, Jim Marrs, Dr. Jerome Corsi, Ernie Hancock, Julie Telgenhoff, Roger Landry, Michael Edwards and many, many other heroes, are giving your children a fighting chance and they are risking their lives to do it. For if we totally lose in this war against the central bankers, the above-mentioned people will disappear forever and your children will be condemned to a hellish nightmare. They are not risking their lives for you and your children so that you will continue to sit on your fat rumpus on the couch. They are doing so in order that you will join them in the cause of freedom and liberty.
As Ernie Hancock likes to ask, are you an activist or a “slacktivist” who is helplessly dependent upon the efforts of people in the alternative media? FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. It is time to roll up your sleeves and get to work and stop depending on the labor of others to defend you, your children and their rights.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]Warsaw will this week push the EU to loosen rules on state subsidies for Poland's ailing but politically-sensitive coal mines in a bold election-year gambit that defies the bloc's public embrace of green energy.
The EU styles itself as a world leader on environmental issues and has been pushing to phase out coal in favour of cleaner renewable forms of energy. It typically approves government subsidies in the coal sector only if they are intended to help overcome the social and environmental problems associated with pit closures.
But in an unusual departure, Warsaw will instead seek the EU's consent to restructure four big mines in the south of the country, saying that it will use the state funds to avoid closures and politically damaging job losses
Polish officials said that a letter seeking support for this so-called "state aid" to the mines recently spun off from state-controlled Kompania Weglowa, which has been losing 200m zlotys (£35m) a month, would be delivered to the commission in the coming days
Coal is an emotive issue in Poland and the fate of the mines will be closely watched in the run-up to October's election, with polls showing the incumbent Civic Platform party holding only a slender lead over its main rightwing opponents.
Coal generates 90 per cent of the country's electricity, is seen as a safeguard of partial energy independence from Russia and more than 100,000 people are employed in mining it.
However, the industry faces massive economic problems. The mines lose about €15 for every tonne of coal they extract, due to years of neglect by Polish politicians fearful of dealing with the problem in the face of strong and politically powerful trade unions.
The four mines had been slated for closure in January, but the prime minister, Ewa Kopacz, relented just 10 days later after strikes by miners, to the chagrin of investors and industry analysts.
Warsaw's stubborn defence of the industry has led it to block a series of EU environmental initiatives in recent years, making it the bane of environmental groups and a source of frustration for many within the bloc - particularly Scandinavian and other northern European nations.
Two people involved in drawing up the restructuring plan said that domestic politics was at the centre of Ms Kopacz's approach to the industry's future, and was highlighted in Warsaw's plea to Brussels for its blessing.
Ms Kopacz, who has seen her authority weakened by a number of political missteps since succeeding Donald Tusk last autumn, stressed the need for flexibility over subsidy rules during a recent meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.
Several officials familiar with the case in Brussels said that Poland would face a battle in winning the commission round.
"We have had constructive dialogue with the commission on this," said a senior official involved in writing the letter. "It will not be easy [to convince the commission], but we are optimistic."
After heavy lobbying from Germany and Spain in 2010, Brussels allowed member states to pay subsidies to coal producers until 2018, but on the condition that the mines were earmarked for closure.
Marcin Korolec, Polish state secretary for the environment, stressed that Poland was not using state payments for "operational costs" as other EU countries were. "We are discussing this with the commission; those discussions are continuing," he said.
(Financial Times)Some say shamate (杀马特) is the most hated subculture in China, and they certainly look the part—in what looks like China’s attempt at a fusion of goth and post-punk writ large—they have spiked, inflated hair dyed bright, along with smoky eyes, pierced lips, and seemingly strange clothes, not to mention their constant efforts to contort their faces and twist their limbs in overly dramatic photos. The name shamate is a transliteration of the English world “smart”, because of their “smart” appearance—magnificent irony no doubt. The source of their inspiration seems to be Japanese rockers who entertain audiences with both their music and outrageous sense of style. Producing no music of their own, the closest thing shamate ever get to such rock-fiefdom is taking a never-ending series of incorrigibly naïf “glamorous” photos of themselves.
Shopping malls, CBDs, and office buildings are hardly the territory of shamate. To find one, you will have to venture further to the edge of the city, to the suburbs, or even the exurbs. Under their heavy makeup which somehow never quite works and exaggerated hairdos, shamates are mostly young rural-born men and women. They are either students or just-setting-out factory workers, security guards, delivery men, and hair salon assistants. Usually in their late teens or early 20s, the shamate’s education is limited and prospects uncertain.
Their parents—first generation migrant workers—had a slovenly appearance and tough working conditions. Their sole focus was to survive in the urban jungle. In comparison, the shamate try to live in a spiritual world, in which they can transform into the center of attention—a group of dazzling, cooler-than-thou misfits, desperately carving out meaning in a world where it is otherwise all too lacking.
Twenty-six year old Sichuan hairdresser Zhou Dengxi certainly knows the look, asking a journalist from Time-Weekly: “Is it an elegant style?” Being the creator of many such hairstyles and once a bearer himself, Zhou speaks from experience: “Kids think the stuff is fresh. They are curious about it. They want people to turn their heads.”
In the end, if tuhao and dama represent China’s new rich, i.e. those atop of the social pyramid, then the shamate certainly live at the bottom. But this is nothing new. The most exotic and colorful of subcultures, from the punks, to the Goths, to the skinheads, have often been born out of working class oppression, and why should the shamate be any different? But with internet culture today, both the rich and poor get an equal chance to be ridiculed online. A video poking fun of shamate was posted on Youku last September, named “Shamate meets Wash-cut-blow dry”. It features clips of Korean pop stars with big hair dancing to the original lyrics describing the shamate lifestyle: “Baby, your mom thinks I am rude, I got my hair styled… so she wouldn’t break us apart…baby, your father thinks I am useless, I learned wash-cut-blow dry…so he wouldn’t break us apart.” The caricature went viral online and received 2.6 million hits.
Another source of mockery is Weibo satire. Famous Weibo blogger “Shamate Longshao” proclaimed himself to be a shamate with qualities based on the small city of Zhumadian in Henan Province. His posts are mostly self-admiring, such as: “I think god is fair. He gave me a handsome face, and at the same time, let me bare the jealousy and slander of the world outside. I don’t know who god is, but I do know what I am—a different kind of firework,” accompanied, of course, by a not so handsome, half-naked picture of a country boy with funny hairdo. The blogger also collects cheesy online images of shamate and reposts them as part of his own life, gaining over 18,000 followers.
As a matter of fact, anyone proclaiming themselves to be a shamate publicly online is very likely a case of satire, because everywhere they go, mockery and contempt follow. In an online Tencent survey, 21,000 respondents answered “yes” to the question “Do you consider shamate culture vulgar?”, an overwhelming 73 percent of all replies. It is fair to say that various online representations helped to build the shamate image and shaped the understanding of it. Even though taste can hardly serve as the marker of “class” in today’s Chinese society, in this case, it’s the particular taste of shamate, or lack of it, that defines them.
The harsh criticism and mockery didn’t stop shamate from themselves spreading online in the form of underground QQ groups. These organized groups are very selective and wary of outsiders. In order to join a “family” group, one has to meet certain standards and join a “verified group” first.
A shamate “family” usually consists of hundreds to thousands of members, both men and women. Besides various head shots in shamate style, many members have titles such as CEO, Founder and Technical Director. Many families have their own regulations and organizational structure. Posting their latest styles on QQ zone, chatting, and holding offline get-togethers are their daily activities. Shamates have their own slang too. They refer to themselves as bensha (本杀, the shamate that is myself). A comment theme in |
, of course, on Goran Dragic's health).
Q: A case can be made that the Heat would do better if Hassan Whiteside was defending front-line centers like Brook Lopez instead of Amar'e Stoudemire doing it. -- Martin.
A: Yes, and perhaps that also would leave the Heat not having to battle back from sluggish starts and early deficits. The counter is such assignments could leave Whiteside in early foul trouble, as was the case during his initial stint Monday against the Nets. And yet, as the schedule winds down, the opportunities to test Whiteside with the current starters continue to dwindle. Basically, if the Heat don't get Whiteside into the starting lineup soon, it might require too much of a chemistry adjustment in the playoffs. Of course, Erik Spoelstra has never shied from adjusting his lineups in the postseason. So stay tuned.
Q: Is Joe Johnson the best decoy in the NBA? Even on off nights (maybe when he isn't scoring), just the fact that opposing teams have to deal with him helps the Heat's offense. -- Stuart.
A: Exactly. And that means a lot considering no one is rushing to close out on Gerald Green, likely preferring that he shoot. Same with Justise Winslow. Among the reasons the Heat's offense has improved, beyond the increase in pace, has been the threat of outside shooting, which has opened the lane for more attacking play. Johnson is a big part of that, including his reputation.Gotham Green Partners and Co-Investors Close Out Steep Hill’s Series III Convertible Notes
BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Steep Hill Labs, Inc. (“Steep Hill”) and Gotham Green Partners (“Gotham Green”) announced today that funds managed by Gotham Green and co-investor Slifka Asset Management have invested Two and One-Half Million Dollars ($2.5M) into Steep Hill, completing Steep Hill’s Series III Convertible Notes funding round. The investment into Steep Hill includes matching stock warrants at a $75 Million Dollar Pre-Money Valuation and converts into Steep Hill’s recently announced, Series A Preferred Stock Offering.
We are excited to partner with Steep Hill through this investment. Steep Hill is a clear leader in the cannabis testing space, and the company’s unique focus on data and software position Steep Hill to efficiently scale its business to meet growing demand from regulatory testing requirements across the cannabis supply chain.
Jason Adler, Managing Member of Gotham Green Partners
Mr. Slifka, Managing Partner of Slifka Asset Management commented, “We are extremely excited about investing in Steep Hill, and backing one of the most talented management teams in the cannabis industry. Steep Hill is the clear market leader in cannabis testing and analytics, and the company will demonstrate tremendous growth for the foreseeable future. While it has been said that cannabis testing is a “pick and shovel” investment, I see it as a way to ensure that the industry provides products with consistency and accuracy to enable consumers and patients, trusted test results in both the medical and recreational areas. Industry standards are desperately needed, especially over the next decade as cannabis becomes more widely available, and Steep Hill will play a valuable role in advising growers, manufacturers, consumers, as well as, state, and local governments.
We are delighted to have Gotham Green and Slifka Asset Management as investors, and we look forward to working with them to explore a variety of synergistic activities on a go forward basis given their unique position in the space. Steep Hill is actively scaling its business to expand the Steep Hill myLab™ ERP software solution, solving challenges of the burgeoning import/export market including disparate regulations, language translation, labeling, and the seamless global integration of Cannabis Data Analytics.
Jmîchaeĺe Keller, CEO of Steep Hill
We share a similar vision with Gotham Green, and we are excited to lead the movement toward recognized standardization that will ultimately provide the best ROI to all stakeholders and market participants.
ABOUT STEEP HILL
Steep Hill is the world’s leading cannabis science and technology company with significant footprints in lab testing, research and development, licensing, genetics and remote testing. No other company brings all of these sectors into one highly synergistic whole. Steep Hill’s foundation was built on testing and analyzing medical and recreational marijuana to ensure compliance with public safety standards. In 2008, Steep Hill opened the first commercial cannabis lab in the United States and has been on the cutting edge since its inception. Steep Hill is currently expanding throughout the United States, and globally. With the goal of helping the rest of the world adopt “best practices” in cannabis testing, the company also provides expert consulting services to legislators and regulators in many countries, states and municipalities around the world. Steep Hill: “Leading the Science of Cannabis. Globally.”
ABOUT GOTHAM GREEN PARTNERS
Gotham Green Partners is a New York-based private equity firm focused on deploying capital into cannabis and cannabis-related enterprises on a global scale. The firm manages a diversified portfolio of investments and is actively investing across the cannabis value chain.
ABOUT SLIFKA ASSET MANAGEMENT
Randy Slifka is the Managing Partner of Slifka Asset Management (SAM), a Family Office and Investment Firm based in New York City. SAM invests in a broad range of asset classes and investment strategies including: Private Equity Funds, Hedge Funds, and Direct Deals. Mr. Slifka also focuses on a variety of non-market correlated investments including: big data, quantitative analytics, and cannabis related opportunities Prior to founding SAM, Mr. Slifka was a Senior portfolio professional at Halcyon Partners, a $12 Billion Hedge fund, where he was responsible for the distressed debt and special situations investment effort. Mr. Slifka started his career at EM Warburg Pincus and Co, one of the largest and most successful Venture Capital firms.
Original press release
Published by NCV Newswire The NCV Newswire by New Cannabis Ventures aims to curate high quality content and information about leading cannabis companies to help our readers filter out the noise and to stay on top of the most important cannabis business news. The NCV Newswire is hand-curated by an editor and not automated in anyway. Have a confidential news tip? Get in touch“I’ve never seen that in a child actor.”
It’s almost a mantra for anyone who’s worked with Millie Bobby Brown.
Whether it’s “Stranger Things” executive producer Matt Duffer praising her on-set technical knowledge, co-star David Harbour extolling her emotional intelligence or casting director Sarah Finn explaining why she selected her for the next installment in the “Godzilla” film franchise — even the most seasoned industry pro marvels at the young actor’s preternatural ability.
CREDIT: Zoey Grossman for Variety
Brown, now just 13, has never trained professionally as an actor. Never gone to acting school. Never taken a class. She simply decided at age 8 she wanted to be on-screen, and her parents obliged, moving her and her siblings from Bournemouth in England to Orlando, Fla., to allow her to pursue her dream.
“It was like a bug,” she says. “I know this sounds crazy, but once I find something I want to do, nobody’s stopping me. If I don’t know how to sew, and I really had that passion to sew, that’s it, I’m going to sew. That’s also with acting. So here I am.”
Her path to stardom wasn’t immediate: She secured a few guest star spots here and there, in shows like “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,” “Modern Family” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” She got turned down for “Logan,” which eventually went to Dafne Keen. But it was the role of Eleven in Netflix’s sleeper hit that catapulted her to fame.
“I felt at one point I couldn’t do it [anymore], but then I got this and everything changed,” she says over a mid-afternoon soda break at the London hotel in West Hollywood. Now, “acting is like breathing to me.”
To say the past year of her life has been a roller coaster would imply that there have been dips. In fact, it’s been nothing but a steady climb since the July 2016 bow of “Stranger Things.” Her Instagram followers ballooned from 25 to 4.2 million; the cast won best ensemble at the SAG Awards and best drama at the PGA Awards; and she claimed her own trophy at the MTV Movie & TV Awards for best actor in a TV show, with an emotional acceptance speech that won her even more accolades for its honesty. And with season two of “Stranger Things” now streaming (it debuted Oct. 27), she just wrapped production on the next installment of the “Godzilla” franchise opposite Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Thomas Middleditch. (“You’ll find out in two years,” she jokes about her secret role in the film, which is slated for a 2019 release.)
Then there’s that Emmy nomination for supporting actress in a drama. “It was a true honor and privilege to be representing the young generation,” she says. Although she went home on Emmy night empty-handed, she took things in stride, happy to simply enjoy the evening out with her merry band of co-stars.
“I’m leery of blowing too much smoke up her already well-filled smoke ass,” says Harbour, who plays Chief Hopper on the Netflix hit. “Because I do feel that when I’m in the nursing home, I would like to be able to watch movies with her in her 30s and have her become Meryl Streep. She has the potential for that to happen.”
It was all about the Look.
Fans of “Stranger Things” know it well: when Eleven lowers her chin and glares defiantly at whoever — or whatever — is in her path.
It was in her audition for the role that she came up with that intense laser-beam stare — and nailed the part. She was 11 at the time.
CREDIT: Zoey Grossman for Variety
“I’ve never forgotten it, because it was so intuitive,” recalls executive producer Shawn Levy. “That this little person had such fierce power — that’s what took me aback. That same day the Duffers [brothers Matt and Ross, who created the show] and I knew she was the one.”
In the “Stranger Things” universe, Eleven — so-called because of the tattoo she wears — is a product of psychological experiments by Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) that infused her with telekinetic abilities, among other supernatural powers. Because of her years of isolation under Brenner’s watch, her vocabulary is rather limited. (One fan counted: Her dialogue amounts to just under 250 words in the whole first season.)
Brown wasn’t intimidated by the role of Eleven being mostly nonverbal. “You can talk with your face,” she says matter-of-factly. “It’s very easy for someone to say, ‘I’m mad. I’m sad. I’m angry.’ I have to just do it with my face.”
Nor did she mind shaving her head. Brown’s parents were more against it than she was, but it helped that “Mad Max: Fury Road” was out at the time. Matt Duffer recalls persuading her with the argument “Doesn’t Charlize look badass? You’re going to look badass too.”
What did cause a bit of on-set drama was The Kiss — the moment when Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven smooch in the season-one finale. For all of her remarkable self-possession, the little girl that’s still in Brown reveals itself when she recounts the moment — her first kiss ever. “It was a strange experience. Having 250 people looking at you kissing someone is like, ‘Whoa!’” she says.
Further complicating matters, it seems there’s some debate over whether it was Wolfhard’s first smooch as well. “He says I wasn’t, but I definitely think I was,” she says. “I think he was just trying to be cool.”
As for how those awkward teenage moments play out in the second season, “No comment,” say the Duffer Brothers.
“My character’s just so, so perfect for me,” says Millie Bobby Brown. “I definitely think that we relate to each other a lot.”
Courtesy Netflix
The Duffers, who write, direct and executive produce the series, have gotten a front-row seat to Brown’s talents. The role of Eleven was always central to the show’s plot — it’s with her help that the boys rescue their friend who’s vanished into the Upside Down — but with Brown on board, the storytelling options have blossomed.
“We have yet to give her something that she’s unable to do,” says Matt Duffer. “I can throw this girl an incredible fastball, she’s going to hit it. It’s like a singer who can hit any note. Her range is just absolutely incredible. I have yet to see any limits to it.”
He compares her to Tom Cruise in her keen perception of how the camera works — and how to use it to her advantage. “She’s four years away from knowing what millimeter lens she’s on and how she should adjust her performance accordingly,” he says. “She’s not there yet, but it’s right around the corner.”
Ross Duffer recalls the scene in season one where Eleven is being dragged down the corridor shouting “Papa!” at Brenner. Even the crew stopped to marvel. “That was when we realized, as good as she is, she’s even better than we thought,” he says. “We can push her to all these intense and emotional places.” They take her even further in the second season (there’s an epic finale showdown), and report she “knocks it out of the park” every time.
And the critics agree: “Brown’s ability to summon emotion is as impressive as her character’s ability to walk between worlds,” writes Variety’s Maureen Ryan.
As Brown heads into her teenage years, the question is whether she can avoid that curse of child stardom that has plagued so many before her. “Everyone from Tennessee Williams to Sarah Paulson has warned of the perils of early success,” says Harbour. “There’s a piece of me that’s very protective of her and feels that we should all let her be brave and brilliant and turn our eyes away and not give her so much attention.”
Levy says her close family ties give her a “fighting chance.” She’s surrounded by her parents, as well as her 23-year-old sister, who’s usually on set with her and travels with her. And if all else fails, there’s Harbour: “I tell you what, she’s got me. And I’m the biggest curmudgeon around.”
Brown has purposely made her U.S. home in Atlanta, far from the crush of Hollywood, where she jokingly complains every waiter is an actor. “I feel like Hollywood is just a place where everything’s going so fast,” she says. Georgia, she says, is “calm, peaceful, beautiful.” There she can keep herself “grounded for my family and my home and my friends.”
She’s been flooded with advice, but the one thing she’s retained is this: “To live in the moment and to make mistakes is a big part of being a person,” she says. “I’m still just a kid. I’m 13, and making mistakes is OK.” So if a spoiler slips (no such luck!) or she says something wrong on Twitter, so be it.
“We knew Eleven was a cool character on the page — it took the magic of Millie to make it this culturally iconic figure.”
Executive Producer Shawn Levy
She’s trying to hold on to some vestiges of her childhood and not rush headlong into adulthood, despite all the magazine cover offers coming her way. “I don’t like showing off my skin,” she reveals. “If I’m in a photo shoot and they’re like, ‘Can you wear a crop top?’ I’m like, ‘No. No, not yet.’ When that day comes I’m going to be, like, 18.”
She plans to spend her hiatus doing charity work. “I just want to focus on helping other people,” she says. “Working with Unicef is a really big dream of mine.”
And while she’s content to focus on acting, her other passion is singing — just watch her impressive rap to Nicki Minaj’s verse on “Monster” on YouTube. As with acting, she’s never trained. “It came to me naturally,” she says.
Even more remarkable, Brown is deaf in one ear — she was born with partial loss of hearing, and then her hearing faded away after years of tubes. So she can’t fully hear herself perform, but no matter. “I just started to sing, and if I sound bad I don’t care, because I’m just doing what I love,” she says. “You don’t have to be good at singing. You don’t have to be good at dancing or acting. If you like to do it, if you genuinely enjoy doing it, then do it. No one should stop you.”
Season one of “Stranger Things” ended with Eleven sacrificing herself to the Demogorgon who’s been terrorizing the town. But there was never really any question that Brown would return for season two. (And we did see Harbour’s Chief Hopper leaving those Eggos, her favorite snack, in the woods.)
“Once we realized [‘Stranger Things’] was going to be multiple seasons, Eleven was such the heart of the show we had to keep her,” says Ross Duffer.
Brown says she knew she was coming back and is relieved she finally gets to talk about it, since she had to keep it a secret even from her family. But she’s been well-trained in the art of avoiding spoilers (“I’m a pro at this now,” she says when her publicist hands her talking points for an upcoming panel), and ahead of the premiere, she refuses to reveal how or why Eleven returns.
“It’s really twisted and just perfect,” she says cryptically.
“We thought she was special, but once we saw what she was capable of in front of the camera, it just blew us all away,” says Ross Duffer, who created the show with brother Matt.
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Season two, which picks up a year later in 1984, probes more deeply into Eleven’s backstory. “We wanted to delve more into her past and how she ended up where she ended up,” says Ross Duffer. “It’s an emotional journey for Millie and her character to see where she came from. The first season was a fish-out-of-water, ‘E.T.’ story for her. This season we wanted to give her more of an arc and a journey.”
Adds Matt Duffer, “I think people are really going to respond to her storyline.”
We find out more about not just her mother but her connection to Brenner, the man she calls her father. “Without Papa, Eleven wouldn’t be Eleven,” says Brown. “Everybody thinks he’s evil, but he was a big part of Eleven’s life. He was her Papa.”
But her true father figure is Harbour’s Chief Hopper. “They’re both such strong, oddball characters,” Harbour says. “We wanted to fit this feral cat of a little girl, wise beyond her years, who also has these supernatural abilities, with this very broken man who’s got issues about his own parenting abilities. There’s some connection that Hopper understands about the reemergence of Eleven that very much comes into play in season two.”
This time out, Eleven has more hair (“We let it grow out, as much hair as was able to grow from season one to season two,” says Ross Duffer) and more dialogue. (Among her new favorite words: “Mouth-breather.”) “She’s not speaking as if she was raised and lived in the regular world her whole life, but it’s a more verbal performance,” says Levy. “But in spite of more written dialogue in season two, Millie’s more powerful moments remain the ones without words.”
And there’s a new girl in town, challenging Eleven’s role as the lone girl in the gang of boys: Sadie Sink plays Max, a skateboarding tomboy with “a complicated history and a suspicious streak.” And though their characters may not exactly bond immediately, off-screen is a different story: Brown’s Instagram is filled with photos of her and Sink, whom she calls a “sister.” “I loved having a new girl on the show, because it’s nice not to be surrounded by boys,” Brown says. “One girl is just perfect.” Echoes Sink, “Me and Millie automatically clicked because we were the only girls in the group.”
Spoiler alert: There’s one moment this season that had Brown in tears. “I cried for hours actually after that, because it was just so sad,” she says.
All involved acknowledge the pressure of living up to the nearly impossible expectations of the sophomore season. “I don’t believe in resting on your laurels,” says Harbour. “I think the purpose of artistry in some degree as opposed to entertainment is to be one step ahead of your audience. Give them what they might not know they need as opposed to just rehashing the hits. So from very early on, the first scripts we were like we’re going to take some chances that hopefully will pay off. It might upset some people. But it was exciting to be a part of it.”
CREDIT: Zoey Grossman for Variety
Brown’s ties to the boys — Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin — seems unbreakable. Their palpable on-screen chemistry translates off set, where they spend much of their free time together — at Six Flags, on sleepovers, on giant text chains that the Duffers occasionally get caught on. (“That’s not so fun,” sighs Matt Duffer.) “They’re close and they’re going to be bonded in some way for life, and I think they realize that,” he says.
At the London, Brown can’t resist looking over with a tinge of jealousy as the boys run around nearby, on a break from a tutoring session. “I know the true boys, and they know the true me,” she says. “We like to be as private as we can.”
Wolfhard calls her “one of the best actresses I’ve ever worked with.” “If you put something on her shoulders, something big or a big scene, she’ll figure it out,” he says. “She can handle pressure very well.”
Schnapp says he’s grown closer with Brown in the second season. They’ve become prank buddies — they called the show’s costume designer and told her her wedding had to be canceled — and he’s especially fond of her ATV. “We ride it all the time and watch scary movies together,” he reports.
As luck would have it, the production of “Godzilla” was in Atlanta. She bonded with director Michael Dougherty over a mutual interest. “I have such a passion about animals and he did as well, and I felt like we just immediately connected,” she says. “I was like, I need to work with him. I need to.”
She points out, though, that she’s going to be 15 when the movie finally comes out. “I’m going to see my 13-year-old self and be like, ‘Why did I do that? Why did I blink at that specific time?’” she says with a sigh. “I’m a perfectionist, so I don’t like to watch my work.”
Millions would beg to differ.The U.S. Congress does not suffer from endless gridlock as some of the banal liberal pundits and commentators moan about.
Just yesterday, by a vote of 98-2, the U.S. Senate voted for confrontation, imperialism and sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. The nearly unanimous Senate vote followed a nearly unanimous vote in the House (419-3) for a similar measure.
The Republicans in Congress initiated the legislation, with the eager support of their lapdog friends from the Democratic Party. These measures are designed to provoke confrontation. Speaker Paul D. Ryan called the passage of the House version as “one of the most expansive sanctions packages in history.”
Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul were the only two senators to vote No. Sanders earlier cited opposition to new sanctions on Iran. The bill clearly violates the terms of the agreement with Iran whereby the country allowed its nuclear energy program to be strictly limited and monitored in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Sanders said he supported new sanctions against Russia. By all measure, imperialist-sponsored economic sanctions and blockades are a form of war.
Even as Republicans were frantically trying to ram through laws that will strip health care from millions of people, the Democrats in Congress eagerly embraced their colleagues and joined them as a united chorus for imperialism.
The Democratic Party politicians’ unity with the Republicans in support of bullying of Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela is far greater than their still tepid criticism of Trump and the Republicans’ domestic policy, which constitutes a war against the working class and all poor people at home.
The People’s Congress of Resistance which convenes in Washington D.C. on September 16-17, 2017 will represent those in the United States who resist imperialism rather than function as its mouthpiece.
Visit www.congressofresistance.org to get involvedLately, there’s been rampant speculation that Bush administration officials might face prosecution under Obama for ordering or approving torture. But it looks like Alberto Gonzales isn’t sweating it.
In an interview with NPR, written up by the Chicago Tribune, Gonzo was asked about the issue. His response:
I don’t think that there’s going to be a prosecution, quite frankly. Because again, these activities…. They were authorized, they were supported by legal opinions at the Department of Justice.
In his confirmation hearings to be Attorney General, Eric Holder declared flatly that “water-boarding is torture,” a determination that could leave key Bush officials, not least Gonzales, facing legal jeopardy — though President Obama has expressed a desire to “look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
A special prosecutor ha also been appointed to look into whether DOJ officials committed crimes in connection with the US Attorney firings of 2006. And there have been some signs that the probe is circling Gonzo.The famed Koh-i-Noor diamond cannot be brought back to Pakistan as it was handed over to the UK under the ‘Treaty of Lahore’ in 1849, the provincial Punjab government has informed the high court in Lahore.
Advertising
“Maharaja Ranjeet Singh had inked the agreement with the East India Company in 1849 under which the precious diamond was given to the UK. Therefore, the UK government cannot be approached for return of the diamond,” a law officer of the provincial government told the court on Tuesday.
The Lahore High Court was hearing a plea seeking direction for the Pakistan government to bring back the Koh-i-Noor which India has also been trying to get from the UK for years.
[related-post]
Petitioner Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey, however, opposed the government’s plea, arguing, “both governments were not authorised under the law of the land to sign such an agreement”.
Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan directed the government’s counsel to submit a copy of the agreement between the then ruler Ranjeet Singh and the East India Company on the next hearing on May 2.
In his plea, Jaffrey has alleged that Britain had snatched the diamond from Daleep Singh, grandson of Ranjeet Singh and taken it to the UK.
“The diamond became part of the crown of incumbent Queen Elizabeth II at the time of her crowing in 1953. Queen Elizabeth has no right on the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which weighs 105 carats and is worth billions of rupees,” he said.
He claimed that the Koh-i-Noor diamond was a “cultural heritage” of Punjab province and its citizens owned it in fact, it said and appealed to the court to direct the federal government to bring the diamond back to Pakistan from the British government.
Advertising
The Indian government had recently said that it will make all efforts to bring back the valued diamond, even as it had earlier told the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither stolen nor “forcibly” taken by British rulers but given to the East India Company by erstwhile rulers of Punjab 167 years ago as compensation for helping them in the Sikh wars.AUSTIN — Megan Low and Tess Soefje each finished with two RBIs, while pitcher Nicole Merrill allowed just two unearned runs, as UTSA improved to 4-0 and tied the best start in program history with a 4-2 victory at No. 15 Texas on Wednesday night.
The win snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Longhorns (4-3), and tied the 1996 and 1999 squads for the program's best start. It also was the Roadrunners' first victory over Texas since 2008 and their first over a ranked squad since an 11-10 victory against No. 24 Illinois to open the 2011 season.
“That was a fun game to be a part of,” said head coach Michelle Cheatham, who became the second UTSA skipper to open her tenure with four consecutive wins. “Our team came out and just played fearless against a great team and I'm very proud of them. Hopefully, we can use this as a springboard for the rest of our season.”
Low led the offense with a 2-for-3 night at the plate, which included her fourth home run in as many games. Meanwhile, Jolene Graham, Madison Kinley, Siera Sproul and Soefje each contributed a hit.
Merrill worked in and out of jams all night, as Texas was able to score just two unearned runs despite loading the bases in five innings. The Round Rock native allowed six hits and walked seven but buckled down when needed. In all, the Longhorns stranded 16 runners and went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
“Nicole was spot-on and she attacked their hitters just like we had planned,” Cheatham said. “She was nailing every pitch and threw it right where we had called. It was awesome to see a freshman carry a game like that.”
Texas got on the board first and scored its only runs of the game in the second inning with the help of three UTSA errors.
Holly Kern led off the panel with a single to left before two errors and a hit batter gave the home squad a 1-0 lead. Following a fielder's choice, the Longhorns lead pushed to 2-0 on the Roadrunners' third blunder of the frame.
Merrill danced around trouble in the third and fourth, as Texas loaded the bases in both innings only to see the freshman retire the side.
UTSA took advantage and sliced the deficit in half in the top of the fourth with a run. Kinley reached base with a double down the left field line and came around to score on Soefje's two-out hit to right center.
The Roadrunners then grabbed the lead for good in the fifth on Low's two-run blast off Gabby Smith. Alexis Ramirez coaxed a one-out walk on 11 pitches to set the table for the reigning Conference USA Player of the Week, who crushed her fourth homer of the season to left field.
An inning later, Graham dropped a one-out triple over the head of Smith, who had moved out to right field after being lifted for Tiarra Davis in the circle. Soefje then followed with a deep fly ball to center and Graham was able to trot home for the 4-2 lead.
After the fourth, Merrill did not allow a hit until the bottom of the seventh when Texas threatened one final time. A leadoff single, an error and a walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Merrill got power-hitting Lindsey Stephens to fly out to center to preserve the victory.
The Roadrunners return home for this weekend's UTSA Classic where they will open play at 4:30 p.m. on Friday against Oklahoma State (2-3).Hollywood is less a place on a map than a state of mind, generally a hive mind that creates a comforting echo chamber intended to keep everyone in line, especially in matters and ideas political. So, it was no surprise my four luncheon companions were now all in the same mood: gloomy, seething, scared, almost disconnected. Until a few moments ago, the discussion had been lively, quick and entertaining. And then, at some unseen point, in an unnoticed moment, one of us crossed a line, said something or taken something personally -- and a dark silence fell, shattering an easy fellowship that had survived amongst us for many years.
The subject had been Clinton v. Trump. As usual, in nearly all my interactions with my Hollywood colleagues, it was me against the house. As a well-known renegade conservative I was expected to be the whetstone (though I inevitably ended up the knife) in the contrarian position. From the beginning, when I first broke from the pack to work openly for Ronald Reagan's election, I learned the town's rules were stacked against me. Over the years, though, the bitterness increased, the invective became more vile, and one's political views -- if they differed from the norm -- became cause to question one's moral claim on existence. Well, maybe not existence but certainly one's right to a career. From open argument to "Non-Democrats need not Apply" in a handful of elections.
How did this happen? How did a community of creative people become so narrow-minded, so vengeful? It wasn't always like this. The popular culture once lifted us up, prided itself on that. What the hell happened? And when?
In the mid Seventies, when my wife Gloria and I followed our careers to Hollywood, we found that as big as the Entertainment Business was, the creative community was quite small. Three networks, seven major studios and the fin-syn indies supplied the world with nearly 90% of its music, film, and television. World War Two had left behind a virtual American Empire as ubiquitous and dominating as Victorian Britain or Republican Rome had boasted. Except we had not spread ours at the edge of the swords of battle-hardened legions or by sending out bankers and grocers from London to build dependent consumer economies. No, we had won our dominion with an irresistible popular culture that spoke of strong personalities, individual freedom, the joys of eccentricity and the justice of the common man's common sense. Bette Davis, Johnny Mercer, Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Bogart, High Noon, Mae West, Capra, Sinatra, thousands more, all conspired to paint a picture of a world where all things were possible. A second generation -- Presley, Jimmy Dean, Singin' in The Rain, Rod Serling, fortified the process.
And Americans were justifiably proud of what they'd accomplished; consider the windy North Carolina Beach where two bicycle mechanics with the now-improbable names of Wilbur and Orville managed to coax a heavier-than-air-machine off the ground and make it fly for 12 seconds! It hardly gained 18' maximum altitude and didn't get too far -- but for the first time, man flew. For the can-do Americans, that was just a hint. A mere 66 years later -- hardly one person's lifetime nowadays, thanks largely to American medicine -- these people with their jazz and wild west and The Charleston stretched that 12 seconds until they not only sent a man to the moon -- and here's the hard part -- they brought him back!Just to make things a little less easy over the 66 years, this once English-Scots-Irish-German nation continued to assimilate millions, opening its golden door to the world's huddled masses yearning to breathe free, Irish tenant farmers the English had starved into emigrating, hardscrabble Italians fleeing the hunger of Calabria, terrified impoverished Jews escaping the Tsar's pogroms that would eventually see nearly 2 million of them murdered. The 80 million Americans who read about Kitty Hawke in 1903's morning papers ballooned to almost 200 million who watched "one small step for a man, one great step for mankind" on their 1969 television sets.
And, oh, yes: they also found time to break the stalemate on The Western Front in 1917 and end the devastating, gut-wrenching carnage of WWI; save Europe from the scourge of Nazism and Asia from Japan's racist, murderous "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"; block "People's China" from enslaving South Korea (and just take a look at North Korea if you wonder if that was worth it); destroy the Soviet Union not by force of arms but by sheer economic effort backed by the political will to stand up to bloody dictators; and, lest anyone still think Civil Rights was a gift of the Boomers, it was Roosevelt in 1943 who re-integrated the civil service (reversing Woodrow Wilson's resegregation); Truman who reintegrated the Armed forces in '44; Ike who desegregated the nation's railways and bus routes in '53 and who sent troops into the South to force the opening of schools to children of all races equally.
It was a proud record. What amazing people. And as kid in England, after WWII, the Yanks were just that. We were proud of them. They had come from places whose names we couldn't even pronounce (you try Ypsilanti or Kalamazoo with a thick Cockney accent) many of them to die on French beaches for the freedom of people they knew little or nothing about. In time, I would understand why. In Britain, Canada, Australia, across the Commonwealth, war memorials invariably begin "To the Glory of God and those who fell for King & Country..." But the small American town cenotaph inevitably proclaims "For those fallen in the cause of freedom...".
The great blessing of my life was that in 1948 my parents managed to get out of England, at that time an unpleasant place for Jews given the war against the "Palestinians" (i.e., Jews) in the Holy Land. We came not to America but to Canada -- different in so many ways, but in heart and soul and spirit, in generosity, courage, and basic decency, America's shining twin. I thought myself the most fortunate child on God's earth. I had landed where I wanted to be, amongst people I had always virtually worshipped. But try as I might, I couldn't avoid the growing awareness that people my age, natives, so to speak, were dismissing this view of their country, denying what I thought were indisputable facts. Now, having settled in mid-Seventies Hollywood, Gloria and I worked at what we hoped would be rewarding and worthwhile careers. But we continually bumped into situations where our notions of what the 'common virtues of Americans were or what the country stood for seemed almost transgressive to people our own age. Oh, we'd seen this before, in the Universities, especially during our time at Oxford |
54 or younger, we’re going to have a conversation.”
Tomorrow, Tomorrow
The government helps Matt Falk and his wife care for their disabled 14-year-old daughter. It pays for extra assistance at school and for trained attendants to stay with her at home while they work. It pays much of the cost of her regular visits to the hospital.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Mr. Falk, 42, would like the government to do less.
“She doesn’t need some of the stuff that we’re doing for her,” said Mr. Falk, who owns a heating and air-conditioning business in North Branch. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing if society can afford it, but given the situation that our society is facing, we just have to say that we can’t offer as much resources at school or that we need to pay a higher premium” for her medical care.
Mr. Falk, who voted for Mr. Cravaack, said he did not want to pay higher taxes and did not want the government to impose higher taxes on anyone else. He said that his family appreciated the government’s help and that living with less would be painful for them and many other families. But he said the government could not continue to operate on borrowed money.
“They’re going to have to reduce benefits,” he said. “We’re going to have to accept it, and we’re going to have to suffer.”
One of the oldest criticisms of democracy is that the people will inevitably drain the treasury by demanding more spending than taxes. The theory is that citizens who get more than they pay for will vote for politicians who promise to increase spending.
But Dean P. Lacy, a professor of political science at Dartmouth College, has identified a twist on that theme in American politics over the last generation. Support for Republican candidates, who generally promise to cut government spending, has increased since 1980 in states where the federal government spends more than it collects. The greater the dependence, the greater the support for Republican candidates.
Photo
Conversely, states that pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits tend to support Democratic candidates. And Professor Lacy found that the pattern could not be explained by demographics or social issues.
Chisago has shifted over 30 years from dependably Democratic to reliably Republican. Support for the Republican presidential candidate has increased relative to the national vote in each election since 1984. Senator John McCain won 55 percent of the vote here in 2008.
Residents say social issues play a role, but in recent years concerns about spending and taxes have predominated.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Voters in the North Branch school district have rejected increased financing for local schools in each of the past three years. In 2010, the district switched to a four-day school week, striking Monday from the calendar to save money.
Some of the fiercest advocates for spending cuts have drawn public benefits. Many, like Mr. Falk, have family members who rely on the government. They often cite that personal experience as the reason they want to cut government spending.
Brian Qualley, 49, has a sister who survived a brain tumor but was disabled by its removal. The government pays for her care at an assisted-living facility. Their mother scrapes by on Social Security.
Mr. Qualley said that the government should provide for those who need help, but that too much money was being wasted. Mr. Qualley, who owns a tattoo parlor in Harris, north of North Branch, said some of his customers paid with money from government disability checks.
“They’re getting $300 or $400 tattoos, and they’re wearing nice new Nike shoes that I can’t afford,” he said, looking up from working a complicated design into the left leg of a middle-aged woman. “I guess I shouldn’t say it because it’s my business, but I think a tattoo is a little too extravagant.”
But Mr. Qualley said he did not want to reduce benefits for the current generation of retirees. Rather, he said his own generation should get less, because they have time to prepare. This is a common position among the young and healthy in Chisago.
Mr. Qualley said he was saving some money for retirement, although, he added, “I don’t have a 401(k) or anything like that.”
“I also have a job that I don’t necessarily ever want to — or have to — retire from,” he said.
Video
What if his hands start to shake as he gets older?
“Actually,” he said, the electric needle falling silent in his hand, “it’s my shoulders and neck that bother me most.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Safety in Numbers
Barbara Nelson has little patience for people who say they will not need government help. She considers herself lucky she has not, and obligated to provide for those who do.
“Catastrophes happen in life,” she said, sitting in a coffee shop in Taylors Falls. “To be so arrogant that you think it won’t happen to you, that somehow you’re going to be one of the special ones, I disagree with that.”
Ms. Nelson, 61, who describes herself as a centrist Democrat, also dismisses the claim that people cannot afford to pay more taxes.
“Anyone who can come into a coffee shop and buy coffee is capable of paying more,” she said. “If someone’s life can be granted, in terms of adequate health care, if that means I give up five cups of coffee a month, that is a small price to pay.”
Gordy Peterson, 62, who has used a wheelchair for 30 years since a construction accident, has reluctantly reached a similar conclusion.
“I’m a conservative,” he said by way of introducing himself. He built his own house before his injury and paid for it in cash. He still thinks the government should operate that way. He never intended to depend on federal aid and said he sometimes felt guilty about it.
But for the last three decades, he has received a regular check from the Social Security disability insurance program, and Medicare has helped to pay his medical bills.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
“Here I’m getting money, and everybody is struggling,” he said. “Even though it ain’t no cakewalk for me.”
Mr. Peterson used a workers’ compensation settlement to buy a farm that he managed with his brother-in-law, who is mentally handicapped and also on government disability.
“He was my legs, and we worked it,” Mr. Peterson said.
They grew corn, soybeans and rye, and even kept steers for a while. In good years they earned enough to live on. In bad years they lived on the government’s checks. Life would have been very difficult without them, he said.
Mr. Peterson, an easygoing man who looks down when he thinks and smiles sheepishly when he offers an opinion, looked down after completing the story of his own dependence on the safety net.
“It’s hard to beat up on the government when they’ve been so good to you,” he finally said. “I’ve never really thought about it, I guess.”
Lately, the government has been very good, indeed. The county, with federal financing, bought a corner of Mr. Peterson’s farm to build a new interchange for Interstate 35. He used the money to open a gas station at the edge of the farm in 2008 to serve the traffic that rolls off the new ramp. The business is prospering, and he no longer worries that he will need to depend on Social Security.
“But you can’t take that away,” he said. “My own sister has only Social Security. That’s all. That’s all she’s going to have. And if you take that away from her, Christ, she’d be a street person. I don’t think we can cut them off on that.”
How about higher taxes?
Maybe a little higher, he said. Maybe.
“I’m glad I’m not a politician,” he said. “We’re all going to complain no matter what they do. Nobody wants to put a noose around their own neck.”The Halal Slaughter Controversy: Do Animal Rights activists protect the sheep or the Butcher? [click here for print version ] Islamic Halal slaughter has increasingly come under attack from animal rights activists telling tales of barbaric blood-thirsty ritual slaughter. There are two distinct issues: there is the vegetarian agenda which wants to ban all consumption of animal products, and there is the animal rights lobby which argues for a humane method of slaughter. Do animals have rights? The vegetarian argument is that killing animals for the benefit of humans is cruel and an infringement of their rights. They put both on the same level without conceding any superiority to humans over animals. This argument is seriously flawed, because if animals had rights comparable to those of humans, they must also have equivalent duties. In other words, we must be able to blame them and punish them if they violate the rights of others. It is absurd that it should be considered a crime for humans to kill a sheep, but natural for a lion to do so. The problem stems from a misconception of the role of human life within the animal kingdom: a denial of purposeful creation within a clearly defined hierarchy degrades humans to the level of any other creature. Yet even then, the argument is illogical: Why should plants, for example, be denied the same protection from a violation of the sanctity of their life? Is Islamic slaughter cruel? The question of how an animal should be slaughtered to avoid cruelty is a different one. It is true that when the blood flows from the throat of an animal it looks violent, but just because meat is now bought neatly and hygienically packaged on supermarket shelves does not mean the animal didn’t have to die? Non-Islamic slaughter methods dictate that the animal should be rendered unconscious before slaughter. This is usually achieved by stunning or electrocution. Is it less painful to shoot a bolt into a sheep’s brain or to ring a chicken’s neck than to slit its throat? To watch the procedure does not objectively tell us what the animal feels. The scientific facts A team at the university of Hannover in Germany examined these claims through the use of EEG and ECG records during slaughter. Several electrodes were surgically implanted at various points of the skull of all the animals used in the experiment and they were then allowed to recover for several weeks. Some of the animals were subsequently slaughtered the halal way by making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries of both sides together with the trachea and esophagus but leaving the spinal cord intact. The remainder were stunned before slaughter using a captive bolt pistol method as is customary in Western slaughterhouses. The EEG and ECG recordings allowed to monitor the condition of the brain and heart throughout. The Halal method With the halal method of slaughter, there was not change in the EEG graph for the first three seconds after the incision was made, indicating that the animal did not feel any pain from the cut itself. This is not surprising. Often, if we cut ourselves with a sharp implement, we do not notice until some time later. The following three seconds were characterised by a condition of deep sleep-like unconciousness brought about by the draining of large quantities of blood from the body. Thereafter the EEG recorded a zero reading, indicating no pain at all, yet at that time the heart was still beating and the body convulsing vigorously as a reflex reaction of the spinal cord. It is this phase which is most unpleasant to onlookers who are falsely convinced that the animal suffers whilst its brain does actually no longer record any sensual messages. The Western method Using the Western method, the animals were apparently unconscious after stunning, and this method of dispatch would appear to be much more peaceful for the onlooker. However, the EEG readings indicated severe pain immediately after stunning. Whereas in the first example, the animal ceases to feel pain due to the brain starvation of blood and oxygen – a brain death, to put it in laymen’s terms – the second example first causes a stoppage of the heart whilst the animal still feels pain. However, there are no unsightly convulsions, which not only means that there is more blood retention in the meat, but also that this method lends itself much more conveniently to the efficiency demands of modern mass slaughter procedures. It is so much easier to dispatch an animal on the conveyor belt, if it does not move. Appearances can deceive Not all is what it seems, then. Those who want to outlaw Islamic slaughter, arguing for a humane method of killing animals for food, are actually more concerned about the feelings of people than those of the animals on whose behalf they appear to speak. The stunning method makes mass butchery easier and looks more palatable for the consumer who can deceive himself that the animal did not feel any pain when he goes to buy his cleanly wrapped parcel of meat from the supermarket. Islamic slaughter, on the other hand, does not try to deny that meat consumption means that animals have to die, but is designed to ensure that their loss of life is achieved with a minimum amount of pain. The holistic view Islam is a balanced way of life. For Muslims, the privilege of supplementing their diet with animal protein implies a duty to animal welfare, both during the rearing of the animal and during the slaughter. Modern Western farming and slaughter, on the other hand, aims at the mass consumer market and treats the animal as a commodity. Just as battery hens are easier for large-scale egg production, Western slaughter methods are easier for the meat industry, but they do neither the animal nor the end consumer any favours. The Islamic way guarantees a healthier life for the animal and a healthier meat for the consumer. [ return to top ]The Andrews government has announced its intention to build a large renewable energy farm in western Victoria.
The wind and energy storage battery farm should create about 1,300 jobs in the region. The project will also be a ‘world first’ – in that it will be the world’s first ever crop farm to be powered entirely by renewable energy.
The site chosen for the project is Nectar Farms’ new Stawell facility. In the initial stages, the 40-hectare site will include 10 hectares of glasshouses. Nectar Farms will also use hydroponic technology to grow high quality produce for local and overseas markets.
The farm will be powered by wind, and this will be backed up by a 20MW commercial energy storage battery. The energy storage system will help to ensure the security of the energy supply.
Stawell dishes up ideal site for the project
Stawell is in country Victoria, about a 2.5 hours’ drive from Melbourne. It has a population of just over 6,000. Nectar Farms chose the area due to its proximity to Melbourne, and to help keep transport costs down.
The company also chose the site due to it being in a non-flood zone, as well as flat and cleared. The site also has good access to water, gas and the arterial road to Adelaide.
Victoria’s Energy Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the farm will deliver secure and affordable clean energy and provide a boost to the area. She also said the initiative shows how renewable energy can “unlock opportunities” that build a better future for regional communities.
Renewable energy farm to help state meet targets
The Andrews Labor government wants to see Victoria become a leader in renewable energy. This means taking steps to encourage investment in renewable energy projects in the state. Premier Andrews sees jobs creation in the sector as a crucial part of the State’s future.
Ms D’Ambrosio said that this project will help Victoria to meet its renewable energy targets. In 2016 the State set targets of 25 per cent by 2020, and 40 per cent by 2025.
Nectar Farms is also committed to sustainable farming practices, and is now seeking other sites for glasshouse crop farming. This may lead to other opportunities for renewable energy farm projects in the future, both in Victoria and across Australia.Claude Giroux temporarily gave the Flyers the lead in the third period Tuesday night. (Photo: Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports)
PHILADELPHIA — More than a month into the season, the Flyers keep thinking they may have found that one moment that may send them on a consistent streak for a stretch of games.
Through it all, they’ve looked a lot like last year…playing quite well against the top teams and, uh, not so well against the teams in the basement of the standings.
Tuesday night, they think once again they may have found that moment. Only this time it wasn’t one play, one shift or one goal. They played very well the whole night despite losing 3-2 in a shootout to the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Kings.
“It was the first time in 18 games that we played really good hockey,” said Jake Voracek, who missed time in the second period when a puck cut his lower lip, requiring stitches. “I think what we did well today, we were moving well through the neutral zone on entries. Me and (Claude Giroux) were skating really well and (Brayden Schenn) had a couple good looks as well. I think it was the best game so far for our line this year.”
The Flyers stayed with the Kings nearly shot-for-shot in the game. This comes a game after they struggled mightily to stay with the lowly Carolina Hurricanes. The team has, at times, looked like they didn’t have legs and often times paid for it the next day with a rather laborious practice.
Don’t expect coach Dave Hakstol to run his team ragged Wednesday after playing one of the most entertaining hockey games the Flyers have had all season.
After an early power play, the Flyers got on the board with their new defensive toy Shayne Gostisbehere. The rookie, who only played five games between the NHL and AHL last year thanks to a knee injury, fired his first NHL goal past Jonathan Quick at 3:41.
“It's a dream come true,” Gostisbehere said. “Every kid who has ever played hockey wants to play in the NHL let alone score a goal. I mean it's really a dream come true. I really didn't know what to do out there, I was just very happy.”
The Flyers gave the lead back toward the end of the first period when L.A. defenseman Jamie McBain’s power-play shot got through traffic and by Steve Mason, who made 38 saves on the night.
Schenn nearly gave the Flyers the lead back at 9:28 of the second period. It was deemed on the ice to be a goal, but a video review said that he kicked it behind Quick, instead.
“The puck went off my chest and then I got a whack on it and the puck hit the post,” Schenn said. “I was looking up at the ceiling. I didn't mean to kick it. I didn't even know where the puck was. It just went off my skate.”
“I don’t know why that wasn’t a goal in the second period,” Voracek added. “Schenner is laying on the ice. I don’t know how it’s possible to try and kick the puck when you’re on the ground, but it is what it is.”
Despite the disallowed goal, the Flyers were more offensive. They had 38 shots on the night, the most they’ve had since Oct. 10, in their embarrassing 7-1 loss that produced a postgame players-only meeting after only two games.
Still, it followed the theme of last year, in which the Flyers played well against the good teams and bad against the ones they should beat.
“After 18 games or whatever it is, it looks that way,” said Giroux, who gave the Flyers the lead with less than nine minutes left in the third. “We need to find a way to be consistent against a good team or a bad team and if you want to be a successful team we have to do that game in and game out.”
With less than a minute left, the Flyers surrendered a game-tying goal when Jake Muzzin’s shot went off Sean Couturier, then Tyler Toffoli, then the post before Milan Lucic potted his sixth of the year.
“I thought that was a well-played hockey game,” Mason said. “They’re a tough team to play against but I think we matched them pretty good. Like G touched on, we can’t have those efforts against the top teams and then follow it up with a lesser team.”
Mason and Quick starred in the 3-on-3 overtime, but the Flyers fell in a shootout when Anze Kopitar picked a corner up high on Mason for the game-winner.
“We’ll take a look at why we gave up the (tying) goal, but our team played well tonight,” Hakstol said. “I always call a spade a spade, good or bad: Our team played hard and we played well tonight.”
Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com.Why become a member? It's about quality of life, and these words from one SPBC member express the quality we share as a family of riders. After nearly 40 years of riding in other parts of the country I never had ridden with groups much. I guess those few times I had I did not feel particularly welcomed. When I first moved to Florida a couple of years ago, I joined the St. Pete Bike Club not so much to ride but to meet people. The best way to do that was to join the daily group rides and the coffee klatch afterwards. But I fully intended to return to solo riding once I met some folks. I was not a particularly strong rider, but that didn't concern those I rode with. They were helpful, supportive and non-judgmental. I learned a lot. And there were plenty of opportunities to push myself. I also found that group riding seemed safer. It's hard for motorists not to notice anywhere from five to 50 cyclists riding together. SPBC also was welcoming to new ideas and passionate about safety and advocating for riders, so I know with my small membership dues I'd have a chance to contribute as well as benefit. Soon the idea of returning to solo riding was behind me. I enjoy the camaraderie both during and after the rides. That coffee klatch is now part of my daily routine (and isn't it great that this can be done outdoors year around!)
Why wouldn't YOU want to be a part of such a great group?
Join Now!Affluent nations have taken in a "pitiful" number of the million of Syrian refugees uprooted by the country's civil war, placing the burden on Syria's ill-equipped neighbours, according to Amnesty International.
The London-based rights group, in advance of a December 9 donors' conference in Geneva, deplored on Friday what it called the shocking failure of rich nations to host refugees.
"Around 3.8 million refugees from Syria are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt," Amnesty International said in the statement.
Highlighting what it referred to as "the pitiful numbers of resettlement places offered by the international community", the group said that Russia, China and the Gulf Arab states had not offered a single location for resettlement of refugees.
Meanwhile, the European Union as a whole, excluding Germany, has pledged to take in only 0.17 percent of refugees residing in countries bordering Syria.
"The shortfall... is truly shocking," said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Amnesty International's head of refugee and migrants' rights.
"The complete absence of resettlement pledges from the Gulf is particularly shameful. Linguistic and religious ties should place the Gulf states at the forefront of those offering safe shelter."
The failure of wealthy nations to share the burden had placed a increasing strain on host countries, which were largely ill-equipped for the influx of people escaping violence in Syria.
Amnesty International said it was calling for the resettlement of five percent of Syria's refugees by the end of 2015, and an additional five percent the following year.
The plan would accommodate approximately 380,000 refugees identified by the UN as being particularly vulnerable including lone children and torture survivors.
"Countries cannot ease their consciences with cash pay-outs then simply wash their hands of the matter," Ali said.
"Those with the economic means to do so must play a greater role."
In addition to those who fled the war-ravaged country as external refugees, the UN says more than seven million Syrians are internally displaced.
The refugees face poverty, illness and growing tensions with host communities in their already-impoverished temporary homes.
Syria's civil war began in March 2011, escalating into a bloody civil war that has displaced around half the country's population.Austin State Hospital (ASH), formerly known as the Texas State Lunatic Asylum, is a 299-bed psychiatric hospital located in Austin, Texas. It is the oldest psychiatric facility in the state of Texas, and the first hospital of its kind built west of the Mississippi River.[1]
History [ edit ]
The hospital was established by the Legislature in 1856, and began operating in 1861 with twelve patients.[2] The name was changed in 1925.[3] It's currently operated by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The Hospital is the subject of a history by Sarah C. Sitton, Life at the Texas State Lunatic Asylum 1857 - 1997, published by the Texas A&M University Press in 1999 as Number 82 in the Centennial Series.[4]
Austin State Hospital's Volunteer Services Council (VSC) is a 501(c)(3) corporation. The VSC conducts fundraiser and donation programs and helps build community awareness about mental illness and the role of Austin State Hospital in the treatment of mental illness.
Gallery [ edit ]
Entrance to the Austin State Hospital
References [ edit ]Brendan Rodgers offered an update on the fitness of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho following Liverpool's 3-1 defeat at Hull City – and confirmed Kolo Toure also picked up a knock at the KC Stadium.
Sturridge is likely to be out of action until mid-January after rolling his ankle in training on Friday and consequently missing the trip to Humberside.
Meanwhile, the Reds were also required to name Coutinho on the substitutes' bench on Sunday after the Brazilian was unable to train at Melwood in the lead up to the game due to a high ankle sprain.
Asked for an update on the duo's fitness, Rodgers told his post-match press conference: "Daniel could be out now for up to eight weeks - which will be a big blow for us.
"Young Philippe never trained all week. He had a high ankle sprain and had some injections to even get on the bench today. He did quite well to even make it onto the field.
"They're obviously two very, very good players and have been very efficient for us this season.
"But this little period now will test us. We've got players that will come in and it's a great opportunity for them to stake a claim for a place in the team.
"Hopefully we get back to winning games on Wednesday [versus Norwich]."
Expanding on Sturridge's injury, Rodgers admitted it'll be a blow to lose the services of the England international over the busy Festive period, but called on anyone stepping up in his absence to seize their opportunity.
Watch the video here »
The Northern Irishman said: "He'll be disappointed. It's a very busy period we're coming into and we're a squad that needs as many of our good players as possible. It's not ideal.
"It was an ankle sprain [in training]. He just slipped on the surface. We thought initially it was his toe and he went straight in with the medics before the end of training getting a scan. Then it came back that that's what it was [ankle]. It's a big blow for us.
"We've got other players available that will hopefully come in and stake their claim now.
"Our front area of the pitch has been reasonably settled, but this will give someone else an opportunity if they come in."
Elsewhere, Rodgers confirmed Toure sustained a knock during the clash with Hull.
"Kolo picked up a wee bit of an injury on his hip," he said. "We'll see how he is."NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) — Celebrities rolled up their sleeves and celebrated the 100th episode of “The Good Wife” in a non-traditional way by helping families in the Rockaways, on Saturday.
Margaret McNulty was ecstatic when she found out that the cast and crew of the show, along with a special grant from the St. Bernard Project, would be rebuilding her childhood home, CBS 2’s Andrea Grymes reported.
“I just basically started jumping up and down and kissing them. I just couldn’t believe it,” she said, “Not just getting rebuilt, but by the cast and crew of The Good Wife. it’s just the icing on the cake.”
To celebrate the upcoming hundredth episode of the CBS smash hit The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, co-stars Chris Noth and Josh Charles, and the entire cast and crew got together to help rebuild six homes in the Rockaways. All of the stars worked on Margaret’s home.
“I really do believe that it’s a pay it forward. If you take care of your community they’ll take care of the next community, and hopefully it passes around the world,” Margulies said.
Actor Matt Czuchry added that the project was also about spreading awareness.
“We’re here to shed a light on the fact that a year later people are still suffering from Hurricane Sandy and that’s far more important than any number,” he said.
For the cast and crew rebuilding the homes was a touching experience.
“The industry that we’re in is such a crazy business and then when you have things like this it just puts everything into perspective,” Archie Panjabi said.
Margaret already has plans for when her home is finished.
“I’m going to invite everyone I know and have some music and some drinks and just celebrate being home,” she said.
Cast members said that the hundredth episode is one of the best hours of television. Every character will have their moment when the show airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS.
Check Out These Other Stories From CBSNewYork.com:A Lakeland man faces charges after he killed an alligator, cut off its tail and tried to sell the meat to neighbors, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
A licensed alligator trapper found the seven foot alligator with stab wounds to the head and missing its tail at Lake Parker on Sunday night.
During the FWC's investigation, several witnesses said Shaun Edward Sparks, 33, of 1816 W. Lake Parker Dr. in Lakeland, had tried to sell them the alligator tail. Officers who arrived at Sparks' house found the three-foot long appendage.
Sparks "spontaneously uttered that he stabbed the alligator with a large knife, then cut off its tail," his arrest report said.
After he was taken into custody, Sparks told investigators that he took the animal home to show his girlfriend, the report said. The couple then walked around the neighborhood looking for buyers.
Sparks faces two charges for possessing and killing an alligator. His girlfriend, Christy Michelle Vincent, 27, also of Lakeland, faces a charge of possessing an alligator.
FWC officials confiscated the tail.McCarthy Observatory Scale Solar System
On November 15th 2009, the McCarthy Observatory Scale Solar System was installed at 12 locations across New Milford. This wonderful “true scale” system was dedicated on November 14th at the Observatory, with featured speaker Dr. Heidi Hammel, planetary scientist speaking and providing her insight on the outstanding value a model of this nature has to the educational experience. She explained that the only way to truly grasp the immensity and emptiness of space is to explore on your own.
>>PDF directions<<
This scale system offers the entire community, young and old, student, parent or anyone else, the opportunity to wander through the entire solar system, all the way out to very edge way beyond the planets, learing as they go, taking rubbings in their passport books (avaialble at the town library) from the 13 emblems in the book, doing creative things with the challenges contained in the book, and getting the passport stamped at the town library when completed.
We encourage groups to tour, take photos, enjoy seeing the bronze and brass objects, learn about the uniqueness of each object they encounter, and tell their friends about it. Think of the vast distances between objects, and think of what the real distances are amongst the wonderful objects in the place where earth lives. Remember as you travel that each object is the correct size, and correct distance from the sun based on the model sun being six feet in diameter.
Have fun – when you are experienced, invite groups of friends and you can be the “expert guide” through the solar system!
When you have completed your tour of the McCarthy Observatory Solar System, we very highly recommend that explorers continue their journey via a wonderful National Geographic tour, which includes great simulations and detailed tours of individual planets. This will help those who are doing the fun exercises in your Passport Book, and will show you many exciting new things in our place in the Universe. Just go to http://www.nationalgeographic.com and then search for solar system and click on the first video link.Cathy Bussewitz, AP
HONOLULU — Mika Inoue was in college when she faced some of the scariest threats against her life as a transgender woman.
One roommate in her dormitory at the University of Hawaii at Hilo put poisonous spiders in her bed, and another wrote a death threat and stuck it in her door with a knife, she said.
Now in a better place, Inoue, 25, is hoping to avoid those situations by getting a new birth certificate that confirms with her gender identity – female – without having to undergo surgery.
“I’ve gone through physical and verbal abuse from my parents, co-workers and peers alike because of how I didn’t fit what is expected of me,” Inoue said. “These things are real.”
A bill moving through the Hawaii House would enable people like Inoue to switch the gender identification on their birth certificates without getting sex reassignment surgery. Instead, they would provide a statement from a licensed medical or mental health provider.
The bill advanced out of the House Committee on Health on Wednesday. It now moves to the Judiciary Committee.
Article continues below
Having identification that’s in sync with a person’s name and appearance could reduce harassment in schools and the workplace, supporters said.
“A lot of these people are scared for their lives,” Inoue said. “When you’re going into a workplace, you’re submitting a resume, and you have one name on your resume, but your birth certificate and ID and everything else says something different. It becomes a whole lot of questions from the employer.”
But opponents argue that a birth certificate is a historical record, and that allowing people to change it could affect couples contemplating a marriage or officiants performing the ceremony.
Continue reading →
This Story Filed UnderPropaganda operatives from Islamic State (Isis) are piggybacking on popular internet hashtags and forums to secure the widest distribution of their videos, in an increasingly devious game of cat and mouse with police and internet companies, the Guardian can reveal.
An analysis of one of the most recent Isis video distributions shows the variety of techniques being used – including latching on to the huge interest in the Scottish independence referendum – to boost distribution of their extremist material on Twitter and YouTube.
The sophisticated strategies have prompted law enforcement agencies to work closer than ever with the world’s largest tech and social media companies to try to win the propaganda war. A specialist British police squad is working with companies including Twitter and YouTube to block and delete about 1,100 pieces of gruesome content a week, which they say contravene UK terror laws. The vast majority of the material – 800 items a week – relate to Syria and Iraq.
Officers from the UK’s counter-terrorism internet referral unit (CTIRU) acknowledge they are up against a slick and fast-moving dissemination of propaganda and much of the counter-attack involves suspending Twitter accounts or taking down videos of murder, torture, combat scenes, sniper attacks and suicide missions.
Last week provided a good example of what they are up against. One of Isis’s media production units, al-Furqan, released its first video in what it described as a series of “programmes”, showing the kidnapped British photojournalist John Cantlie wearing an orange jumpsuit and addressing multiple cameras from behind a desk.
Al-Furqan is also responsible for videos of Cantlie’s fellow captives, James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines, whose grisly executions were all filmed and broadcast on the internet. On Tuesday, the group released a second video of Cantlie within hours of US bombing raids on Isis territory in Iraq and Syria.
Using little-known content uploading services, anonymous text-pasting sites and multiple backup Twitter accounts, a select group of Isis operatives managed to evade administrators’ controls to spread the Cantlie video, titled Lend Me Your Ears, around the web within a few hours.
In the minutes before its launch, operatives issued tweets giving supporters a signal that something was about to be released. One account using the handle @with_baghdadi advised having at least two backup accounts in case of suspension and added: “Are you ready?”
While being uploaded to YouTube, links to the film were also put on the justpaste.it service. Run by a 26-year-old Polish graduate, the site has become a vital part of the Isis publicity machine because it allows users to post pictures and text anonymously. From there, people could go on to download Cantlie’s video message from three other websites, gulfup.com, sendspace.com and directmirror.com after typing in a long password chain, also provided by Isis members on the justpaste.it page.
Jihadi groups have realised they must reach a certain level of distribution very quickly. If their content is not spread in time and deposited in hundreds of places, they know they can be more easily controlled by staff at Twitter and YouTube.
Another propaganda operative called Abdulrahman al-Hamid asked his 4,000 followers on Twitter for the highest trending topics in the UK and popular account names they could jump on to get the required uplift. Writing in Arabic under the now-suspended handle @Abu_Laila, he wrote: “We need those who can supply us with the most active hashtags in the UK. And also the accounts of the most famous celebrities. I believe that the hashtag of Scotland’s separation from Britain should be the first.”
Replies from followers advised using #andymurray, #scotland, #scotlandindependence, #VoteNo and #VoteYes and linking to David Cameron’s twitter handle. “Please work hard to publish all the links,” Hamid urged. At the same time @With_baghdadi told Isis supporters to “invade” the #voteno hashtags “with the video of the british prisoner”.
Another Isis operative, Abu Omar al-Fateh, goaded YouTube administrators: “YouTube has started to delete some |
latter a Copa Libertadores defeat in Mexico. He’ll be in contention to feature against Novo Hamburgo late on Sunday night after this report is published.A van hitting pedestrians on London Bridge, followed by three attackers stabbing people there and in the nearby Borough Market area, has been declared a terrorist incident by police. At least seven people died in the attack and 48 have been hospitalized.
LIVE UPDATES: Police manhunt following stabbing, vehicle attacks across London Live updates
The rise of the death toll from the initial six to seven people was announced during a news briefing by London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.
The statement said all three terror suspects believed to be involved in the attack have been shot dead by security forces. It, however, added that "more work" needed to be done on investigating the incident.
In an unprecedented move, the police have advised people to “run, hide and tell” on Twitter. Police cars, ambulances and helicopters were dispatched to the London Bridge.
London’s ambulance service confirmed that at least 48 people injured in the attack had been taken to various hospitals. “We took 48 patients to five hospitals across London and treated a number of others at the scene for minor injuries,” according to the statement.
While no detailed information about the injured was immediately released, RT’s Polly Boiko reported from outside University College Hospital that some “victims of gun wounds” were also treated by emergency services.
Our latest statement on the #LondonBridge incident. We have taken 30 patients to five hospitals across London https://t.co/hCiKVCBrnbpic.twitter.com/B3PrRKoMUR — London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 4, 2017
Conflicting accounts claimed that as many as three attackers jumped out of the van after it hit people and proceeded to stab people.
Multiple reports claim that at least two attackers were shot dead by police, with bodies seen by reporters. The BBC published a photograph showing a man lying on the ground with what appeared to be canisters strapped to his body. The photo was originally uploaded by Instagram user fried_chicken.
Eyewitnesses of the attacks have been sharing accounts of their ordeal. Mark Roberts, who was on London Bridge at the time the van ploughed into people, told Reuters he thought “this was the Westminster attack all over again.”
The 52-year-old man said that he was in such a shock from the sight of the “horrendous” attack that he could not move: "I was thinking: Which way do I run to get away?" he said.
People running terroristic attack #london #live A post shared by Gabriele Sciotto (@fried_chicken) on Jun 3, 2017 at 2:32pm PDT
Hundreds of people are evacuated from #LondonBridge after unconfirmed accident brings more than 15 police cars and helicopters come to scene pic.twitter.com/IfQLMOXsR0 — Kaine Pieri (@PieriKaine) June 3, 2017
This was scene as we left London Bridge. pic.twitter.com/4h0PxP3xL0 — Will Heaven (@WillHeaven) June 3, 2017
Police have confirmed they also “responded to an incident” in the nearby Borough Market after reports suggested there was a knife attack there.
Just come out of Borough Bistro where attack happen - saw man wielding knife and people on the floor in blood. In total shock #LondonBridge — Mauro Galluzzo (@maurogalluzzo) June 3, 2017
Dramatic footage reportedly taken from inside the London Bridge Bar showed police ordering all the patrons to get on the ground and take cover.
London bridge bar now. Police everywhere pic.twitter.com/0gWH9jhgdX — James Yates (@Yatesy17) June 3, 2017
Another witness, Gerard Vowls, told the Guardian that the attack happened while he was watching the Champions League Final in a pub in Borough. He said that, as he went outside, he saw three knifemen attacking a young woman in the street and attempted to stop the men by hurling glasses, chairs and bottles at them – unfortunately, to no effect.
“They kept coming to try to stab me… they were stabbing everyone. Evil, evil people,” Vowls said.
London police said earlier that a third potential attack was taking place in the Vauxhall area of the city, roughly two miles (3.2km) from Borough Market, but it was later determined to be an unrelated stabbing incident.
The attackers were most likely radical Islamist terrorists, British Interior Minister Amber Rudd told ITV, adding that the authorities “need to find out more about where this radicalization came from.”
UK should figure out “why its counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies keep failing over and over again,” social commentator Mo Ansar told RT.
“The scenes – people being knife-attacked, trucks and vans running [over] people in the street – are becoming too regular aspects in the streets of Britain. We are going to ask a serious question about how we stop this,” Ansar said.
It is a “vicious circle” which Britain got trapped in due to its “outdated anti-terror laws,” says award-winning Beirut-based British journalist Martin Jay, who spoke to RT. He believes these are going to be “overhauled in the next coming days.”
“We need to look at those laws once again to see if they are working,” he said, adding that Britain needs to be “radical in tackling radicalism.”
'Big knives, stabbed people at random’
With little official information available, details of the violent scenes that followed the London Bridge ramming began to emerge from eyewitnesses to the attacks. A number of people at the scene reported that the attackers were armed with machete-size knives as they bore down on pedestrians.
Chris, a taxi driver, told LBC that the attackers were wielding “long blades, 12 inches long” and “were stabbing people at random” on London Bridge. He added that he attempted to “ram” one of the assailants with his car, but failed and then saw police officers heading toward the man.
Another eyewitness, identified only as Ben, told BBC Radio 5 that he and his wife saw “a man in red with a large blade, at a guess 10 inches long, stabbing a man about three times” just 15 meters from them. He noted that the victim was “stabbed quite coldly” until he “slumped to the ground” after attempting to confront the attacker.
A chef at a fish restaurant, located at Borough Market, similarly described the attackers he saw as “two men with big knives.” All the appeals to the attackers to stop the carnage and attempts by the restaurant staff to intervene by throwing chairs were in vain, he said.
Tooley Street is completely evacuated now at about 500 meters from the scene #LondonBridge#BoroughMarketpic.twitter.com/i8hNuweB7J — Kaine Pieri (@PieriKaine) 3 июня 2017 г.
In a show of support, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a letter of condolence to UK Prime Minister Theresa May, according to a statement published on the president’s website.
“This crime shocks [us] with its cruelty and cynicism,” the Putin said, adding that the world should join efforts in the fight against global terrorism.Nerikes Allehanda adjacent to the editorial Image by Lars Vilks published inadjacent to the editorial
The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish artist Lars Vilks that depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog (a form of street installation in Sweden). Several art galleries in Sweden declined to show the drawings, citing security concerns and fear of violence. The controversy gained international attention after the Örebro-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of the drawings on 18 August as part of an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of religion.[1]
While several other leading Swedish newspapers had published the drawings already, this particular publication led to protests from Muslims in Sweden as well as official condemnations from several foreign governments including Iran,[2] Pakistan,[3] Afghanistan,[4] Egypt,[5] and Jordan,[6] as well as by the inter-governmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).[7] The controversy occurred about a year and a half after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark in early 2006.
Background [ edit ]
On 11 June 2007, Vilks was invited to participate in an art exhibition on the theme "The Dog in Art" (Swedish: Hunden i konsten) that was to be held in the small town of Tällerud in Värmland. Vilks submitted three pen and ink drawings on A4 paper depicting Muhammad as a roundabout dog. At this time, Vilks was already participating with drawings of Muhammad in another exhibition in Vestfossen, Norway, on the theme "Oh, My God". Vilks, who is a known proponent of institutional art, has stated that his original intention with the drawings was to "examine the political correctness within the boundaries of the art community".[8] According to Vilks, the art and culture communities in Sweden repeatedly criticize the United States and Israel, whereas Muslim values are rarely even questioned.[9]
On 20 July, the day before the opening of the exhibition in Tällerud, the organizers decided to withdraw Vilks's drawings from the exhibition due to security concerns and fear of violence from Islamic extremists (see Islam and blasphemy and Islam and animals). Märta Wennerström, the exhibition's organizer, said that at first she "didn't realize the gravity of the situation" and that she made the decision to remove the drawings after consulting Swedish government agencies and private persons.[10][11]
Following the first refusal to publish the drawings, Vilks submitted his drawings to the Gerlesborg School of Fine Art in Bohuslän (where he is a frequent lecturer) for a special teachers' exhibition that was going to be opened on 18 August. On 13 August, however, the school announced that they also had decided to reject the drawings due to security concerns.[12] This second rejection started an intense debate in the Swedish media about self-censorship and freedom of expression.
On 18 August, the Örebro-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of Vilks's drawings in an editorial on freedom of expression. The editorial defended "Muslims' right to freedom of religion" but also said it must be permitted to "ridicule Islam's most foremost symbols — just like all other religions' symbols."[1] On the same day, the drawings were also published in several other Swedish newspapers including Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Upsala Nya Tidning.
Reactions [ edit ]
International reactions [ edit ]
On 27 August, the Swedish chargé d'affaires in Tehran, Gunilla von Bahr, was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry where she received a protest from the Iranian government against the publication in Nerikes Allehanda.[2] On 28 August the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, commented on the drawings during a press conference. He was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency as saying: "Religions call for friendship, equality, justice, peace and respect for divine prophets. The Zionists only pretend to believe in religion. They are telling lies. They are perpetrating oppression against the Europeans and putting at risk the prestige of Europe." [13][14]
On 30 August, the Swedish chargé d'affaires in Islamabad, Lennart Holst, was summoned to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive a similar protest from the Pakistani government.[15] The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs later issued a statement where it condemned the publication "in the strongest terms".[3]
On the same day the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization which represents 57 Muslim countries, issued a statement where it strongly condemned the publishing of blasphemous caricatures of Muhammad by Swedish artist Lars Vilks in the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. The secretary-general of OIC, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, further called on the Swedish government to take "immediate punitive actions against the artist and the publishers of the cartoon and asked for their unqualified apology".[7]
On 31 August, supporters from Islamic parties in Pakistan burned the Swedish flag in the city of Lahore. In Karachi, others torched an effigy of the Swedish Prime Minister to protest the cartoon.[16]
On 1 September, the Afghan newspaper Kabul Times published a statement by religious scholars, imams and the Afghan Ministry of Islamic Guidance. The statement said that "The sold-out enemies of Islam draw the cartoon of the respected Prophet of Islam once more. This has disturbed the Islamic world and aroused the indignation of all Muslims". The statement demanded those responsible be handed over to a court for prosecution and punishment.[4]
On 3 September, the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments condemned the publication, saying that "such an irresponsible act is not conducive to friendly ties between the Islamic world and the west".[5] On the same day, also the Jordanian government condemned the publication. A spokesperson for the government said that "The publication of this cartoon, which seeks to attack the character of the Prophet Mohammed, is unacceptable, rejected and condemned".[6]
Domestic reactions [ edit ]
On 25 August, a group of about 60 Muslims held a demonstration outside Nerikes Allehanda's office in Örebro to protest against the publication.[17]
On 31 August, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt commented on the issue and said: "I think it's important to say two things. First, we are eager to ensure that Sweden remains a country in which Muslims and Christians, people who believe in God and people who don't believe in God, can live side by side in a spirit of mutual respect [...] We are also eager to stand up for freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the constitution and comes naturally to us, and which ensures that we do not make political decisions about what gets published in the newspapers. I want to make sure we keep things that way."[18] The same day, around 300 demonstrators – led by the Islamic Cultural Centre in Örebro – assembled outside the offices of Nerikes Allehanda to protest against the newspaper's publication.[19]
On 7 September, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt met with ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries to discuss the issue. Reinfeldt said that he had "explained how Swedish society works and that we don't have elected representatives making editorial decisions", adding that "this is an open country, a tolerant country".[20] Prior to the meeting, Egyptian ambassador Mohamed Sotouhi said, according to the news agency TT, that he and a group of fellow ambassadors had agreed on a list of measures that Sweden needed to take and to present it to the Prime Minister. "We want to see action, not just nice words. We have to push for a change in the law", he said.[21]
After the meeting however, Reinfeldt denied that any such list had been presented to him.[20] According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, a statement had been delivered from the Swedish embassy in Damascus to Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Bader Hassoun in which Reinfeldt "expressed his regret of the incident which has offended and upset Muslims, calling against instigating or offending other religions".[22] The Swedish government has not commented on this statement.
Also on 7 September, a group of about 550 Muslims gathered outside the offices of the newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning in Uppsala, to protest against the newspaper's publication of the cartoons.[23]
Threats and attacks [ edit ]
Following the publication in Nerikes Allehanda, the Swedish police raised the security level around the newspaper's headquarters and some of its employees have been forced to use bodyguards after receiving death threats. Vilks himself has also received several death threats.[24] One Muslim woman in western Sweden has been arrested on charges of issuing a death threat (Swedish: olaga hot) against Vilks in an e-mail. The woman confirmed in police interrogation that she had written the mail and said that she did not have any regrets about it.[25] On 6 September, one actual roundabout dog created by Vilks and local children was set alight as an apparent threat.[26]
On 15 September, it was reported that the group Islamic State of Iraq had placed a bounty of at least $100,000 on the head of Lars Vilks and 50,000 dollars on Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda. The statement was found in an audio file on an Islamist website and was read by a person who identified himself as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of the Islamic State of Iraq. "We announce a reward of $100,000 to anyone who kills this infidel criminal. This reward will be raised to $150,000 if he is slaughtered like a lamb," the statement said. The statement also threatened attacks on Swedish companies unless unspecified "crusaders" issued an apology. Vilks responded to the statement by saying: "I suppose this makes my art project a bit more serious. It's also good to know how much one is worth".[27][28][29]
The United States-based SITE Institute has reported that websites run by militant Islamists have listed the names of over 100 Swedish companies with addresses, maps and logos. The websites called for their readers to boycott these firms and "take revenge" on Sweden for the publication of the drawings.[9]
The European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) both condemned the death threats against Vilks and Johansson. ECFR also said it planned to issue a "counter fatwa" against the threats.[30]
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which represents over 18,000 newspapers around the world, issued a statement where it condemned the death threats and expressed support for Nerikes Allehanda in its right to publish the drawing.[31]
9 March 2010 arrests [ edit ]
On 9 March 2010, seven people were arrested in the Republic of Ireland over an alleged plot to assassinate Vilks. The arrested were originally from Morocco and Yemen and had refugee status.[32][33][34] Of the seven, three men and two women were arrested in Waterford and Tramore and another man and woman at Ballincollig, near Cork.[33] Garda Síochána (the Irish police force), which conducted the arrests with support from the counter-terror Special Detective Unit and the National Support Services, said the suspects range in age from mid 20s to late 40s.[35] They (Garda Síochána) also added that throughout the investigation they had been "working closely with law enforcement agencies in the United States and in a number of European countries".[35]
The same day, Colleen R. LaRose from the Philadelphia, US, suburbs, had her federal indictment unsealed charging her with trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to murder Vilks.[36]
2010 Stockholm bombings [ edit ]
An emailed threat sent to a news agency and to the Swedish Security Service occurred made reference to this incident.[37][38] Afterwards, two bombs exploded, injuring two people and killing the would-be attacker.[39][40][41][42]
2010 Copenhagen terror plot [ edit ]
At the time of the December 2010 terror arrests, Lars Vilks' home page was subject to a hacker attack. According to Vilks' blog, the hacker declared the attacks would be continued with no end and that the targets are Vilks, Kurt Westergaard, and Geert Wilders.[43][non-primary source needed]
2013 Al-Qaeda's most wanted [ edit ]
In 2013, cartoonist Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier was added to Al-Qaeda's most wanted list, along with Lars Vilks and three Jyllands-Posten staff members: Kurt Westergaard, Carsten Juste, and Flemming Rose.[44][45][46]
2015 Copenhagen shootings [ edit ]
On 14 February 2015, shots were fired at a public meeting in Denmark attended by Vilks, leaving one civilian dead and three policemen wounded.[47] The attacker fled after a brief gunfight with police and was later shot dead the next day after committing another shooting at a Jewish synagogue, killing one person and injuring two policemen. [48]
See also [ edit ]Tea is much more than steeping of leaves in hot water. There is much that goes into this product that has become an international symbol of health, art, and business. Regardless of the situation or condition of the industry, the five things that must remain intact in order to sustain the international tea industry are seeds, soil, water, sun, and people. In my past “What is Sustainability for Tea” articles I highlighted the environmental, social, and economic issues surrounding the sustainability of tea, and in this article we will look at possible solutions which I have come across through my travels throughout the tea world.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, sustainable means “able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed.” Applied to the tea industry it means that the industry will be able to continue operation without being destroyed.
Tea did not become an internationally demanded product until the modern part of its history. Almost 5,000 years since the discovery of tea and it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the global tea industry has become what it is today. The past 200 years have seen drastic expansion of the appreciation of tea, but its fast growth has externalized many costs that are now challenging the sustainability of the industry.
Prior to the expansion of the tea industry it was a modest and sustainable trade that was very much focused on respecting the five elements of seeds, soil, water, sun, and people. One can look at the future sustainability of the tea industry by looking to the past and how these essential elements were respected. Systems were localized and decentralized, which allowed each stakeholder in the system to focus on how they can best respect these elements.
Tea begins from a seed. Modern tea is not all seed, with the industry dominated by clonal propagation and planting versus the traditional method of seed cultivation. From an efficiency perspective it makes perfect sense to achieve consistency and convenience from a tea field that is one common genetic expression. Seeds versus cuttings promote biodiversity which strengthens the garden for a longer period of time and develops a tap root that will go deep into the earth to collect more energy and flavor and encourage drought resistance. Seeds also communicate with the natural environment to produce what is best for that environment. It would be counterproductive to the commercial tea industry to convert tea fields from clones to seeds, but it may become the only option a small tea grower will have to continue their heritage of tea-making.
Soil is the home of the tea plant. Prior to the (predominantly American) introduction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, soil was treated as someone would treat their own home and community. If the soil wasn’t happy and healthy than a farmer’s plants were not happy. The modern use of agriculture chemicals and techniques such as monoculturing have eliminated the biodiversity of soils around the world and have reduced the soil’s ability to provide and retain water.
Water is perhaps just as important to the growth of tea as the soil it lives in. The Earth has an abundance to give, but modern agriculture has turned its focus from cultivating natural sources of water to providing a crutch with irrigation. Even the most harsh environments in the world can provide water (I pulled water for my own consumption and use while a Peace Corps volunteer in the Sahara Desert from a 80 meter deep well). Traditional tea growers respected their natural sources of water and worked hard to protect the water they had. A big part of this was encouraging indigenous biodiversity in their community and in the soil.
Although there is not much humans can do to control the sun, there is much that we can do to protect our environment from the extremities of the sun. The sun is our source of energy and heat and is absolutely necessary for the tea plant, in controlled doses. Temperature in our environment is controlled by the sun. In recent times the temperature has become much more volatile than anticipated which has negatively affected farmers by delaying planting and harvesting schedules and affecting the quality (and price) of their products. Although the modern tea industry has not been the culprits of this “global warming”, the same ideologies that were behind the expansion of the global tea industry are behind the expansive industry and development decisions that have culminated to our current climate issues.
People are the effort that bring these elements together. It is their energy and craft that has developed the appreciation of tea. These people need to be protected and respected like heroes because tea wouldn’t exist without them. The modern tea industry that is focused on quantity rather than quality has given less and less value to the people behind the tea. In return, many families of long lineage of tea-making have left the career and left their tea gardens to grow feral. If the market only showed the same value and respect to a tea-maker that they did to the marketers of their electronics, cars, and homes, perhaps the tea-makers would be more motivated to continue making quality tea and caring for their natural resources.
These issues are not simple ones to solve. Although, if you look to the simplicity of the past you may see that it could be easier than we think. The element that changed it all and brought tea to the unsustainable fate that it sees now is centralization. This is big business that took responsibility of making tea and sharing large quantities around the world rather than independent people sharing quality. In my opinion, decentralization is the answer. A good example of this is looking at the experience of riding in a taxi versus riding in a Uber vehicle. Taxi drivers work for a centralized organization where the driver doesn’t own their car and may not put great effort into caring for the car (and possibly caring for their passengers). Uber drivers, on the other hand, are decentralized businesses that utilize Uber to connect with their passenger with a car that they own. This encourages the driver to take care of their vehicle and offer premium service to their passengers, because they are responsible for their own business. I believe this will be the solution to tea sustainability, independence and quality. If left on their own an independent tea-maker will take responsibility for caring for their seeds, soil, water, sun, and people.
This is the fourth part in a series on sustainability in the tea industry.Note: This story was updated at 5:20 p.m.
CLINTON—A public defender has asked for a three-year suspended sentence for Lee Cromwell, the Oak Ridge man convicted of one count of vehicular homicide and eight counts of aggravated assault in the fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015.
The three-year suspended sentence would be much less than what prosecutors have requested, an effective 11-year sentence.
Cromwell, 67, has a sentencing hearing scheduled with Senior Judge Paul Summers in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton at 1 p.m. Monday, June 19.
The July 4 fireworks crash killed James Robinson of Knoxville, a 37-year-old husband and father who was trying to push his two daughters to safety. The crash injured eight others. It’s one of the worst crashes anyone can remember in Oak Ridge.
Cromwell was convicted of the vehicular homicide and aggravated assault charges after a three-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton in February. His initial sentencing hearing was postponed because Cromwell did not want private attorney James Scott representing him anymore. Anderson County Public Defender Tom Marshall has been appointed instead. Scott had previously filed a motion to withdraw from the case and then renewed it during an April 11 hearing, citing irreconcilable differences with Cromwell, according to court records.
In April, Deputy District Attorney General Anthony J. Craighead of the Seventh Judicial District in Anderson County asked for the effective 11-year sentence to be served in a state prison. Craighead asked for that sentence in a notice of enhancement factors that was filed in Anderson County Criminal Court.
As a standard offender, Cromwell’s sentence range for the conviction of vehicular homicide by recklessness, a Class C felony, is three to six years, Craighead said. Each of Cromwell’s convictions on the eight counts of aggravated assault, which are Class D felonies, carry a range of two to four years, Craighead said. As reported by Oak Ridge Today in April, Craighead cited five enhancement factors: Cromwell has a previous history of criminal convictions or criminal behavior, in addition to those necessary to establish the appropriate range, Craighead said. Cromwell did not have a driver’s license while operating his pickup truck before the July 4, 2015, parking lot crash, and his license was reported to be suspended. Also, Cromwell is accused of filing false liens against several people, specifically people involved in investigating and prosecuting the fatal July 4 crash, Craighead said. And he filed those allegedly fraudulent liens while out on bond. Cromwell has been indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury on the fraudulent lien charges. That case is still pending. (Oak Ridge Today has reported that Cromwell has filed $137 million worth of liens against law enforcement officials and agencies, the Internal Revenue Service, and a Social Security service center.)
The crime involved more than one victim. Besides the victims of the vehicular homicide and aggravated assault convictions, “the offense placed several other people in danger,” Craighead said. The parking lot was very crowded, and both adults and children were present.
In four of the counts, the victims were children, in some cases very young children, whose age caused them to be particularly vulnerable, Craighead said. The children were not able to escape the crash, and their injuries had a more serious impact because of their age, the deputy DA said.
The personal injuries inflicted upon the victims, or the amount of damage to their property, was particularly great, Craighead said. The state acknowledged that the injuries and death of the victims were included in the crime. But, the proof at trial showed substantial damage to the two vehicles of the victims, Craighead said.
Cromwell had no hesitation about committing a crime when the risk to human life was high, Craighead said. “In all the aggravated assault counts, the defendant (Cromwell) drove at a high rate of speed through a very crowded parking lot,” Craighead said. “The risk to human life was very high.” The state asked for a five-year sentence on the vehicular homicide conviction and three years on each of the eight counts of aggravated assault. The prosecution asked for some of the sentences to be served concurrently and others to be served consecutively. That would mean some would be served at the same time, while others would be served one after another. The state asked for some consecutive sentences under a three-part test that says the circumstances of the crimes were aggravated, confinement for an extended period of time is necessary to protect society, and the aggregate length of the sentence reasonably relates to the convicted offense. Here are factors cited by Craighead: Cromwell backed his truck through a very crowded parking lot at a high rate of speed.
There is evidence that he considers himself a “sovereign citizen,” meaning he might not recognize some governmental authorities. Cromwell has asserted that, as a sovereign citizen, he is not required to have a state driver’s license because he has not been engaged in commerce, according to an order filed after an April 11 hearing held in the judge’s chambers and allowing Scott to withdraw from his representation of Cromwell and appointing Marshall to replace him.
He killed one person and injured eight others, including four children younger than 13. Scott, the defense attorney who no longer represents Cromwell, filed a sentencing memorandum April 7. In that memorandum, he cited a plan of supervision included in a pre-sentencing report that would allow for community supervision for Cromwell. Scott submitted the following mitigating factors: Cromwell unlikely possessed the criminal intent to violate the law and was not motivated by criminal conduct. “There was no evidence that the defendant (Cromwell) acted with intent or knowledge,” Scott said.
Cromwell has factors that merit community supervision: There was no evidence that he acted with malice, or otherwise, Scott said.
Cromwell was immediately remorseful after the unintended act as shown in a letter attached to the sentencing memorandum, Scott said. It shows “literal compassion and thorough prayers for all the alleged victims in this matter, which also exemplifies a lack of knowledge and intent that are essential elements of the crimes for which he was convicted,” Scott said. The plan of supervision included in the pre-sentencing report said a risk/needs assessment tool was used in March to determine Cromwell’s supervision plan level. “The subject scored to be supervised at the minimum level,” said the Tennessee Department of Correction report, prepared by investigating officer Wayne R. Langley. If Cromwell were granted community supervision, the following plan would be initially implemented, that report said: Intake first 30 days, two reports to office, and one home visit.
Minimum supervision after the first 30 days.
Referred to victim impact group.
Pay court costs.
Pay probation fees.
Any other conditions ordered by the court. In an amendment to the sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, June 13, Marshall, the public defender who now represents Cromwell, said the case involves a traffic accident that happened quickly. He rebutted arguments made by Craighead, and Marshall said there are mitigating factors and no legitimate enhancement factors. “Only concurrent sentences (to be served at the same time) will serve the interests of justice,” Marshall said. “Since there are mitigating factors and no legitimate enhancement factors, Mr. Cromwell qualifies as an especially mitigated offender. A three-year suspended sentence, all concurrent, is the most appropriate sentence. The American system of justice is not supposed to punish citizens for their political beliefs as the state admits it is trying to do in its Notice of Enhancement Factors.” Here are the mitigating factors cited by Marshall: Substantial grounds exist that tend to excuse or justify the defendant’s criminal conduct, though they fail to establish a defense, Marshall said.
The defendant, although guilty of the crime, committed the offense under such unusual circumstances that it is unlikely that a sustained intent to violate the law motivated the criminal conduct, the public defender said.
The defendant has no significant criminal record whatsoever. Prior to this accident, Cromwell had one speeding ticket, Marshall said.
Cromwell has expressed great remorse for the loss to the Robinson family throughout the criminal proceedings, Marshall said. The public defender said the enhancement factors alleged by the state are not applicable, and there are none that are not essential elements of the offense charged in the indictments against Cromwell. (The indictments led to his convictions.) Here is a summary of some of Marshall’s rebuttals of Craighead’s legal arguments: The Notice of Enhancement Factors filed by the state does not identify any prior convictions. An arrest or a charge—presumably meaning the fraudulent liens case—is not enough alone to allow this enhancing factor, Marshall said.
The fact that the offense involved more than one victim does not apply because the Tennessee Supreme Court has held that there cannot be multiple victims for any one offense when an indictment specifies a certain victim. Also, citing other people involved in the crash when no charges were filed on their behalf is “simply inconsistent” with statutory language, Marshall said.
There was no indication at trial that the injured children were “particularly vulnerable,” and no medical records or expert testimony were presented at trial to show that the children suffered any injuries, and especially none that were unique to their childhood, Marshall said. Age alone does not equal particular vulnerability, he said.
The trial did not prove the claim of “particularly great” damage to the property of two of the victims, Marshall said. Marshall also objected to the state’s requests for consecutive sentences on the basis of Cromwell being a dangerous offender. The state has the burden of proving that the dangerous offender classification applies, Marshall said. “Society does not need protection from an individual who went 66 years from birth to this accident with no law violations other than a speeding ticket,” he said. “Of course, had he been able to afford a several million dollar insurance policy on his truck, no trial would ever had been had, and vengeance would evaporate as the motive to prosecute.” It’s not clear that Summers, the senior judge who has heard the case, will agree that Cromwell has shown remorse. In fact, he said at the end of the three-day trial in February, when Cromwell was being arrested in the fraudulent liens case, that Cromwell hadn’t shown any remorse. “You are potentially dangerous,” Summers told Cromwell when he revoked his bond. Some of the people that Cromwell injured during the parking lot crash were young, and some were extremely vulnerable, Summers said. Summers is hearing the case because Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge had to recuse himself due to liens filed against the judge by Cromwell. See the Notice of Enhancement Factors filed by Deputy District Attorney General Anthony J. Craighead on April 6 here: Lee Cromwell Notice of Enhancement Factors April 6 2017. See the Sentencing Memorandum filed by defense attorney James Scott on April 7 here: Lee Cromwell Sentencing Memorandum April 7 2017. See the First Amendment to the Sentencing Memorandum filed by Public Defender Tom Marshall on June 13 here: Lee Cromwell First Amendment to Sentencing Memorandum June 13 2017.
More information will be added as it becomes available.If you've got a keen eye, you've already spotted the BODYARMOR logo on Rockets ads boards and team towels since the start of this season. What you don't know: it's an emerging sports drink James Harden both endorses and has invested in (alongside Kobe Bryant).
This week, Harden's drink launches across Texas and, to recognize the occasion, James gave an exclusive interview to The Dream Shake. Because if you want Texas market penetration, you come to us (apparently).
Harden gave an honest reflection on the Rockets' season so far by pointing out inconsistent play, a poor record and the need to find a stride. James struck an optimistic tone by touting this Rockets team has what it takes saying it's a "good thing" the Rockets haven't hit their stride yet, because "we're gonna hit our peak right around playoffs."
The Rockets front man and probable All-Star acknowledges a need to make adjustments on the court and in the mental approach the team is taking. We discovered he doesn't have J.J. Watt's phone number and hasn't seen the new Star Wars movie. Someone, please complete the Houston sports universe and connect James Harden and J.J. Watt.
This interview took place on Thursday. After the Rockets lost to the Clippers, but before they acquired Josh Smith and handed losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks.
The Dream Shake: I asked some friends in Houston "What's a question you would ask James Harden?" Everyone wants to know: are you friends with J.J. Watt? Do |
discovered missing. Extensive searches on the ship and at sea produced no signs of her whereabouts.[4] The Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard conducted a four-day search that ended on March 27, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines chartered a boat to continue looking for her, but they ended their search on March 29.[5] Bradley was a trained lifeguard and investigators said there was no evidence that she had fallen overboard or died by suicide.[6]
There were possible sightings of Bradley in Curaçao in 1998 and 1999. Two Canadian tourists reported seeing a woman resembling Amy on a beach in Curaçao in August 1998.[6] The woman's tattoos were reportedly identical to Bradley's.[3] Bradley's tattoos included a Tasmanian Devil spinning a basketball located on her shoulder, the sun placed on her lower back, a Chinese symbol located on her right ankle, and a gecko lizard on her navel. She also had a navel ring.[7] A member of the Navy stated that he had seen Bradley in a brothel in 1999. He claimed she told him that "her name was Amy Bradley and [she] begged him for help," explaining that she was not allowed to leave.[3][8]
There was another potential sighting in 2005, when a witness named Judy Maurer claimed to have seen Bradley in a department store restroom in Barbados. The witness claimed a woman entered the restroom with a couple of men, who were threatening her if she did not follow through on a deal. When she approached the distraught woman after the men left, she claimed the woman said her first name was Amy and that she was from Virginia before the men re entered the bathroom to take her. Maurer called authorities, who created composite sketches of three men and the woman based on her account.[9][1]
Bradley's mother and father appeared on the November 17, 2005, episode of Dr. Phil. An image of a young woman resembling Bradley that was emailed to her parents was shown on the program, and it suggests that she might have been sold into sexual slavery.[10]
There is a $250,000 reward offered by the Bradley family for information leading to Bradley's return and a $50,000 reward for information leading to her verifiable location.[1][11] The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to her recovery.[12][13] Her case has been featured on America's Most Wanted[14] and by the television show Disappeared.[15] It was also the subject of episode 59 of the Casefile podcast.
Renewed attention was paid to her case after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005.[10][16][17]
See also [ edit ]
Disappearance of George Smith, from a cruise ship in the eastern Mediterranean in 2005
Rebecca Coriam, a cruise ship worker who disappeared off the coast of Mexico in 2011
List of people who disappeared mysteriouslySame-sex attraction in women evolved because it’s attractive to men, a bizarre new study found.
Entitled ‘The evolution of female same-sex attraction: The male choice hypothesis,’ the study states: ‘A considerable proportion of men desire same-sex attractions in women, and this is one possible reason why many women have such attractions.’
Conducted by Menelaos Apostolou at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, the study asked 1,509 heterosexual people a series of questions about same-sex attraction.
It found 34.3% of straight men prefer a partner attracted ‘predominantly to members of the opposite-sex but occasionally of the same-sex.’
Only 7.8% of straight women echoed this sentiment to the same question.
The new study continues: ‘Heterosexual women do not desire partners who experience same-sex attractions, but a considerable proportion of heterosexual men desired partners who experienced same-sex attractions.’
This means, it hypothesises, it’s possible that lesbians exist in order to please men.
‘In addition, men were more sexually excited than women by the same-sex infidelity of their partners, and they desired more than women, their opposite-sex partners to have sex with same-sex individuals,’ it concluded.
Apostolou believes it’s one possible theory why ‘about one in five women experience same-sex attraction.’
He told Pink News: ‘I can’t really see how cultural factors would make some men be turned on when their partners tell them I want to have sex with another woman.
‘These kinds of sexual traits are more instinctive. It’s a mechanism that has been selected to serve a purpose, to make you reproduce,’ he said.
Roxy Bourdillon, writer for lesbian magazine DIVA, believes the study is ridiculous.
She said: ‘What’s that I can smell? Oh yes, it’s patriarchal bullshit.
‘Menelaos, I think you’ve missed the fundamental point of being a lesbian. It’s not about turning guys on, it’s about turning girls on.
‘Seriously, aren’t there other things he could be studying?’ She wrote.The federal government’s push to swiftly conclude an agreement to boost the Canada Pension Plan hit a snag Friday when British Columbia declined to put its pivotal signature on the deal.
The B.C. government skipped Friday’s deadline to ratify an agreement−in−principle reached last month to gradually increase contributions and retirement benefits through the public pension plan.
The province’s participation is critical — it can make or break CPP expansion, which is a reform deeply coveted by Ottawa.
B.C. explained its decision Friday by saying it needed more time to explain the deal to its residents and stakeholders, such as business owners.
The B.C. government also hoped to give the public more time to provide feedback, a spokesman for the provincial finance minister said.
Following last month’s CPP talks, every province except Quebec backed the agreement−in−principle. At the time, the signatories, including B.C., agreed to Friday’s ratification deadline.
Without B.C.’s full support, the proposed changes to the CPP would not be able to move forward, because B.C. is the country’s third−most populated province. A deal to reform the CPP needs the signatures of a minimum of seven provinces representing at least two−thirds of Canada’s population.
"We’ll be listening to that feedback through the summer and be in a position to make a decision, I think, by the end of the summer," said Jamie Edwardson, a spokesman for B.C. Finance Minister Michael de Jong.
"By the end of the summer is about as firm as we are right now."
Asked why B.C. declined to meet a deadline it agreed to only a few weeks ago, Edwardson would only say the province wanted to take additional time to talk to British Columbians about the changes and make sure they understood what the new plan would mean for both employers and employees.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who along with the Ontario government championed CPP enhancement, insisted Friday that B.C.’s delay would not derail Ottawa’s plan to table new legislation this fall.
"While all other signatories will meet this target, the province of British Columbia has indicated that it needs more time to do so," Morneau said in a statement.
"Minister de Jong of British Columbia played an important role throughout these negotiations and has reaffirmed his support of the agreement−in−principle."
The federal Liberals ran on a platform to upgrade the public pension system, as did their Ontario cousins.
Ontario has said it would abandon its project to go it alone with its own Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said the province was confident CPP enhancement would proceed as designed in the agreement−in−principle.
"We are working to implement the plan we collectively developed," Kelsey Ingram wrote in an email.
"As such, the ORPP will continue to wind down."
The agreement−in−principle came together months earlier than the December target date, following an intensive lobbying effort by the federal government.
Sources familiar with the talks said at the time that doubters had concerns about the potential economic impact of boosting the CPP, even at the late stages of negotiations.
They said Ottawa made a major push in the final days and hours, which helped secure enough countrywide support to expand the CPP — in theory.
The sources also said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself was personally involved in the 11th−hour drive, as was Ontario.
The Opposition Conservatives have been urging the federal government to hold off on the CPP reforms to allow for public consultations. They have argued there’s no need to rush through changes that would only affect retirees four decades from now.
Morneau’s March budget had promised to "launch consultations to give Canadians an opportunity to share their views on enhancing the Canada Pension Plan," but they have yet to take place.
Critics of CPP expansion have warned that imposing additional contributions will squeeze workers and employers — and hurt the economy.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has strongly opposed CPP enhancement, saying it would be "devastating" for small companies.
The organization was encouraged by B.C.’s decision Friday to think things over a little longer before ratification.
"Most Canadians still don’t understand what is being proposed and what it will mean to them," Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB’s senior vice−president of national affairs, said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, some of our leaders have been trying to push ahead anyway. Small business owners understand government wanting to help Canadians in their retirement, but if there are better ways to do that, we need to look at all the options, not just CPP."A Roommate's Basement Part 2 redaxis Sep 17th, 2015 103 Never 103Never
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 4.22 KB [Meta] Follow up of http://pastebin.com/FHPxYkss (A roommate’s basement) … M: Sure. I'll be in and out. [AUDIO FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3 ENDS] [TIME: 13:41] [LOCATION:???] [BEGIN FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] [CLICK] M: (Quietly) Huh… the lights down here barely works… Luca probably forgot to replace the bulbs down here… [M IS SEEN WALKING SLOWLY TOWARDS A BODY] M: So this is the thing that’s seen making those screams. [M IS SEEN CROUCHING AND TAKING A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BODY] M: Pretty face….. Still alive, eh? Why would Luca keep you in here?……. What’s this? [M IS SEEN SLIDING HIS FINGERS ON THE GROUND BEFORE RUBBING HIS FINGERS TOGETHER] M: … Blood… and puke….? [M IS SEEN USING HIS HANDS TO OPEN THE MOUTH OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WOMAN, USING A POCKET FLASHLIGHT TO LOOK INTO THE WOMAN’S MOUTH] M: So that’s why you stopped crying…. Dammit, I have to clear your throat, don’t I…? [VIDEO AND AUDIO FEED HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED] [.....] [VIDEO AND AUDIO FEED HAS BEEN RESTORED] [M IS SEEN KNEELING NEXT TO THE NOW CONSCIOUS WOMAN, WITH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VOMIT ON THE GROUND THAN BEFORE. M IS SEEN WIPING HIS HANDS ON THE GROUND] M: So… why are you chained by your limbs here? [THE WOMAN TAKES A LOOK AT M BEFORE BREAKING INTO A LOUD CRY] W: (Desperately) Do I need to tell you why I’m here? Just get me out of here, please! [M IS SEEN LOOKING AROUND] [ON THE WALLS AND AROUND THE ROOM ARE VARIOUS TORTURE TOOLS, EACH DEEPLY STAINED WITH BLOOD] M: What… the… fuck… W: (Sobbing) Get me out of here, please… M: I… can’t… [A NEW VOICE IS HEARD FROM THE BASEMENT ENTRANCE]???: Mitis! Luca’s home! M: Fuck… [M IS SEEN RUNNING FROM THE WOMAN, SPRINTING UP THE STAIRS BACK TO THE FIRST FLOOR] [END FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] [BEGIN FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 5] [LUCA IS SEEN MAKING A NEW POST ON THE FORUM BEFORE SITTING DOWN ON THE COUCH, MAUSER M172 IN ONE HAND, WET CLOTH IN THE OTHER. IT APPEARS LUCA IS CLEANING THE MAUSER] [NEW FORUM POST: A DRIVER’S PARTY] [...] To celebrate me getting new roommates and having an excuse to drink like there's no morning, I've decided to hold a party at my house. The address is ███ ██ Drinks are free. The only rule: No entrance to the basement. Other than that, feel free to come over. [...] [END FORUM POST] [MITIS IS SEEN WALKING SWIFTLY PAST LUCA, WHO IS TALKING TO WILL] Luca: Oh hey Mitis, we’re throwing a party tonight! Mitis: Oh nice… Uh… I’ll uh… run and get some party snacks… Luca: Oh yeah, shit... forgot 'bout them. Thanks bud. [LUCA IS SEEN SMILING AND LOOKING OVER AT MITIS, MAUSER STILL IN HAND] [MITIS FREEZES, GRABS HIS PISTOL OFF A TABLE AND HOLSTERS IT BEFORE LEAVING THE HOUSE, FORGETTING TO CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND HIM] Luca: Huh.... [LUCA IS SEEN GETTING UP FROM THE SOFA, WALKING TOWARDS THE BASEMENT DOOR] [END FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 5] [BEGIN FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3] [LUCA IS SEEN STANDING IN FRONT OF THE BASEMENT DOOR, WHICH IS LEFT WIDE OPEN] Luca:... God fucking dammit Mitis… [LUCA IS SEEN PICKING UP HIS PHONE AND DIALING A NUMBER] [...] [AFTER TWO REDIALS, THE PHONE IS FINALLY PICKED UP]???: "Uhhh hey, Luca... Any requests for snacks?" Luca: "Yes, how about the You-were-in-the-basement-and-left-the-door-open one?" [Luca is seen walking down the stairs] [END FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3] [BEGIN FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] Luca: "Did you tell anybody about what you saw down there?"???: "..... I don't think they have that in stock... Uhm... I didn't tell anyone, but I had to go to keep your visitor alive..." [AN AUDIBLE SIGH IS HEARD OVER THE PHONE]???: "I'm fucked, aren't I?" Luca: "To be honest, I don't blame you" [LUCA IS SEEN SWITCHING THE SAFETY OFF ON HIS PHONE] Luca: "I mean, it's pretty shitty that you betrayed me but..." [LUCA IS SEEN WALKING SLOWLY THROUGH THE BASEMENT] Luca: "I'll forgive you. Buy some snacks and more beer and get over here" [VIDEO FEED INTERRUPTED] [WIMPERING IS HEARD, FOLLOWED BY A SINGLE SHOT] [VIDEO FEED RESUMED] [LUCA IS SEEN HANGING UP HIS PHONE] [END FEED]
RAW Paste Data
[Meta] Follow up of http://pastebin.com/FHPxYkss (A roommate’s basement) … M: Sure. I'll be in and out. [AUDIO FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3 ENDS] [TIME: 13:41] [LOCATION:???] [BEGIN FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] [CLICK] M: (Quietly) Huh… the lights down here barely works… Luca probably forgot to replace the bulbs down here… [M IS SEEN WALKING SLOWLY TOWARDS A BODY] M: So this is the thing that’s seen making those screams. [M IS SEEN CROUCHING AND TAKING A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BODY] M: Pretty face….. Still alive, eh? Why would Luca keep you in here?……. What’s this? [M IS SEEN SLIDING HIS FINGERS ON THE GROUND BEFORE RUBBING HIS FINGERS TOGETHER] M: … Blood… and puke….? [M IS SEEN USING HIS HANDS TO OPEN THE MOUTH OF THE UNCONSCIOUS WOMAN, USING A POCKET FLASHLIGHT TO LOOK INTO THE WOMAN’S MOUTH] M: So that’s why you stopped crying…. Dammit, I have to clear your throat, don’t I…? [VIDEO AND AUDIO FEED HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED] [.....] [VIDEO AND AUDIO FEED HAS BEEN RESTORED] [M IS SEEN KNEELING NEXT TO THE NOW CONSCIOUS WOMAN, WITH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VOMIT ON THE GROUND THAN BEFORE. M IS SEEN WIPING HIS HANDS ON THE GROUND] M: So… why are you chained by your limbs here? [THE WOMAN TAKES A LOOK AT M BEFORE BREAKING INTO A LOUD CRY] W: (Desperately) Do I need to tell you why I’m here? Just get me out of here, please! [M IS SEEN LOOKING AROUND] [ON THE WALLS AND AROUND THE ROOM ARE VARIOUS TORTURE TOOLS, EACH DEEPLY STAINED WITH BLOOD] M: What… the… fuck… W: (Sobbing) Get me out of here, please… M: I… can’t… [A NEW VOICE IS HEARD FROM THE BASEMENT ENTRANCE]???: Mitis! Luca’s home! M: Fuck… [M IS SEEN RUNNING FROM THE WOMAN, SPRINTING UP THE STAIRS BACK TO THE FIRST FLOOR] [END FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] [BEGIN FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 5] [LUCA IS SEEN MAKING A NEW POST ON THE FORUM BEFORE SITTING DOWN ON THE COUCH, MAUSER M172 IN ONE HAND, WET CLOTH IN THE OTHER. IT APPEARS LUCA IS CLEANING THE MAUSER] [NEW FORUM POST: A DRIVER’S PARTY] [...] To celebrate me getting new roommates and having an excuse to drink like there's no morning, I've decided to hold a party at my house. The address is ███ ██ Drinks are free. The only rule: No entrance to the basement. Other than that, feel free to come over. [...] [END FORUM POST] [MITIS IS SEEN WALKING SWIFTLY PAST LUCA, WHO IS TALKING TO WILL] Luca: Oh hey Mitis, we’re throwing a party tonight! Mitis: Oh nice… Uh… I’ll uh… run and get some party snacks… Luca: Oh yeah, shit... forgot 'bout them. Thanks bud. [LUCA IS SEEN SMILING AND LOOKING OVER AT MITIS, MAUSER STILL IN HAND] [MITIS FREEZES, GRABS HIS PISTOL OFF A TABLE AND HOLSTERS IT BEFORE LEAVING THE HOUSE, FORGETTING TO CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND HIM] Luca: Huh.... [LUCA IS SEEN GETTING UP FROM THE SOFA, WALKING TOWARDS THE BASEMENT DOOR] [END FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 5] [BEGIN FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3] [LUCA IS SEEN STANDING IN FRONT OF THE BASEMENT DOOR, WHICH IS LEFT WIDE OPEN] Luca:... God fucking dammit Mitis… [LUCA IS SEEN PICKING UP HIS PHONE AND DIALING A NUMBER] [...] [AFTER TWO REDIALS, THE PHONE IS FINALLY PICKED UP]???: "Uhhh hey, Luca... Any requests for snacks?" Luca: "Yes, how about the You-were-in-the-basement-and-left-the-door-open one?" [Luca is seen walking down the stairs] [END FEED FROM MAIN FLOOR CAMERA 3] [BEGIN FEED FROM BASEMENT FLOOR CAMERA 1] Luca: "Did you tell anybody about what you saw down there?"???: "..... I don't think they have that in stock... Uhm... I didn't tell anyone, but I had to go to keep your visitor alive..." [AN AUDIBLE SIGH IS HEARD OVER THE PHONE]???: "I'm fucked, aren't I?" Luca: "To be honest, I don't blame you" [LUCA IS SEEN SWITCHING THE SAFETY OFF ON HIS PHONE] Luca: "I mean, it's pretty shitty that you betrayed me but..." [LUCA IS SEEN WALKING SLOWLY THROUGH THE BASEMENT] Luca: "I'll forgive you. Buy some snacks and more beer and get over here" [VIDEO FEED INTERRUPTED] [WIMPERING IS HEARD, FOLLOWED BY A SINGLE SHOT] [VIDEO FEED RESUMED] [LUCA IS SEEN HANGING UP HIS PHONE] [END FEED]Special Topics In Gameology Special Topics In Gameology explores a specific corner of the gaming world in a miniseries of articles. In this special end-of-year edition, we’re examining some of our favorite unsung odds and ends from across the games of 2016.
The monsters that patrol the ruined halls of Brennenburg Castle are not scary. Once you’ve gotten a good look at the tragic beings that pursue you throughout Amnesia: The Dark Descent—whether while peeking between the doors of the 19th-century armoires you find yourself hiding in or watching in annoyed acceptance as they claw your face off—you realize they look kind of dopey, like shambling mounds of burlap sacks with googly eyes and floppy jaws. It’s the classic monster-movie dilemma: The creature you imagine will always be more terrifying than the one you see on screen.
Advertisement
And yet these Grunts, as the gaping loons are known, remain a terrifying threat throughout your journey into the castle’s depths. When you’re running for your life, it doesn’t much matter what’s after you. Any superficiality is outweighed by the feeling of death on your tail, the maddening crescendo the game sears through your speakers as a monster gives chase, and the knowledge that, if you did take the time to turn around and see its stupid mug, you’d be done for. Flight is far more frightening than fight. It’s a powerful, primal fear, and over the course of several releases, culminating in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the developers at Frictional Games grew to understand and control it.
Of all the horrific pursuits it and its many copycats have put players through, none are as pure and potent as Amnesia’s flooded Cellar Archives. The short sequence is practically a boastful demonstration of Frictional’s mastery over its horror ethos, as if the game’s designers were sitting at a table one-upping each other until one finally blurted, “Yeah, well, I bet I can scare the crap out of them with a monster they can’t even see.” It’s such a radical idea, but it’s the natural conclusion to Amnesia’s philosophy. When the monster that’s after you is invisible, there’s no possibility of disappointment or comfort brought on by familiarity. There’s just the chase, and nothing is as naturally scary as that.
Advertisement
Early in the game and before you’re even in danger of being caught by a Grunt, you find yourself in an empty cellar. There’s a horrible roar from some unseen force and you black out. When you reawaken, the place has been flooded and covered in the sinewy webs of the formless cosmic horror that followed your character into the castle. You walk forward through the knee-high water. Almost immediately, you hear hissing and the sound of something stomping through the water, but there’s nothing there. The furious sloshing continues and you see the ripples making their way around the corner ahead. Still, there’s nothing. The footsteps are louder and angrier now, and you see violent splashes heading straight for you. Instinctively, you climb onto a crate to your left, out of the water and possibly out of harm’s way. The splashes keep coming, inches away from your character’s fragile body now, and then it all stops. There’s nothing.
You have to move from the safety of your crate eventually. Reluctantly, you step back into the water, and the splashing starts again. This time, it’s too close. You hear a reptilian cry and something smacks you across the head. Your vision bloodied, you climb onto the next box and watch as the water calms again. You see nothing, but you know it’s right there, silently waiting for you to step back into its territory. Whatever it is, it’s blind and bloodthirsty. You can’t see it, and it can’t see you. The only way you two can track each other is by the disturbances you each create in the cellar’s pool—your nervous, plodding footsteps; its intent stalking. You can escape to safety outside the water, and it cuts through the shallows more quickly than you ever could. It’s almost a level playing field.
Advertisement
Except, of course, you can’t fight back. All you can do is run, hopping from floating crate to floating crate like a kid playing “the floor is lava.” To escape, you pull a lever that opens a mechanical gate and make a mad dash down the hall before it closes. The whole time, this thing is splashing and gnashing right behind you. Amnesia was not built with these kinds of acrobatics in mind. It’s easy to fall into the water and struggle to climb back out, with your character’s awkward fumbling acting as a realistic reflection of the panic this scene so easily provokes. You don’t need to see the monster. You can hear it coming—along with the nerve-flaying thunderous music—and you know what’ll happen if it reaches you. That’s enough to get your muscles tense and your teeth gritting.
Your reward for escape is being locked in an even smaller room with another invisible water monster. Using the human body parts strewn around the chamber to distract the carnivorous beast, you slowly turn the valve to open your only exit door and pray that torso you tossed it lasts long enough to save your own. The moment is tuned just right, so that by the time you’re done opening the door, the creature has finished its snack and is once again on your tail. The last encounter with these beasts is an all out sprint through the remaining flooded halls. Even without being able to see it, you can tell this one is different. It’s bigger, more powerful, more aggressive, and doesn’t leave you alone just because you’ve jumped on a box. You throw open the doors in your way and slam them shut to block its path, but this menace just tears through them. Its shrieks and hisses and splashes only stop coming once you’ve reached the next wing of the castle. There’s no need—or time—to turn around and look. And besides, there’s nothing there to see.
Advertisement
Since Amnesia’s release in 2010, there’s been a huge horror-game resurgence. Part of that is due to the emergence of YouTube culture, but it’s not a stretch to say the success of Frictional’s Lovecraftian opus was the catalyst for a change in the way developers think about video game horror. There’s more to it than a creepy atmosphere and a vague sense that you’re in over your head. It’s about forcing the player to confront what lies ahead in the face of utter helplessness. The Cellar Archives is the thesis statement for this entire school of design. The hard part isn’t recognizing your path past this insurmountable force or even executing on it; the hard part is working up the courage to get it done. The water monster may hiss like an alligator and splash around like its on two feet, but its true form is more abstract than any physical grotesquerie. It’s the embodiment of pursuit and fear. And if there’s nothing to fear but fear itself, well, that explains what makes this one of the most terrifying video game scenes ever conceived.
Previously in the Unseen seriesSAINTS have handed two-year professional scholarships to 13 players as part of its latest intake to the Under-18s squad.
A large proportion of the players have come through the youth ranks at the club, but, significantly, they have been joined by many young talents from other teams who have opted to further their fledgling careers with Saints.
The group were welcomed to the club by academy manager Matt Hale and Under-18s coach Craig Fleming, most with their parents alongside them, as they committed themselves to Southampton for the next two years.
Hale said: “This is the first day when we get all of our new scholars for next season before they start in earnest with a set of fitness testing over the next few days, with one day off before going straight into the start of pre-season.
“Today is very much an induction coming into the club and signing their scholarship agreements and then saying goodbye to their families, and then settling into their host families where they’ll be over the next two years, so it’s very much the start of a new part of their journey with us.
“We’ve got quite a few with us who have been here for a long time, many of which are from the locality and certainly the south of England, but we’ve also brought to the club this year new territory for us, one or two from across the border in Scotland, Ireland and also from further afield.”
The new boys are: Harry Hamblin, Kieran Freeman, Jonathan Afolabi, Oliver Gardner, Harlem Hale, Harrison Davis, Michael Obafemi, Jamie Bradley-Green, William Smallbone, Jake Vokins, Adam Parkes, Alex Cull and Javen Siu.What kind of coup was that?
The Turkish military has long had a well-deserved reputation for effective coup-making. The fiasco of last week will surely kill that reputation, possibly for good. Turkey’s past coups each had unique characteristics. At first glance, it is the May 1960 takeover that has most in common with the recent drama. It too was conducted against the backdrop of a polarized political system against an entrenched and ever more authoritarian and corrupt single-party (Democratic Party) government that had nevertheless enjoyed impressive electoral popularity. The government then had been in power for a decade and seemed bent on moving the country away from the secularist principles laid down by the republic’s founder, Kemal Ataturk. Like the recent coup attempt, the 1960 military intervention was instigated by elements outside the formal chain of command — largely by colonels rather than the top brass — and its leaders promised a renewed democratization drive, as did the “peace at home council” set up in the early hours of July 15. Still, the 1961 constitution that resulted from the 1960 coup remains Turkey’s most liberal ever.
There the comparison ends. Within days of the ousting of the civilian government in 1960, the Turkish high command had effectively taken full control, although it was led by army chief General Cemal Gursel rather than the chief of the general staff, who was put under arrest. This ensured military unity and the loyalty of the lower ranks. Furthermore, the 1960 coup-makers neutralized any likely source of opposition and swiftly rounded up the civilian leaders, notably, prime minster Adnan Menderes (who was later executed) and president Celal Bayar. In this fiasco, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his minsters remained at large. Erdogan even managed to fly from the holiday resort of Marmaris, land his jet at Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport, and take charge of events. Although Erdogan’s claim that his Marmaris hotel was bombed after he had left it remains unsubstantiated at the time of writing, there were clashes at the hotel that clearly came too late for the coup plotters to capture him. Erdogan and the country’s religious leadership called for people to take to the streets and oppose the tanks, which they did, easily outnumbering the absurdly small huddles of scared conscript soldiers, many of whom clearly had little stomach for violent confrontation with civilian crowds. Soldiers were soon surrendering, although around 50 civilian deaths did result from the night’s confrontations. Reports suggested that the conscript soldiers and junior officers thought they were on a military training exercise. Other than Chief of the General Staff Hulasi Akar, who was briefly detained but reappeared again within hours, the service chiefs almost immediately declared their opposition to the coup and even mobilized some forces against those of the coup leaders, leading to violent exchanges around the military’s headquarters and the presidential palace in Ankara. During the night, a few broadcasting stations were briefly occupied or closed by small numbers of soldiers, but for the most part, the media spent the night filming, reporting, and commenting on the unfolding drama. In short, this was an epically botched coup, an amateur affair that would scarcely be credible as a plot for a comic novel based in a newly independent African republic in the 1960s. The coup leaders, some of whom seem to have been very senior, made little attempt to grasp or neutralize the levers of power. They entered the fray relying largely on what appears to have been a pitifully miniscule force of confused, disoriented, and uncommitted troops and units. In the early hours of the next day, eight of the coup leaders fled to Greece in a police helicopter and asked for asylum. It is surprising — and also disturbing in a way — that such senior officers in one of NATO’s largest militaries could be found so lacking.
Is This the Turkey We Know?
Yet perhaps more importantly, the Turkey of 2016 is not the Turkey of 1960, or even of 1980 or 1997, when the last two military coups occurred. Unlike in 1960, when there was considerable support for the military takeover from the secular establishment, this misadventure was condemned by all the opposition political parties, including the Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, or HDP. This does not imply support for Erdogan and his ruling party or even an overwhelming faith in Turkish democracy. Rather, it is an indication that Turks of all political persuasions shudder at the thought of a return to the 1980s, when the military arrested half a million people, incarcerated political figures, journalists and activists in their tens of thousands, and executed or otherwise “disappeared” them in their hundreds. Turkey still suffers the burden of the illiberal constitution of 1982, which all would like to revise despite the almost complete absence of consensus on what to replace it with. These were dark days, and few Turks hanker for their return. Furthermore, past military interventions solved few of the country’s persisting problems, such as the role of religion in a nominally secular political system, the Kurdish issue, and the weak rule of law and autonomy of institutions. The 1997 “soft coup” took the form not of a military takeover, but of intense pressure on the Islamist-led government that resulted in its resignation. This eventually led to the emergence of a far more formidable Islamist-oriented party, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by disciples of Necmettin Erbakan, who was ousted as prime minister in 1997.
What is the point of all this military intervention? Turkey is a far more sophisticated society than it was under earlier periods of military rule: more educated, travelled, networked, diverse, and consumerist. Its economy is liberal, dynamic, and complex. Its engagement with the rest of the world is far more extensive. Most can see that modern Turkey, for all its drawbacks, cannot seriously be run by a bunch of Colonel Blimps. Many Turkish officers recognize that.
The Turkish military has also changed — or, rather, has been politically weakened and discredited in its own eyes as well as that of the public and political classes. The Turkish General Staff issued its so-called “e-memorandum” of 2007 in an attempt to forestall the elevation of one of the AKP’s leaders, Abdullah Gul, to the presidency. Prime Minister Erdogan responded to this effort by calling an immediate general election that raised the party’s share of the vote from the 34 percent gained in 2002 to nearly 47 percent, and then he installed Gul as president on the back of this resounding demonstration of popular legitimacy. Still more dramatic were the so-called Ergenekon, Sledgehammer, and related trials of Turkey’s so-called “deep state.” These trials followed waves of arrests of military officers as well as intellectuals, activists, politicians, journalists, bureaucrats and the like that began in 2008 and resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of military officers, many of them senior and including former Chief of the General Staff Ilker Basbug, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. As the trials proceeded, many more senior officers tendered their resignation, but the palpably fabricated charges were made to stick in any case. Though all the verdicts were annulled and the military officers released from jail in early 2016, in itself a move probably best seen as part of the ongoing struggle between Erdogan and the Gulenists, the formerly prestigious, respected, and overbearing Turkish military command seemed to have been reduced to less than a shadow of its former self. Its hitherto formative guardianship role in the country’s domestic politics seemed utterly at an end. This too makes the July 2016 events seem so odd and so unexpected.
Why Try for a Coup?
This brings us to the issue of motivation behind the recent fiasco. Upon his arrival at Istanbul airport from Marmaris, President Erdogan made it amply clear that, as far as he was concerned, the coup attempt was masterminded by Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Gulen presides over a vast though shrinking network of businessmen, journalists, intellectuals, and professionals of all kinds, the tentacles of which extend to commerce, education, charities and the media. Gulen’s followers are apparently inspired by his thinking, which posits a kind of long march through the institutions by relatively tolerant, modern, technocratic Muslims who will thereby be well positioned to benignly subvert the state so that it might become more reflective of the piousness of Turkey’s masses, yet also more attuned to the exigencies of the modern world, both at home and abroad. It was allegedly Gulenist lawyers and policemen who provided the momentum behind |
and makeup and the way they walk are deciding factors.
While we are discussing the Syrian refugee situation, hell breaks out in Mosul, Iraq. All Christians have to leave and the newly elected patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox church, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, travels to Kurdistan, Iraq to meet the refugees and their needs.
I called one of those that are in his delegation.
”We are trying to give them morale not to leave Iraq, of course we do not want our holy land, where the prophet Jonah was born and where Abraham came from, emptied of our people, but to be honest, I meet many that have family in places like Södertälje, Sweden and are already trying to find smugglers who can take them there.”
On average, twenty new refugees arrive in the small Swedish town of Södertälje every week, most of them Assyrians and other Christians from Syria. The opposition and the president’s followers meet again in this Swedish borough. The war has been going on for three years and president Bashar has received much support the last few months, both from inside Syria and from the outside because many Syrians do not feel like they have any other option. The opposition is busy fighting each other and the country is in ruins.
We notice that history repeats itself, as we have the same discussions we had about Iraq a couple of ago, now regarding Syria. All Christians have fled from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, since the radical Sunni Muslim group ISIS has taken over.
Let us hope we will not say the same thing about Lebanon or any other place in Middle East where Christians still live in some kind of peace.Two chimpanzees sit on sand in Kenya in this undated photo.
In a historic moment for animal rights, two chimpanzees, Hercules and Leo, were effectively recognized by a New York court as legal persons Monday.
Hercules and Leo, who are currently used for biomedical experiments at Stony Brook University on Long Island, were granted a hearing on their habeas corpus petition by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe.
Habeas corpus is a legal petition that detainees use to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment, and by granting habeas corpus to chimps, Jaffe endorsed the idea that they deserve the rights of a human being with respect to being confined indefinitely and in less than humane conditions.
Advocates argue great apes are highly intelligent and self-aware beings with complex emotional lives that deserve basic rights, including the right to be free of inhumane treatment.
A similar tack was taken by lawyers in Argentina last year when a court ruled that an orangutan kept at private zoo in Buenos Aires for the past 20 years should have some basic legal rights.
According to Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), which filed the habeas corpus petition in March in an effort to move the primates to a sanctuary in Florida, Jaffe's ruling is a first for animal rights.
Stony Brook University must now provide the court with a legally sufficient reason for keeping Leo and Hercules in captivity or the chimps will be set free. The court has scheduled the hearing for May 6, according to NhRP.
Caroline Forell, a University of Oregon professor who teaches animal law, told BuzzFeed News that the court's decision to consider granting the chimps habeas corpus is "a pretty big deal."
But she noted that it is a two-step process, and that the upcoming hearing would be an important opportunity for evidence to be presented in court.
The outcome could have a huge impact on Leo and Hercules, who have been confined at Stony Brook University for locomotion research, but whose specific conditions for the past few years are unknown, The Dodo reported. It is not clear if the chimps are even allowed to interact with one another.
NhRP hopes Leo and Hercules can be moved to Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida, where hundreds of other chimpanzees live in a habitat that is designed to replicate Africa.
Forell told BuzzFeed News she thinks a trial court would likely not make such a unprecedented ruling. Instead, she said the court will likely not grant the habeas corpus petition and allow advocates to appeal the ruling up to an appellate court.
A court decision could also impact hundreds of other apes who are confined in labs and elsewhere.
Similar cases have been filed for two other chimpanzees — Tommy, who lives in a cage on a used trailer lot in Gloversville, New York, and Kiko, who is held on private property in Niagara Falls — and decisions are still pending in New York's Court of Appeals.(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
When your state circles the drain in terms of education funding (46th in the nation, as of the most recent government reports), maybe this isn't the best use of state funds:
Mississippi taxpayers forked over more than $18,602 for Gov. Haley Barbour's trip to Las Vegas for a "project meeting" last March - a trip in which he hobnobbed with potential donors and powerplayers. The state also paid for Barbour's bodyguards' to stay in $858-a-night hotel rooms during a trip to New York last June.
The expenses were made public by the Clarion-Ledger, via public records requests. The newspaper also found that the total dollar amount the state forked out for Barbour's travel was well over a quarter-million dollars, and that he was out of the state for 175 days last year.
Barbour's wanderlust is understandable. After all, when you are laying the groundwork for a Presidential bid, you gotta go where the power players are. Barbour's flacks swear that state business was the preeminent cause for all that out-of-state travel, but one struggles to recall Ronnie Musgrove or Kirk Fordice dancing across the USA in quite the same manner.
The release of these records raises a few obvious questions. For example, why does the Governor of Mississippi, who might be recognizable to 3% of the public, needs bodyguards in New York? And, if he simply must have them, why do they need to be housed in hotel rooms that are more expensive than the MONTHLY expense for an apartment in Jackson, Mississippi?
But the biggest question, as always, why does anyone take the GOP seriously when they bloviate about belt-tightening, when it is evident that their own belts, and those of their cronies, are always exempted from such "sacrifice"?CLOSE Josh Deth is the founder of Revolution Brewing, Illinois largest craft brewery and one of the fastest growing breweries in the country. Deth is one of USA TODAY's 2015 Small Business Innovator of the Year nominees. USA TODAY
Josh Deth is the founder of Revolution Brewing, Illinois' largest craft brewery and one of the fastest growing breweries in the country. (Photo11: Robert Hart for USA TODAY)
CHICAGO — In a few years, Revolution Brewing has become, at least to this city’s beer drinkers, as ubiquitous a brand as Vienna Beef and Garrett Popcorn.
Now, Revolution looks to impress beer drinkers beyond the Windy City.
One of the fastest growing craft brewers in the USA, Revolution began selling cans and kegs in Massachusetts this month. The brewery is set to complete the first phase of an expansion of its 90,000-square-foot facility on the northwest side of Chicago by the end of the year.
Revolution sells its brews in a third state, Ohio, and co-founder Josh Deth and his wife, Revolution CFO Krista Sahakian, are looking to increase their presence in the years ahead.
When the next phase of their expansion is completed in the first half of 2016, Revolution says it will have the capacity to brew more than 180,000 barrels a year and become more than just Chicago’s beloved brewery.
“We’ve grown in no time into being a regional type brewery,” says Deth, whose brewery has about 180 employees. “It’s been a really steep learning curve, with a lot of change and investment in the brewery. Customers are certainly driving it.”
Revolution is one of 10 finalists for USA TODAY's Small Business Innovator of the Year award. More nominee profiles will run in the coming weeks, and a winner will be announced in December.
The company’s growth is impressive even in comparison with the rest of the high-flying craft beer industry, which continues to expand rapidly as thirsty American beer drinkers seek more complex flavors and are willing to pay a premium for them.
The American craft beer segment saw 18% growth last year on $19.6 billion in sales, according to the Brewers Association. More than 22 million barrels of craft beer were produced last year, compared with 8.5 million barrels in 2008.
The privately owned Revolution, which produced 1,300 barrels out of its brewpub in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in 2010, is on pace to sell 65,000 barrels in 2015. Deth (rhymes with teeth) projects he will brew more than 100,000 barrels in 2016.
The beer company is best known for its India Pale Ale, Anti-Hero IPA, which accounts for more than 50% of its sales. The brewer makes dozens of other beers, including the award-winning Cross of Gold (a golden ale), Bottom Up Wit (a Belgian-style white ale) and Eugene Porter (named after the American union leader and perennial Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs).
In the pre-Bernie Sanders era, “I used to have to explain what a market socialist was,” Deth joked during an interview at the Revolution brewery in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. “Socialist running for president? People would think that’s crazy.”
For all the success that Revolution and Deth have had in a relatively short period of time, the 41-year-old beermaker says he had more than his share of fits and starts along the way.
His dream of launching a craft brewery dates back to his days as a college student at the University of Michigan, where he took up home brewing. He later finagled jobs at Chicago’s now-defunct Golden Prairie and at Goose Island, the Chicago brewery that was bought by mega-beermaker Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2011 and brews most of its beer out-of-state.
In 2000, Deth quit his job at Goose Island — where he had been elevated to brewer — and set out to launch Revolution. A couple of efforts to land a space fell through the cracks.
His dream would take him on a nearly decade-long detour in which he worked for a non-profit group on affordable housing issues, earned a graduate degree in urban planning, opened a vegetarian restaurant with friends and served as executive director of a neighborhood chamber of commerce. A dozen banks would turn him and his investors down as the on-and-off effort to revive the Revolution project continued.
“Revolution could have died some horrible death so many times along the way, but Josh never gave up,” Sahakian says.
Finally, in 2008, the stars began aligning. Deth found an enormous space with a tin ceiling to open his brewpub on a yet-to-gentrify block in Chicago’s trendy Logan Square neighborhood. A bank finally approved his loan.
It would take nearly two more years of dealing with construction and zoning issues, but the brewpub — which has drawn a big crowd from Day One — opened early in 2010. Two years later, he opened the brewery in Avondale.
What advice does Deth offer budding entrepreneurs? He emphasizes that it's essential to be willing to adjust, often frequently, to reach your goal. As banks were turning him down, Deth and his investors paid close attention to what concerned the lenders and massaged their business plan accordingly.
He advises entrepreneurs to value their employees and keep in mind what it would be like "if they are gone tomorrow."
"You spend a lot on training people, growing people in an organization. You want to build a family essentially, and that’s what our philosophy is."
Deth says at times it appeared that Revolution — which is a play on how the surge of interest in craft beer has upended the industry and an homage to Chicago’s long history of labor and community organizing — wasn’t going to happen. In retrospect, he says the circuitous route may have something to do with his company’s early success.
“When you’re just working in a brewery, you can’t soak up all the skills and knowledge that are needed,” Deth says “I was able to do a little bit of everything. I was a dabbler. For a while, it seemed like I was doing all these crazy different things in life that didn’t make a lot of sense. It just seemed to be all over the place, but every little job and experience I had I can point to how it affected our success over time.”
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1jfOf5ZFrom BoxRec
John L. Sullivan
Pioneer Category
Hall of Fame bio: Class of 1990Pioneer CategoryHall of Fame bio: click
World Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee
Name: John L. Sullivan
Alias: The Boston Strong Boy
Birth Name: John Lawrence Sullivan
Born: 1858-10-15
Birthplace: Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Died: 1918-02-02 (Age:59)
Hometown: Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 5′ 10½″ / 179cm
Reach: 74″ / 188cm
Boxing Record: click
Trainers: William Muldoon, Prof. Jim Kelly
Manager: Billy Madden
John L. Sullivan Gallery
Biography
John L. Sullivan was a boxing immortal, the link between bare knuckles and glove fighting, and the first great American sports idol.
From an early age, Sullivan showed great proficiency with his fists. As a teenager, he would fight in Boston barrooms, issuing a challenge that he “could lick any man in the house.”
In 1882, Sullivan fought Paddy Ryan, the American Heavyweight Champion, in Mississippi City, Mississippi. It was a bare-knuckle contest. Sullivan dominated the fight and won by a ninth-round knockout. Sullivan reigned as champion for the next ten years, but he refused to fight any black boxer and drew what came to be known as boxing's "color line." Sullivan said, "I will not fight a Negro. I never have, and I never shall."
In 1892, Sullivan faced James J. Corbett in New Orleans. They fought under the Queensberry Rules and wore five-ounce gloves. The contrast in styles was obvious. The powerful, steadfast Sullivan had little use for ring trickery or defense, while Corbett was known for his peerless boxing ability. Young and agile, Corbett outboxed Sullivan, who was out of condition as a result of his indulgent lifestyle. Corbett stayed clear of the champion for twelve rounds and by the seventeenth, Corbett’s forays were wearing Sullivan down and he had a clear advantage. Corbett knocked out Sullivan in the 21st round.
Sullivan never fought again. He did some acting and, surprisingly, swore off alcohol. Previously known for his prodigious drinking, Sullivan became a temperance lecturer. He retired to a Massachusetts farm, having depleted most of the $1 million he had earned in his public career.
Sullivan died from a heart attack on February 2, 1918. When Sullivan was buried, the ground was frozen so hard that they had to blast out the grave with dynamite. Jake Kilrain, who served as a pallbearer, said, "Old John L. would have approved."
Sullivan was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, as a member of the hall's original class.
In an article run in the San Francisco Call June of 1905, Sullivan claimed the only man to knock him down in the ring was one Jack Hogan, a former blacksmith, in a fight in Providence, Rhode Island. He declined to mention the date.
Bare-Knuckle & Exhibition Record
BoxRec does not include bouts under the rules of the London Prize Ring in its database. Sullivan had hundreds of exhibitions and barnstorming matches. Below are some of his fights under the bare-knuckle/London Prize Ring rules:
1882-2-7, KO 9 Paddy Ryan, Mississippi City, MS. Sullivan claimed the American Heavyweight Championship.
1882-7-17, W 4 Tug Wilson, New York, NY. Wilson went to the floor 24 times to avoid being knocked out.
1888-03-10, D 39 Charlie Mitchell, Baron Rothschild's Training Groung, Chantilly, Oise, France. Referee: Bernard J Angle. Stakes: £1000. Some sources report this bout as a World Heavyweight Championship contest.
Jake Kilrain vs. John L. Sullivan: 1889-07-07, KO 75 Jake Kilrain, Marion County, MS. This would be the last time that a bare-knuckle title was on the line. The battle was Sullivan's greatest accomplishment in the bare-knuckle world. Sullivan stopped the outmatched wrestler in the 75th round. In the opening frame, Kilrain ended the round early by throwing "The Boston Strong Boy" to the ground (according to the London Prize Fighting Rules, which they were using, wrestling and throwing was allowed and the first time a fighter went to the ground, regardless of a punch or throw, the round would end). Though Kilrain drew "first blood" in the seventh round, class was beginning to show and Sullivan's experience and cobalt-breaking power were becoming a little to much for the game challenger. Kilrain resorted to running from his feared opponent, though when Sullivan got near Kilrain, it usually resulted in a knockdown. Sullivan was becoming very frustrated by his opponents survival tactics and even asked the referee to force Kilrain to "stand and fight". It didn't come off. After the seventy-fifth round ended, the ringside physician told Kilrain's corner that "Kilrain will die if you keep sending out there". The fight was stopped and Sullivan retained his Bare-knuckle Heavyweight Championship. It was a great finale to bare-knuckle championship boxing. Sullivan, already a Marquess of Queensberry Heavyweight Champion (Marquess of Queensberry rules are very similar to the rules that are used today), had closed the book on bare-knuckle boxing and in his very next bout, he closed the book on his career when he was knocked out by James J. Corbett.
1896-08-31, EX 3 Tom Sharkey, New York City, NY
For a more detailed view of Sullivan's record, go to Cyber Boxing Zone.
Marriages
Sullivan married Annie Bates Bailey, a chorus girl, on May 1, 1883. A son, John Jr., was born in 1884, but the child died of diphtheria in 1886. John L. and Annie separated in 1885, but were not divorced until 1908.
According to the February 2, 1908, edition of the Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA, USA), Sullivan had secretly married Miss Nellie Revelle of Chicago several weeks previously. She was the drama critic for The Show World and a vaudeville actress.
After Sullivan renounced liquor, he began spending time with a woman named Katherine Harkins. They married on February 7, 1910, and moved to a small house twenty miles south of Boston. According to wire reports, she died of cancer at Abingdon, MA, on May 29, 1916.
Preceded by:
Inaugural Champion World Heavyweight Champion
1885 Aug 29 – 1892 Sep 7 Succeeded by:
James J. CorbettAfghan officials today confirmed that US airstrikes targeted and killed at least 16 civilians, mostly women and children, in the eastern Nangarhar Province, targeting the civilians as they tried to flee out of an ISIS-held district where heavy fighting has been ongoing.
The governor of the Haska Meena District said that the attacks targeted vehicles trying to get out of the area, and that eight of the slain were all members of the same family. An unspecified number of others were wounded in the attack.
The Pentagon, for its part, confirmed the attack, but insisted that everyone killed was an “extremist fighter,” and that they believed the people piling their meager possessions into the vehicles were actually “loading weapons.” Officials added that because the vehicles were in the middle of nowhere “there was zero chance of civilian casualties.”
Which would conceivably have been true if the vehicles weren’t packed full of civilians in the first place. Claims of “extremists” are common enough for the Pentagon at first blush, but with the casualties heavily women and children, it won’t stand up to much scrutiny.
This is the second strike in the last few weeks in the district which killed civilians. The previous attack targeted a prayer ceremony, and the US similarly claimed that the praying civilians were “ISIS members.”
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzTrade figures show the value of softwood lumber exported to China has surpassed the U.S. for the first time, sending powerful signals about the importance of the Asia-Pacific markets for B.C.'s economy and job prospects.
"China has become our most important market for lumber," said Pat Bell, the former B.C. Forests minister and the current Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.
May was a record-breaking month for B.C. softwood lumber exports to China with 746,000 cubic metres exported — up 157 per cent by volume over the same month last year. From January to May, B.C. exported 2.8 million cubic metres to China, up over double from last year in both volume and value.
"I was shocked," Bell said. "I had to do the math three or four times to make sure that I was right."
He credits the expansion to work by the province and forest industry to diversify the market for B.C. forest products by expanding into China.
"This is the result of years of hard work by the provincial government and industry," Bell said.
"In only five months, we've shipped the equivalent of over 76,000 containers of wood to China — the equivalent production of approximately 14 typical Interior sawmills over this period. These shipments represent family-supporting jobs across the province and the continued success of our rural B.C. communities."
Chinese lumber sales employing 10,000 in B.C.
Bell — who also represents the Prince George-Mackenzie riding, an area dependent on its saw mills — said it's good news for B.C.'s forest industry.
"Mills are working today directly as a result of China," he said.
"Ten thousand people are working directly because of Chinese lumber right now. Across northern B.C., factories say their shipments to China are exceeding their shipments to the U.S. by four- and five-fold."
Statistics show China spent $3 million more on B.C. lumber than U.S. buyers in May 2011, and officials say the value of B.C.'s softwood lumber exports to all Asian destinations has now surpassed the total value of shipments to the U.S.
"We continue to see staggering growth in the amount of wood we export to China, so I'm not surprised that in May we shattered another record for lumber exports to the world's fastest growing economy," said Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Steve Thomson.
"This is great news for British Columbians who depend on the forest sector for jobs that support their families."
Bell predicts lumber exports to China will keep rising, but only if Canada can corral enough rail cars and ships to get B.C.'s lumber overseas.soccorsi
Isaac Akuetteh, il quindicenne ghanese cresciuto nel settore giovanile del Milan e che ieri è stato travolto da un treno mentre era in bicicletta, è "in prognosi riservata nel reparto di rianimazione" e le sue "condizioni sono stazionarie". Lo comunica l'ospedale di Sant'Anna di San Fermo della Battaglia (Como), come richiesto dai familiari del ragazzo. L'ospedale spiega, inoltre, che il giovanissimo giocatore non ha dovuto subire interventi chirurgici alla testa, ma è stato sottoposto a "manovre di routine per il monitoraggio del trauma cranico" riportato.— Ieri Isaac è stato travolto da un treno, mentre percorreva in bicicletta una stradina lungo le rotaie a Cadorago, nel Comasco, ascoltando musica con le cuffie. Sembra che Isaac stesse raggiungendo degli amici al campo sportivo di Caslino, vicino alla stazione ferroviaria. Non ha preso la strada principale, ma una scorciatoia che passa tra i binari e la staccionata della ferrovia. Il conducente del treno avrebbe anche cercato di avvisarlo, ma Isaac, per vie delle cuffie non avrebbe sentito il grido d'allarme. L'impatto è stato molto violento e l'ha scagliato a qualche metro di distanza. Le condizioni del ragazzo sono apparse subito molto gravi. Immediatamente soccorso è stato trasportato d’urgenza all'ospedale Sant'Anna di San Fermo della Battaglia (come mostrano le immagini di QuiComo.it ).Foreigners love American sperm. Don’t believe me? Demand for exported semen from sperms banks around the United States has increased by 40 percent in the last five years as foreigners look for more “genetic material.” Among the countries most interested in American baby making materials are the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Israel, Australia, Chile, Spain and Sweden.
The market is so big that Scott Brown, a spokesman for California Cryobank tells The Daily:
“In the last three years, we have shipped to about 60 countries.”
Brown adds:
“It’s driven by the social changes — single women and lesbian couples being recognized around the world as people that should be able to have children and raise families,” he said. “That’s something that in the U.S. we’re really ahead of the curve on.”
The American sperm banks are often chosen because men are allowed to make donations anonymously and because they feature a well-developed network of banks that are unmatched in many other locations around the world.
American sperm banks are also benefiting as more countries around the world begin to accept nontraditional family units into their homes.
Thanks to the uptick in exports and more interest in non-traditional families in the United States the industry according to Marketdata has jumped from $979 million in 1988 to $4.3 billion in 2013.
While the exact number of donors in the United States is not known it is estimated by some reports that 30,000 anonymous donor-inseminated births occur annually while the American Association of Tissue Banks puts the number at just 5,000.Ridiculously early post to hopefully dissuade any further Chapter A spoilers from floating around.First - jocelynsamara.deviantart.com/a… Gallery - jocelynsamara.deviantart.com/g… Prev - jocelynsamara.deviantart.com/a… Next - jocelynsamara.deviantart.com/a… The dialogue in the first two panels of the second page here is pulled from the bonus chapter of. The other flashback panels following it however, are new. Rain's explanation was never shown in the book. Instead, there was a cut away to her explaining to Fara that she just told Allison the truth (that), all the while, Rain had an impressive hand print on her left cheek. So book buyers knew that Allison knew - and that she reacted badly when told - but this is the first time anyone's hearing exactly what was said and are learning how Allison felt about the whole thing directly. This means everybody should be on the same page now (although there are a few other little secrets exclusive to the bonus chapter, you all know the most important thing now). As I've said before, nothing essential to the plot will remain exclusive to the bonus chapters.So, while I obviously can't stop anyone, I would really, really appreciate it if people didn't spoil the bonus chapters. Just trust that there's a method to my madness.And although this is the first time non-book buyers are learning this in canon, I've actually hinted at this before in at least one particular page blurb. There's really no one else it could've been.©2004-2016Rain, all characters and all other aspects of the story are copyright material belonging to me.Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose bid for the White House depends heavily on support from religious conservatives, finds himself confronting an issue that is a flash point for that part of his base: his attempt to order schoolgirls to receive a vaccine that would protect them against a sexually transmitted virus.
The uproar over the Gardasil vaccine — manufactured by Merck, a major Perry campaign donor — knocked the candidate off-stride during a Republican debate Monday night.
The vaccine is aimed at shielding girls from human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexual infection that can lead to cervical cancer. Federal health officials say they are confident that the vaccine is safe, noting that more than 35 million doses have been administered in the United States with no pattern of serious side effects.
Perry bristled Monday night at accusations from his chief rival for tea party voters, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), that he had pushed the vaccine in 2007 at the bidding of Merck, which employed a former aide to the governor as a lobbyist.
“It was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them,” Perry said. “I raise about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”
But campaign disclosure records portray a much deeper financial connection with Merck than Perry’s remarks suggest.
His gubernatorial campaigns, for example, have received nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker since 2000, most of that before he issued his vaccine mandate, which was overturned by the Texas legislature.
Merck and its subsidiaries have also given more than $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) since 2006, the year that Perry began to play a prominent role in the Washington-based group, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Perry served as chairman of the RGA in 2008 and again this year, until he decided to run for president. The group ranks among the governor’s biggest donors, giving his campaign at least $4 million over the past five years, according to Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group.
“It’s very clear that crony capitalism could likely have been the cause” of Perry’s decision to issue the vaccine order, Bachmann said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, alleging that the drug may be “dangerous” for young girls. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who until now has been generally supportive of Perry in public remarks, joined in the criticism.
A balancing act
The issue illustrates the difficult balancing act that Perry is attempting to perform in appealing to both the business and evangelical Christian wings of the Republican Party, a tightrope that he has walked for much of his political career. The governor is scheduled to travel to Liberty University in Virginia on Wednesday in his continuing bid to court religious conservatives.
The vaccine episode also underscores the close ties between Perry and his largest donors, many of whom have given millions of dollars to his campaigns and the RGA. In a report released Tuesday, Texans for Public Justice said that 32 percent of the $217 million collected at the RGA during the past five years, when Perry held several leadership roles with the group, came from 139 donors to his gubernatorial campaigns.
“With Perry, there’s his Christian conservative base and crony capitalism, and when push came to shove, crony capitalism won the day,” said Andrew Wheat, research director at Texans for Public Justice, which has frequently locked horns with the governor. “This puts him in trouble with a key part of his coalition.”
Mark Miner, a Perry spokesman, said that criticisms of the vaccine decision are unfounded and that the order was based solely on women’s health concerns. Cervical cancer kills an estimated 3,700 women a year.
“What drove the governor on this issue was protecting life and nothing else,” Miner said.
Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of Liberty University, told the Texas Tribune on Tuesday that Perry is “probably one of the stronger candidates on social issues” and predicted that the vaccine controversy would not seriously damage his candidacy. “You can’t find any of the candidates who haven’t made a mistake in their past,” Falwell said.
In 2007, Perry became the first governor in the country to attempt to make the HPV vaccine mandatory. Some social conservatives objected at the time because they argued that it would suggest to young girls that having sex is acceptable.
One of Perry’s closest confidantes, his former chief of staff Mike Toomey, was then working as an Austin-based lobbyist for Merck, which was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar campaign to persuade states to make the vaccine mandatory.
Toomey, who has declined requests for comment, has since helped found Make Us Great Again, a pro-Perry super PAC that can accept unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy donors. The group plans to raise as much as $55 million to help Perry compete for the GOP nomination, according to media reports.
Merck officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the company’s donations to Perry but issued a statement defending Gardasil’s safety and effectiveness.
Reversing his position
Until he began running for president, Perry staunchly defended the vaccine mandate as a “pro-life” attempt to protect women’s health and sharply criticized social conservatives for their opposition. But Perry now says he made a mistake by not going to the legislature.
“If I had it to do over again, I would have done it differently,” he said Monday night.
Bachmann said at the debate that “to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong.” She also criticized Perry’s ties to Merck: “The question is, is it about life, or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?”
Bachmann upped the ante on her criticism Tuesday morning, relating an unsubstantiated claim from an audience member in Tampa that the vaccine caused “mental retardation” in her daughter. Medical experts note that people often wrongly attribute unrelated conditions to vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in 2006 for girls as young as 9, and medical authorities recommended that they receive it at age 11 or 12 to protect them before they start having sex. Only the District and Virginia require its use.
The vaccine has been “tested in thousands of people around the world,” according to the Web site of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “These studies showed no serious side effects. Common, mild side effects included pain where the shot was given, fever, headache, and nausea.” Some girls who get vaccinated also faint, the CDC noted.
But some experts have said they are concerned that there is insufficient evidence about how long Gardasil’s protection will last, whether serious side effects will emerge and whether a reduction in infections will necessarily translate into fewer cancers.
Staff writer Rob Stein contributed to this report.
Read more on PostPolitics.com
Bachmann: Vaccine may cause ‘mental retardation’
Fact checker: The Texas showdown between Ron Paul and Rick Perry
White House pressed on $500M loan to solar company now under investigationCourt
Court has granted her protection after the young woman’s parents alleged that it was a case of 'love jihad'.
The Kerala High Court on Friday ordered the Director General of Police to allot necessary protection to a woman from Kannur, whose family claimed that she was allegedly facing threats from religious radicals.
According to her parents, Sruthi, a woman from Pariyaram of Kannur district had allegedly been kept in illegal custody by a man. The man, Anees Hameed, was Sruthi's classmate and the two had got married.
The court ordered police protection while deciding on the petition filed by Sruthi’s parents, M Rajan and his wife.
According to reports, the woman's family claimed that they had to relocate from Kannur after they allegedly received threats from PFI activists. Following this, they approached the HC.
The petitioner had argued that Anees Hameed had abducted their daughter, converted her to Islam and married her under his religious customs. The police traced his house and produced Sruthi before the magistrate court on July 21. While the woman first preferred to go with her husband, she later returned to her parents.
Meanwhile, Anees had now filed a complaint before the Payyannur Judicial First Class Magistrate Court alleging that the family has detained Sruthi.
The High Court also asked the DGP to enquire about the complaint that there was a plot planned to take Sruthi to Syria. The HC also ordered a stay on the Magistrate court’s search warrant based on a complaint filed by Anees,
Speaking to TNM, Kannur SP G Siva Vikram said that media reports stating that the Sruthi's family had approached the court after their pleas to the police went in vain were incorrect.
"The family directly approached the court. I will instruct the jurisdictional DySP to provide police protection to the family," the SP said.
In his complaint, Sruthi’s father Rajan had stated that Hameed together with some religious organisations had threatened to take his daughter to Syria or Yemen. He also claimed that Anees emotionally blackmailed Sruthi by pretending to be in love with her.
The missing complaint was first filed by Rajan on May 16 after which the girl was produced before Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Taliparamba on July 21.
The case gains prominence in light of the Hadiya case, a Hindu woman who converted to Islam before marrying a Muslim man. The case of ‘love jihad’ is now being probed by the NIA. Ordering an NIA probe, the SC had asked the investigation agency to enquire about Hadiya's conversion and marriage and also to find out whether there were efforts to convert Hindu girls in the state.The world's most powerful men represent the vast majority of global military might and yet at the same time, possess unique character traits which seem to subvert their positions of power. Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea (a non signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty) has up to 60 nuclear weapons and is working on a long-range nuclear missile able to reach US and Australia. Donald Trump, relatively inexperienced with politics and lacking the usual restraint and statesmanship of his predecessors, has typified his first term thus far with emotional and impulsive outbursts. |
they know where I live? That would be the end of it.
I looked into grocery store delivery services, and I did have a bunch of salsa delivered to his house from a local grocery store that delivers. And he called me and said, "Hey, they need to see your credit card." I thought, aw, crap. He knows it's me the whole time. But then he said, "The crazy thing is, I'm also going to get some salsa from Pace." At first I thought I was busted, but it made sense that he didn't know it was me. Why would he have assumed I made that Twitter account three or four months ago? He thinks I'm just a guy capitalizing on this by doing a different prank.
I thought it was done, and that maybe I'd hold onto it for another day or so.
After two more hours of not communicating with Kyle, he sent Pace a few more messages saying, "So, you're not going to talk to me anymore?" I told him, "We were told not to communicate with you anymore. We're not getting anywhere with you. Have a good holiday season, if you do celebrate anything this time of year besides your own attempt at cleverness and wit." This was Miles. And Kyle was being really polite saying, "Nothing negative has happened from this. You guys are coming out on top." And that was when Miles was like, "You're creating an outpouring of negativity." Miles had had it, and Sharon stepped in. After that I was like, this is too good! I've created these characters! It went from favoriting tweets on this fake Twitter I made for no reason, and now I had this story to tell. I was laughing at these characters in this way someone else would, like, "I can't believe these people are doing this!" It was for the audience, it wasn't to shame Kyle in any way. I told Kyle [Sunday night] that it was me.
HPC: How did you feel when the media picked it up?
RL: I didn't think that would happen. But every one of his tweet has three, four, five hundred favorites, and people started to really like it. If that was anybody's plan, it would have been hard to do. I was taking my time. I was taking hour-long breaks. It was just a perfect weird storm of stuff happening, after the other thing that happened with Twitter the other day.
It wasn't a prank attempt, it just happened. That's just how I am. I love sending texts to people and pretending like I meant to send it to someone else. I want to force people to socially think about certain things. Even if they're positive. One time I bumped into [comedian] Pete Holmes on the street, and I sent him a text that said, "I just bumped into Pete Holmes! That guy is such a delight." Then I texted him saying, "That was for someone else." I forced him to think about it all day.
HPC: Have you heard from Pace?
RL: No. This morning, I was feeling bad. It's like... it's a pure high in life, when you're a little kid and something is so funny. But then you have the low of, I hope my friend isn't mad at me. How can I explain that I created this Twitter forever ago and not have him think I'm a jerk? Then I realized I could get in trouble for that. I did things that Pace probably wouldn't do, but I never intentionally drug their name through the mud. And I wanted to end the story on a good, positive note, so they would like how it was handled. Pace hasn't said anything to me. I was at work all day. My boss would give me a dirty look every time I looked at my phone. I think they have a right to not like what I did, both Kyle and Pace. And I openly love Kyle and I openly love Pace Picante.
If anything's to come out of this, and I don't say this in a braggart way, but people talked about Pace, and in the end people were happy with Pace. People were like, this was the craziest viral marketing! And I thought, what? If people tried to attempt what I did, or if I was hired to create a lot of positive buzz by doing some negative things for a while, I would have a panic attack.
People seemed to like it. Even after they knew it was fake, people were happy with the exchange. And how Kyle doesn't look like a jerk. He looks like a hero in all this.Election time in Israel is a season of forlorn hope for many American Jews, imagining, praying in our various ways one more time that our Israeli cousins will finally shift in a direction we can again support proudly as Jews, or at least tolerate without revulsion, that we can somehow together again be part of the same people that long saw itself as a light to nations.
So when I hear the Zionist Union coalition of Labor and Tzipi Livni’s party is running neck-and-neck with or even now leading Netanyahu’s Likud in polls, I’ll admit briefly feeling a smidgen of something like hope. But I can’t forget Livni’s defining op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last year, essentially pronouncing “our Palestinians” unready for democracy, another shot in the endless disgraceful effort to rationalize their subjugation. It is sadly hard to believe a government in which Livni is a leader, slated to serve two of four years as prime minister, could make a difference that matters for lasting two-state peace without brain surgery.
Few manifestoes better illustrate the colonial mindset that seems to lack connection with anything recognizable as Jewish teaching or values since the Book of Judges. Livni’s logic, supposedly emblematic of the “center” in Israeli politics today, sounds more like that of the many monster empires <em>Am Yisrael</em> (The Jewish People) defined itself against successively across our history.
Hamas’ 2006 victory in Arab Palestine’s only contested election was inherently illegitimate because Hamas cannot be a democratic party since, in Livni’s Manichean construction of reality, it is simply and inherently a “terrorist group.” Ditto Hezbollah. Hamas and Hezbollah of course are multi-faceted social and political organizations, which is part of why they win elections and are pivotal influences in their societies. People under occupation (or blockade, which is functionally similar) historically often “democratically” support violent resistance to their tormentors.
That these organizations have killed Israelis – often while perpetrators killed themselves – hardly reduces them to mere “terrorist groups” and nothing more any more than Israel’s far more ‘successful’ bi-annual Gaza killing sprees – which take the lives of vastly more innocents than Hamas could ever hope to – reduce the State of Israel to merely a “terrorist entity.”
That “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed” has no significance for Livni as regards Palestine’s Arabs, </a>. With this psychology, many Israelis continue to view themselves as a “proud democracy” while occupying or blockading into desperate poverty between four and five million Arabs – though occupation and blockade are both acts of war to which virtually all Jews and virtually all Americans would support resistance by force anywhere else in the world but Palestine. But once one becomes accustomed to wrongdoing, as our Talmud says, it becomes normal for us; unending occupation and blockade of Arab Palestine are classic illustrations.
Cousins: Ruling or blockading millions of unrepresented people while subjecting them to periodic decimation when they fight back: It’s not democracy.
We let them vote or we let them go.
Or we understand we’re not a democracy. We’re a tyranny. “Colonialism” is the nicest description for tyranny over other peoples.
Much of the world wants this to be a post-colonial age, the great idea <em>Am Yisrael </em>pioneered when it broke the chains of slavery against Pharaoh in Egypt, which we celebrate soon as Passover – the idea that people can’t own other people – the vision the Jewish people championed for millennia.
Until now. As we demand a permanent “special exception” for Israel.
Amazingly, many Israelis and supporters criticize Hamas and the PA for not holding their own Palestinian elections since 2006. They must forget what happened last time. Israel’s government showed its respect for democracy among the lowly by targeting most winners for arrest, still refusing to acknowledge, a la Livni, the winning faction.
And beyond the issue of democracy, a state that treasures Jewish lives while devaluing Arab lives – as demonstrated for example by the taking of the lives of 500 children in their homes and play spaces in Gaza last summer – seems no longer recognizably Jewish either, representing something profoundly different from and radically alien to historical Judaism. Before last summer’s parody of “self’-defense,” I believed: “He who destroys a human life is as if he destroyed the whole world” was quintessential Jewish teaching. Jews are of course commanded to love “the other,” the stranger, as we were strangers in Egypt. Calling today’s Israel a “Jewish state,” I’d argue, seems sadly anachronistic in this light. Today’s Israel seems more accurately a “post-Jewish” state.
There’s a worldwide struggle for the Jewish soul today between those who regard the Jewish people as bearers of a tradition of universal human values and those who view Judaism as a tribal military cult. Netanyahu and Livni seem regrettably on the same side.
Of course it’s more complex than can be addressed comprehensively in any op-ed. There is a long and tragic history in Palestine we are all familiar with. Great and terrible things happened in 1948 and 1967, before and since, yet, the key point is:
None of them can justify subjugating the Palestinians in perpetuity.
Israel’s policies meanwhile undermine Diaspora Jewry as nothing else has, especially among the young people who carry us into the future, hijacking Jewish identity and continually tying it to policies alien to, diametrically opposed to what most identifying Diaspora Jews see as the essence of who they are. Netanyahu’s recent idiotic claim to speak for the entire Jewish people is particularly outrageous. Jews outside Israel of course have no more influence on Israel’s disastrous governance than do millions of subject Arabs.
The trouble with the people crushed under our feet is they won’t stop biting. It’s tough being a colonial power in a post-colonial age. But on the eve of yet another Israeli election that should matter but almost certainly won’t, still not nearly tough enough.Democrats ripped the GOP tax plan on Saturday, saying it fails President Trump's own test for tax reform as Republicans move on their top agenda item.
"We believe that the Republican tax cut framework failed to live up to the test that President Trump himself set for his tax plan when he said it would be focused on the middle class," Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said during the Democrats' weekly address.
"Democrats believe that the Republican tax plan is simply unfair and would further rig the tax code for the rich," he continued.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Trump administration has pushed back against Democratic criticism that its tax-reform plan would be more beneficial to the rich than it would to the middle class.
Trump touted the plan as a "middle-class bill" in comments to reporters earlier this week.
"We want to make sure that the middle class is the biggest beneficiary of the tax cuts and tax reform," he said. "It's a middle-class bill. That's what we're thinking of. That's what I want."
Trump said the tax reform plan would lower taxes for individuals and reduce the top rate for pass-through businesses taxed through the individual system. It would also repeal the estate tax, a move which is thought to favor the wealthy.
A CBS News poll released Sunday found 58 percent said they believed the GOP-backed tax proposals would favor the rich, while just 18 percent said it would favor the middle class.
Neal's remarks come after the Senate voted 51-49 on Thursday to pass the fiscal 2018 budget, paving the way for Republicans in the upper chamber to pass tax reform and avoid a Democratic filibuster.
A last-minute amendment by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi Michael (Mike) Bradley EnziWill Senate GOP try to pass a budget this year? Presumptive benefits to Blue Water Navy veterans are a major win If single payer were really a bargain, supporters like Rep. John Yarmuth would be upfront about its cost MORE (R-Wyo.) adopting technical and procedural language from the House budget may speed up the budget’s final passage in the House.
The budget did not get support from any Democrats in the upper chamber.
Democrats argue the budget would pave the way for a tax plan that would cut Medicare and Medicaid and raise taxes on middle-class Americans.Aug 31, 2016 at 12:27 // Politics
Nina Lyon Author
The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament has recently published a Budget Amendments that proposes the spending 1,000,000 Euros to study and regulate distributed ledger technologies, i.e. Blockchain and Bitcoin technologies.
According to the Budget Amendments, these funds would be used to create a Task Force of regulatory and technical experts that would undertake technical and regulatory analysis, and develop use cases in the field of distributed ledger technology. This project was proposed by Jakob von Weizsäcker, a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
It states:
“A Task Force specifically dedicated horizontally to monitor DLT and its applications could provide the expertise necessary to properly counter risks without stifling innovation by means of premature regulatory intervention. The Task Force should aim at identifying standards for best practice and developing stress tests for applications that are set to become systemic as well as developing use cases for the application of the technology. A horizontal approach would help to identify potentials and risks associated directly with the technology and would create synergies in the workflow.”
Along with distributed ledger technology, the Task Force would also study virtual currencies, like Bitcoin, and their impact in the financial sector and beyond.
This is not the first time Europe has shown its interest in investigating the impact of cutting edge technology in the financial sector. Earlier a new FinTech, Innovation and Competitiveness (FIC) division was created by the French financial market regulator.Image copyright Reuters Image example Serena Williams talk say she go wan defend her title as soon as possible even though she know say dat one dey 'outrageous'
Popular Tennis player, Serena Williams don born female pickin for Florida, USA. She welcome her first baby with fiancée Alexis Ohanian, wey be the co-founder of social media company Reddit.
Na on Wednesday 30 August na im di 35-year-old enter admission for di St Mary's Medical Center wey dey West Palm Beach.
Serena wey don win di Grand Slam title 23 times, don talk since last month say she dey plan to go back to work, dey play tennis by January on top di Australian Open.
News of the birth don even reach her elder sister, Venus Williams, wey dey play for the U.S Open wey dey happen now. Dat one talk say she dey so happy wey be say she sef no fit no fit explain am.
Na April 2017, na im Serena mistakenly open mouth say she get belle for ontop Snapchat.
Na so her name dey everybodi mouth for world, when dem discover say Serena win her 23rd Glam Slam for January with belle.Survation/Daily Mirror Debate Poll Sample size: 1,013 Fieldwork: Immediately after the debate’s conclusion. No polling during.
Data Weighted To ONS 2012 targets on: Age, Gender, 2010 Past Vote, Region (6), SEG.
Who do you think ‘won’ the debate?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 27%
Natalie Bennett - 5%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Leanne Wood - 2%
Would make the best Prime Minister?
Ed Miliband - 43%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 25%
Natalie Bennett - 3%
Leanne Wood - 3%
Performed the “best”?
Ed Miliband - 29%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 35%
Natalie Bennett - 5%
Leanne Wood - 5%
Performed the “worst”?
Ed Miliband - 18%
Nigel Farage - 36%
Nicola Sturgeon - 6%
Natalie Bennett - 21%
Leanne Wood - 17%
Had the most convincing arguments?
Ed Miliband - 31%
Nigel Farage - 31%
Nicola Sturgeon - 24%
Natalie Bennett - 10%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Had the most appealing personality?
Ed Miliband - 21%
Nigel Farage - 23%
Nicola Sturgeon - 30%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 16%
Answered the questions put to them best?
Ed Miliband - 27%
Nigel Farage - 30%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Natalie Bennett - 8%
Leanne Wood - 5%
Best on immigration?
Ed Miliband - 18%
Nigel Farage - 53%
Nicola Sturgeon - 13%
Natalie Bennett - 10%
Leanne Wood - 6%
Best on defence?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 37%
Nicola Sturgeon - 16%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 3%
Best on national debt & deficit?
Ed Miliband - 40%
Nigel Farage - 30%
Nicola Sturgeon - 18%
Natalie Bennett - 8%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Best on housing?
Ed Miliband - 36%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 17%
Natalie Bennett - 15%
Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on NHS?
Ed Miliband - 40%
Nigel Farage - 28%
Nicola Sturgeon - 15%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on holding the current government to account?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 24%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Natalie Bennett - 7%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister?
David Cameron - 40%
Ed Miliband - 45%
Would not vote - 10%
Don’t know - 5%
Tables will be available on our website shortly.
Keep up to date with all of Survation’s research and analysis
on our blog
.
Follow us on twitt er: @survation
Find out more about the services Survation provide by following this link.
For press enquiries, please call 0203 142 7642 or email enquiry@survation.com
Survation is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. http://www.britishpollingcouncil.org
Survation Ltd Registered in England & Wales Number 07143509Abeba Aregawi has won European and world titles at 1500m
World indoor 1500m champion Abeba Aregawi has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance.
The Ethiopia-born Swede, 25, failed an out-of-competition test conducted by governing body the IAAF.
Aregawi, who won gold at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot, has requested a B sample be tested.
Britain's Hannah England finished fourth behind Aregawi in Moscow.
There is no suggestion Aregawi's performance in that race is under scrutiny.
What now for Aregawi?
Aregawi ran for Ethiopia at the 2012 London Olympics but began competing for Sweden later that year after being granted citizenship.
She was due to defend her title at next month's World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon.
Her suspension also means her place in the Swedish team for the Rio Olympics in August is in doubt.
The Swedish Olympic Committee (SOC) has already withdrawn its financial support for Aregawi.
"The situation regarding her place on the Olympic team is in quarantine as we wait for the result of the B test," added SOC chief executive Peter Reinebo.
Any reaction?
Her Dutch manager, Jos Hermens, told the Expressen newspaper that the news had come as a surprise.
"We can't understand it," he said. "We are trying to work out what has happened. It's very strange."
But Sweden's athletics chief has been pretty scathing.
"It is with dismay and extreme disappointment we have to make this statement," said Stefan Olsson.
"We are totally opposed to all forms of cheating, doping and illicit substances. We have zero tolerance and this is totally unacceptable."
What about her rivals?
Jenny Simpson (left) finished second to Aregawi at the 2013 World Championships
American Jenny Simpson, who was second behind Aregawi at the 2013 World Championships, expressed her "grief" at the news.
In a statement to the New York Times, she wrote: "I'm grateful that the sport is taking steps to catch cheaters and meaningfully deter others from violating the rules in the future.
"Justice begins when someone that stole from the sport isn't going to just get away with it. But I grieve the decision that was made by a skilled athlete, capable of greatness, to take a shortcut."
She added: "I'm hopeful that things might really be changing for the better in our sport and I'm sad it didn't start changing sooner."
Anything else?
It has not been a very good few days for Aregawi.
She has been caught up in a tax row in Sweden after telling authorities she had never lived in the country and therefore was not liable for tax.
She was ordered to pay 11,112 Swedish crowns (£932, $1,299) in back taxes.An Israeli man was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of making false bomb threats against Jewish community centers in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Israel over the past three months.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter
The suspect, 19, from Ashkelon, was arrested by the Israel Police's International Crime Investigations Unit at the request of American authorities after suspicions arose the threats were coming from Israel. His father was also detained for questioning.
Their remands were extended until March 30.
The suspect is believed to be behind hundreds of these hoax calls. He allegedly attempted to technologically mask the origin of his threatening communications to synagogues, community buildings and public venues.
Police seized a large Wi-Fi antenna on the window of the suspect's home, five computers, multiple network cards and other various multimedia devices.
The suspect at court (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
During the hearing, Judge Amit Michles noted that the evidence presented convincingly ties the suspect to a series of calls made around the world to various institutions.
Furthermore, the judge also expressed surprise at the fact that the suspect chose to remain silent during his interrogation, saying that "it is a puzzling fact for someone without a criminal record to remain silent, when according to his attorney, he did not commit the acts police are accusing him of."
It is reported that at the time of the arrest, the 19-year-old suspect attempted to grab a policewoman's pistol and tried to harm himself, but was stopped.
His lawyer requested that he be placed under supervision after raising concern for his mental wellbeing and claiming that he might try to harm himself.
According to his lawyer, the suspect has been suffering from brain tumor since the age of 14, and as a result, has been homeschooled ever since. According to her, the illness affects his behavior, which impedes him from working and even prevented him from being conscripted into the IDF.
Cyber-crime unit policeman speaking about the bomb threat suspect
X
The suspect, who is also a US citizen, allegedly called the Israel Police's 100 call emergency call center two months ago, claiming that bombs had been planted in several educational institutions across the country.
The caller, with a woman's voice, warned,"You have a bomb in the school." No explosives were found in any of the schools in question.
The suspect also allegedly made similar reports about bombs at New Zealand schools several months ago. Similar threats were also made in Australia, several European countries, and in the United States against Jewish Community Center (JCC) buildings.
In most cases, the traces led back to Israel.
The investigation, coordinated by the FBI, required international cooperation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The antenna he allegedly used to make the calls
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Thursday that the arrest is the result of a large investigation into hate crimes against the Jewish community. He says the Justice Department "will not tolerate the targeting of any community in the country on the basis of their religious beliefs," calling the work by the FBI and Israeli police "outstanding."
The Anti-Defamation League says there have been more than 120 bomb threats against US Jewish community centers and day schools in the US since January 9th. Those threats led to evacuations of the buildings, upset Jewish communities and raised fears of rising anti-Semitism. The threats were accompanied by acts of vandalism on several Jewish cemeteries
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor).- Bishop Charles Hammawa heads the Diocese of Jalingo, located in the eastern part of the Nigeria's so-called “Middle Belt.” The population of 2.3 million is about equally divided between Muslims and Christians, 450,000 of whom are Catholic, with 10 percent of the people belonging to traditional religions.
The bishop expressed to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need Aug. 9 his concern about what he labeled “suspiciously persistent” attacks by well-armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Christian farmers. He also dicussed the growing influx of Muslim settlers taking possession of land taken from these farmers.
ACN: Boko Haram appears to be curtailed, and there are fewer attacks by the group. However, you have reported another manifestation of Islamic extremism in the form of these attacks by Fulani herdsmen on Christian farmers.
Bishop Hammawa: That is my suspicion – that jihad is taking a new course. It looks like a problem between herdsmen and farmers. In the past, things would settle down after a clash. But I have seen cases of herdsmen not just letting their cattle graze but taking over the land – and Muslim from the north coming in to settle there. It appears to be a strategy to deliberately populate areas with Muslims and, by the sheer weight of superior numbers, influence political decision-making in the region. It is not the extreme violence of Boko Haram, but another way of capturing Nigeria for Islam. And this crisis has been sustained for the past three years in our region. It’s also suspicious that the herdsmen have access to sophisticated weaponry. There appears to be some financing of the Fulani aggression, which has left numerous dead, destroyed many communities and displaced thousands of people.
ACN: Are Muslims and Christians in competition in the “Middle Belt,” where neither religion has the upper hand?
Bishop Hammawa: Both faiths are committed to gaining new followers. The difference lies in the approach. Christianity uses persuasion through preaching. For Islam, it can be the case of a kind of coercion – the understanding that if you want to get anywhere in government, you have to be a Muslim. For example, the office of traditional rulers is presented as belonging only to Muslims, which prompts some Christians eligible to the throne to convert to Islam.
ACN: In this regard, how do you rate the policies of President Muhammadu Buhari – is he being fair to Christians?
Bishop Hammawa: I have some doubts. He is very cautious and a little bit slow in condemning the Fulani crisis, for example. I wish he would be stronger in making firm statements in this matter and take concrete action in combatting Islamic extremism. My worry is that – although Boko Haram members have been killed or are awaiting trial – the organization is laying low, with members hiding out in various places. Violence could readily flare up again.
ACN: What is the solution, in your view, to putting a real stop to Islamic extremism?
Bishop Hammawa: We keep saying that dialogue must be the solution. But the parties do have to come to the table with a sincere willingness to live in peace. Also, it must be acknowledged that many of the rank-and-file of Boko Haram had been neglected by the Muslim elite in the north for a long time. These youth and adults have not been properly educated, because Western education has been rejected; they have been living in the margins of the society, with only a fundamentalist Islamic formation. They are filled with anger and they have nothing to lose. Meanwhile, the Muslim elite send their children to be educated abroad! No wonder, Boko Haram eventually targeted Muslim leaders as well.
ACN: Do you and your priests use your homilies to address these issues?
Bishop Hammawa: We avoid inflaming hostilities; we preach peace and reconciliation; we urge Christian farmers not to retaliate—at most, we encourage them to defend themselves; but we cannot tell them to go and fight—that would violate the spirit of the Gospel. There definitely is a great fear of persecution among Christians, which brings some of them to compromise or hide their faith. Those who remain steadfast deserve our utmost support.
ACN: Are local authorities, such as the police, of any help?
Bishop Hammawa: Unfortunately, corruption and bribery hamper security efforts. Corruption, of course, is rampant all across Nigeria.A local online talk show called To The Point says it will shut down immediately in the wake of a rape joke posted on its Facebook page over the weekend.
Ward 11 councillor Mike Nickel, the host and moderator of the show and part owner of the production company, Nordic Filmworks, apologized for the joke.
Saturday's post featured an illustration of a drugged Snow White, with Bill Cosby and recently convicted rapist Brock Turner lurking over her. The caption read, "We couldn't resist … We're just going to post this here and see what happens."
What happened was, the post sparked outrage online.
"It wasn't just the imagery, it was the fact that it was someone in leadership who represents me and my ward," Brandy Burdeniuk, one of Nickel's constituents, told CBC. "For content like that to be so loosely thrown into the public conversation is disappointing."
.<a href="https://twitter.com/Clr_MikeNickel">@Clr_MikeNickel</a> any reason your show paid for rape joke to get wider audience? Not enough sexual violence in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yeg?src=hash">#yeg</a>? <a href="https://t.co/CJQ6Okt5jS">pic.twitter.com/CJQ6Okt5jS</a> —@CristinaStasia
Nickel issued a statement on his own Facebook page the next day, expressing his "sincerest and deepest apologies."
He said he does not endorse the post, which has since been removed.
"I am equally appalled, as all of us should be," Nickel said. "I agree with many of the comments that have been posted stating that I and others on our show need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. This I promise to do."
The show's producer, Matthew Altheim, took full responsibility for the post. In a statement, he said the show recently hired a group of volunteer interns to find and share content from the Internet on the page.
'To make fun of a sexual assault of any kind in this day and age is completely unacceptable,' says Coun. Mike Nickel of a rape joke that was posted on his show's facebook page this past weekend. (CBC)
He said he saw the post, and chose not to take it down, which he now admits was a mistake.
"In the past, I was a firm believer of not censoring any content on the show's page; that will need to change," he wrote.
On Monday, the talk show sent out a statement: "We will be closing To The Point effective immediately. It makes more sense for us to create the backbones of the organization properly, with proper time and resources, than to allow mistakes to occur."
The statement said To The Point was formed in 2014 as a community show with a volunteer crew, writers and producers.
"In two years we have done our best to produce quality conversations and satirical content that was in good taste," the statement said. "Our goal was never to censor content, even if it was controversial. Looking back, that was the wrong decision."
No new talk show content had been posted since December 2015. The show had been on official hiatus for the past six months, and just last week decided to post "more satirical memes," the statement said.
"To The Point will not return. We will be continuing on a different direction with our volunteers on the next stage for community-based programming."An open letter was released today by 20 groups in New Brunswick opposed to TransCanada’s plans to begin drilling in the Bay of Fundy. The signatories cite a six-page document obtained outlining TransCanada’s work plans for exploratory borehole drilling related to the Saint John, New Brunswick terminal of the proposed Energy East pipeline. TransCanada has confirmed to Ricochet that drilling work is slated to begin shortly.
The open letter warns the drilling could begin as early as today: “This procedure is invasive and has the potential to hurt resident's foundations, drinking water, along with the natural environment that we all value and protect. Why are boreholes being drilled before this project is approved without consultation with residents and others affected?”
Hotly debated pipeline
Concerns enumerated in the open letter include potential impacts on nearby homes and roads, and on shorebirds and marine life. A recent study by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick found that the increased tanker traffic associated with Energy East would increase stress levels for the Bay of Fundy’s endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The letter also alleges the company has not received free, prior and informed consent from local Indigenous communities, noting “this shore and seabed is on unceded Wolastoq territory.”
The signatories say they were only informed of the drilling plans by “a last-minute release of a letter from TransCanada on August 25.”
Energy East would be the largest tar sands pipeline in North America, carrying an estimated 1.1 million barrels per day from Alberta to the Atlantic coast. The proposed mega-project has been one of the most hotly debated issues in the federal election campaign.
The Conservatives support Energy East, while the NDP and Liberals have taken more ambivalent positions. All three major parties have been targeted by protesters opposed to the pipeline. The Bloc Quebecois have made opposition to Energy East a signature of their campaign efforts.
Growing opposition
In New Brunswick, visible opposition to Energy East has been growing in recent months, despite strong political support for the pipeline and marine export terminal from the provincial government led by Premier Brian Gallant.
“As a resident of New Brunswick my biggest concerns are about water as it goes through nearly 300 waterways in this province and then on to the Bay of Fundy,” local organizer Lynaya Astephen told Ricochet by email. “It's not if but when a pipeline spill happens.”
In late May, over 500 people marched through the Saint John, N.B. community of Red Head to the Bay of Fundy to oppose the pipeline.
Drill first, get approval later?
The open letter complains that TransCanada’s drilling is proceeding without Energy East first completing the National Energy Board review process and receiving the necessary federal and provincial permits. (The TransCanada work plan document, it’s important to note, describes this new drilling as “an extension of preliminary work conducted in 2014.”)
Under the Conservative government, the NEB review process for major projects like pipelines has been significantly weakened.
“Any assessment that includes a rigorous assessment of climate impacts will have to reject this project,” Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada told Ricochet by email, noting that the NDP in particular has promised to include climate impacts and Canada’s ability to meet international greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments in a revamped NEB process.
With the election campaign underway and a pivotal United Nations climate summit beginning at the end of November, the timing of TransCanada’s work in the Bay of Fundy is potentially inflammatory.
“I believe the work being done right before an election is not a coincidence,” Astephen told Ricochet.
“TransCanada, with the support of the Harper Conservative government, continues to operate in a way that does not respect democracy in Canada or the right to free, prior, and informed consent of First Nations affected by this ludicrous proposal,” said Clayton Thomas-Muller, a climate justice organizer with 350.org.
UPDATE Aug. 27 1:05 PM EDT: Energy East spokesperson Tim Duboyce has replied to our request for comment, sending us the following statement by email:Map of the concessions The concessions in Tianjin (formerly romanized as Tientsin) were concession territories ceded by the Chinese Qing dynasty to a number of European countries, the U.S. and Japan within the city of Tianjin. There were nine concessions in old Tianjin altogether. These concessions also contributed to the rapid development of Tianjin from the early to mid-20th century. The first concessions in Tianjin were granted in 1860. The last concession was returned to China in 1947. Contents
General context Edit
Austro-Hungarian concession (1901–1917) Edit
Belgian concession (1902–1931) Edit
The Belgian Concession was established in 1902 after Belgian envoy Maurice Joostens claimed the parcel in the negotiations following the defeat of the Boxer rebels. Located on the eastern bank of the Hai River (Hai He), the Belgian government and business community did not invest in development of the concession. The concession was nominal and of little value and an agreement to return the concession to China was signed in August 1929 and approved by the Belgian parliament in 1931.[7] Belgian concession main street, 1907 Much more important were contracts involving railways, electric power systems and tramways built and partly operated by Belgian private companies. In 1904, China and Belgium signed a contract with the Compagnie de tramways et d'éclairage de Tientsin, giving the company an official monopoly for 50 years over trams and electric lighting in the city. In 1906, with the opening of the first route of the tramway system, Tianjin became the first Chinese city to have a modern public transportation system (Shanghai had to wait until 1908 to get electric tramways). The supply of electricity and lighting and the trolley business were profitable ventures. By 1914, the network covered the Chinese city as well as the Austrian, French, Italian, Japanese and Russian concessions. The Compagnie de tramways et d'éclairage de Tientsin was taken |
Métis would go southwest onto the prairie in Red River carts, slaughter bison, convert it into pemmican, and carry it north to trade at the North West Company posts. For these people on the edge of the prairie, the pemmican trade was as important a source of trade goods as was the beaver trade for the Indians farther north. This trade was a major factor in the emergence of a distinct Métis society. Packs of pemmican would be shipped north and stored at the major fur posts: Fort Alexander, Cumberland House, Île-à-la-Crosse, Fort Garry, Norway House, and Edmonton House. So important was pemmican that, in 1814, governor Miles Macdonell started the Pemmican War with the Métis when he passed the short-lived Pemmican Proclamation, which forbade the export of pemmican from the Red River Colony.[16]
Alexander Mackenzie relied on pemmican on his 1793 expedition across Canada to the Pacific.[17]
North Pole explorer Robert Peary used pemmican on all three of his expeditions, from 1886 to 1909, for both his men and his dogs. In his 1917 book Secrets of Polar Travel, he devoted several pages to the food, stating, "Too much cannot be said of the importance of pemmican to a polar expedition. It is an absolute sine qua non. Without it a sledge-party cannot compact its supplies within a limit of weight to make a serious polar journey successful."[18]
British polar expeditions fed a type of pemmican to their dogs as "sledging rations". Called "Bovril pemmican" or simply "dog pemmican", it was a beef product consisting, by volume, of 2⁄ 3 protein and 1⁄ 3 fat (i.e., a 2:1 ratio of protein to fat), without carbohydrate. It was later ascertained that although the dogs survived on it, this was not a nutritious and healthy diet for them, being too high in protein.[19] Members of Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1916 expedition to the Antarctic resorted to eating dog pemmican when they were stranded on ice for the winter.[20]
During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), British troops were given an iron ration made of four ounces of pemmican and four ounces of chocolate and sugar. The pemmican would keep in perfect condition for decades.[21] It was considered much superior to biltong, a form of cured game meats commonly used in Africa. This iron ration was prepared in two small tins (soldered together) which were fastened inside the soldiers' belts. It was the last ration used and it was used only as a last resort—when ordered by the commanding officer. A man could march on this for 36 hours before he began to drop from hunger.[22]
American adventurer Frederick Russell Burnham, while serving as Chief of Scouts for the British Army in South Africa, required pemmican to be carried by every scout.[23]
A 1945 scientific study of Pemmican criticized using it exclusively as a survival food because of the low levels of certain vitamins.[24]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books by Arthur Ransome, the characters repeatedly refer to their bully beef potted meat tins as pemmican, perhaps due to their pretending to live in a world of pirates.
A definition of pemmican is given in episode 13 of Season Three of Robin's Nest, entitled "The Happy Hen".
Pemmican is a type of food researchable and cookable in the video game RimWorld. The food is ideal for caravans as it lasts long and is lightweight.
Pemmican is mentioned in the first episode, "Pilot", of the television show Due South. It is also featured minimally in other episodes of the show.
Pemmican is mentioned in The Posies song "Burn and Shine", on their 1993 album Frosting On The Beater.
As a food used often enough to be a gift for home-sick recruits from the cold world of Petaybee it is also mentioned in Power Play, a book written in collaboration by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.
See also [ edit ]The Dallas Cowboys have been working out practice squad quarterback Jameill Showers on special teams and at a strong safety, sources with knowledge of the situation told NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport. In addition, he will switch jerseys to No. 28.
Showers went undrafted out of UTEP after a stint at Texas A&M as a backup to Ryan Tannehill and Johnny Manziel. Showers played quarterback the last two preseasons for the Cowboys (wearing No. 7). He was on Dallas' practice squad before Friday's news.
Position switches are extremely difficult in the NFL, especially one as drastic as going from quarterback to safety. Showers certainly has the athleticism to play on special teams, which is what caught the coaches' eyes last summer. Whether he owns the instincts to hang around on defense remains to be seen.
Good for Showers to realize his path to playing quarterback was blocked -- and likely would stay that way. There are worse jobs in the world than getting paid a solid sum to run down a kick returner.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated the Cowboys were planning to add Showers to the 53-man active roster. The Cowboys are planning to keep him on the practice squad.ESPN investigative reporter Steve Fainaru discusses NFL vice president of health and safety Jeff Miller's admission of a link between football and brain trauma. (2:57)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The NFL's top health and safety officer acknowledged Monday there is a link between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the first time a senior league official has conceded football's connection to the devastating brain disease.
The admission came during a roundtable discussion on concussions convened by the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce. Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety, was asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., if the link between football and neurodegenerative diseases such as CTE has been established.
"The answer to that question is certainly yes," Miller said.
He said he based his assessment on the work of Dr. Ann McKee, a Boston University neuropathologist who has diagnosed CTE in the brains of 176 people, including those of 90 of 94 former NFL players. The disease can only be diagnosed after death.
Editor's Picks Munson: NFL's link of CTE, football could be costly NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller's linkage of football and CTE triggered questions about the class-action concussion settlement the NFL has made with hundreds of former players.
OTL: NFL rewards, punishes as research funder Behind the NFL's donations for brain research is a funding apparatus that some researchers believe steers research away from potentially uncomfortable truths about football and brain disease. 1 Related
"I think the broader point, and the one that your question gets to, is what that necessarily means, and where do we go from here with that information," Miller said, noting that little is known about the prevalence of the disease or the risk of incurring it.
On Tuesday, the NFL released this statement: "The comments made by Jeff Miller yesterday accurately reflect the view of the NFL."
Critics of the NFL's proposed $1 billion plan to settle concussion claims called Miller's sudden football-CTE connection admission a game changer. The settlement is being appealed by players concerned that it excludes future cases of CTE, what they consider "the signature disease of football.''
The deal announced by lead plaintiffs' lawyers and the NFL in August 2013 would instead pay up to $4 million for prior deaths involving CTE.
"Given that, the settlement's failure to compensate present and future CTE is inexcusable," lawyer Steven Molo wrote Tuesday in a letter to the federal appeals court in Philadelphia that is hearing his appeal.
The NFL's attorneys responded later that Molo's contention that Miller's admission casting doubt on the fairness of the settlement "does nothing of the sort."
"The premise of Mr. Molo's letter and briefs is wrong," the league rebuttal said. "Mr. Molo's letter fundamentally mischaracterizes the Settlement Agreement as failing to compensate CTE, ignoring the District Court's finding that the Settlement compensates the "serious, objectively verifiable neurocognitive and neuromuscular impairment" in living players allegedly associated with CTE according to the very studies relied on by Appellants and their experts."
In 2009, an NFL spokesman told the New York Times that it is "quite obvious from the medical research that's been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems." But when pressed by Congress and in interviews, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league representatives have for years avoided taking a position, repeating that the league would let the medical community decide. The league had never expressly linked playing football to CTE.
During Super Bowl week, Dr. Mitch Berger, a San Francisco neurosurgeon who leads the NFL subcommittee on long-term brain injury, asserted that there is still no established link between football and CTE.
Schakowsky seized on Berger's remarks during the informal discussion, in which several brain injury experts gathered around a rectangular table to discuss the science surrounding concussions.
"The NFL is peddling a false sense of security," Schakowsky said. "Football is a high-risk sport because of the routine hits, not just diagnosable concussions. What the American public need now is honesty about the health risks and clearly more research."
She then asked McKee and Miller to answer "yes" or "no" about whether a connection between football and CTE has been established.
"I unequivocally think there's a link between playing football and CTE," McKee said. "We've seen it in 90 out of 94 NFL players whose brains we've examined, we've found it in 45 out of 55 college players and six out of 26 high school players. No, I don't think this represents how common this disease is in the living population, but the fact that over five years I've been able to accumulate this number of cases in football players, it cannot be rare. In fact, I think we are going to be surprised at how common it is."
Schakowsky then turned to Miller. After acknowledging the link, he said: "But there's also a number of questions that come with that."
As he tried to continue, Schakowsky interrupted.
"Is there a link?" she said.
"Yes, sure," Miller responded.
"Because we feel -- well, I feel -- that was not the unequivocal answer three days before the Super Bowl by Dr. Mitchel Berger," Schakowsky said.
"Well, I'm not gonna speak for Dr. Berger," Miller said.
Miller declined to elaborate on his remarks after the session. As reporters tried to ask follow-up questions, he left accompanied by a league spokeswoman, Jill Pike.
Hours after Miller's comments, a lawyer representing seven former players objecting to the proposed settlement of the concussion lawsuit against the NFL sent a letter to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The letter argued that Miller's acknowledgement of a link and of McKee's work reflects a "stark turn" from the league's position, underscoring the objectors' argument that CTE was not adequately addressed in the settlement. Attorney Steven Molo wrote that Miller's comments "directly contradict" the NFL's position in the case.
A judge previously approved a settlement between the league and thousands of former players who were suing the NFL for allegedly concealing the link between football and brain disease. The settlement is on hold while the objections are being considered.
The roundtable convened more than a dozen concussion experts and included representatives of the federal government, the military, the scientific community and the NCAA. Several of those present were affiliated with the NFL.
The conversation focused on the growing debate over the seriousness of the concussion issue, and what should be done about it. Some of the speakers said that awareness and treatment of concussions has never been better, and that the risks of playing contact sports such as football have been overstated.
"The sky is not falling," said Dr. David Cifu, chairman of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, noting that the risk of children incurring health issues such as obesity is greater by not playing sports than the risk of incurring a devastating concussion.
Others cautioned against conflating concussions with CTE, a distinct neurodegenerative disease that has been found only in people who have been exposed to head trauma, usually on multiple occasions.
"We don't know how common this is; we are desperate to find a way to diagnose it in [living] people," said Dr. Walter Koroshetz, director of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The roundtable comments came on the same day survey results were released showing that participation in youth tackle football had stabilized in the past year. After years of decline, participation among children ages 6-14 years old nudged up 1.9 percent to 2.1 million, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Tom Cove, CEO of SFIA, urged caution in interpreting the results, noting that most youth sports benefitted in the past year from a demographic bulge. The year 2007 was a peak year for births, and those children are now at an age when youth football programs are offered for the first time.
More compelling to Cove was a significant jump in flag football participation, which rose 8.7 percent for the same age group.
"Preliminary indicators suggest flag for kids may be rising on a regional basis," he said. "For example, in the Pacific Northwest we're hearing growth of youth flag leagues for young players, but not so much in South where traditional tackle remains strong."
ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Tom Farrey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- There have been at least two occasions this season when I've felt compelled to pause the DVR, grab my NFC North master roster and confirm what position No. 22 plays for the Minnesota Vikings. Rest assured. Harrison Smith is in fact a safety, and he is already -- by default, if nothing else -- the best safety the Vikings have employed in years.
It's been a while since we've seen a safety make a significant game-changing play for the Vikings, and Smith has two of them in four games this season. In Week 1, he lunged to tip away a third-down pass from Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Laurent Robinson in overtime, forcing the Jaguars into a make-or-break fourth down they failed to convert. And last Sunday at Ford Field, Smith's well-timed hit on Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson broke up a certain touchdown in the end zone.
Harrison Smith breaks up a pass intended for Lions receiver Calvin Johnson. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
No penalty flags were thrown. Indeed, as Smith has demonstrated, there is nothing illegal about a safety making a play.
"He was facing one of the best passing offenses in the league on Sunday," coach Leslie Frazier said, "and to make some of the plays he made and to play with the awareness that he played with, we hadn't seen that at the safety position in awhile here. It was good to see a guy play with such poise, play with control, not panic …. It's been impressive watching some of the things he does and the way he practices, the way he prepares, he's doing a good job."
Smith has made his share of mistakes, of course, but he has also made plays that the average observer wouldn't realize he deserves credit for. According to defensive coordinator Alan Williams, Smith broke up a third-quarter deep pass to Johnson on Sunday essentially by instinct.
"That wasn't necessarily his play," Williams said. "He did a great job of coming from the backside and making a play on the football. He does that more often than not. There have been some plays where he's made up for some other people. When I was in Indianapolis, coach [Tony] Dungy would call that, so to speak, 'The Eraser.' He can erase some mistakes that maybe other people make."
Indeed, when you watch the play, you see Smith set to defend the right side of the field from the defense's perspective. Fellow safety Jamarca Sanford was lined up over the top of Johnson and two other Lions receivers on the left side. It appeared Sanford was supposed to bracket Johnson deep while cornerback Antoine Winfield had him short.
Winfield began frantically pointing toward Sanford after passing Johnson off, but Sanford got turned around and was near the sideline when Johnson cut inside on a circle post route. Quarterback Matthew Stafford rolled to that sideline and launched the ball. But as he did that, Smith drifted toward Johnson and was in position for an interception before Johnson barreled into him.
"I didn't have a lot of work on my side of the field," Smith said. "The quarterback was rolling left, so I naturally rolled that way and got depth. You never know what's going to happen with the quarterback, and the guys in this league, especially Stafford, have the arms to throw it as far as they want. Just rolled and got depth."
Smith shrugged when I asked him if he realized the context of the plays he has made this season.
"I expect to make plays like that," he said. "I think most safeties that go out there today do. Honestly, I think I should have picked that deep ball off. He did a nice job getting his hands in there, but those are plays I want to make and get better in the future."
Whoa, Eraser, don't go talking crazy there. You don't even realize what you've already erased.The government of Spain's autonomous region of Extremadura has begun the switch to open source of it desktop PCs. The government expects the majority of its 40,000 PCs to be migrated this year, the region's CIO Theodomir Cayetano announced on 18 April. Extremadura estimates that the move to open source will help save 30 million euro per year.
It is one of the world's largest governmental projects to switch to an open source desktop operating system. It is Europe's second largest governmental desktop migration, after the French Gendarmerie, which is migrating some 90,000 desktops. Europe's third largest project is the German city of Munich, which has to date switched 13,000 PCs.
Extremadura in 2012 completed the inventory of all the software applications and computers used by its civil servants. It also tailored a Linux distribution, Sysgobex, to meet the majority of requirements of government tasks. It has already migrated to open source some 150 PCs at several ministries, including those for Development, Culture and Employment.
Challenge
At the press conference, CIO Cayetano announced that the government's Linux desktop includes an open source corporate email system and office productivity suite. Sysgobex can also be used for accessing the government's medical record system and can be used in combination with the health card to manage prescriptions. The desktops are to be centrally managed, foregoing the need for IT administrators to perform local updates and configurations.
The government of Extremadura in October published its strategic plan on the migration to open source. "Its purpose is simply to bring the public administration [closer] to citizens through the development of e-government." Switching to the Sysgobex Linux desktops should also help to "streamline internal processes, optimize the technical resources, reduce costs and improve efficiency."
The migration project is titled 'Challenge'. Some of its details were unveiled in March last year by Cenatic, the Spanish government's open source resource centre. The centre describes Challenge as a strategic project to promote and disseminate open source to all spheres of society. "It involves positioning Spain as a reference country for free and open source software technology."
Linex
The Extremadura region is well-known for it's use of free and open source software. Under the previous government, 70,000 desktop computers in use in the secondary schools and 15,000 PCs used in health care, were fitted with a local GNU/Linux distribution, Linex.
More information:
Announcement by the government of Extremadura (in Spanish)
Tic Beat news item (in Spanish)
Nosbi news item (in Spanish)
Announcement by Cenatic (in Spanish)
Proyecto Sysgobex (in Spanish)Oklahoma Run 'n' Gun Facebook image (KFOR)
The organizers of an Oklahoma biathlon promoted their upcoming event with a Facebook post showing two men posing alongside a rainbow flag used as a target.
The Oklahoma Run ‘n’ Gun is scheduled for July 18 in Pawnee, but outrage over the image is overshadowing the race and shooting competition, reported KFOR-TV.
The Facebook post shows two men posing with rifles alongside a rainbow flag, with a caption reading, “new high visibility targets on the 500 yard range.”
Human rights activists said many people interpreted the image as a threat against LGBT people.
“People took it as a threat, people felt very threatened,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma.
The event organizers tried to assure activists no threat was intended, saying the image was supposed to be a joking response to complaints that their targets were difficult to see.
“You could definitely tell by reading the comments that they were trying to make a joke out of this,” Stevenson told the TV station. “But once again, it was going way too far and offending a lot of people and it was very threatening language.”
The race organizers, who declined to speak on camera, said they were part of a fitness and liberty-minded group and not a hate group.
Watch this video report posted online by KFOR-TV:The danger signs were there, long before being hit for six by Brazil and France. Guus Hiddink is said to have forecast a bumpy road ahead for the Socceroos after their exit from the 2006 World Cup, and the lacklustre manner of their qualification for Brazil 2014 seemed to prove his point. Another red light: the number of first-choice Socceroos kicking around in the Gulf of late.
"There are no top players in their prime who can command the market who will go there,” says James M Dorsey, an academic and expert on football and politics in the Middle East. “There’s no reason for them to.”
Asamoah Gyan might take exception to that. Ghana’s gun striker plays alongside Alex Brosque at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. But glamour signings like Gyan or one-time Real Madrid star Raul, who made the move to Qatar last year, belie leagues heaving with top-class, or once top-class, talent.
“A typical team [in the UAE] is made up of local players propped up by three foreigners, mainly strikers, who can barely see the ball for the dollar signs in their eyes,” reported English website When Saturday Comes in 2010. “The imports usually score a hatful of goals without breaking sweat, the local players stand in awe.”
Things are a little different in the Qatar Stars League, where the likes of Mark Bresciano, Lucas Neill, Harry Kewell, Sasa Ognenovski and Matthew Spiranovic have all found themselves in recent years. The Qataris, says Dorsey, are playing the long game, using their Aspire Academy to groom young players from across the Middle East and Africa. Foreign players with solid international careers, experience in major tournaments and a considerable (if not enviable) record in Europe are a much rarer sighting.
At current Qatar table-toppers Al Sailiya, the list of star imports runs two deep: an Africa Cup of Nations finalist from Burkina Faso and a striker with a handful of caps for the DR Congo. The rest of the team is made up of low-profile foreigners and players drawn from the Qatar’s tiny talent pool - it has a population of just over 2 million, the vast majority of which are foreign workers. Its national team is ranked 105th in the world.
Ange Postecoglou isn’t a fan of the leagues either. He picked just one Gulf-based player, Bresciano, in his inaugural squad last week, and spoke frankly about the quality of football being played there. “It is a slower pace and we want to play a high-intensity, high-tempo kind of game.”
His predecessor, Holger Osieck, was also sceptical. He pointed to Gulf-based players’ lack of fitness as one of the reasons for the recent thumping in Brasilia, and he’d been worried about the trend of players moving there for some time.
As a place to make some good coin on your way home from Europe, the Gulf makes a lot of sense for an ageing Socceroo. But as a place to demand selection for the World Cup squad? It’s turning out to be more like a career graveyard for Socceroos.
Take Brosque. He moved from Sydney FC to Japan in early 2011, and by the end of the year, had made himself a regular in the green and gold. In late 2012 he moved to the Gulf, and within six months, stopped getting calls - or at least the kind you’d like to get - from the national boss.
"The fact that he is now a starter in our team is based on his development in the Japanese league,” Osieck said at the time of his move. “Football-wise I'd rather have him in Europe or maybe even in Japan … I'd rather have players in a more competitive environment."
The story of Spiranovic, now of the Western Sydney Wanderers, follows almost the exact pattern, as does that of Ognenovski, after his omission from Postecoglou’s squad.
Captain Lucas Neill played in the Gulf too, with some blessing from Osieck - “There's a lot of Brazilian players, predominantly strikers, so I think he's going to be tested" - though perhaps he can thank his move to the J-League for saving his spot.
Then there’s Brett Holman. After many successful years in the Dutch top grade, Holman moved to English Premier League club Aston Villa last season. At 29, with more than 60 caps, he was just the type of player the Socceroos needed to fill the boots of the ageing Golden Generation. In the off-season he moved to Al-Nasr in the UAE. He was part of the humiliation in Brazil, was injured for the rout in Paris and now has been axed by Postecoglou.
Moving to the Gulf is, says Dorsey, “an opportunity to end [your] career in a comfortable way.” But the standard of play isn’t the only issue he sees. He cites the case of French player Zahir Belounis, who claims to have been trapped in Qatar for years due to a contractual dispute with his club, as an example of the conditions facing those who move to the Gulf.
Then there’s the fan culture and stadium environment there. Little Maracanas, these ain’t. “If you go to a stadium in the UAE or Qatar, it is by and large empty,” says Dorsey, who is also a co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture at Germany’s University of Wuerzburg.
“If you’ve got 85 per cent [of the population made up of foreign] labour and you want to maintain control of your country and your identity, you are really worried about all of these 85 per cent thinking they are at home. So you go out of your way to ensure people understand that they are there for a period of time, to fulfill a contract, whatever that may be, and then after that they are out.
“The one thing you are concerned about is that people form roots, forge bonds. And one way of forging bonds is of course being associated, involved, emotionally tied to a soccer team.”
Still, clubs in Qatar and the UAE can point to the Asian Champions League as proof they offer more competitive leagues than their counterparts in Australia. Those two Gulf states earned seven ACL spots between them last season; the A-League’s presence was reduced to just one.Donald Trump triumphed in South Carolina’s primary last month. Now, the state could be ground zero for his undoing.
Ted Cruz and John Kasich are aggressively mobilizing allies to recruit and elect their own South Carolina loyalists to the Republican National Convention — scheduled for late July in Cleveland.
Story Continued Below
All 50 of South Carolina’s delegates are duty-bound to support Trump on a first vote, but interviews with two dozen prospective delegates and party insiders — including several Trump backers — reveal a widespread belief that Cruz and Kasich will succeed in wresting the delegation away from Trump if the nomination fight heads to a second ballot. If Trump is unable to claim the nomination immediately, South Carolina could help tip the scales away from the New York billionaire.
“I could never vote for Donald Trump, ever,” said Vic Dabney of Kershaw County, South Carolina, a Cruz supporter who said he is pursuing a run for delegate. “He shares none of my values.”
Working against Trump is the fact that South Carolina’s potential delegates may be drawn only from the 925 party insiders who attended the state’s GOP convention in 2015. It’s a pool of party veterans who helped reelect the state’s GOP chairman Matt Moore — who has been vocally critical of Trump — with 83 percent support last year.
Some of the insiders who staffed that reelection fight are now working to help Kasich recruit delegates, even though the Ohio governor was trounced in the South Carolina primary, winning just 7 percent of the vote and finishing fifth among six candidates.
But it’s Cruz who enjoys support from much of the conservative activist class and seems best positioned to reap the support of double-agent delegates. Many prospective delegates contacted by POLITICO voiced support for Cruz and indicated they’d strongly consider voting for him on a second ballot.
“One of the things I’ve been impressed about the Cruz campaign is they have been very organized, they have been very successful with the grass roots of the base,” said state Rep. Garry Smith, who plans to run for delegate and is a Cruz supporter. He said he’s had conversations with the Cruz campaign but declined to say whether they encouraged him to recruit other pro-Cruz delegates.
“Ted Cruz is a more natural fit with South Carolina’s insider party establishment, at least in this context,” said a GOP insider who will attend the state’s convention in May. “Cruz obviously underperformed in the primary. His supporters here have been involved for a very long time, and that involvement pays off at state and local conventions.”
Twenty-one of South Carolina’s national delegates will be elected in county and congressional-district conventions over the next few weeks. Another 26 will be selected at the state’s convention in May. Three are automatic delegates: the state’s two Republican National Committee members and Moore, the GOP chairman.
“The state party will run a fair, honest and transparent delegate selection,” Moore said in an interview. “Usually national delegates are almost symbolic. This time they carry a real responsibility. This is the most interest we’ve seen in the national delegate process. We’re giving all the campaigns equal access to data.”
That data set consists of the names and contact information of the 925 potential delegates, enabling each campaign to recruit a pool of supporters to run.
Many Cruz backers, however, say they have yet to hear from the campaign but are running for delegate of their own volition.
Duffy Lewis, who’s planning to run for one of three delegate slots in the state’s 1st Congressional District, said she believes Cruz deserves a vote from her district because Charleston County voted strongly for Marco Rubio. “Since Rubio is out of the race, you can argue that Cruz would get a big chunk of Rubio’s votes,” she said. “I’m convinced Ted Cruz would’ve taken Charleston County and many other districts. I just know my county.”
Kasich ally Charles Steinart said he’s hopeful to win an at-large delegate slot at the state convention in May. And he said he’d proudly back Kasich on every ballot after the first.
“If it’s not a first-ballot convention, you can rest assured there are deals that will be made,” Steinart said. “When we have a political system where the two guys with the most votes are arguing about their wives, we have terror running rampant in Europe and the president goes to a baseball game and takes a picture in front of Che Guevara — and they argue about wives — what’s wrong with that picture? The answer is everything.”
But other Kasich allies weren’t as resolute. Gary Clary, a state representative, said he is contemplating a run for delegate but isn’t certain he’ll back Kasich on a second ballot.
“I’m going to keep my options open and my powder dry,” he said. “We’re in such a state of flux right now. It’s very — still very early and premature at this point.”
Likewise, state Rep. Chip Limehouse — who said he’s considering a delegate bid and has been encouraged by Kasich allies to do so — said he wouldn’t commit yet to backing the Ohio governor on a second ballot because he’s not even sure yet whether he’s running.
“The thought process behind me running is I want to be involved in the process,” he said.
Several prospective delegates interviewed said that if Trump were close to landing the 1,237 delegates he needs on the first ballot, with no other candidates close to his total, they would continue to back him in a second round, even if he had yet to clinch the nomination. But if he shows signs of weakness as a nominee, especially if Cruz inches closer to him in the delegate count, they’d consider abandoning Trump.
“If Trump is being shown not to be the strongest candidate, if it’s a legitimate ballot, not something engineered in a backroom somewhere, then I would definitely go with Cruz,” said Bruce Miller of Lancaster County, who said he is “definitely a Trump supporter.” “If I feel like if it’s a legitimate thing, then I would go for Cruz, because it’s showing Trump doesn’t have the support necessary. Why continue to beat a dead horse?”
State Rep. Todd Atwater, who was active on Rubio’s behalf during the primary and is strongly considering running for delegate to the RNC, noted that “the people are speaking, and speaking loudly through Trump, saying they’re unhappy. I’m not going to defy that voice.”
But he, too, said he would reassess backing Trump on a second ballot should another candidate comes close to his total in the first round.
Asked about the prospect of widespread defections, Trump’s South Carolina state director Ed McMullen blasted the suggestion as gossip among insiders.
“I’m not gonna speculate or participate in a story on fairy tale land,” he said. “It’s a figment of people’s imaginations.”
Yet several Trump supporters contacted by POLITICO agreed they faced an uphill climb against a state party establishment intent on stacking South Carolina’s national delegation with Trump opponents.
“In 2012, we had a slate of tea party [delegate] candidates. The Ron Paul people had a slate of candidates. But the establishment slate is what won,” said Roy Lindsey, an Orangeburg County resident and Trump backer who said he’d quit the party if anti-Trump forces “steal” the nomination. “And that’s the one that went to Tampa. I pretty well foresee that happening again, realistically. When it’s all said and done, if he doesn’t go to the convention with a clear majority of 1,237 or more, they’re going to try to steal it from him.”
Mike Rose, of Dorchester, said he intends to run to be a delegate from the 1st Congressional District to support Trump at the convention. He said it would be harder for Trump's opponents to influence congressional-district delegate races because the candidates are known figures in the community. But he anticipates the 26 delegates selected at the statewide convention to have an anti-Trump tinge.
Eddie Taylor, a Charleston delegate candidate and Trump ally, said delegates should stick with Trump on a second ballot no matter what. “South Carolina went for Trump. To me, what does that change just because it went to a second ballot?” he wondered.
But Taylor noted that a tea party-aligned strain of South Carolina’s Republican base has “infiltrated” the party and is working to elect delegates who support Cruz.
John Steinberger, a Charleston Republican and Trump backer, said he’s not planning to run for delegate but has worked to recruit those who would stick with Trump beyond a first ballot. But he said his hope is a second ballot won’t be necessary.
“I think he’ll clinch it on the first ballot. He’ll do very well in the big delegate states like New York and California. He’ll win the vast majority of delegates still on the table,” Steinberger said. “It’d be a black eye for the Republican Party to go with anybody else. There’s so many first-time voters who voted for Trump.”
Those fears prompted a sharp response from Lewis, the 1st Congressional District delegate candidate.
“Some people think there’s something dishonest about trying to recruit support. But isn’t that what this is all about?” she wondered. “People who are new to the process, I’m a little concerned that they seem to think there’s some sort of nefarious scheme. I think the rumors are very unproductive. Everyone has to calm down and recognize it’s a normal process.”Verizon's new tech news site is stranger than its old ad. Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless has recently launched its own tech news site called SugarString.
From the looks of the site, it's pretty clear that SugarString is still in its early days. The oldest story was published just 12 days ago, and its layout seems to be in beta.
With backing from the largest US telecommunications provider — its parent company, Verizon Communications, did $120 billion in sales last year — there's no question SugarString could one day become a major player in the tech news space. Its "About" page, in fact, shows its ambition to become the new next thing, stating, "SugarString publishes thoughtful tech-focused stories that track humanity's climb towards the new next."
But whatever those "thoughtful tech-focused stories" might be, one thing is clear: SugarString won't be covering any news related to net neutrality or US surveillance issues.
According to The Daily Dot's Patrick Howell O'Neill, SugarString writers are banned from writing about any of those topics. O'Neill says he discovered the rules last week after receiving a recruiting email from its Editor in Chief Cole Stryker. O'Neill declined the offer, as did some other reporters who spoke to him about it.
"Other reporters, who asked not to be named, have confirmed that they have received the same recruiting pitch with the same rules: No articles about surveillance or net neutrality," O'Neill says.
It's not too hard to figure out why Verizon is so vehemently denying any coverage of two of the most important and controversial issues in today's tech.
Verizon is one of the strongest opponents of net neutrality, the idea of keeping the internet equal and not charging differently by the user or site. It's also |
Z33K.com 2. Create an account if you haven't already.3. Visit the Tournament Page on Z33k.com and Sign-Up for the tournament directly.(If you have any difficulties please contact Z33k.com's support staff as soon as possible. Please do not post here)128 Slots: Single EliminationMLG DaybreakGSL MetropolisMLG Antiga ShipyardESV Cloud KingdomMLG Shakuras PlateauMLG Tal'darim AltarTheStrategist(TheStrategist-1,TheStrategist-2 if the first channel is full)It is the job of the players to organize and put together their matches, unless players are in the Semi Finals or Grand Finals.If your opponent does not respond to in game messages within 20 minutes of the bracket being updated to start a game. Please report the win in your favor on Z33k.com. All disputes will come down to the event organizers and administrators.Two administrators will be in the chat channel the day of the tournament to help the flow of the tournament. Along with support staff from Z33k.com.To be added prior to event startA disconnect will result in a RE-GAME unless there is a significant advantage to one player. If the two players cannot agree on the result, an administrator will make a final decision based on replays.All replays must be saved by players, just in case the game results are in question.The Strategist Open is open to anyone regardless of age, gender, or location.Find your opponent in the channel during the match time. The first map is pre-set based on the map order, and the loser will choose from the map pool, if the round is a best of 3 or 5. No map can be chosen twice in one series.Misc: It is the player's responsibility to be in the channel at the start time. If a player is not in the channel, he or she could be liable to be forfeit.The Strategist Open will have exclusive streaming/casting rights to games in the Semi Finals and Grand Finals. We ask that all players please respect The Strategist Open staff and team by refraining from streaming or using third party casters in the Semi Finals and Grand Finals. There will be a stream delay put in place to help with stream cheating. Daily Terran Streaming - http://www.twitch.tv/octaneprosciiPublic spending programs can catalyze the growth of this new democratic political economy, but they are not necessary for its development. (Image: Building together via Shutterstock)
Economic populism has become a defining narrative of the 2016 presidential primaries, with Bernie Sanders pulling the Democratic field to the left on a broad range of issues – including the minimum wage, financial regulation and public investment in jobs, health care and education – and various Republican candidates, most notably Donald Trump, expressing skepticism about trade policy and preferential tax treatment for income from carried interest. This populist rhetoric is appealing to growing numbers of Americans who feel they’ve lost control over their lives, though whether that loss has come at the hands of a predatory corporate economic elite or an over-intrusive federal government remains a point of disagreement between voters who identify as Democrats or Republicans.
But that disagreement misses the real issue: our country’s ascendant neoliberal governing ideology, adhered to by both parties since the dawn of Reagan, is predicated on removing the economy from the realm of popular democracy. Popular control of the economy can be achieved by harnessing the economic populist energy shared across the political spectrum to create deep institutional change. By combining the liberal value of public control of the economy with the conservative impulse for decentralization, we can begin, right now, to build a diverse ecosystem of grassroots political and economic organizations capable of anchoring a new political economy.
The neoliberal ideology, rooted in the twin principles of privatization and deregulation, sees society exclusively through the prism of the market. By removing the government from the economy, neoliberalism cedes management of our national economic resources to corporate hands, placing the economy beyond democratic control. And when market failures do arise – like chronic unemployment and the ever-increasing cost of health care and education – neoliberal governance does not address them directly; it tackles them with administrative tinkering meant merely to adjust the incentives for corporate investment. No matter the result, the solution never involves directly addressing the corporate capitalist institutions at the core of the system.
The Entrenchment of Neoliberalism Under Obama
While President Obama tapped into this populist discontent in 2008 with promises to change politics as usual, the Obama administration has only entrenched the neoliberal status quo.
Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, does not seek to expand health care access and limit our astronomical health care costs through direct public investment, as does much of the rest of the industrialized world. Instead, it sets up a complex and indirect web of tax, subsidy and marginal regulatory incentives for health insurance corporations. The neoliberal governance model leaves health insurance corporations at the heart of the industry, despite their core institutional incentives that oppose the high quality, low cost health care our society needs: on the balance sheet that drives their decisions, services provided are a liability and high prices an asset.
Popular control of the economy can be achieved by harnessing the economic populist energy shared across the political spectrum to create deep institutional change.
Additionally, the Obama administration’s pursuit of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – along with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trade in Services Agreement – strengthens the corporate capitalist beneficiaries of neoliberalism at home by promoting abroad the rules that serve them. The main goal of such agreements is to remove national barriers for investment and access to markets. This goal inherently privileges the multinational corporations that control investment capital over labor, which, for obvious reasons, is tied more closely to location than investment capital; small businesses, which lack the economies of scale to capitalize on cheaper labor and environmental standards abroad; and the national governments, ostensibly empowered by democratic elections, that forego the possibility of creating investment policies that are in their own national interest.
However, President Obama’s failure to express institutionally the calls for change that brought him to power has not made them go away.
Can Bernie Sanders Deliver on His Pledge to Resist Neoliberal Imperatives?
Sanders has surged to relevance with a policy platform that reads like a jeremiad against neoliberalism. Yet, while Sanders is channeling a grassroots desire to achieve populist economic outcomes, the means to achieve them – the all-important fine print – is not yet decided. A turn toward traditional liberal or democratic socialist policies in the New Deal sense are problematic for at least two reasons: centralized, state control of industries has served in the past to demobilize the grassroots coalitions that put them in place; and for reasons not unrelated to the first problem, these policies lack an institutional coalition ready to sustain them in the long run.
Sanders frequently acknowledges these problems, at least indirectly, on the stump, noting the impossibility of his program being implemented without support from a grassroots movement. He calls for ‘political revolution,’ describing it as a dramatic increase in popular political involvement that brings millions of disaffected Americans back into the political process. To do so, the grassroots cannot simply be mobilized to protest against failed policies and for preferred legislation, nor can we remain spectators hardly involved in the design and implementation of top-down, centralized – and ultimately paternalistic – social programs meant to benefit us. The grassroots must be invited to participate in the social programs meant to tip the scale of our political economy back in our favor.
A unique historical opportunity exists to combine growing grassroots political involvement with the development of a network of local, decentralized institutions that can sustain that involvement. The prevailing grassroots energy can be harnessed for the creation of democratically controlled economic institutions capable of anchoring a new political economy – one that incentivizes full employment, ecological sustainability and democratic decision-making in place of the fealty to growth and unfettered market competition that masks the corporate economic control of the neoliberal status quo.
And we can start right where we are, by amplifying and building on efforts already underway. The New Deal was first built in pieces at the local level. So too, will be the new progressive coalition that will deepen our political and economic democracy.
Building a Democratic Economy
We are a large, diverse country. A new political economic system will inevitably need different types of institutions performing different functions, especially if democratic-decision making is a defining value.
Groups like the Next System Project and the New Economy Coalition have been working on building institutions capable of democratizing wealth, which in turn, can stabilize local economies and our environment and make meaningful political participation possible. Cooperatives are essential to economic democracy, as is strategic use of public ownership and quasi-public institutions – think Community Development Corporations, and ‘anchor institutions,’ like universities and hospitals – along with socially conscious corporations and nonprofits.
Cooperatives are key to both wealth democratization and democratic economic decision-making because they can allow workers and communities to share in the profitability of companies and to participate in the decisions that impact a company’s operations and investment strategies. Participation in these decisions is the very essence of democracy, since they determine how income will be distributed and wealth accumulated in our society and the amount and types of jobs that will exist.
We are well on our way to building an economy populated by cooperatives. Over 130 million Americans already participate in cooperative ownership in one form or another.
Though it might come as a surprise to some, we are well on our way to building an economy populated by cooperatives. Over 130 million Americans already participate in cooperative ownership in one form or another, including the most widely known model: the credit union. And nearly 30,000 US cooperatives, most of them consumer owned, employ nearly a million people and own over $3 trillion in assets.
These cooperatives come in many shapes and sizes, offering flexibility depending on function and ownership structure.
Many small cooperatives exist, from your local grocery co-op to solar worker co-ops and community solar gardens.
Larger coops have also achieved scale. Organic Valley, a Wisconsin dairy cooperative with nearly 1,700 farmer-owners, earns more than $700 million in annual revenue, while Recreation Equipment, Inc. (REI), a consumer outdoor equipment cooperative, has over 5 million members and $2 billion of 2014 revenue.
Community land trusts – cooperatively owned by communities or by nonprofits set up with the help of municipal and state governments – have been perhaps the most effective tool for resisting gentrification and making affordable housing available. Most community land trusts own the land on which affordable housing is built. They lease the land to residents who own the homes, and by sharing equity in the homes, the trust is able to stabilize rents and to make housing available to new members at below-market prices.
Boston’s Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative operates a land trust that has turned 30 acres of vacant land into 225 affordable homes and extensive public community space, including a 10,000 square foot community greenhouse and an urban farm.
Credit unions, which currently involve close to 100 million Americans as participant-owners, are perhaps the most widely known and used cooperatives. They are nonprofit financial cooperatives that are member-owned and controlled on a one-person, one-vote basis. Taken together, the country’s credit unions hold roughly $1 trillion of assets – the size of one of our country’s five largest banks. And they tend to facilitate loans for everyday purchases like homes and cars, while emphasizing the minority and low and moderate-income families often ignored by the big banks. They are a primary building block for a democratic financial system.
The Bronx’s Bethex Federal Credit Union is a good example: It serves more than 9,000 members, has $16 million in deposits and works primarily to empower local residents with a wide range of services, including loans for students and businesses. Hope Credit Union of Jackson, Mississippi, is another example. It has generated more than $1.7 billion of financing for more than 130,000 people in the Delta region, and half of its loans go to people of color and women, while more than a third of its members were unbanked before joining.
Promising Local Economies
Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), community-based nonprofits that are typically financed with both public and private funds, also work similarly to empower local economies. Over 4,500 CDCs operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to provide affordable housing, lease commercial and industrial space, and sometimes make business loans. Nearly 1,000 CDFIs across the country provide credit and financial services to people and communities underserved by mainstream banks.
Though many CDCs and CDFIs are smaller in scale, some larger ones play significant roles in impoverished communities. One CDC, Newark’s New Community Corporation, employs 600 local residents, manages 2,000 housing units, has roughly $500 million of assets and owns businesses whose proceeds underwrite social needs, like day care programs and medical support for seniors. And Boston Community Capital, a CDFI founded in 1985, has invested more than $900 million in underserved communities, and is credited with building or preserving over 14,800 units of affordable housing, supporting childcare facilities serving over 9,800 children, and creating more than 4,000 jobs in low-income communities.
Though neoliberal institutions are currently ascendant, their influence is waning.
A new form of cooperative, the Cleveland Model, offers the potential to link the functions of many of these institutions together under unified governance. A similar model, the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative (CUCI), is underway in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the support of Mondragon USA.
In Cleveland, the Evergreen Cooperatives, established in the economically devastated Greater University Circle neighborhoods, form a network of worker-owned cooperatives, which kick back a share of profits into a central community-owned co-op. The central co-op can then seed more worker-coops, thereby increasing the community’s purchasing power with living wage jobs and worker equity in the business, creating a virtuous local economic cycle that can spur additional private investment. A unique aspect of the effort, which can be replicated elsewhere, is that it is tapping into the purchasing power of quasi-public institutions – universities and hospitals – that buy $3 billion of goods and services each year, virtually none of which, until recently, had come from local business.
Both Evergreen and the CUCI are based on the Mondragon Corporation, a cooperative network based in Spain’s Basque region. It started as a group of small co-ops in one of Spain’s poorest regions following its 20th century civil war, and has grown into one of Spain’s largest industrial entities, with over 110 cooperatives, annual revenue of 14 billion euros and a benefit society with total assets of 35.8 billion euros ($04.3 billion). Mondragon has partnered with the United Steelworkers, a US labor union, to bring its model to the US through the 1worker1vote cooperative network, which includes the CUCI.
Public Ownership
Public ownership at the municipal level is also providing equitable economic development for communities. Municipal ownership possesses at least two institutional advantages: First, it can return profits to communities to be used for social purposes that have been privatized for no economic reason. Second, as noted by the influential 20th century conservative economist Joseph Schumpeter, the profits produced by public ownership can reduce the public treasury’s reliance on taxation for revenue.
Public ownership, however, presents its own set of problems given the currently weak democratic control of even our public institutions. To truly take advantage of public ownership at any level, democratic reforms are required, including changes to the way campaigns are financed and the rules governing lobbyist access. New ways to achieve meaningful popular involvement in the decision-making of public institutions will need to be imagined and implemented. Public ownership, though, is an important part of an eventual system design, since economic decisions will need to be made collectively and for the common good. And in the meantime, it can be used by popular campaigns to direct public resources to communities and toward popular uses. Even though mainstream political and economic ideology is violently opposed to public ownership, numerous successful examples currently exist.
The most common form of municipal ownership is ownership of energy utilities. Over 2,000 publicly owned energy utilities supply, along with energy cooperatives, over 25 percent of the country’s electricity at costs competitive with their private counterparts. Additionally, with public ownership comes democratic control. The city of Boulder, Colorado, has used that democratic agency to take over the local energy utility, Xcel, in order to transition its energy production more quickly to renewables.
Over 450 communities have built partial or full public internet systems. Unsatisfied with oligopolistic internet service provider prices and reluctance to invest in the newest technologies, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently built a taxpayer-owned high-speed fiber-optic network. For less than $70 per month, residents have internet access at 1,000 megabytes per second, which is 50 times faster than the average internet speed for homes in the rest of the country.
Many cities around the country have also used public ownership of land development to raise revenue. The city of Denver, Colorado, owns its 37 floor, 1,100-room convention center hotel, which is managed by the Hyatt Regency hotel chain. Others use transit oriented development, like Washington, DC, to retain ownership of land around public transit projects, raising revenue from valuable retail space, created by the public investment in transit infrastructure that would otherwise be given to private developers. And some cities, notably the working-class city of Richmond, California, have used eminent domain to recover blighted, vacant land, many due to housing foreclosures, in order to put it to social use.
State Investment in Local Economies
Government at the state level and municipal level has also invested directly in businesses and economic development.
Around 30 states engage in public venture capital, investing public funds in promising start-up companies.
Public investment funds managing publicly owned land and natural resources, which could include renewables like solar and wind, can be used to raise the revenue needed to make public investments in education, health care and infrastructure. Theoretically, they could also be invested directly to create jobs. One example of such a fund, the Texas Permanent School Fund, took control of over half the land and associated mineral rights remaining in the public domain over 150 years ago. In 2014 alone, the fund gave $838.7 million to state schools.
Public pension funds, which are managed by states on behalf of public employees, can target investment on local community development needs and state economic development, and have done so in both liberal California and conservative Alabama.
State banks can similarly target economic development, with an emphasis on small business loans and loans to low and moderate wealth holders that can increase their spending power. In North Dakota, the state bank has returned to the state treasury over $340 million in profits since its founding nearly a century ago, making it popular amongst both activists and the business community.
Government contracts at all levels can also be used to catalyze local economic development by supporting cooperatives and local private businesses. In Jackson, Mississippi, the activist program supported by the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba has done just that, using municipal procurement to begin to create a network of community and cooperative enterprises.
Public ownership on a larger scale is also necessary, as Henry Calvert Simons, the 20th century conservative economist acknowledged. Simons, one of Milton Friedman’s teachers at the University of Chicago, understood that it was impossible to ensure competitive conditions in certain industries, and in such situations, he argued, public ownership was the only way to overcome the inevitable regulatory capture. The insight seems to apply today to some of our most predatory markets – health care, education, telecommunication, banking – along with many of the big tech companies that now serve to stifle innovation from would be up-start competitors.
Policy Changes That Could Make a Difference
Though cooperatives and public and quasi-public institutions will form the core of a democratic economy, policies across all levels of government, of course, can help facilitate this transition.
Laws that enable collective bargaining, like the recently introduced Workplace Democracy Act, increase worker participation and begin to move private companies in cooperative directions.
Public spending programs, of the sort Bernie Sanders is championing, can catalyze the growth of this new democratic political economy. But they are not necessary for its development.
Attaching conditions for corporate investment, like community benefit agreements and responsible banking ordinances, can begin to shift local government away from corporate control toward popular control. Community benefit agreements require that communities be given the opportunity to negotiate the terms of private real estate development over a certain dollar amount. And responsible banking ordinances require transparency from financial institutions regarding their work in modest income and communities of color as part of the criteria for determining which banks are eligible for receiving municipal deposits and other city business.
Though neoliberal institutions are currently ascendant, their influence is waning. Cooperatives and public and quasi-public institutions are rising around us out of the pragmatic need for us, the common people of the grassroots, to meet the problems the neoliberal technocrats and corporate managers cannot address. These new institutional forms are rising within the old neoliberal capitalist system, gesturing toward the possibility of a new democratic political economy.
Public spending programs, of the sort Bernie Sanders is championing, can catalyze the growth of this new democratic political economy. But they are not necessary for its development. The effort of grassroots activists around the country to build these new institutions has shown that the neoliberal end of history had never really arrived. A new history has begun to emerge. If we are ever going to solve the deep social crises we face – ubiquitous poverty and chronic unemployment, ecological unsustainability and historic racial and gender inequalities – we must continue to move it forward.Donald Trump And Vladimir Putin Have First Official Conversation; Discuss Plans To Destroy ISIS!
The Talk Heard Around The World
President Trump and Vladimir Putin had their first official conversation on the phone on Saturday according to an article published by the Washington Post.
Despite the American mainstream media trying to portray Vladimir Putin as having interfered in the U.S. election, President Trump said he hopes to cultivate “a great relationship” with Vladimir Putin. That comment is likely to draw harsh criticisms from news organizations like CNN that will most likely use that comment to insinuate the relationship between the two world leaders played a hand in President Trump winning the White House in November.
One of the highlights from the conversation was their discussion on how to defeat ISIS.
From The Washington Post:
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had their first official phone conversation Saturday, agreeing to partner in the fight against terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict and to forge stronger economic and political ties between their two countries, the Kremlin said… …“The current international issues were thoroughly discussed, including the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the sphere of strategic stability and non-proliferation, the situation around the Iranian nuclear program and the Korean Peninsula,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Shortly after the call the White House also released a press statement which highlighted the fact that the call was an important step to improving the relationship between the two nations.
From The LA Times:
In its own statement after the one-hour phone call, the White House said, “The positive call was a significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair. Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern.”No quarters needed - just coffee! Add hot liquids to change the "GAME OVER" message into "READY PLAYER 1 START!"
A perfect marriage of your love of hot liquids and your love of retro gaming
A ThinkGeek creation and exclusive!
Remember that horrible feeling when you lost your last life in a video game on, say, the NES? And remember the joy of seeing, "CONTINUE? YES / NO," and realizing you had a continue left and wouldn't have to start all over again? And then, finally, remember the gut-crushing anguish as your older brother ripped the controller out of your hand, selected NO, and laughed as he watched your 8-bit dreams die? Ok, maybe that last part was just us, but every lover of 8-Bit games can appreciate the joy of refilling your Ready Player 1 Heat-Change Mug. Why? Read on, Player 1!
At rest, each Ready Player 1 Heat-Change Mug shows that the game is over. But it also offers you a chance to continue! Just insert hot liquids into the mug, and the message will change. GAME OVER will disappear and READY PLAYER 1 START! will appear, telling you that Player 1 is ready to start the level. And that's exactly how you'll feel with a fresh, warm cup of liquid energy ready to pour down your gullet and into your power cells. When the liquids cool or disappear, the Ready Player 1 Heat-Change Mug will change to display the GAME OVER message again, letting you know from a distance that you need a beverage refresh. Ready Player 1 Heat-Change Mug - ready to help you power up the next level of your life!
Product SpecificationsIn the only country in the world where women can’t drive, the launch of an app that allows users to book cars online might just offer women some relief from the stifling rules that forbid them to operate a vehicle.
Uber, a San Francisco-based technology company that developed the software, used in more than 29 countries, entered the Saudi Arabian market this week and is running a test program in the capital of Riyadh. By initially offering rides at promotional rates, the company hopes to tap into a rich vein of customers looking for a ride in one of the most congested cities of the Middle East.
While Uber stands to profit off a culture in which half of the population is forced to rely on a driver, the company told Al Jazeera its app could empower women. “Choice is a beautiful thing, and that is especially true for those women who currently have limited access to reliable transportation options,” Uber said. Riyadh does not have a public transportation system.
In October an estimated 100 women staged a driving protest as part of an ongoing campaign for women's right to drive. Madeha al-Ajroush, a leader of the action who proudly planned on buying a car in her own name in Riyadh Thursday, told Al Jazeera she has already downloaded the app and welcomed the technology.
“You don’t have to talk. You don’t have to wait. You know how long it’s going to take,” she said.
Ajroush said the technology enhances women’s mobility but remains expensive and stops short of helping those “who really need it,” she said, such as the women who live in remote areas or don’t have Internet access or credit cards.
“It’s still very costly,” she added, with rides starting at about $5, which have the potential of becoming more expensive when demand is high. Uber's algorithm adjusts the price, depending on factors of supply and demand. And of course, “you’re still under the mercy of finding a car,” Ajroush added.
Despite drivers’ being an exception to the social rule that women can’t be alone in the company of an unrelated man, there is still some stigma attached to using taxis, which often operate solo, without the backing of an official entity.
Reem Taibah, a physics student from Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, who shares a driver with her mother and is discouraged by her family from using taxis, told Al Jazeera that booking a car online wouldn’t expose women to the social stigma that’s still attached to hailing a cab on the streets.
“You don’t really trust the cab driver. For example, my mom would be pissed at me if I used one,” Taibah said, adding, “It’s not safe. It’s a stranger driving you. That’s why cabs are not preferable here.”
Also, many cabs don’t have meters, are "very cheap" but are known to charge women more because they know they can, she said.
And in a country where the middle class is rapidly eroding, a growing number of families cannot afford to pay a driver, leaving many women reliant on their husbands to take them to work or have to wait for hours to leave home until someone has time. With no money for a driver, they end up using ad hoc chauffeurs, people who hold other jobs but make money on the side from driving. “A respectable driver who works somewhere — it’s like an upgraded taxi,” Taibah said.
Tapping into an informal market that already serves some women, Uber capitalizes on female users’ need to access a network of trusted drivers when other options are lacking. Detailed information about the drivers, including photos and license plate numbers, increases safety, the company said in a statement.
For some women, the app could be a useful tool in the struggle for greater mobility. “I think it’s really good. I think it can really work,” Taibah said.Image copyright PA Image caption The new policy would impose a mandatory prison sentence for adults convicted of a second sentence involving a knife
A proposal for tougher penalties for knife crime has sparked a row between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling wants to impose a mandatory six-month jail term for any adult convicted of a second offence involving a knife.
But senior Lib Dems argue judges should be trusted to use their discretion.
BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said the argument had intensified in the wake of the stabbing of Leeds teacher Ann Maguire.
Conservative MP Nick de Bois plans to amend proposed legislation currently going through Parliament to try and bring about the change.
'Inadequate'
He told the BBC there was growing support among his colleagues for a tougher sentencing response to knife-related crimes.
We need to go further, the statistics prove that Nick de Bois, Conservative MP
At least 25 other Tory MPs, he said, were backing his call for adults convicted of a second offence involving a knife to get a six-month minimum sentence.
Under his plans, under-18s guilty of such offences would receive four-month mandatory detention orders.
A new offence of using a knife to threaten someone, carrying a mandatory prison term, came into effect in 2012.
But critics say judges - who retain leeway to impose non-custodial sentences in "exceptional circumstances" - were too often favouring the latter course.
Image copyright PA Image caption Theresa May is among those believed to support mandatory jail sentences
"We need to go further, the statistics prove that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
"I am afraid the discretion of the judges, in my opinion, and I believe of many other people is rather inadequate when we actually see sentencing of something of something like 4,500 people getting community sentences, 3,200 just getting a caution and a fine. That's not satisfactory."
'Clear signal'
The move is understood to have the support of prominent Conservatives including Home Secretary Theresa May and Education Secretary Michael Gove.
Mr Gove told Sky News that the government must send a "very clear signal" that knife crime would not be tolerated.
"It is absolutely important that we use Parliament to communicate to the public - and to anyone tempted to carry a knife in public - that the sentence for behaving in this way will be clear and firm and tough," he said.
But in a leaked letter obtained by the Daily Mail, the Lib Dem MP and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the policy "would impose a substantial new pressure on the prison population" and the proposal "would certainly not be affordable before 2016-17".
'Gimmicks'
Lib Dem sources said a debate was going on in government about doing more to deter knife crime and the party would back workable solutions not "tough-sounding gimmicks".
"Whilst minimum sentencing might sound attractive in media headlines, there is a serious risk it could undermine the role of the judges who are best placed to decide on sentencing by virtue of their role," they said.
"Sending youngsters automatically to jail regardless of the circumstances also has the potential to turn them into hardened criminals and can lead to more, not less crime."
A government source said no final decision has been taken.
The move to impose a mandatory prison sentence for adults convicted of a second knife offence was first mooted by Mr Grayling in 2012.
A 15-year-old boy accused of stabbing Mrs Maguire is due to appear at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.FSFE’s role in the antitrust case was to ensure that free software developers would be able to use any interoperability information that Microsoft would be forced to publish. After 5 years of work, the last court case was won last year. There were always doubts about whether Microsoft could really be pinned down, but from Samba developer Andrew Bartlet’s blog, it seems the Samba team are now loving the interoperability information.
I didn’t do much on this case. For FSFE, it was mostly Georg Greve and Carlo Piana. This work involved filing briefs, court appearances, backing up the good parts of the European Commission’s work in the press, acting as advisors during meetings, etc. A partial list starts halfway down our antitrust project page. Generally not very visible work – they’re not the sort of meetings you can blog about when you leave. From Samba, they worked with Andrew Tridgell, Jeremy Allison, and Volker Lendecke – who were each very capable in the court rooms.
There were other organisations involved, but FSFE played two key roles.
First, we represented the interests of free software developers. Others had interests such as the ability of their private company to compete with MS, or lowering the price of X or Y, or fining MS, etc. These organisations were on our side, but they could have accepted a solution that excluded free software. FSFE was there to constantly argue that free software must benefit from the outcome, and to explain what this required.
The second key role was persistency. The case began with many companies bringing evidence against Microsoft, but one-by-one they made business deals with Microsoft and withdrew from the case. This could never happen to FSFE, so FSFE was a reminder that the European Commission would never be left alone on this case.
There are two other organisations worth mentioning. SIIA is the only other organisation that, like FSFE, stayed in the case from start to finish. And ECIS is worth a mention because although they joined late, they added a lot of strength to what we were supporting.
The antitrust case was sometimes misunderstood. The mainstream media – with its love of simplifying topics down to numbers – constantly reported about how much Microsoft were going to get fined. That’s a pity. The fines were never important for us. Helping Samba and other free software projects was the important part. Done.
Some interesting links
–
Ciarán O’Riordan,
Support free software: Join FSFE’s FellowshipExp, GRADE and Gald hack
If anyone feels the desire to edit their save, I was able to so far find the hex lines for EXP and Gald.
1. Download HxD, a hex editing program.
2. Open your save at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\###\372360\remote\ToSSaveData0.dat. MAKE A COPY FIRST!
3. For Gald, go to line (left side) 0000001D0 and edit the first few bits. You can use a converter to convert a decimal to hex, or use what I used (2D 24 F0) for 15.7 million or so.
4. For EXP, go to line 000000550. Edit the first few bits here as well. THIS ONE IS TRICKY. Depending on your wishes, you want to be careful. The number you set this too with be the EXP you have, you will do one fight, and will level up accordingly after. Its hard to know how much will get you to a certain level, but if you dont care, I did 7F 96 98 and that brought me to Lvl 250. When you go into the game, it will be a negative number. Dont worry about this.
5. I can find out the all important grade as soon as I have the paitance to sit through the opening again.
Happy hacking!
EDIT1: This is for Lloyd by the way.
EDIT2: Lloyd Stats are on line 00000000570:
Offset 00-01 is Int,
02-03 is Strength,
08-09 is Def,
04-05 is Slash,
06-07 is Thrust,
0A-0B is Luck,
0C-0D is Accuracy,
0E-0F is Evasion.
EDIT3: Found Grade. Its in 3 different places.
000000050 First two bits
000001D80 Offset 04-05
000001DC0 Offset 04-05
If you notice, GRADE is awarded in decimal values (1.06 for example). The game doesnt calculate it that way. For example, 3.54 GRADE is seen as 354. Also, its kind of backwards.
My GRADE at time of edit was 6.10, so the game saw it as 610, or HEX 262. Its in the save as 62 02, as if reading each bit right to left.
I gave myself 8000 GRADE, so I did 8000 to HEX, or 1F40, so my value inputted is F1 04Four candidates = 440% effort Before the days of linguistic inflation, 100% was considered enough. But no longer, says Chris Bowlby, in a personal reflection on how language has changed. How committed are you to finishing this article? 110%? Maybe 150%? Or, if you're in the US, perhaps 1,000% is what you need to say to show you really care. But hang on a minute. Isn't 100% meant to be the limit, as far as you can go? There once was a time when 100% really meant something. That was the top figure you could commit, or the maximum you were allowed for a mortgage, 100% of your house's value. FIND OUT MORE... More or Less is on BBC Radio 4 Listen to the programme here But then came linguistic - as well as mortgage - inflation. It began in a very modest, British kind of way. Susie Dent, a writer and language expert, has been delving in the old dictionaries and thinks the breach may have come in the early 1980s when British ice-dancing stars were hoping for Olympic glory. "The first citation comes from a biography of Torville and Dean. It said they were going to put in nothing less than 101%, so possibly that's when things began to edge upwards". Where ice skating biographers began modestly, footballers and their managers soon strode in more confidently. Promising to give 110% became the norm in post-match interviews. It was a useful follow-up after, depending on the result, you'd explained why you were "over the moon" or "sick as a parrot". But why 110% exactly? Perhaps it was all those players' and managers' agents - the Mr Ten Per Cents - who made sure there was 100% for their clients plus 10% for them. Return to 100 It wasn't just football that was infected. Susie Dent says it has all been part of a "bigging up" of language. Think of the way we say superhero instead of just hero, and feel the need to add "über" or "mega" to make |
was suspended during the first leg due to signing for the two clubs along with Khaled Kamar and Moruf Yusuf. All eyes will now definitely be on Momen to see whether he will be able to pull off one of his wonderful displays and score the crucial goals for his club this time.
Will Zamalek be celebrating in front of their arch-rivals after the final whistle or will Mabrouk’s side manage to keep their league hopes alive? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments section below.When the processes running on your machine attempt to allocate more memory than your system has available, the kernel begins to swap memory pages to and from the disk. This is done in order to free up sufficient physical memory to meet the RAM allocation requirements of the requestor.
Excessive use of swapping is called thrashing and is undesirable because it lowers overall system performance, mainly because hard drives are far slower than RAM.
If your application needs to use a large amount of data, you will be exposed to thrashing and your application could slow dramatically. Two solutions exist: either optimize your applications to use memory more efficiently, or add more physical RAM to the system.
Let’s discover which solution Doxygen uses, to optimize its memory usage and avoid the thrashing problem.
Doxygen is the de facto standard tool for generating documentation from annotated C++ sources, but it also supports other popular programming languages such as C, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java, Python, and many others. Thanks to Dimitri van Heesch for his great effort to develop and maintain the project.
Doxygen take as entry the source files, parse them to extract the needed data and store the result in class instances of kind DirDef, FileDef, NamespaceDef, ClassDef and MemberDef. All inherits from the Definition class.
The instances of these classes will be used after to generate the documentation. The data consuming more memory are these concerning the information about methods and variables which are represented by the MemberDef class, the size of these instances could growth to exceeds more than 1 Go, it depends on the number of methods and variables of the projects treated.
For some projects store all these instances in memory will impact the system performance, and the generation of the documentation could take many hours.
How Doxygen optimize the memory?
Doxygen uses a solution based on cache, using a cache is a popular way to optimize your memory usage. The idea is to store in a cache the data needed to be in memory; this cache will contains many slots, each one containing a specific piece of data, and some slots will be released if the cache size exceeds a certain value. The data released will be present on disk, and if we need them again they will be moved to memory.
In case of Doxygen the algorithm is very simple:
Defines a cache with 65535 slots.
When a MemberDef instance needs to be created, Doxygen checks if a cache slot is available, if it’s the case the instance will be created in memory, else it’s stored in a data file in the disk, and an index file is updated to store where in the data file this data are stored.
If Doxygen needs to access a MemberDef instance, it checks its presence in cache. If it’s not present, Doxygen gets from the index file where its data are stored, seek to this position in the data file and loads it from the Disk.
The performance of the cache depends on:
The container: It could be a queue, an array, a list or maybe a custom container. The choice of one of these containers could impact your cache performance.
The max size of the cache.
The algorithm used to free entries from the cache. When the cache reaches its maximum, you have to decide which entries to release, for example you could: Release the first slots loaded. Release the last slots loaded. Release the less-used slots.
1- The Container
Doxygen defines the ObjCache class which is a linked list of CacheNode class, this class is responsible to add and remove instances from the cache.
Here’s how Doxygen declare its cache:
Doxygen :: symbolCache = new ObjCache ( 16 + cacheSize ); // 16 -> room for 65536 elements,
2 – Cache size
Doxygen gets the cache max size from the configuration file:
int cacheSize = Config_getInt ( "SYMBOL_CACHE_SIZE" );
It’s a good idea to let this parameter be configurable, so you can increase the cache if you have a machine with a big physical memory size to increase the cache performance. However, for the newer Doxygen releases this parameter is removed from the configuration file, and a default value is used.
3-The algorithm to release entries from cache
Here’s the code snippet from Doxygen code source responsible for releasing the cache when it reaches its maximum:
As specified in the makeResident method code, which is very well commented, the least recently used item is removed if the cache is full.
This method is invoked for almost all MemberDef methods, it’s called each time you have to access the MemberDef state to check if this member is loaded or not. Load it if it’s not the case and remove the least recently used member from the cache.
The impact of using the cache
Using the cache could increase the performance of your application, but did the cache bring a big optimisation or just a micro optimisation and it’s not worth to add it in your application?
Before using Clang as C/C++ parser for our product, we used Doxygen as parser for our first version, we did many test on cache size, when we disabled the cache and parse some C++ projects with this modified version, the parsing time has much increased, sometimes from 5 min to 25 min. For big projects it takes hours and it impact a lot the system performance.
Conclusion
Using the cache is a powerful solution to increase the performance of your application if you use a large amount of data. Discovering how the open-source projects implements the cache could be very useful to understand how to implements it in your applications.A government watchdog group on Thursday filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) over White House adviser Jared Kushner's ownership interest in a real estate investment company.
The complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) alleges that President Trump’s son-in-law did not disclose his interest in the online real estate investment company Cadre, which he cofounded, and has failed to divest from the company, creating conflicts of interest.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Kushner’s failure to disclose his ownership in Cadre is very troubling,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.
“It appears to be one of his larger investments, not something he could easily overlook, and it is impossible to ensure that senior government officials are behaving ethically if they fail to disclose key assets,” he continued.
The complaint says OGE has granted a certificate of divestiture, which permits government employees “to defer capital gains taxes on property they sell to comply with conflict of interest requirements.”
CREW says the certificate of divestiture would require Kushner to sell his interests in Cadre, which he has not done.
The Wall Street Journal first reported in May that Kushner had a stake in Cadre.
A lawyer for Kushner, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement that Kushner disclosed and discussed his interests with Cadre to OGE before Trump's inauguration, and that it was addressed in his White House ethics agreement.
"Mr. Kushner resigned from Cadre’s board, assigned his voting rights, and reduced his ownership share. As part of this restructuring, Mr. Kushner's interest in Cadre was transferred to BFPS Ventures, LLC," Gorelick said in the statement, which was issued in May.
"The interest in Cadre was added before we were contacted by the Wall Street Journal. We prepared the form on Mr. Kushner’s behalf and have been working closely with OGE to ensure that it satisfies disclosure requirements," Gorelick said.
Gorelick said "additional details regarding the asset" have been added to a form that will be released publicly following OGE certification.
The lawyer also noted that OGE had said in a letter the House ethics committee that “it is normal for an appointee to make changes to a financial disclosure report and add information during [the OGE] review process."
"Mr. Kushner will recuse consistent with government ethics rules," Gorelick added.
The CREW complaint against Kushner is just one of a long list of ethics complaints facing the Trump administration, most notably the president’s ties to the Trump Organization, which is an umbrella for Trump’s investments in real estate and other businesses.
A top Justice Department official serving as a corporate compliance watchdog resigned last week, saying she could not require companies to follow government ethics laws when members of the administration were not acting appropriately regarding ethics and compliance.
- This story was updated at 1:17 p.m.Summer League: Wizards 83, Grizzlies 77
Posted Tuesday July 17, 2012 11:11PM
Memphis' Josh Selby scored 35 points in an 83-77 losing effort in Tuesday's defeat to the Washington Wizards in the 2012 NBA Summer League held at UNLV's Cox Pavilion. Selby's Grizzlies dropped to 1-1 overall, while the Wizards evened their record at 2-2 after overcoming a five-point deficit in the second half for the win. Washington turned things around after the half with a 25-11 advantage in third-quarter scoring.
Selby, who scored 45 percent of his team's points, shot 12-of-21 for the game with seven makes from behind the arc on eight attempts. He added four points from the free throw line to go along with seven steals, two rebounds and an assist.
Memphis, who led by as much as six in the game, held a five-point cushion until Washington turned things around just 43 seconds into the third. The Wizards trailed 42-37 before Shavlik Randolph became a factor and scored 10 of his squad's next 17 points that eventually turned the tide of the game.
Washington's lead ballooned to as much as 13 with 11:12 remaining in the contest. However, Memphis' offense came alive in the waning moments of the third, and it rattled off a 12-2 run in a span of 4:55 to pull within three just 2:28 into the final 10 minutes.
From that point forward, the teams played nearly even basketball with the Wizards holding a three-point edge, 21-18, in scoring until the clock hit zero.
The Wizards' Randolph and Chris Singleton had double-doubles in the game. Randolph ended the contest with 16 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Singleton had 13 and 10, respectively. Bradley Beal (14 points) and Shelvin Mack (10) joined Randolph and Singleton with double-digit scoring outings.
The Grizzlies began the game scoring 12 of the game's first 18 points before the Wizards knotted the score at the end of the first 10 minutes with an 18-12 run of its own.
Washington came out in the second with the hot hand and scored seven of eight points to establish a six-point advantage with 4:24 on the clock before halftime. Memphis then flipped things around and outscored its opponent 15-6 to stake itself to a three-point lead at the half, 40-37.
The Wizards return to action on Wednesday with a 1:00 p.m. tilt vs. the Milwaukee Bucks, while the Grizzlies are off until a Friday meeting with Charlotte at 3:30 p.m.On Tuesday here at the Aero India show, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar added the latest in what has been a series of nails in the coffin of the troubled LCA Navy, the carrier version of India’s in-service LCA Tejas. By now, the LCA Navy team in Bengaluru had gotten round to the reality that a paper plane that began in 2003 wouldn’t ever be an operational jet with a customer. Parrikar cajoled the team separately, assuring them that the government had no plans to pull the plug, and that the good work the team at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) had done for over a decade would not go to waste. But the reality wasn’t going anywhere. All that work on the LCA Navy Mk1 wouldn’t result in sales of the aircraft. It would be forever be a technology demonstrator.
The last six months have brought headwind way beyond what this little jet was built for. But beyond the claimed stoicism of continuing endlessly with a project nobody wants, there’s a reality that has gone unreported so far. A reality that provides the first solid glimmer for a project that’s as good as dead but for an honour lifeline from the Department of Defence Production. And here’s the thing: it isn’t pity at all. Livefist met with ADA chief Commodore C.D. Balaji for what he described shortly after as the frankest chat he’s had on the subject. And at the centre of the LCA Navy’s struggle for relevance is a solid kernel of hope.
The ADA has opened dialogue with the Indian Navy with the hope that its customer will come round to the view that the LCA Navy Mk.2 will be a sensible graduated step to the big twin engine jets it finally wants to operate. “The LCA Navy Mk.2 would be a great stepping stone,” Balaji tells Livefist. And he’s backing his pitch with a solid timeframe.
‘We’re aiming for a first fl ight of the LCA Navy Mk.2 in late 2020 or early 2021. The detailed design will be complete by 2019. To save time, we’ve already ordered raw materials required,’ Balaji says. Two GE F414 engines — one for the AF prototype and one for the LCA Navy — arrived earlier this month, the first batch of eight engines contracted from GE for the Mk.2 programme. That the LCA Navy will be a more powerful combat jet is well known. What Livefist has now discovered from the team is that there are design and engineering improvements being effected on the LCA Navy Mk.2 that could prove deal-maker if they work out.
For starters, the team plans to move the wings outboard by about 350mm, increasing the space significantly between the fuselage and the wings. This would immediately optimise load transfer (the ADA has had weight issues with the landing gear) and free up the central fuselage for fuel. ‘We believe the change will free up space for up to 700 kg additional fuel, providing about 22 minutes of additional time on task,’ Balaji tells Livefist. That’s huge for the tactical envelope the LCA platform was developed for.
But there’s a great deal of work left on the LCA Navy Mk.1 before the Mk.2 can begin taking shape. In the immediate future this summer, the LCA Navy Mk.1 prototypes will begin ‘taxi i n engagement’ drills, where the jets are throttled on ground into the arrester wire at Goa’s Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) to exercise structural compatibility for a hook. The tests have been delayed three months thanks to a damper failure during field carrier landing practice (FCLP) dummy approaches last year.
‘Our focus with the Mk.1 is carrier suitability. We’ve got a good handle on carrier ops. Control laws have matured well, and sit right on top of our simulations. Deck recoveries are a different challenge and there are several lead-up activities planned,’ he says.
The ADA has built a new test rig to test horizontal and vertical loads during a deck recovery, including 7.1 m/s sink rate and the 45 ton load on an arrester wire. ‘Structurally, everything checks out,’ Balaji says, adding, ‘We are doing more dummy approaches to fine tune our control laws. Want to narrow everything down so we have very predictable landings.’
Balaji smiles when pushed on the question of the Mk.1 and whether they are hoping for anything to come of it. ‘Saab has a Sea Gripen concept. They are in the same stage we were at in 2003 when we decided to create a carrier-capable derivative of the LCA Tejas. We have proven many technologies. The LCA Navy Mk.2 will incorporate every lesson we could possibly have learnt,’ he says.
There’s activity on the radar front too. Balaji’s team will be freeing up LCA Tejas LSP-2 shortly for ground integration of India’s indigenous Uttam AESA radar. The ADA has asked the DRDO’s LRDE lab to keep the Uttam’s interfaces as similar as possible to the current Israeli Elta radar. ‘It will be a challenge, moving from a mechanically scanned radar to the AESA without interface changes but that is the attempt, to save time and forestall any structural changes to the aircraft or sensor,’ says Balaji. Interestingly, since the LCA doesn’t have an integrated liquid cooling system necessary for an AESA radar, the team has suggested that a small auxiliary compartment that becomes redundant after the mechanical-to-AESA switch could be utilised to house a liquid cooling system.
A full scale model of the LCA Navy Mk.2 will be ready by early next year. Commodore Balaji and his team now hope their case will have a firm taker in the Indian Navy by then.
The LCA Tejas is also the target this year of a slew of offers for comprehensive sensor/weapons upgrades, with at least three big firms detailing their packages at this year’s Aero India show. While Livefist has reported on Saab’s offer before, this year Raytheon and Israel’s Rafael have drawn out their own. Here’s a look:The Monday after the massacre in Paris, I walk into a bank near the Place de la République to deposit a little over 1,000 euros into a friend’s account. After a number of tut-tuts the transaction passes. ‘Why all the fuss?’ I ask, only to be informed of new laws being phased in that will prohibit cash transactions over 1,000 euros, with equivalents in Italy, Belgium and numerous other countries also being enacted. ‘Soon, there won’t be such a thing as cash!’ When I question the logic behind such regulation, excitement turns to bewilderment. Didn’t I see what happened on Friday?! ‘C’est pour votre securité.’ Ah yes. Of course. Such measures are there for all our safety.
The argument put forward by our politicians is that laws like these, and associated varieties including internet surveillance and the reintroduction of border controls within Schengen, represent the appropriate response to the defining threat of our times: a civilisational crisis brought about by the march of radical, jihadist Islam. John Gray for example has argued recently in the New Statesman that the state, at least in the West, is returning to its primary function, namely the provision of security. As Hobbes saw so clearly, it is state power that protects our liberties. To prevent anarchy and afford us ‘commodious living’ sometimes those liberties must be compromised.
I suggest a different interpretation; for the argument above makes a number of questionable assumptions: that the greatest danger posed to us is radical Islam; that the State’s primary concern is to ensure the security of its citizens; that it retains the requisite sovereignty for such an undertaking and that state controls are the most important factor in determining whether people behave themselves.
Dealing with these assumptions in turn.
First, unpleasant as it may be, radical Islam poses nowhere near the greatest threat to you and me. It did not create global warming, a hole in the ozone layer, the polluting of our oceans, deforestation, overpopulation, chronic disparities in wealth, mass extinction of species, nor did it make us debt slaves. Such apocalyptic honour goes to a mad economic system that requires exponential growth in order to match a parallel growth in borrowings. Known variously as neoliberalism, the Washington Consensus or the ‘free market economy’ – code for Goldman Sachs – it is every bit as globalising in its vision as Islamic State and far more destructive. It seeks to tear down any wall that impedes its progress, most notably the State and its national apparatus; tariff barriers; variations in languages, weights and measures; differences in political systems and tax regimes; cultural disparities; restrictions on the movement of capital and so on. It masquerades as our friend but needs a rival to camouflage its insidious purpose. Exit communism. Enter the type of heretical Islam which has been exported primarily by Wahhabist Saudi Arabia – our ally naturally enough – and is taught in our mosques, our schools and our prisons but which should at least be commended for its candour: it will not stop until the whole world submits and the new Caliphate’s flag flies over the White House.
Two internationalising, monist forces compete and co-exist in sick symbiosis, with the more televisually spectacular of the pair very much the junior partner. If the West really wanted rid of IS it would happen. As Russia’s foreign minister and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah have noted, the fact that bombing sorties sufficient to annihilate every lizard in the area have achieved nothing begs a lot of questions. By such logic IS is welcome as long as it can be sufficiently ‘contained’ to keep in check genuine threats insubordinate enough to have persistently resisted Western hegemony. To this end, the one power that has consistently put boots on the ground in the fight against IS either directly or through its proxies, namely Iran, is deliberately hamstrung by a Nuclear Agreement which stipulates continuing arms sanctions against it for the next fifteen years. (At the time of writing I have just learned that an Iranian associate has been killed by sniper fire in the battle against IS).
Second, the assumption that today the State’s primary role is to ensure the security of its citizens. Yes, there will be the occasional nod to Hobbes but the soldiers in Brussels and Paris and the border controls between Belgium and France will soon melt away because walls are not good for business. Commentators such as John Gray are right: individual freedoms will yield to security; but security will in turn yield to money. In short, the State’s primary function, at least in the West, is in fact to support the particular economic order that I have outlined above, over and above the citizen.
Take the law discussed at the outset and its absurd logic: a sum that would not buy a night at the George V is deemed a threat by the state and worthy of monitoring, while trillions in funny money is allowed to criss-cross the globe every second of the day, no questions asked, such-life changing tsunamis controlled not by us or our representatives but by the keyboards of a few hundred financial dealers who simply ride the beast wherever it takes them. Security? Our day to day existences will be far more affected by such forces than by a few losers in Raqqa.
In fact such legislation has nothing to do with security. In a cashless society all economic activity is channelled through the banks and a run on the system becomes impossible. Banks don’t care what you put into them or where it comes from – that is for show – what concerns them is what you take out. Under the new dispensation, while we may be able to withdraw our money electronically from HSBC and deposit it into Barclays, it will remain within the system, thereby forestalling collapse. Limitations of space make it impossible to enumerate the endless pieces of equivalent legislation, but take one: The Common Reporting Standard which most of the world’s advanced countries have adopted for implementation by 2017- with the threat of blacklisting by the OECD if they do not comply – and under which countries’ banks will be obliged to report to the governments of every single account holder the full details of his accounts, irrespective of whether any tax is owed. A stated desire to claw back unpaid taxes for our benefit (in the process creating fortuitously a giant database of all our finances) conveniently ignores the point that such taxes amount to pennies next to the trillions in interest payments that we must pay to keep alive a regime centred on the giant global corporations and the banks which service them to the benefit of a tiny rentier class.
Moreover, ineffectual protection of our persons in the face of individuals prepared to blow themselves to pieces surely represents a very narrow understanding of security. What about security of employment? Of housing? Of food? Of sustenance in our old age? What about the protection of a common culture which configures us as social beings? The message of neoliberalism could not be clearer: the social contract by which the members of our commonwealth pool their individual sovereignties and rights in return for the Leviathan’s protection is null and void. When it comes to the state having a role in the provision of security in its broad sense, we are on our own but when it comes to monitoring our every movement, then the state is right behind us.
Next the assumption that states still possess genuine sovereignty: the pre-requisite for protecting their citizens in any meaningful sense. What kind of sovereignty exists when a country can’t even control its own economy? Banks, not states, manufacture the world’s money through the creation of loans that expand and entrap us at a rate IS could not hope to imagine. And what kind of logic declares itself opposed to invasion by an alien culture such as Islam but is more than happy to be taken over by a crass consumer culture that would be as unrecognisable to our grandparents as anything in a radicalised suburb of Brussels? Sovereignty? That is the whole point of the so-called ‘free market economy’ – it requires sovereignty suicide by its national participants; whether in the form of the EU, NAFTA, the WTO and all manner of other globalising treaties that submit to the money imperative
Finally, the assumption that a plethora of laws will make us safer. In fact something much bigger than jihaddist Islam is behind the current prevalence of terror and it is not correlated to an increase or decrease in Orwellian legislation. It occurs on the psychic level and is a reaction to intolerable pressure and growing competition over limited resources, occasioned by an economic system predicated on unsustainable expansion. That economic system in turn atomises and alienates us, creating the psychological terrain for psychopathy.
America for example does not need to import terrorists from Syria. When Obama asks ‘why here?’ every time a school shooting occurs, the better question would be ‘why now?’ After all, Americans have owned guns for centuries. Once upon a time something prevented us from doing these things: a shared sense of history and of destiny; a commitment to the project; a common theme; the fact that we had been brought up on the Classics and had gone to church. All this was taken for granted by Enlightenment philosophers and liberal thinkers such as Hobbes who ignored the social capital built up over centuries and for which the requirement was belief in a cosmic order. It was not only a strong state that afforded us security, therefore, but also a strong church. For the believer, CCTV cameras on every street corner are not needed when he considers that a giant CCTV camera in the sky records his every deed. The stability that resulted disappeared when God was dethroned by the new liberal order of the Enlightenment. And the lesson of philosophical liberalism’s more wicked economic sibling is that it hits us with a double whammy – it destroys the planet and it destroys human societies by attempting to fill the void with the false religion of money. Radical Islam is attractive to so many precisely because it looks to replace the emptiness occasioned by the denial of man’s transcendental nature. To this extent IS must be considered the child of the monster we have created – a rebuttal of a philosophy which has failed us as much as them. Unfortunately its response has nothing to do with genuine Islam, but that is another story.
While the elimination of IS must be a priority therefore, in fact our greatest challenge is not radical Islam at all, but to downsize our activities and their effect on our planet, to devise a system capable of shrinkage and to recreate communities of souls rather than consumers. None of the measures proposed by our governments in the wake of recent atrocities will increase our safety or allow us to lead more peaceful, harmonious lives. By creating a global Leviathan we are sleepwalking into a policeman’s paradise. Islamic State is very useful for such a purpose, for to focus on the tiger is to divert us from the tyrannosaur.Current issue - BCM 38 Available for FREE download!
We're back for the not-so-new year with our latest edition! Bringing you interviews with Mikaru and HOTEI, fashion, travel features about Japan, events, Disney, beauty and so much more! And to top it off, you can win some signed Instax photos, too! Want to get involved in BCM? Or simply want to tell us something? Drop us a line at hilde.heyvaert@gmail.com!
Looking for something in particular?
We now have a master index of all interviews, features, fashion related articles, tutorials, recipes, events, etc right here. It's in easy alphabetical order with the issue number(s) behind it so it shouldn't be hard to navigate at all.
Back-issues
Previous editions of BCM are now available for free download once more!
History
Originally BCM was the abbreviation of Belgian Cupcakes Magazine, which started out as the magazine of the Belgian Japanese fashion community of the same name (minus the Magazine at the end of course), for and by its members. It quickly caught on in the J-fashion scene, making the need rise for a different kind of BCM, so from an all Dutch magazine (#1) we made the transition to English (#2) and from there to a fully English language fashion magazine focussing entirely on J-fashion styles.
Of course the people putting BCM together had more interests than just Japanese fashion and the same went for its readers. So by the time we started planning out #6, we made the switch from just fashion to Japanese culture in all it's aspects: music, literature, cinematography, fashion: you name it. Starting that same issue we also began to interview artists and introduced the J-music corner, introducing all manner of bands and artists of all genres imaginable to our readers.
With more and more contributors joining in from literally all over the globe, the need to re-adjust the name arose, turning it from Belgian Cupcakes Magazine to Belgian J-culture Magazine, allowing us to keep the abbreviation of BCM, under which had become better known than the full name anyway.
Starting 2015 BCM became a tri-monthly magazine, due to the real life commitments and obligations of the crew. Rather than giving up on it, we opted to take more time for each edition so we can guarantee quality and growth of BCM.
By the time issue 29 was released, again due to the interests of both crew and readers, we branched out even further, so we could put more focus not only on Japanese culture, but also popular culture, as in Belgium and Europe these two generally go hand in hand at events.
Don't worry, your trusty BCM will remain growing as we go, adding only to the well-read and well-loved features we already have. Look out for the next issues, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Links
Instax Belgium, our Instax film sponsor (many thanks!)
MB Presents
Never Was MagazineWe found most docks available today lack good design and are made with poor quality materials. The metal versions are just empty shells that required the user to thread cables and offer just one function. We wanted to build a dock that felt complete and contained cutting edge electronic features. We set upon to create something pure, unobstructed, while offering innovation that does not exist today.
Lecan I/O - The worlds first MFi certified iPhone dock featuring a Lightning port and Audio Out with Mic function, (Lecan pronounced LE-CAN). Also the worlds smallest in a back support form factor design. The Lightning port allows you to directly connect any Lightning to USB cable. The Audio Out with Mic enables you to plug-in headphones /w mic for music or make or receive calls without the need to undock. Effortless one handed undocking, compatible with cases and a minimalistic unibody aluminum design combined to create the perfect place for your iPhone outside of your pocket.
The Lecan I/O dock was created to achieve the perfect balance of design and functionality. Out of the box ready, featuring an internal PCB board eliminating any additional assembly. Constructed from a single block of aircraft grade Aluminum. Designed to exude pure minimalism, perfectly complimenting the iPhone unlike any Dock before.
the perfect balance of design and functionality. Out of the box ready, featuring an internal PCB board eliminating any additional assembly. Constructed from a single block of aircraft grade Aluminum. Designed to exude pure minimalism, perfectly complimenting the iPhone unlike any Dock before.
Lightning Receptacle – (a rare feature usually only found on Apple docks) A whole new level of convenience - Just plugin any Lightning Cable and your done! - No more disassembly or threading cables through the product. Combined with the Audio out + MIC function-a worlds first for a MFi iPhone dock.
Audio Out with Mic function – Just plug in any 3.5 mm iPhone compatible headphones with microphone function to listen to music and make or receive telephone calls without the need to undock your iPhone - Smart functionality built right in!
The Audio Out feature allows you to output your music directly to your stereo system for high fidelity sound without the limitation of the iPhones internal amp.
iPhone 7/7Plus users can plug 3.5 mm headphones directly into the Dock without the need for headphone dongles. Simultaneously charge your iPhone while listening to music.
Enhanced undocking – The internal design was engineered to precisely allow the lightning connecter to flex forward 15° when you undock. This greatly enhances the undocking experience making it easier, and overall safer for your iPhone’s connector than a rigid stationary connection.
Undocking made easy – Using our custom designed made in Japan micro suction pad and aided by the weight of the unibody construction, this dock stays planted. With minimal effort, using just a single hand - undock your iPhone in one fluid motion.
Works with or without cases – Use the dock any way you like! Intelligently designed interchangeable support pad provides both horizontal and lateral support for your iPhone. Supports virtually all thick or thin cases except cases with flaps over the Lightning connector.
Available in all six iPhone colors including new Jet Black and Black color options for the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
The Jet Black finish due to its specialized finishing process will inherently show micro abrasions. These are normally not visible at useable lengths.
Designed like no other – Created without compromise, from the Lecan I/O’s clean lines, to the way it appears to float from above it’s surface, to it’s built-in Lightning receptacle and Audio out.
Engineered like no other – Unibody precision CNC'd from a single block of aircraft grade Aluminum. Other manufacturing methods like casting or mold production cannot match the same quality.
Finished like no other – An intensive, thorough multi-step process of pre-finishing, fine glass bead blasting, electrochemical micro-polishing followed by anodization and thermal sealing. This results in a finish matching the appearance of the iPhone perfectly.
Made for the desk – Your iPhone angled smartly for viewing notifications or FaceTime calls. This is far better than being laid flat on a desk.
Dock in so many places – How about on the Nightstand. Easy to locate in the dark. Lots of us use our phones as our primary alarm clock – make this process easy by knowing the exact location in a dim-lit room. Makes selecting the snooze function a snap.
The Kitchen countertop – We all love to cook and then a call comes in, making it impractical to grab the phone with messy hands. The Lecan I/O dock solves this problem by keeping the phone upright and at an optimal viewing angle and great for speaker phone calls. Also, superb for viewing cooking recipes.
Titanium Edition
Precision CNC’d from Titanium. A metal rarely used in docks, making this the ultimate Lecan I/O Dock.
Titanium is an incredible metal. As strong steel but only 45 percent the weight. Twice as strong as aluminum and yet only 60 percent heavier.
Perfection is everything - The worlds most beautiful phone deserves to be charged in the worlds most beautiful dock.
With the Lecan I/O Dock we examined every corner, every angle down to the smallest of details to create something so elegant and minimalistic that when you saw it you knew this was the one you were waiting for all this time.
We then added ground-breaking features making this the worlds first MFi dock to feature both a Lightning Receptacle and Audio Out with Mic functionality.
Without you this would not be possible - The team at Lecan designs with the belief that innovation and beauty can coexist in perfect harmony. We promise not to stop until perfection is reached in every product that we make.
Kickstarter is such an important vehicle to realize our mission and without it would be close to impossible for us to source tooling and the minimum large orders that OEM manufacturers require. Thank you for your support as none of this is possible without you..
Please help us spread the word that the most innovative, minimalistic Dock for iPhone is now available on Kickstarter.
Questions?
You have questions, then we have the answers. Ask anything! Post a comment or send us a message. We will get back to you with an answer.
Feedback?
Do you have a creative idea that we should incorporate into the Lecan I/O? Just let us know! Your input is welcomed and we would love to hear from you!
International Backers
This project ships throughout the world. Backers outside of the U.S maybe subject to VAT/duties levied by the destination country. We wanted you to be aware that these charges are not collected by us in advance but will be the responsibility of the recipient upon the arrival of your reward.
All domestic and international packages (where available) include insurance and tracking.
Final thoughts...
We wanted to make something beautiful which we could not find elsewhere, so we decided to build it ourselves. This journey took us around the world to find the best materials and technologies and this is why the Lecan I/O was created.Privacy and confidentiality are big-ticket priorities for the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, ethereum-focused consortium launched in February.
The group – which last night announced the addition of 86 more members, including South Korean telecom Samsung and car manufacturer Toyota – took to the stage today at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2017 conference in New York, detailing the work its various members and working groups are pursuing.
In the words of one panelist: “Everyone has a very long wish list.”
But it was transaction privacy – currently an unsolved problem with a number of potential solutions – that was a recurring topic over the course of the afternoon.
IC3 co-director Ari Juels perhaps summed up the sentiment best by saying:
“Without confidentiality, we’re not reaping the full benefit of the blockchain.”
Maksym Petkus, an engineer for blockchain startup Chronicled, spoke to what he believes should be the next steps on this path.
“I would like to see privacy moving from off-chain to on-chain maybe using zk-SNARKS. I think this is the way to go,” he said.
He added that optimizing zk-SNARKs to take up less |
ratio of all modern high-definition television sets and broadcast cameras.
16:9 standard [ edit ]
16:9 (1.7:1) (generally named as "Sixteen-by-Nine", "Sixteen-Nine", and "Sixteen-to-Nine") is the international standard format of HDTV, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television PALplus. Japan's Hi-Vision originally started with a 5:3 (= 15:9) ratio but converted when the international standards group introduced a wider ratio of 5⅓ to 3 (= 16:9). Many digital video cameras have the capability to record in 16:9 (= 42:32), and 16:9 is the only widescreen aspect ratio natively supported by the DVD standard. DVD producers can also choose to show even wider ratios such as 1.85:1 and 2.39:1[2] within the 16:9 DVD frame by hard matting or adding black bars within the image itself. However, it was used often in British TVs in the United Kingdom in the 1990s before the 21st century.
When cinema attendance dropped, Hollywood created widescreen aspect ratios in order to differentiate the film industry from TV. One of the most common being the 1.85:1 ratio.[10]
The 2:1 aspect ratio was first used in the 1950s for the RKO Superscope format.[11][12]
Since 1998, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro has advocated for a format named "Univisium" that uses a 2:1 format.[13] It is designed to be a compromise between the cinema 2.39:1 aspect ratio and the HD-TV broadcast 16:9 ratio. Univisium has gained little traction in the theatrical film market, but has recently been used by Netflix and Amazon Video for productions such as House of Cards and Transparent, respectively. This aspect ratio is standard on the acquisition formats mandated by these content platforms and is not necessarily a creative choice.[14]
Moreover, some mobile devices, such as the LG G6, LG V30, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Google Pixel 2 XL and OnePlus 5T, are embracing the 2:1 format (advertised as 18:9), as well as the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 with a slightly similar 18.5:9 format.[15][16] The Apple iPhone X also has a similar screen ratio of 19.5:9 (2.16:1).
2.35:1, 2.39:1 or 2.4:1 [ edit ]
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. When projected, image have an approximated 2.35:1, 2.39:1 or 2.4:1 aspect ratio. "21:9 aspect ratio" is actually 64:27 (= 43:33), and is a near cinematic movie ratio.
Vertical video [ edit ]
Another trend arising from the massive use of smartphones is Vertical video (9:16), that is intended for viewing in portrait mode. It was popularized by Snapchat and is also now being adopted by Twitter and Facebook.
Obtaining height, width, and area of the screen [ edit ]
Often, screen specifications are given by their diagonal length. The following formulae can be used to find the height (h), width (w) and area (A), where r stands for ratio, written as a fraction, and d for diagonal length.
h = d r 2 + 1 w = r ∗ d r 2 + 1 A = r ∗ d 2 r 2 + 1 {\displaystyle h={\frac {d}{\sqrt {r^{2}+1}}}\qquad w={\frac {r*d}{\sqrt {{r^{2}}+1}}}\qquad A={\frac {r*d^{2}}{{r^{2}}+1}}}
Distinctions [ edit ]
This article primarily addresses the aspect ratio of images as displayed, which is more formally referred to as the display aspect ratio (DAR). In digital images, there is a distinction with the storage aspect ratio (SAR), which is the ratio of pixel dimensions. If an image is displayed with square pixels, then these ratios agree; if not, then non-square, "rectangular" pixels are used, and these ratios disagree. The aspect ratio of the pixels themselves is known as the pixel aspect ratio (PAR) – for square pixels this is 1:1 – and these are related by the identity:
SAR × PAR = DAR.
Rearranging (solving for PAR) yields:
PAR = DAR/SAR.
For example, a 640 × 480 VGA image has a SAR of 640/480 = 4:3, and if displayed on a 4:3 display (DAR = 4:3), has square pixels, hence a PAR of 1:1. By contrast, a 720 × 576 D-1 PAL image has a SAR of 720/576 = 5:4, but is displayed on a 4:3 display (DAR = 4:3), so by this formula it would have a PAR of (4:3)/(5:4) = 16:15.
However, because standard definition digital video was originally based on digitally sampling analog television, the 720 horizontal pixels actually capture a slightly wider image to avoid loss of the original analog picture. In actual images, these extra pixels are often partly or entirely black, as only the center 704 horizontal pixels carry actual 4:3 or 16:9 image. Hence, the actual pixel aspect ratio for PAL video is a little different from that given by the formula, specifically 12:11 for PAL and 10:11 for NTSC. For consistency, the same effective pixel aspect ratios are used even for standard definition digital video originated in digital form rather than converted from analog. For more details refer to the main article.
In analog images such as film there is no notion of pixel, nor notion of SAR or PAR, and "aspect ratio" refers unambiguously to DAR. Actual displays do not generally have non-square pixels, though digital sensors might; they are rather a mathematical abstraction used in resampling images to convert between resolutions.
Non-square pixels arise often in early digital TV standards, related to digitalization of analog TV signals – whose horizontal and vertical resolutions differ and are thus best described by non-square pixels – and also in some digital videocameras and computer display modes, such as Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). Today they arise particularly in transcoding between resolutions with different SARs.
DAR is also known as image aspect ratio and picture aspect ratio, though the latter can be confused with pixel aspect ratio.
Visual comparisons [ edit ]
Comparing two different aspect ratios poses some subtleties – when comparing two aspect ratios, one may compare images with equal height, equal width, equal diagonal, or equal area. More amorphous questions include whether particular subject matter has a natural aspect ratio (panoramas being wide, full-length images of people being tall), or whether a particular ratio is more or less aesthetically pleasing, for example the golden ratio (~1.618).
Televisions and other displays typically list their size by their diagonal. Given the same diagonal, a 4:3 screen has more area compared to 16:9. For CRT-based technology, an aspect ratio that is closer to square is cheaper to manufacture. The same is true for projectors, and other optical devices such as cameras, camcorders, etc. For LCD and plasma displays, however, the cost is more related to the area. Producing wider and shorter screens can yield the same advertised diagonal, but with less area.
The following compares crops of an image at 4:3 and 16:9 ratios, with different dimensions set equal. Note that either image (or both) can be cropped; one aspect doesn't necessarily show more detail than the other.
Images using the same diagonal size:
3 :1) 4:3 (1.:1) 7 :1) 16:9 (1.:1)
Images using the same area / same number of pixels:
3 :1) 4:3 (1.:1) 7 :1) 16:9 (1.:1)
Images using the same height / same vertical size:
3 :1) 4:3 (1.:1) 7 :1) 16:9 (1.:1)
Images using the same width/ same horizontal size:
3 :1) 4:3 (1.:1) 7 :1) 16:9 (1.:1)
Previous and currently used aspect ratios [ edit ]
See list of common resolutions for a listing of computer resolutions and aspect ratios. See list of film formats for a full listing of film formats, including their aspect ratios.
Comparison of several film aspect ratios with the heights forced to be equal.
Aspect ratio releases [ edit ]
Original aspect ratio (OAR) [ edit ]
Original Aspect Ratio (OAR) is a home cinema term for the aspect ratio or dimensions in which a film or visual production was produced – as envisioned by the people involved in the creation of the work. As an example, the film Gladiator was released to theaters in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It was filmed in Super 35 and, in addition to being presented in cinemas and television in the Original Aspect Ratio of 2.39:1, it was also broadcast without the matte, altering the aspect ratio to the television standard of 1.3:1. Because of the varied ways in which films are shot, IAR (Intended Aspect Ratio) is a more appropriate term, but is rarely used.
Modified aspect ratio (MAR) [ edit ]
Modified Aspect Ratio is a home cinema term for the aspect ratio or dimensions in which a film was modified to fit a specific type of screen, as opposed to original aspect ratio. Modified aspect ratios are usually either 1.3:1 (historically), or (with the advent of widescreen television sets) 1.7:1 aspect ratio. 1.3:1 is the modified aspect ratio used historically in VHS format. A modified aspect ratio transfer is achieved by means of pan and scan or open matte, the latter meaning removing the cinematic matte from a 1.85:1 film to open up the full 1.3:1 frame. Another name for it is "prescaled" aspect ratio".
Problems in film and television [ edit ]
Multiple aspect ratios create additional burdens on directors and the public, and confusion among TV broadcasters. It is common for a widescreen film to be presented in an altered format (cropped, letterboxed or expanded beyond the original aspect ratio). It is also not uncommon for windowboxing to occur (when letterbox and pillarbox happen simultaneously). For instance, a 16:9 broadcast could embed a 4:3 commercial within the 16:9 image area. A viewer watching on a standard 4:3 (non-widescreen) television would see a 4:3 image of the commercial with 2 sets of black stripes, vertical and horizontal (windowboxing or the postage stamp effect). A similar scenario may also occur for a widescreen set owner when viewing 16:9 material embedded in a 4:3 frame, and then watching that in 16:9. Active Format Description is a mechanism used in digital broadcasting to avoid this problem. It is also common that a 4:3 image is stretched horizontally to fit a 16:9 screen to avoid pillar boxing but distorts the image so subjects appear short and fat.
Both PAL and NTSC have provision for some data pulses contained within the video signal used to signal the aspect ratio (See ITU-R BT.1119-1 – Widescreen signaling for broadcasting). These pulses are detected by television sets that have widescreen displays and cause the television to automatically switch to 16:9 display mode. When 4:3 material is included (such as the aforementioned commercial), the television switches to a 4:3 display mode to correctly display the material. Where a video signal is transmitted via a European SCART connection, one of the status lines is used to signal 16:9 material as well.
Still photography [ edit ]
Common aspect ratios in still photography include:
1:1
5:4 (1.25:1)
4:3 (1. 3 :1)
:1) 3:2 (1.5:1)
5:3 (1. 6 :1)
:1) 16:9 (1. 7 :1)
:1) 3:1
Many digital still cameras offer user options for selecting multiple image aspect ratios. Some achieve this through the use of multi-aspect sensors (notably Panasonic), while others simply crop their native image format to have the output match the desired image aspect ratio.
Is the classic Kodak image, and is available as a choice in some digital still cameras, and hearkens back to the days of film cameras when the square image was popular with photographers using twin lens reflex cameras. These medium format cameras used 120 film rolled onto spools. The 6 × 6 cm image size was the classic 1:1 format in the recent past. 120 film can still be found and used today. Many Polaroid instant films were designed as square formats. Furthermore, up until August 2015, photo-sharing site Instagram only allowed users to upload images in 1:1 format. In 2017, Fujifilm added the 1:1 Instax Square format to their lineup of instant film cameras.
Common in large and medium format photography, and still in common use for prints from digital cameras in the 8"×10" size.
Is used by most digital point-and-shoot cameras, Four Thirds system, Micro Four Thirds system cameras and medium format 645 cameras. The 4:3 digital format popularity was developed to match the then prevailing digital displays of the time, 4:3 computer monitors.
The next several formats have their roots in classic film photography image sizes, both the classic 35 mm film camera, and the multiple format Advanced Photo System (APS) film camera. The APS camera was capable of selecting any of three image formats, APS-H ("High Definition" mode), APS-C ("Classic" mode) and APS-P ("Panoramic" mode).
is used by classic 35 mm film cameras using a 24 mm × 36 mm image size, and their digital derivatives represented by DSLRs. Typical DSLRs come in two flavors, the so-called professional "full frame" (24 mm × 36 mm) sensors and variations of smaller, so called "APS-C" sensors. The term "APS" is derived from another film format known as the APS and the "-C" refers to "Classic" mode, which exposed images over a smaller area (25.1 mm × 16.7 mm) but retaining the same "classic" 3:2 proportions as full frame 35 mm film cameras.
When discussing DSLR's and their non-SLR derivatives, the term APS-C has become an almost generic term. The two major camera manufacturers Canon and Nikon each developed and established sensor standards for their own versions of APS-C sized and proportioned sensors. Canon actually developed two standards, APS-C and a slightly larger area APS-H (not to be confused with the APS-H film format), while Nikon developed its own APS-C standard, which it calls DX. Regardless of the different flavors of sensors, and their varying sizes, they are close enough to the original APS-C image size, and maintain the classic 3:2 image proportions that these sensors are generally known as an "APS-C" sized sensor.
The reason for DSLR's image sensors being the flatter 3:2 versus the taller point-and-shoot 4:3 is that DSLRs were designed to match the legacy 35 mm SLR film, whereas the majority of digital cameras were designed to match the predominant computer displays of the time, with VGA, SVGA, XGA and UXGA all being 4:3. Widescreen computer monitors did not become popular until the advent of HDTV, which uses a 16:9 image aspect ratio.
16:9 is another format that has its roots in the APS film camera.[citation needed] Known as APS-H (30.2 mm × 16.7 mm), with the "-H" denoting "High Definition", the 16:9 format is also the standard image aspect ratio for HDTV. 16:9 is gaining popularity as a format in all classes of consumer still cameras which also shoot High Definition (HD) video. When still cameras have an HD video capability, some can also record stills in the 16:9 format, ideal for display on HD televisions and widescreen computer displays.
is another format that can find its roots in the APS film camera. Known as APS-P (30.2 × 9.5 mm), with the -P" denoting "Panorama", the 3:1 format was used for panorama photography. The APS-P panorama standard is the least adhered to any APS standard, and panoramic implementation varies with by manufacturer on different cameras, with the only commonality being that the image is much longer than it is tall, in the classic "panorama" style.
Common print sizes in the U.S. (in inches) include 4×6 (1.5), 5×7 (1.4), 4×5 and 8×10 (1.25), and 11×14 (1.27); large format cameras typically use one of these aspect ratios. Medium-format cameras typically have format designated by nominal sizes in centimeters (6×6, 6×7, 6×9, 6×4.5), but these numbers should not be interpreted as exact in computing aspect ratios. For example, the usable height of 120-format roll film is 56mm, so a width of 70mm (as in 6×7) yields an aspect ratio of 4:5 — ideal for enlarging to make an 8×10" portrait. Print sizes are usually defined by their portrait dimensions (tall) while equipment aspect ratios are defined by their landscape dimensions (wide, flipped sideways). A good example of this a 4×6 print (6 inch wide by 4 inch tall landscape) perfectly matches the 3:2 aspect ratio of a DSLR/35 mm, since 6/2=3 and 4/2=2.
For analog projection of photographic slides, projector and screen use a 1:1 aspect ratio, supporting horizontal and vertical orientation equally well. In contrast, digital projection technology typically supports vertically oriented images only at a fraction of the resolution of landscape-oriented images. For example, projecting a digital still image having a 3:2 aspect ratio on a 16:9 projector employs 84.3% of available resolution in horizontal orientation, but only 37.5% in vertical orientation.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Near the end of last year, a friend told me that Frederik Peeters had come out with a new book called Sandcastle. I was already a fan of his graphic novel Blue Pills and realized that it had been ten years since its original French release from Atrabile. It seemed like a great time to ask Peeters a few questions about his comics and himself.
This interview was conducted by email between November 2011 and March 2012.
ERIC BUCKLER: It says in the author information in Sandcastle that Pierre Levy had met you in relation to a Blue Pills movie. Can you tell us any more about that?
FREDERIK PEETERS: Pierre Oscar is a movie director, especially of documentaries. Something like seven years ago, he contacted me to put an option on the rights of Blue Pills. He then came to meet me in Geneva, and he filmed some interviews with me and my family for preparatory work for his project, and we became friends. Unfortunately, years passing by, it wasn't possible to make the movie, because of financial reasons. But we kept on seeing each other, and one day, he said he had written a graphic novel scenario especially for me. I answered I wouldn’t do it, because I wanted to work on my own stories, but I accepted to read it. And so it appeared obvious to me that I had to draw it, the story was so good, the characters, and especially this central very simple and yet brilliant idea. It was kind of inspired by the Luis Buñuel’s movie El Angel Exterminador, but Pierre Oscar upgraded it in something more vicious and metaphysical, with a touch of the B-series.
BUCKLER: You start this book much in the same way as Blue Pills, there are close-up, or maybe nondescript panels that end up being parts of a beach, but at first could be anything, like the cellular drawings in the beginning of Pills and also the first panels of your series Lupus. What was your intent?
PEETERS: The reason concerning Blue Pills and Lupus is very simple. It’s because they are improvised. I mean, I really don’t know what I am going to draw and tell when I grab the first page. I know the subject of course, the autobiography of a part of my life, or science fiction, and I have a vague feeling of how to start—a context, maybe the main character—and the rest comes while I am drawing strange abstract images, like drawings you make when you’re on the phone. It’s a way to start the engine, if you like, it allows to open a door in the brain. Concerning Sandcastle, it’s different. I wanted to make the reader feel that, starting from a distant overhead, he’s entering slowly a closed area he couldn’t escape from. And yet, the whole background is there from the beginning, the water, the cliffs, the plants, the sky. The story is about a lot of characters stuck in a place, and the physical movements between them are rather complicated to organize in a comic strip language. It’s something more theatrical, so it’s necessary that the reader has in mind a clear view of where they are and how it is built right from the beginning.
BUCKLER: On several pages in Sandcastle you include little snippets of beach life like jellyfish and fish and environment. What made you stop at those specific points and place those throughout the book?
PEETERS: First it‘s a way to put rhythm in the story, give the feeling that time is passing. It’s one of the only ways I have to do it, because everything happens in one single place with no trace of civilization or technology, and I cannot show something outside of that environment. Also, I cannot fill every frame of the book with the characters. I use the changing of light, the moving shadows, and of course, the sun. And second, it’s obviously a way to show that nature is in the center of the story, or more precisely, the relationship of man and nature, and who is the true master in the game. Pierre Oscar says the core of the book has something to do with the Promethean destiny of mankind, global warming and environmental crisis.
BUCKLER: Did you use brush on Sandcastle?
PEETERS: Yes I did. Pentel cartridges brush. It’s my favorite tool. I’ve worked with pen and ink, watercolor, pastels; I’ve tried many things. Brush is fast, convenient, sensual, and it has something smooth in the lines but quite difficult to tame at the same time. Otherwise, when I draw sketches in my notebook, I generally use a pen with a straight metal point
BUCKLER: Did you use specific people as models for the beach characters? If so, who were they, and why those people?
PEETERS: Yes, I used some friends, some children around me, and also Jacques Attali, a famous French intellectual, as the SF writer. It was convenient, because all the characters had to be very strong and different from each other, always in order to clarify the reading process. They all had to be clearly alive in my mind, I had to know their way of thinking, the way they move etc… I had to relate to thirteen characters, so it was much more easy to use people that already exist. I chose them according to how they were depicted in the script. For instance, the father that first appears in the book seems to have ecological preoccupations, so I used the face of a friend of mine who has the same preoccupations. And Jacques Attali is very often ridiculous and has opinions on everything, so it was ironically funny to give his face to the writer.
BUCKLER: How did you go about applying the aging process to the characters?
PEETERS: That was the most challenging and exciting part of the work. Usually, in a graphic novel, characters are always the same, and the backgrounds are always changing. Here, it’s the complete opposite. I just made a lot of sketches before I started. It was quite easy to age those who were already adults, adding some lines, digging the faces, making the bodies softer and heavier, removing some hair, but it was quite difficult to draw the children as adults, because we change a lot during the teenage years, and I had to be sure they would stay recognizable. Also, they had to look a little bit like a mix of their parents.
BUCKLER: This is the tenth anniversary of the original Atrabile Blue Pills. Can you talk about how you feel towards the man you depicted yourself as in those panels ten years ago?
PEETERS: I don’t think this way. The present and future seem more interesting to me. In this book, it’s exactly me, but ten years younger. It just shows that people evolve. But I’m totally concentrated on my actual projects, I’m not very nostalgic.
BUCKLER: Are you still with Cati [the HIV-positive woman Peeters depicts a romance with in Blue Pills]?
PEETERS: Yes.
BUCKLER: What is the presence of HIV in your world today?
PEETERS: We’ve had a little girl, HIV negative, eight years ago. Cati's son is going to be 15. With the evolution of treatments, I can say that fear has almost disappeared from our lives. It’s still sometimes difficult for her to live with guilt, but I will not talk in her name. All I can say is that we have the same everyday and existential problems as every middle-class occidental parents… We are much more preoccupied with years passing by, the future of our children, and the meaning of life than with HIV.
BUCKLER: Have you gotten feedback from readers who are familiar with HIV?
PEETERS: Not particularly. It’s more a book about a love story than about HIV. I never presented it this way. The strangest experience I had was a phone interview with a journalist in Korea, who was stunned by the fact that a man could talk so freely about his intimate feelings. We didn’t talk at all about illness, she just wanted me to give some advice to the readers on how to be happy in love. A bit like a special adviser, or a guru if you want. Totally surrealistic to me…
BUCKLER: What kind of feedback do you normally experience from fans, and I guess the comics community in general?
PEETERS: Honestly, I don’t know. It appears that a certain amount of people like what I do. Some journalists tell me nice things, but aren’t they telling nice things to every artist? And some readers talk to me when they wait for signatures, but usually, they are very silent. And I cannot say I’m the kind of man who’s fishing for compliments. Everyday work is the only thing that counts. Even if I must say that when I get a gentle message, like the other day, from Guy Delisle, saying that Aâma is great, it is very pleasant.
BUCKLER: When you met Cati, it seems like you experienced a profound level of life changing things all at once; love, proximity of a major illness, parental emotions, sexuality. How did that change you? What was your brain like before and after Cati?
PEETERS: Again, I don’t see it that way. You know, luckily, I had experienced sexuality before! The problem is that, when you read the book, everything is organized, compressed and amplified. My goal is always to offer a reading experience, something that makes you think and feel complex emotions, not to make a realistic documentary. In reality, the whole process, the meeting, the questions, everything took a lot of time. It might be like when you experience real war, opposite to movies like Apocalypse Now. The real war must be slow, sometimes boring, even daily. But now, with detachment, I can say that this encounter forced me to make a series of choices and decisions, and therefore to become an “adult.” But you know, millions of people make very difficult decisions everyday, and nobody notices it.
BUCKLER: What is more of a challenge for you: working from your own story, or working on something written by another?
PEETERS: Working on my own stories, definitely. Because I don’t write the story before, so I have to write and draw in the same time. And it’s emotionally more demanding, because I can’t help myself putting a lot of my life and fears in my stories.
BUCKLER: Why do you feel like comics are a good home for a personal narrative like Blue Pills?
PEETERS: Because there’s no interference between the artist and the reader. It goes straight from my brain to the brain of someone else. There’s no actor, producer, technical or financial problems. You can play with visual symbols, silences and face expressions, which is impossible in literature, and yet, it involves a reading process that works like a mirror in which the reader puts his own emotions, unlike cinema, which is a more dictatorial form of art. Everybody tends to see the same spectacle in cinema, in graphic novels, the reader is part of the creation, so it’s perfect for intimate stories centered on human aspects.
BUCKLER: There is a theme of mortality and a sort of sickness that the characters in Sandcastle have at the beach, one that makes death appear quicker than expected. Did you use any of your experiences with the world of HIV as the "Rhino" in the room?
PEETERS: No, I cannot say that. I’m not the author in Sandcastle. I see it more like metaphysical fairy tale if you like. The reader is not much involved as in Blue Pills, where you live things through the main character point of view. In Sandcastle, you’re more like a distant spectator. Blue Pills talks about two persons, Sandcastle talks about the whole world. But you could say that the aspects that appealed to me in the Sandcastle script, the deterioration of the flesh, time, what we do with our lives, why and who you desire and love, couple as an antidote to loneliness, etc., are already present in Blue Pills. But I guess they’re present in all my books, because they’re present in my head.
What is on the horizon for you as far as projects you can tell us about?
PEETERS: I started a science fiction serial story called Aâma. The first volume was published last year by Gallimard. Each volume is 84 pages long, the format of the original drawings is huge, I also do the story and the colors. It’s a big adventure saga, with a lot of characters, a gorilla-robot named Churchill, big fights, but also family intrigues, and some philosophical questions about time, transhumanism, the status of technology in our lives. I’m totally dedicated to it, and it’s gonna last a few years.
Sandcastle is available from SelfMadeHero in English. Pachyderme will be published in English translation by SelfMadeHero in September 2012.There are not too many big eats in Denver but this is one: 7 pound breakfast burrito at Jack-n-Grill. Yesterday - with T-Bonz, the scale, and the camera - I went to check it out.Females who finish it get free food at Jack-n-Grill for life. Males get TWO things: JACK and SQUAT.Before going inside, me:We ordered. T, a combo plate. Me, the grande:The burrito is stuffed with potatoes, eggs, onions, and ham bits. Lots of cheese on top. Smothered in green chile or red. I got the pork green chile.Here it is compared to a combination plate:The dish it came in was maybe 18" x 5" and deep. The two big tortillas did not go all around it but they sort of hooded the sides and top.The burrito was steaming hot for about the first twenty minutes or so.For the first half of it or so it was very delicious. The pork green chile is very very good. Trade out bacon for the ham and this thing would kick ass.I kept eating.And eating..And eating...I think this was the point:Waving the white flag:What was left:I separated it into a pound on the left and a pound on the right. Maybe - MAYBE - I could have stuffed one side in me, but not both sides.When I weighed in after, as expected up 5:The stomach bulge is usually a bit lower. It was riding high then:Next time: 1. Get bacon. 2. No Coke. 3. Do not eat breakfast first.Here is a link to the full slideshow of photos More to follow. Video. Loud guy.
Labels: what i eatEverything awful about Donald Trump’s campaign for president has just been summed up in one tweet from his son, Eric Trump. The younger Trump responded to presidential contender Ted Cruz’s trip to the Bronx, and the less-than-friendly reception he got, with a meme taken from “The Sopranos.” He has deleted the tweet, but the Internet is forever, so there’s a screen cap.
There they are, the Soprano crime family, offering to teach Sen. Cruz about “New York values” with their knuckles.
Here we see in one place all the main pathologies of the Trump campaign. Where to start?
1) It plays fast and loose with the facts.
Donald Trump’s campaign has always had a very tangential relationship with issues like detailed knowledge and factual accuracy. Those failed Trump businesses? Let’s pretend they’re still going strong. The nuclear triad? Whatever. Abraham Lincoln? He was just this guy who did some stuff. Who cares. So it’s no surprise that one of Trump’s boys would try to defend “New York values” with an image of Hollywood actors playing characters from New Jersey. That hits the mark just about as well as any Trump campaign claim.
To be sure, there may not be a big cultural difference between the Jersey Shore and some of the blue-collar New Yorkers Trump is trying to pander to—from the comfort of Park Avenue. But then notice what he considers, in his Park Avenue condescension, to be culturally typical of New Yorkers: being a thug.
2) It plays around with thuggishness.
The whole premise of this Sopranos meme is to play around with the idea of Trump supporters as a bunch of tough guys who are going to beat up Cruz. It could be brushed off as a joke except for the history of Trump supporters brawling with protesters and his campaign staff roughing up reporters.
When they’re not literally pushing people around, they dabble in blackmail and threats of retaliation: Trumps’ staff and surrogates smear the reputations of female reporters and campaign staff, he threatens to dig up damaging information on donors to rival campaigns, and Trump threatens to crack down on an insufficiently fawning press.
The Trump campaign’s whole idea of looking “tough” is to look like a bunch of soulless brutes. So why not try to draft Tony Soprano and his boys? This isn’t just pandering to the mob, it’s pandering to the Mob.
Isn’t it interesting that this is their concept of the regular guy on the street?
3) It asks voters to live down to their stereotypes.
Hey, let’s appeal to blue-collar guys in the New York City area by promoting caricatures of them as Italian-American mobsters!
There was a time when people would have found this kind of stereotyping offensive. But the genius of the Trump campaign has been to convince people they’re defying the elites when they live down to the elites’ worst expectations of them. The elites think Italian-Americans from Long Island are a bunch of low-class thugs and mobsters? Fine, then, be mobsters. The elites think you’re xenophobic rednecks? Be xenophobic rednecks. They think you’re a bunch of racists? Fine, then, be racists! That’ll show ’em. (This is basically the “alt-right.”) The elites think you’re uninformed and don’t care about the issues? Yeah, well, who cares about knowing stuff, that’s for book nerds who like to ponder.
By itself Eric Trump’s tweet would just be a joke. But it doesn’t come by itself, it comes as part of a larger pattern, the unique populist style of Donald Trump.
Traditional conservative populism is: the elites think you’re rotten, but the joke’s on them because you’re actually better than them. You’re honest, hard-working, salt-of-earth people with heartland values, unlike those corrupt, effete, cynical jerks. This was often exaggerated and could amount to reverse snobbery, but there sure was something to it.
Trump’s version of populism is different. His message is: the elites think you’re rotten, so you might as well give up trying to be good. You’re never going to be politically correct enough, so throw out all standards of decency. They’re going to hate you anyway, so you might as well be what they hate you for. It’s an appeal to popular vice instead of popular virtue.
That’s the root of what’s awful about Donald Trump’s campaign: instead of offering voters a better version of themselves, he wants them to be the worst version of themselves. He wants to rise to highest office by dragging everybody else down.
Everybody ought to find that offensive, New Yorkers most of all.With four weeks left in the NFL season, teams are making their final push for playoff spots. The intensity of games that matter pick up tremendously.
When I was a rookie, my offensive line coach told us there are four game speeds in the NFL and each one is exponentially faster and more violent: Preseason, the first few weeks of the season, the playoff push, and the playoffs. At that point, he hadn’t been to a Super Bowl, but I’d assume that’s the fifth speed. He was spot on. It’s human nature to play with a greater sense of urgency when something is at stake.
There are plenty of mar |
-- msi 3. 0. 0. 0 AdditionalArguments msu 3. 0. 0. 0 PowerShellGet 1. 0. 0. 1 PackageManagementProvider, Type, Scope, InstallUpdate, … Programs 3. 0. 0. 0 IncludeWindowsInstaller, IncludeSystemComponent
Let us dwell a moment on the providers displayed for your machine:
Msi : Allows you to manage.MSI files.
: Allows you to manage.MSI files. Msu : Allows you to manage.MSU files (Microsoft Update Files).
: Allows you to manage.MSU files (Microsoft Update Files). PowerShellGet : Allows you to manage PowerShell modules stored in an online gallery. The default package repository is www.PowerShellGallery.org.
: Allows you to manage PowerShell modules stored in an online gallery. The default package repository is www.PowerShellGallery.org. Programs: Allows the inventory of available programs via “Add and Remove Programs and Features“
After identifying the provider that you want to query, we can use the following command to get the list of available packages in the repositories (source):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PS > find -package -provider PowerShellGet PSReadline -allversions The provider 'nuget v2.8.5.206' is not installed. nuget may be manually downloaded from https : / / oneget. org / Microsoft. PackageManagement. NuGetProvider -2. 8. 5. 206. dll and installed. Would you like PackageManagement to automatically download and install 'nuget' now? [ Y ] Yes [ N ] No [ S ] Suspend [? ] Help ( default is "Y" ) :
Windows immediately searches for a provider named “Nuget”. When this provider is not installed, it offers to add it automatically for you. So you can press “Y” to continue. What is this provider?
NuGet: It is a package provider to manage NuGet packages. NuGet is a free and open-source package manager designed for the Microsoft platform.
After installing this provider, the list of packages is displayed.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Name Version Source Summary -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- - PSReadline 1. 2 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 13 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 12 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 11 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 10 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 9 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host PSReadline 1. 0. 0. 8 PSGallery Great command line editing in the PowerShell console host
In this result, we see that there are several versions of the package and they are available from the same source, namely the “PSGallery” repository. To install this package, nothing more simple, just use the “Install-Package” cmdlet:
1 2 3 4 5 PS > Install-Package PSReadline -MinimumVersion 1. 2 The package ( s ) come from a package source that is not marked as trusted. Are you sure you want to install software from 'PSGallery'? [ Y ] Yes [ A ] Yes to All [ N ] No [ L ] No to All [ S ] Suspend [? ] Help ( default is "N" ) : Y
What did we actually do? Let us take the previous diagram to identify the steps:
Step 1 and step 2 : Using the “ Install-Package ” cmdlet to install the PSReadline module.
: Using the “ ” cmdlet to install the module. Step 3 : Using the provider and making this module available. In our case it is the “ PowerShellGe t” module.
: Using the provider and making this module available. In our case it is the “ t” module. Step 4: Install the package from the “PowerShell Gallery” repository which hosts this package.
The number of packages is constantly increasing. To prove this, we can use PowerShell:
1 2 3 PS > Find-Package | Measure-Object Count : 929
I recommend using the Out-GridView cmdlet to view the list of these packages:
1 PS > Find-Package | Sort-Object – Property Name | Out-GridView
If you analyze the result, you will find that it only contains PowerShell modules. This is normal because we only have a single repository installed. Let’s see all the available registered package sources by using the “Get-PackageSource” cmdlet:
1 2 3 4 5 PS > Get-PackageSource Name ProviderName IsTrusted Location -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- PSGallery PowerShellGet False https : / / www. powershellgallery. com / api / v2 /
You will soon find this rather too limited, so let’s immediately install a new provider that will allow us to use new repositories. But how to know which providers can be installed? Well it is simple, the “Find-PackageProvider” cmdlet displays them for you:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 PS > Find-PackageProvider Name Version Source Summary -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- - nuget 2. 8. 5. 206 https : / / onege... NuGet provider for the OneGet meta -package chocolatey 2. 8. 5. 130 https : / / onege... ChocolateyPrototype provider for the ContainerImage 0. 6. 4. 0 PSGallery This is a PackageManagement provider MyAlbum 0. 1. 2 PSGallery MyAlbum provider discovers the photos in GitHubProvider 0. 5 PSGallery GitHub -as -a -Package - PackageManagement TSDProvider 0. 2 PSGallery PowerShell PackageManager provider to GistProvider 0. 6 PSGallery Gist -as -a -Package - PackageManagement NanoServerPackage 0. 1. 1. 0 PSGallery A PackageManagement provider to discover, OfficeProvider 1. 0. 0. 1 PSGallery OfficeProvider allows users to install GitLabProvider 1. 2. 0 PSGallery GitLab PackageManagement provider WSAProvider 1. 0. 0. 4 PSGallery Provider to Discover, Install and
Currently “Package Management” looks for the providers in the PowerShellGallery.com and in Azure blob store. So I install the “Chocolatey” provider, specifying the provider release.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 PS > Find-PackageProvider -Name "Chocolatey" -AllVersions Name Version Source Summary -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- - chocolatey 2. 8. 5. 130 https : / / onege... ChocolateyPrototype provider for the OneGet meta -package chocolatey 2. 8. 5. 101 https : / / onege... chocolatey provider for the OneGet meta -package manager chocolatey 2. 8. 5. 24 https : / / onege... chocolatey provider for the OneGet meta -package manager PS > Install-PackageProvider -Name "Nuget" -RequiredVersion "2.8.5.201" – Force PS > Get-PackageProvider Name Version DynamicOptions -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Chocolatey 2. 8. 5. 130 SkipDependencies, Continu msi 3. 0. 0. 0 AdditionalArguments msu 3. 0. 0. 0 NuGet 2. 8. 5. 206 Destination, ExcludeVersi PowerShellGet 1. 0. 0. 1 PackageManagementProvider Programs 3. 0. 0. 0 IncludeWindowsInstaller,
Note: The RequiredVersion parameter is not mandatory, because by default, the latest version will be installed.
For those who want to do the installation manually, the following command will do what you want.
1 PS > Register-PackageSource -Name chocolatey -Location http : / / chocolatey. org / api / v2 -Provider PSModule -Trusted -Verbose
The number of package available for installation is now 5001!
1 2 3 4 PS > Find-Package | Measure-Object Count : 5001
And we can now deploy as much software as we want. I will let you imagine the possibilities of automation that is available to you through this new feature.
1 2 3 4 5 PS > Install-Package – Name SqlServer2014Express PS > Install-Package – Name Nginx PS > Install-Package – Name Logmein. Client PS > Install-Package – Name VisualStudio2012Professional …
I previously installed the “7Zip” package on my machine, and now I validate that the installation was successful:
1 2 3 4 5 6 PS > Get-Package -Name 7zip Name Version Source ProviderName -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 7zip 16. 02. 0. 20160811 C : \ Chocolatey \ lib \ 7zip. 16. 02.... Chocolatey 7zip. install 16. 02. 0. 20160811 C : \ Chocolatey \ lib \ 7zip. instal... Chocolatey
The cmdlets of the “PackageManagement” module are simple enough to understand, so I do not need to detail all of them. For more details on their use, I recommend the Microsoft documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/gallery/psget/oneget/packagemanagement_cmdlets
If you are wondering how to update an installed package on your machine? Well, there is no way to perform this task. You must uninstall your package and reinstall it to get the latest version. It’s very frustrating but I did not find any official solution. You can create a custom function which will uninstall and then reinstall the package. Missing a cmdlet like “Update-Package”. If you have another option, please let me know in the comments section.
Note: You can come up with another provider named “APPX” which will be used with Windows Nano Server to deploy your packages on a “Nano Server” machine:
1 PS > Find-Package – Provider appx
Several cmdlets are provided with this provider. For more information on using this provider, please refer to this TechNet article: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nanoserver/2015/11/18/installing-windows-server-apps-on-nano-server/
To go further
As a sysadmin, you would probably want to use a trusted repository so as to deploy packages on your machines. Well, it is possible to create one’s own repository.
Not being an expert with the Visual Studio tool that you will need for this step, I suggest you to begin with this official guide: https://docs.nuget.org/create/hosting-your-own-nuget-feeds
You will subsequently record a repository and associate it with your provider. For this, the following command should be used:
1 PS > Register-PackageSource -Name "MyRepository" -Location "http://domain/psmodule/Features/api/v3" – ProviderName "MyProvider" – Trusted -Verbose
For those of you who wish to continue to use the “public” repositories, I suggest that you mark them as “Trusted”. By default, the repositories are marked as “untrusted”, so the following command will trust them and you will have no warning message:
1 PS > Set -PackageSource -Name chocolatey – Trusted
If you no longer want to use a repository, do not worry, you can remove it very simply:
1 PS > Unregister-PackageSource – name Chocolatey
Conclusion
We have seen in this article a new way of managing packages on Windows Clients and Servers machines. This feature, called “PackageManagement“, provides a very adaptable way of administration for sysadmins. This feature allows you to automate the deployment of your applications on your workstations and servers. Users can also use this feature to independently install packages.
From purely a personal point of view, I prefer to use Desired State Configuration (DSC) to deploy packages via the DSC resource named “package”. This allows me to control exactly the versions used on my machines and also their origin. These repositories are certainly controlled but in a production environment, it is difficult to deploy software without being sure of their compliance and integrity. For more information about this, I refer you to the series on PowerShell DSC.
PackageManagement is a breakthrough in the automation process for deploying your packages on Windows platforms because it not only gives you a feature that has existed on Linux for a long time, but also allows you to use a wide range of existing galleries and repositories.This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it. Here's the latest example: factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations – but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents – and profits. There is an alternative to this sick system, but we are choosing to ignore it.
To understand this tale, we have to start with an apparent mystery. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been correctly warning for months that if swine flu spreads to the poorest parts of the world, it could cull hundreds of thousands of people – or more. Yet they have also been telling the governments of the poor world not to go ahead and produce as much Tamiflu – the only drug we have to reduce the symptoms, and potentially save lives – as they possibly can.
In the answer to this whodunnit, there lies a much bigger story about how our world works today.
Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month
Our governments have chosen, over decades, to allow a strange system for developing medicines to build up. Most of the work carried out by scientists to bring a drug to your local pharmacist – and into your lungs, or stomach, or bowels – is done in government-funded university labs, paid for by your taxes.
Drug companies usually come in late in the process of development, and pay for part of the expensive, but largely uncreative final stages, like buying some of the chemicals and trials that are needed. In return, then they own the exclusive rights to manufacture and profit from the resulting medicine for years. Nobody else can make it.
Although it's not the goal of the individuals working within the system, the outcome is often deadly. The drug companies who owned the patent for Aids drugs went to court to stop the post-Apartheid government of South Africa producing generic copies of it – which are just as effective – for $100 a year to save their dying citizens. They wanted them to pay the full $10,000 a year to buy the branded version – or nothing. In the poor world, the patenting system every day puts medicines beyond the reach of sick people.
This is where the solution to the swine flu mystery comes in. Ordinary democratic citizens were so disgusted by the attempt to deprive South Africa of life-saving medicine that public pressure won a small concession in the global trading rules. It was agreed that, in an overwhelming public health emergency, poor countries would be allowed to produce generic drugs. They are the exact same product, but without the brand name – or the fat patent payments to drug companies in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands.
So under the new rules, the countries of the poor world should be entitled to start making as much generic Tamiflu as they want. There are companies across India and China who say they are raring to go. But Roche – the drug company that owns the patent – doesn't want the poor world making cheaper copies for themselves. They want people to buy the branded version, from which they receive profits. Although not obliged to, they have licensed a handful of companies in the developing world to make the treatment – but they have to pay for license, and they can't possibly meet the demand.
And the WHO seems to be backing Roche – against the rest of us. They are the ones best qualified to judge what constitutes an overwhelming emergency, justifying a breaching of the patent rules. And their message is: Don't use the loophole.
Professor Brook Baker, an expert on drug patenting, says: "Why do they behave like this? Because of direct or indirect pressure from the pharmaceutical companies. It's shocking."
What will be the end-result? James Love, director of Knowledge Economy International, which campaigns against the current patenting system, says: "Poor countries are not as prepared as they could have been. If there's a pandemic, the number of people who die will be much greater than it had to be. Much greater. It's horrible."
The argument in defence of this system offered by Big Pharma is simple, and sounds reasonable at first: we need to charge large sums for "our" drugs so we can develop more life-saving medicines. We want to develop as many treatments as we can, and we can only do that if we have revenue. A lot of the research we back doesn't result in a marketable drug, so it's an expensive process.
But a detailed study by Dr Marcia Angell, the former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, says that only 14 per cent of their budgets go on developing drugs – usually at the uncreative final part of the drug-trail. The rest goes on marketing and profits. And even with that puny 14 per cent, drug companies squander a fortune developing "me-too" drugs – medicines that do exactly the same job as a drug that already exists, but has one molecule different, so they can take out a new patent, and receive another avalanche of profits.
As a result, the US Government Accountability Office says that far from being a font of innovation, the drug market has become "stagnant". They spend virtually nothing on the diseases that kill the most human beings, like malaria, because the victims are poor, so there's hardly any profit to be sucked out.
We all suffer as a result of this patent dysfunction. The European Union's competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, recently concluded that Europeans pay 40 per cent more for their medicines than they should because of this "rotten" system – money that could be saving many lives if it was redirected towards real health care.
Why would we keep this system, if it is so bad? The drug companies have spent more than $3bn on lobbyists and political "contributions" over the past decade in the US alone. They have paid politicians to make the system work in their interests. If you doubt how deeply this influence goes, listen to a Republican congressman, Walter Burton, who admitted of the last big health care legislation passed in the US in 2003: "The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill."
There is a far better way to develop medicines, if only we will take it. It was first proposed by Joseph Stiglitz, the recent Nobel Prize winner for economics. He says: "Research needs money, but the current system results in limited funds being spent in the wrong way."
Stiglitz's plan is simple. The governments of the Western world should establish a multi-billion dollar prize fund that will give payments to scientists who develop cures or vaccines for diseases. The highest prizes would go to cures for diseases that kill millions of people, like malaria. Once the pay-out is made, the rights to use the treatment will be in the public domain. Anybody, anywhere in the world, could manufacture the drug and use it to save lives.
The financial incentive in this system for scientists remains exactly the same – but all humanity reaps the benefits, not a tiny private monopoly and those lucky few who can afford to pay their bloated prices. The irrationalities of the current system – spending a fortune on me-too drugs, and preventing sick people from making the medicines that would save them – would end.
It isn't cheap – it would cost 0.6 per cent of GDP – but in the medium-term it would save us all a fortune because our health care systems would no longer have to pay huge premiums to drug companies. Meanwhile, the cost of medicine would come crashing down for the poor – and tens of millions would be able to afford it for the first time.
Yet moves to change the current system are blocked by the drug companies and their armies of lobbyists. That's why the way we regulate the production of medicines across the world is still designed to serve the interests of the shareholders of the drug companies – not the health of humanity.
The idea of ring-fencing life-saving medical knowledge so a few people can profit from it is one of the great grotesqueries of our age. We have to tear down this sick system – so the sick can live. Only then we can globalise the spirit of Jonas Salk, the great scientist who invented the polio vaccine, but refused to patent it, saying simply: "It would be like patenting the sun."
j.hari@independent.co.uk
To read Johann's article about how swine flu may have been caused by our hunger for cheap meat, click here.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowFull NPR Interview With Ivins' Attorney Paul Kemp
Ivins Lawyer Rebuts DOJ Anthrax Allegations The DOJ says it's confident Army scientist Bruce Ivins sent the deadly anthrax letters in 2001. But Ivins' lawyer says dozens, if not hundreds, of scientists and contractors had access to those same anthrax spores. READ A DETAILED LOOK at the government's allegations and Ivins' defense.
Transcript: DOJ News Conference On Ivins READ A TRANSCRIPT of the Aug. 6, 2008, news conference by U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, FBI Assistant Director Joseph Persichini and other officials to discuss the government's investigation of Bruce Ivins, an Army microbiologist suspected in the 2001 anthrax-letter attacks.
In his first sit-down interview about anthrax suspect Bruce E. Ivins, attorney Paul Kemp explains why he thinks the Justice Department's case against the late Army microbiologist is weak.
Ivins, who committed suicide July 29, 2008, was a prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people.
Laura Sullivan, NPR correspondent: The main piece of evidence seems to be this idea that they could link the anthrax specifically to government microbiologist Bruce E. Ivins. What are your thoughts on that, do you think that's possible?
Paul Kemp, attorney for Bruce Ivins: I think it's certainly possible. If it was done, it apparently was done in 2005, and that's my understanding, both from the affidavits that were released [Wednesday, Aug. 6] and I think implied from the news conference in which [Jeff Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia] spoke.
The issue it raises is, all that does is establish that the anthrax that originally was in that beaker, excepting the science, and I'm not challenging that now, I would if I were in court.
It doesn't change the fact that it was virtually an open-access facility. There's no security. It had a key-entry pass the way that we have in this commercial office building. That's the extent of their security. No security guard, no guest registration, no surveillance cameras, this is as of 2001. That's all changed now. So that the scientists who would use it, dozens of them at Fort Detrick, they could withdraw samples, use it for their experiments. They may not use it all. What happened to the spare portions of that beaker, RMR-1029, the specimens that were used that weren't done if there had been, God forbid, someone up there who was planning to do this, then they have ready access to it for legitimate purposes, the development of anthrax vaccine.
So Wednesday, Taylor called the flask, the tube that contained the anthrax, the murder weapon. Do you believe that?
I believe that he has reasonable evidence, assuming the science is right, to show that the anthrax in question came from the beaker. I can't say that that anthrax that's ultimately used in the anthrax attacks wasn't subsequently changed, or that it didn't come from places that had received portions of that anthrax around the country — the University of New Mexico, Battelle Labs in Ohio. And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of scientists, contractors, students, professors, who used that same anthrax, the very anthrax that would have the same genetic components as RMR-1029
They say he was the "custodian" of the parent anthrax.
He was responsible for mixing the batch that became known as RMR-1029. He was one of the primary scientists, and had, since 1977, dozens of people working for him, all of whom had access to it. Plus, other people from other labs at Fort Detrick requested samples of it. Plus, these contractors off the base got samples of it. And nobody knows the quantities, how much, when they took it, what they did with what that they didn't use. So what is the significance, in terms of identifying the killer of these people from 2001, if all you've done is establish the beaker from an unspecified time, some sample that may have been withdrawn to prepare the anthrax that was done? You have no idea who did it. And in this country, we prosecute people, not beakers.
One of the things that came out of this idea that they can link the spore sample exactly to Ivins was that he also misled the FBI. There was this big thing in Wednesday's press conference about how they had asked for a sample from him, and that when they went out themselves and took the sample, that in fact it was different from what Ivins had given them.
So many problems with that statement. It's hard to know where to begin. No. 1, I'll try and be organized in this, he provided a sample in 2002, the month of February of 2002. He provided it in a way that he thought matched their directions that at that point were orally given.
There really were, I believe, two different vials or preparations, slides, I think they're called, and he did it in a way that ultimately matches their written protocol for the preparation of these slides. One of them is delivered to the government, and they either lose it or destroy it. The second one is sent to a well-known scientist, somebody on a caliber with Dr. Ivins, in terms of this kind of thing. Paul Keim is his name, now at the Northern Arizona State University, at that point from the University of New Mexico. And he has it, maintains it. It's available for analysis, and when the government loses their slide or destroys it, they do go to the slide that Dr. Keim has, and are able to make the analysis from that.
So, that's the story, as to the February one. Not only did he not falsify the submission of samples, this is a government screw-up, for the February sample.
In the April sample, here's what they contend is wrong. They contend that the nature of the slide he prepared was improperly taken from RMR-1029, that they wanted him to prepare a smear sample of the entire set of cultures in the beaker. What they say he submitted is what's called a "pure culture" sample. And to understand that, you have to know what these things look like.
If you examine grossly, meaning with the naked eye, the anthrax that is prepared in a petri dish, an open glass petri dish, you might extract some of this stuff from the beaker — you can't really work with the beaker because it has a narrow top — so you take it out and put it in a wide petri dish and you let it grow in an agar substance.
And it ferments and grows upon itself. There will be little globules of anthrax in a harmless form, it's like wet oatmeal or something like that, and you can dip down and take each globule, or a representative set of globules — that's called taking a "pure culture" sample.
What they wanted him to do with that open petri dish was to take a smear across them all. And that's what he did the first time. He submitted a smear sample, it was properly done.
The second time, he did the pure culture sample and sent it in. That should have been readily apparent to them, as soon as it was received. They don't get to it for a long time. RMR-1029 was there. It has never been adulterated. It has never been tampered with. Why didn't they go back and say, "You took a pure culture sample, can you take a smear sample?" Why didn't they go back and take a smear sample themselves? So that's a long-winded way to the first point.
Second point, he's polygraphed twice, during the same year. They ask him, you know, "Have you told us all you know about this? Are you hiding any evidence?" as part of these normal polygraphs, but also that are directed by the investigators here.
They now discount the reliability of his passing in the polygraphs because it was conducted by the Defense Department, not by the Justice Department. And so we're left with this disparagement of the Defense Department, the same way Mr. Taylor disparaged the Defense Department yesterday during his news conference, saying, in a backhanded way, "Well, that's a matter for the Defense Department," namely, why was he allowed to continue working at the lab, with full access to these pathogens, right up to the end of the investigation?
So in your mind, this idea that the FBI came to him and said, "We need this specific sample," and that it was some kind of test and that he sent in something different, it just has no credence?
It is unbelievable to me that in, I guess the second-highest-profile case going on at the time, the first highest-profile case being the Sept. 11 attacks, in this time frame, that they wouldn't go take the sample themselves or direct him to do it while one of their agents watch him.
The final point, the biggest point: He doesn't get the written protocol as to how to submit the samples until May 24 of 2002. The sample was submitted at their direction on April 10 of 2002. They'll say, in defense of that screw-up, that he was present at a meeting at which they think it was discussed, that, "We want you to take smear samples."
That to me is inconceivable. It's part of an investigation of a case of this significance. All of that is beside the point. He'd already submitted a proper sample at the beginning of February, I forget the exact date, in February of 2002. And they lost the slide, or destroyed it. I don't know which. But [U.S. Attorney Ken] Kohl can tell you.
Was Ivins aware that the anthrax that he possessed in his own particular area in the lab was the same as the anthrax that was used in the letters?
He contended, and I'm not telling you what he discussed with me because that's privileged material and I can't discuss that, but if you look at the search warrant affidavits, he contended he was told by agents that they thought it was the same anthrax. And that's as of mid-, late 2002, I believe. The affidavit will correct me on that. So they have information six years before he's represented by me, that he was aware of the fact, and was told by an agent.
Now this agent doesn't have a recollection of telling him that, or disputes it. I forget which.
And I can understand how the agent might forget since the affidavit's not even prepared until Oct. 31 of 2007, again that's from memory, but I think that's right. So that's five years later, and I can't expect the agent to remember those kind of details. He doesn't say that Ivins is lying. He's saying, "I just don't remember having said that to him." OK, that's reasonable to me.
The passage of time, especially where my client has partnered with the FBI, is directed by them to review the ([ormer Senate Majority Leader Tom] Daschle spores, and other forensic evidence that's submitted, is helping them all along, passing polygraphs, doing everything they direct, submitting slides, not adulterating RMR-1029, not taking a portion of it....
You know, I mean, if you're the anthrax killer, and you're this evil genius that knows all about anthrax, and know that some sort of forensic testing can be done, why would you leave it in precisely the same genetic state one year later, one month later, seven years later, as it was in at the time of the killings, that makes no sense.
When did he go from being someone who was helping in the investigation to being the target of the investigation? When was he aware of that?
Well those are two different questions. In the FBI's mind, or, it's not just the FBI, it's the postal inspectors and others, but in law enforcement's mind, and this is repeated yesterday, they say what keys them to him is their ascertainment with this breakthrough science that the anthrax at least came from RMR-1029. Whether it was removed from it and made from that or removed from another set of anthrax, they don't know, but that is [what] was parented from that beaker. That's in March of 2005. He is brought before the grand jury and goes down there willingly without a lawyer and testifies in May of 2007, and I wasn't there.
And I could not have gone into the grand jury even if I were there because lawyers, no one's permitted into the grand jury. But he testified, he didn't take immunity, he didn't even invoke the Fifth Amendment, as he had done dozens of times beforehand, [he] answered every question they had.
Now they're saying, even though they have had their suspicions about him and attach all of this cosmic significance to the fact that it comes from RMR-1029, they've known that for two years and two months. He nevertheless goes there and answers all of their questions. And I think it's fair to say by then they had fully focused on him as a suspect.
At that point, how did he start reacting to the idea that he was the suspect in this case?
With me? I would never tell you that. That's a privileged matter.
When did he learn that he was the target?
To this date, a target letter has never been issued.
They make a big deal about what they call a "spike" in his late-night work, in the weeks before the anthrax letters were sent, that he was in the office at suspicious times, alone, in a particular part of the lab, that they questioned. They say this is not characteristic of his long-time work patterns. Is that true?
My understanding of it is different, that it was characteristic of his long-time work patterns and that he often went there. They're saying that he went more often at this time, at the times leading up to the two different mailings.
No. 1, they never verified for us the exact date of the mailings. No. 2, we never knew what the exact records were, but he'd been questioned about this, was questioned about it in the grand jury, gave them his best recollection, that he was having various family problems, both in his marriage, and concerning one of his children, at the time. And because of that, was having trouble getting work done during the day, went over there, was doing work at night, as he always did. And they had a chart showing he was always going in there, he just went more frequently during September and October, and then continued to do so right through the end of the year.
So it wasn't that he was in there like a mad scientist, whipping up an anthrax concoction, late at night?
To them, he certainly denied that, and presumably that would've come up on the polygraph test, and I don't know what the questions are. They refused to show me the polygraph questions and the polygraph protocols, meaning the response tapes. But I would assume the operator asked him a question something like, "Have you told law enforcement the truth concerning your activities around this time?" and that that would have generated a negative response.
In terms of the envelopes, they make a big deal about being able to tie defects in the envelopes that were used in the attacks to envelopes that they believe were sent to a post office box belonging to Ivins. Do you believe that the envelopes that Ivins purchased matched the envelopes in the anthrax attacks?
I have no information and I don't think there is any information of Ivins' purchasing envelopes. They didn't talk about that. They're saying, it was misstated yesterday, I guess it was properly stated in the affidavits, the person, [U.S. Attorney] Taylor, who spoke yesterday, garbled it or just got it wrong, and I'm not saying that's malicious, I think he just had a lot of detail to learn and didn't learn this detail.
They have a Secret Service document examiner who examined the stamps on these pre-franked envelopes [envelopes with prepaid postage] that |
plans to build 28 new schools across Ontario, and to renovate or expand an additional 23. The projects, totaling $474 million, represent “a strategic investment in student achievement and well-being,” Hunter said in a statement Friday. In Halton Region, five new elementary and secondary schools will be built in the booming area surrounding Milton, with $77 million from the province. A total of $67 million is earmarked for Peel region, where five elementary schools in Brampton and Caledon will be constructed, along with an addition to a Mississauga middle school.
Article Continued Below
York Region will see a new Catholic school in Stouffville and a new elementary school in Markham, as well as renovations to accommodate full-day kindergarten students at a Thornhill location, to the tune of $44 million. The province will invest $24 million in Toronto to replace the existing St. Antoine Daniel Catholic School with a new building in North York, pay for additions at Hodgson Senior Public School in central Toronto and Courcelette Public School in Scarborough, and to renovate two east-end high schools, Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute and Monarch Park Collegiate. Two new elementary schools in Oshawa will be built through a $21-million investment in Durham Region. Krista Wylie, founder of the Fix Our Schools campaign, stressed the details released Friday amount to a report back to taxpayers on how money already allocated will actually be spent. The $2.7-billion investment announced earlier for school repairs brings annual expenditures in line with what’s needed to keep the overall infrastructure from further deteriorating, she said. However, it’s unclear whether that money will be enough to also start reducing the ballooning repair backlog, now estimated at a whopping $15 billion, she said.
The investment in building new schools will help chip away at that backlog, Wylie added. Toronto parent Koo Chun, a member of the Hodgson parent council, welcomed the news about the middle school’s addition because it desperately needs more space for the Grade 6 students who will attend starting next year. Adding the younger grade will boost the school population to 900 kids from the current 600 in Grades 7 and 8.
Article Continued Below
“The funding is great news, I’m glad it’s happening because it’s the only way to accommodate all those kids,” she said. School boards in some of the fastest-growing regions were relieved at the news Friday. “Building new schools is good news for everyone as we work to provide the best facilities and programming for our students,” said Michael Barrett, chair of the Durham District School Board and trustee in Oshawa, where spaces are in demand. Story has been updated from a previous version.
Read more about:UNABLE TO BOARD: HMNZS Wellington and the vessel Kunlun in southern waters.
The navy was barred from boarding two boats fishing illegally for toothfish in Antarctic waters, which then tried to get away.
Captains of the Yongding and the Songhua have refused to let the crew board. The navy was attempting to verify the flag status of the Equatorial Guinea-flagged vessels after the Government gained permission from the central African nation overnight.
The Wellington's crew also wanted to gather evidence to use in any future prosecution after shooting video of the fishermen hauling aboard their illegal catch.
Supplied TOOTHFISHING: A crew member on the Kunlun.
In the past week they have busted three ships - linked to Spanish pirates - poaching in the Southern Ocean.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the Wellington's crew had a "legitimate right" to board "but the vessels refused to co-operate".
"Due to the conditions and the evasive tactics of the masters it was not possible to safely board these vessels," he added.
"While this is disappointing, it is important that we keep the safety of the New Zealand crew as our paramount consideration."
The boats are thought to be working in the freezing and remote waters for a notorious Spanish syndicate, and two of the ships have been internationally blacklisted.
The waters of the Southern Ocean, which were previously overfished, leading to the ban, are strictly regulated by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The delicacy, prized by top-end restaurants around the world, fetches about $70 a kilogramme.
McCully says the Government will share "considerable evidence collected so far" with other countries, Interpol and CCAMLR.
"We will also work with INTERPOL to take action against those aboard the ship, encouraging other countries to take legal action against the company which purportedly owns the vessels, and most importantly working with the Spanish authorities to investigate the links between the vessels and the Spanish-based syndicate, Vidal Armadores SA," he added.
Asked how the two fishing boats, which appear rusty and in poor repair, managed to evade the offshore patrol boat, a defence spokesman said: "Ask MFAT [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade]."
All questions to the navy on the operation have been referred to the foreign affairs ministry.
A spokeswoman for MFAT said: "It was an operational decision made for safety reasons."
READ MORE: Catching the most slippery of big fish'Tiger moms' vs. Western-style mothers? Stanford researchers find different but equally effective styles
Stanford research shows that Asian American children are motivated by their high-pressure mothers because those mothers often work alongside them – and the "selves overlap." Both Asian American and European American students evaluated their mothers positively and felt supported by them.
Shutterstock Stanford research shows the European American style of parenting works, but so does the vastly different Asian American approach.
Even if Asian and Western parenting styles differ radically, they represent two paths to the same destination, according to new Stanford research.
In 2011, Yale law Professor Amy Chua provoked a cultural clash with a Wall Street Journal article, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," that advocated a strict approach – "tiger parenting" – common in East Asia. The article suggested Western-style parenting was too permissive.
In the backlash to the article, critics accused Chua of over-controlling her children in her quest to make them succeed.
But as Stanford researchers Alyssa Fu and Hazel Markus suggest in a new study, both culture-centric approaches can be effective. Motivation, the researchers wrote, is understood to come from within an individual in Western families, while Asian children find strength in parental expectations. The bottom line is that children can be motivated either way.
"These findings underscore the importance of understanding cultural variation in how people construe themselves and their relationships to others. While European American parents give their children wings to fly on their own, Asian American parents provide a constant wind beneath their children's wings," wrote Fu, a doctoral student in psychology and the lead author of the study, and Markus, a professor of psychology.
On May 24, Fu is presenting the research at the annual convention for the Association for Psychological Science in San Francisco.
About the research, Fu noted, "We were interested in finding out how interdependence could be a motivating factor. The idea was to compare the Asian American cultural context to the European American one."
In the Asian American family model, the authors suggest, children learn the value of being interdependent with one's close others, especially one's mother. In contrast, European American families tend to emphasize that the person is and should be independent, even from one's mother. The focus is on developing self-esteem and self-efficacy in the child.
'Describe your mother'
In four separate studies involving 342 students from a Northern California high school, Fu and Markus examined "underlying models of self" and sources of parental motivation and pressure. The students were asked for open-ended descriptions of their mothers –"describe your mother in a couple of sentences." They also answered questions about how connected they felt with their moms as well as how much pressure they received.
For example, they asked students to directly rate how much pressure they experience from their mothers. Then, to assess whether students perceive this pressure by mothers as negative, the researchers asked participants to rate how much they feel supported by their mothers. And they examined the correlation between students' perception of maternal pressure and feelings of maternal support.
In two of the experiments, they examined how Asian American and European American students thought about their moms after they experienced failure in a word puzzle task that required them to think about themselves and others who are close to them.
The research findings suggest that Asian Americans and European Americans truly see moms differently.
For example, Asian American high schoolers were more likely to talk about their relationships with their mothers than were European Americans. Asian Americans more often noted that their moms helped them with homework or pushed them to succeed.
On the other hand, European American students were more apt to talk about their mothers as separate individuals – describing their appearance or their hobbies, for example.
Asian American students experienced more interdependence with their mothers and pressure from them. But the pressure does not strain their relationships with their mothers as much as it does with European Americans, according to the study.
"Following failure, Asian American students compared with European American ones are more motivated by their mothers, and are particularly motivated by pressure from their mothers when it conveys interdependence," or the feeling that mom is on their side in challenging times.
On the other hand, Fu explained, when European Americans experience failure, "It can cut you to the heart. Then, it's up to you to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and move on."
Sources of motivation
In Asian American families, mothers are more often physically near their children, reminding them to do their homework – and the children find energy in their mother's pressure. Thus, at the point of failure, when they were prompted to think of their mothers, they bounced back quicker than European Americans.
Asian American mothers and children alike see it as the mother's duty to help their children to succeed, even if that means pushing them to do what they do not want to do. "The interdependent relationship between mothers and their children is what allows pressure from mothers to be motivating," Fu said.
One defining trait of "Tiger Moms," Fu said, is that they do not simply give orders to their kids without getting involved. "Tiger Moms throw themselves into everything that their children are doing," she said. "And when Asian American kids see themselves as really connected with their mothers, they can benefit from their mother's pressure."
The researchers found that how interdependent Asian Americans feel with their mothers – "how much they feel like their selves overlap," as Fu put it – predicts their persistence.
"In other words, they work harder the more interdependent they feel with their mothers, but only when they are reminded of their mothers' interdependence with them," she said.
'Calm the clash'
When it comes to motivating a child who is struggling in school or outside of it, Fu and Markus found merit in both approaches.
"The results of these studies can calm the clash over the role of parental involvement in academic achievement. They show that Chua and her critics can both be right," they wrote.
As for future research possibilities, Fu said she wants to explore how interdependence can be stronger and more effective in the European American context. The two cultures can learn from each other, she added.
"A sense of self as independent and a sense of self as interdependent can both be useful in motivating students and encouraging them to persist. These are psychological tools that people can use to grow and achieve success," Fu said.
Editor's Note
This updates an earlier version.
Media Contact
Alyssa Fu, Psychology: (650) 725-4604, fua@stanford.edu
Hazel Markus, Psychology: (650) 725-2449, hmarkus@stanford.edu
Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, cbparker@stanford.eduI could type out "It's still early! It's still early!" until my cuticles peel back, or I could just point out the production that the Kansas City Royals are getting from their middle infield:
Yuniesky Betancourt: 129 OPS+
Chris Getz: 125 OPS+
Alcides Escobar: 122 OPS+
A tenth of the season is gone, and the Royals have enjoyed vintage Utley/Rollins production when they should have expected vintage Febles/Neifi. Or current Febles/Neifi. These guys weren't supposed to be good, and they probably won't be. So for now, they stand as a triumvirate of "It's still early!" examples.
That doesn't mean that everything that you see in the early-season standings or stats is meaningless: The Houston Astros were expected to be bad. Quite bad. And so far, they have not been good. Even with a win against the Brewers on Wednesday, the Astros are still on a 100-loss pace. You don't need to aim the sample-size cannon at people claiming that the Astros we're seeing is probably the Astros we're going to keep seeing.
Except, that's not entirely fair. The Astros are 7-12, sure, but they've also outscored their opponents. Based on runs scored/runs allowed, they should be 10-9. There's a lot of "It's still early!" in that Pythagorean record, but they've certainly played better than expected so far. And considering that the Astros, even in their wildest fantasies, aren't expecting to compete with the Cardinals, Brewers, or Reds this year, they have a very simple goal for this season: They want to figure out who's coming along with them to the next contending season.
That philosophy was behind the Astros pulling a couple of players straight out of double-A last year and plopping them straight in the majors. One minute J.D. Martinez and Jose Altuve were in Corpus Christi, and the next minute they were in Houston. That reminds me of the time I visited my buddy Murray in the TAMUCC dorms and drank root beer schnapps, and then … well, it was a surprise for Martinez and Altuve to get called up, anyway. It's not like they were highly regarded before the 2011 season, either: Martinez was Baseball America's #6 prospect in the Astros' system, and Altuve was #28.
And they held their head above water, at least. Altuve had a.297 OBP and minimal power, but for a 21-year-old who started the year in high-A, it was pretty impressive to hit.276. Martinez struck out more than three times as much as he walked, but he did flash a little power. They weren't supposed to be in the majors, and they didn't embarrass themselves when they got there.
This year, they're both going nuts. Altuve is hitting.377/.429/.551, showing impressive doubles power -- impressive for a 21-year-old middle infielder, much less the shortest hitter in baseball over the past 30 years. Martinez is hitting.313/.432/.507, which is close to what he was doing in double-A before his call-up.
Even more impressive is how the two are arriving at those shiny numbers. They're walking. In 77 plate appearances, Altuve has walked more than he did in 234 last year. In 81 plate appearances, Martinez has walked more than he did in 226 plate appearances last year. Altuve should earn his fair share of walks without trying too hard, of course:
Well, he's taller than Edwin Jackson, at least, which … wait, no, Jackson is over 60 feet away in that picture, so there's a little perspective trickery going on. That's a good picture to remind you why Altuve needed to hit over.400 in high-A to get promoted. But regardless why Altuve and Martinez are showing better discipline, the important thing is that they are. Martinez put up flashy stats in double-A, but he was a 23-year-old repeating the league, and his peripherals in the majors were pretty bad. His early start is a sign of a serious, needed adjustment.
This sort of happy-they're-doin'-what-they're-doin' start permeates the Astros' offense. Jason Castro is hitting just fine for a defense-first catcher; Jed Lowrie is getting on base now that he's back on the field; Jordan Schafer is showing some potential (and he's still just 25). Save for one or two exceptions, the players in the lineup are playing on the right side of their expected-performance spectrum.
And Altuve and Martinez, two players who might not have had a shot to reach the majors before 2013 in another organization, are leading the way.
It's still early. It's still early. But what you're looking at with the Astros is a team that could lose 100 games and still be happy with how things went this season. If Altuve can develop into a marketable, valuable player, if Martinez can be a cheap middle-of-the-order hitter, and/or if Castro, Lowrie, and Schafer give them any kind of offensive production up the middle and hope for the future, this season could be a raging success.
Before the season, I pegged the Astros to be the absolute worst team in baseball. They have a.368 winning percentage. I could still be right. But they're also on pace to have an amazingly successful season if things stay the way they are. The Astros aren't winning, but that's not what really matters this season. The things that do matter are going just fine.Draft Order College Team Player Position Physical
1. Mil
Duke Jahlil Okafor
C 6’11 265lbs Freshman
Prior to playing an official regular season minute with the Blue Devils, the reigning #1 ranked HS player also projects as the top pick in next June’s Draft. He has legit NBA size, a stellar back to the basket offensive game, and runs the floor very well, despite not having elite level athleticism. Some have touted him as the next Tim Duncan but he may be more of an Al Jefferson type, prolific scoring big man.
2. Phi
China Emmanuel Mudiay
SG 6’5 190lbs Intl
The lightning quick HS point guard surprised everyone by playing this season professionally in China rather than attend SMU. The move has not hurt his stock as of yet as a few sites have Mudiay as the prospect with the highest ceiling in the Draft, in the mold of Wizards All Star PG John Wall.
3. Orl Kentucky Karl Towns
PF/C 7’0 250lbs Freshman
Towns will be in high demand come draft night, and still could be in the mix for the top overall selection as a sweet shooting big man that can score from the perimeter as well as bang inside. As an 18 year old, Towns has a ways to go, but he projects as a franchise defining player like LaMarcus Aldridge.
4. Utah Kansas Kelly Oubre
SG/SF 6’7 220lbs Freshman
Easily one of the most prolific and talented offensive players entering the college ranks this season, Oubre has big shoes to fill replacing #1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins in Kansas. With perimeter scoring a position of need for many NBA teams, with a good season, Oubre should be a lock as a Top 10 selection come June.
5. Bos Kansas Wayne Selden SG 6’5 230lbs Sophomore
Selden had a very good freshman campaign but was swallowed up by the hype of Wiggins and Embiid last season at Kansas. The athletic 2 guard is built like a tank, is a 5 tool player, and is one of the top returning players in college basketball this season.
6. LAL
Kansas Cliff Alexander PF 6’9 255lbs Freshman
Although he’s a tad undersized to play center, Alexander used his elite athleticism and monstrous wingspan to dominate the HS ranks. He takes over for 2014 draftee Joel Embiid manning the middle for the Jayhawks this season, meaning he wil get lots of TV exposure to show he could develop into a quality PF at the next level.
7. Sac Arizona Stanley Johnson SG/PF 6’7 245lbs Freshman
One of the top freshmen in the country, Johnson could be the X factor in Arizona contending for a National Title this season. He has legit NBA size, can score and defend multiple positions, and remind many pro scouts as the 2nd coming of Ron Artest, minus the insanity.
8. Det Louisville
Montrezl Harrell
PF 6’8 240lbs Junior
Harrell returns to the Cardinals for his junior campaign, as one of the most talented and energetic big men in the college ranks. He reminds many of Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried for his non-stop motor and elite rebounding abilities.
9. Cle Michigan Caris LeVert SG 6’7 200lbs Junior
The next in line of elite level Wolverine Draft prospects, LeVert has prototypical size and shooting stroke to excel at the next level. He’s a tad thin but was one of the nation’s top perimeter threats last season. He’s a Big Ten POY candidate and should be a Top 10 lock next June.
10. NO Croatia Mario Hezonja SG/SF 6’8 215lbs Intl
This year’s top International prospect at this point, Hezonja isn’t your average European player as he has elite level athleticism and above average size for the SG position. He has shown a penchant overseas to make the highlight reel play and could be a real gem come next June if he has a consistent season on the highest level in Europe.
11. NY Arizona Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
SG/SF 6’7 225lbs Sophomore
One of the most athletic players in the country, the sophomore swingman reminds many of former Arizona standout Andre Iguodala, as a do-it-all forward that defends and plays 4 positions on the floor, and should be one of the leaders of the preseason Top 5 ranked Wildcats this season.
12. Den Kentucky Willie Cauley-Stein
C 7’0 240lbs Junior
For the 3rd year in a row, the shot blocking big man has the attention of NBA scouts as an athletic rim protector with a developing offensive game. He reminds many of former NBA Defensive POY Tyson Chandler and will get tons of exposure as UK begins the season as the top ranked team in the polls.
13. Min Wisconsin Sam Dekker SF 6’9 230lbs Junior
A 1st Team Preseason All American, the junior swingman is a solid offensive contributor and one of the leaders of the experienced Badgers Final Four squad returning from last season. He reminds many of Utah’s Gordon Hayward as a multi-skilled forward with guard-like skills.
14. Pho Florida Chris Walker
PF 6’9 215lbs Sophomore
One of the nation’s top HS players coming into last season, Walker missed most of the season due to eligibility issues and playing limited minutes on a veteran squad. Although he is suspended for the Gators’ first few games, Walker projects as a freakishly athletic big man that can score from the midrange, similar to a young Chris Bosh.
15. Atl Latvia
Kristaps Porzingis
PF/C 7’0 215lbs Intl
Following pulling out of last year’s Draft last minute, the talented 7 footer from Latvia returned to Europe to home his skills and could be a hot commodity on draft night as a big man that combines amazing length and a sweet shooting stroke from the perimeter, that is if he adds some much needed weight and strength to his slim frame.
16. Cha Texas Myles Turner
PF/C 6’11 245lbs Freshman
The near 7 foot star freshman at Texas is tailor made for the NBA game as a multi-talented big man with excellent midrange skills on his jumpshot. He’s similar to Kentucky’s Karl Towns but must prove he can remain healthy in the college ranks, something he struggled with in high school.
17. BK UNC Brice Johnson
PF 6’9 225lbs Junior
Possessing through the roof athleticism and extreme length for the PF position, Johnson is expected to have a breakout junior season as one of Roy Williams’ go-to scorers this season. He has reportedly added some much needed bulk to his rather thin frame that will only help his stock on the next level.
18. Was Kentucky
Andrew Harrison PG 6’6 210lbs Sophomore
A big, physical combo guard, Andrew will be at the helm of the #1 team in the nation, getting plenty of exposure on TV throughout the season. After a slow start, he came on strong to help lead the Wildcats to the National Championship Game and should be pushed hard by stud freshman PG Tyler Ulis in practice. With a good showing, look for Andrew to skyrocket into the Lottery.
19. Chi Alabama Bobby Portis
PF 6’10 235lbs Sophomore
After an impressive freshman campaign, the monstrous PF outplayed his peers at this year’s Lebron James Skills Academy and has played his way onto the NBA’s radar. Better conditioning and an improvement in lateral quickness would definitely help his stock but he has the potential to be a stud at the next level if everything comes together.
20. Tor LSU Jordan Mickey
PF 6’8 235lbs Sophomore
The star forward could have been drafted after a stellar freshman season last year but returns along with teammate Jarell Martin on a talented LSU squad. Mickey is an athletic freak that reminds many of longtime NBA veteran Shawn Marion.
21. Dal UCLA
Kevon Looney SF 6’9 220lbs Freshman
A long versatile athlete that dominated the HS ranks, Looney is an outstanding defender and elite rebounder that reminds many of blue collar NBA player Thad Young, now in Minnesota.
22. Mem Utah Delon Wright
PG 6’5 180lbs Senior
As the brother of current NBA player Dorell Wright, NBA genes are definitely in the cards for Delon. He’s one of the nation’s top seniors and under the radar floor generals that could lead the Utah Utes back to the NCAA Tournament this season.
23. GS Kentucky Alex Poythress SF/PF 6’8 240lbs Junior
Once a top 5 HS player, success has come slower than expected for the former McDonald’s All American. But after entering his 3rd season as an NBA prospect at Kentucky, this could finally be the year that Poythress realizes his potential as an uber athletic defender with a developing offensive game, one that reminds some of NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.
24. Por West Virginia
Juwan Staten PG 6’0 190lbs Senior
A tad undersized at the PG position, Staten will be one of the nation’s top seniors, and is a returning All Big 12 selection last season. In addition to being a proficient midrange shooter, he’s lightning quick with the ball, making him a tough matchup on defense.
25. Hou UNC Justin Jackson SF 6’9 205lbs Freshman
One of the nation’s premier incoming freshmen, Jackson definitely has the skills to be an NBA player, but must add some much needed strength to his rail thin frame. He dominated the HS ranks, earning multiple All American honors, including sharing MVP honors with Jahlil Okafor in the 2014 McDonald’s Game.
26. Mia Purdue
AJ Hammons
C 7’0 280lbs Junior
Possessing monstrous size and strength conducive for the next level, he has an excellent back to the basket low post game and an above average stroke from the FT line. Hammons should be a double-double machine and a potential All Big Ten performer.
27. Ind Arizona
Kaleb Tarczewski
C 7’0 245lbs Junior
Another potential starter at the next level, Tarczewski is a legit 7 footer with amazing athleticism. He hasn’t quite made the instant impact we thought he would as a freshman but now as a junior should be one of the most dominant big in the college ranks this season.
28. LAC Kentucky
Aaron Harrison
SG 6’6 210lbs Sophomore
Another talented UK product on the NBA radar, Harrison should be in high demand on the next level as a knock down 3 point shooter with above average handles. He made his bones in last year’s NCAA Tournament sinking numerous clutch, late game shots to help the Wildcats advance to the 2014 NCAA Championship Game.
29. OKC GA State RJ Hunter
SG 6’5 180lbs Junior
With the SG position in demend at the next level, talented junior scorer RJ Hunter could become a 1st Round lock with another stellar season. Many consider him the nation’s top perimeter threat after shooting lights out at the Lebron Skills Camp and has added the ability to create his own shot as he enters his junior campaign.
30. SA OK State LeBryan Nash
SF 6’7 230lbs Senior1 Make the pie crust dough: Pulse the flour and salt together in a food processor. Add the chilled butter cubes to the food processor and pulse 5 times. The dough should resemble a coarse cornmeal, with some pea-sized pieces of butter.
Slowly add the chilled water (make sure there are no small ice cube bits), just a tablespoon at a time, pulsing once after each addition, until the dough just sticks together when you press some between your fingers.
Empty the food processor, placing the dough mixture on a clean surface. Use the heel of your palm to shmoosh the dough mixture onto the table surface a few times. This action will help flatten and spread the butter between layers of flour, so that the resulting dough will be flaky.
Once you've done this a few (5 or 6) times, use your hands to mold the dough into a disk. Sprinkle the disk with a little flour, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it chill for an hour, or up to 2 days, before rolling out.
2 Sauté onions, celery, green pepper, jalapeño: Heat the oil over medium-high heat and sauté the onion, celery, green pepper and jalapeño, stirring often, until they are soft, about 6-8 minutes.
3 Add the garlic, turkey meat, Cajun seasoning, and salt. Mix well and cook another 1 minute, stirring once or twice.
4 Finish making the filling: Bring the stock and beer to a boil in a small pot. Sprinkle the flour over the turkey and veggies and mix well. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often and making sure no flour burns on the bottom of the pan.
Slowly pour in the hot stock-beer mixture, stirring. It will seize up at first, then, as you pour in more stock and stir, will form a silky sauce for the turkey.
Add the tomatoes and cook until the mixture thickens, about 3-5 minutes.
Pour the filling into a 2-quart casserole or, if you wish, into individual ramekins.
5 Prepare the crust: Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to a little less than a quarter-inch thick. If you are using a casserole, roll into a sheet a little larger than the dish.
If you are using ramekins (use 10 ounce ramekins), cut the dough into 6 rounds that are slightly larger than the circumference of the ramekins.
6 Top the filling with the crust dough: Lay the dough onto the filling. Fold the excess dough under itself and use the tines of a fork to press the dough against the edge of the ramekins. Cut a 1-inch vent into each individual pie, or several if you are making a casserole.
7 Brush with egg wash: Whisk together in a small bowl the egg yolk and cream for an egg wash. Use a pastry brush to paint the egg wash over the crust. This will help the crust brown nicely.
8 Bake: Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.The baby daughter of an anti-vaccination activist has been hospitaled with whooping cough after she ignored doctors advice to immunise the 11-week-old girl.
The Melbourne woman bragged on Facebook to fellow anti-vaccination supporters on Friday that she told hospital doctors she would consult a general physician so her sick daughter could be discharged, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
In the Facebook group Unvaccinated Australia, the unnamed woman wrote that ‘They [doctors] read me the riot act again but they believe me about doing vaccinations through the GP.’
‘I ended up saying I would be talking to a GP about it just to shut them up.’
The mother had allegedly dodged child protection authority’s vaccination inquiries only a week ago.
Scroll down video
A Melbourne woman's 11-week-old daughter has been hospitalised with whooping cough and within hours of her discharge from the hospital she bragged that she lied to them so they would let her go (stock image)
The woman said she took her daughter to a physician for a health check on December 4 when a maternal nurse noted the infant had flu-like symptoms and asked her to vaccinate the young girl from the potentially deadly disease.
The mother protested that she would see a GP but the nurse contacted child protection services who soon called the woman.
After reiterating the alleged excuse that she would see a physician about immunising her daughter from the disease that kills one in 200 infected children, protection services didn't push the complaint further.
‘I ended up saying I would be talking to a GP about it just to shut them up’ the anti-vaxxer wrote
The incident comes after earlier this week one in four students at a North Melbourne primary school were found to be infected with chickenpox.
Up to 80 students at Brunswick North West Primary School, in Melbourne's north, have been infected over the past two weeks since the first cast was reported to Victoria's Department of Health on November 26.
Following the outbreak, outraged parents took to Facebook and Twitter to express their concerns after it was said the school had previously asked families to be 'tolerant' of non-vaccinated children'.
The incident comes after earlier this week one in four students at a North Melbourne primary school were found to be infected with chickenpox (stock image)
Up to 80 students (stock image) at Brunswick North West Primary School have been infected over the past two weeks
A South Australian woman wrote: 'I'm shocked to see some anti vaxers think that this is good for their kids, that it helps build their immune system.... such a shame that they are too selfish to think that this could kill a few people.'
And Meredith tweeted: 'The pain caused by vaccination is nothing compared to the pain of watching your child died. I know because I've experienced both.'
Professor Jodie McVernon, an expert in infectious diseases from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said the trend of parents not immunising their children could lead to a 'national concern'.
Brunswick North West Primary School (pictured) where the outbreak occured
'Clearly there's greater opportunity for diseases to spread in areas where immunisation falls below what we call the critical protective threshold,' she told 774 ABC Melbourne.
'That varies for different diseases but generally where immunisation is less than about 95 per cent coverage, there's greater chance for infection to spread.
'We know already there are some areas where immunisation rates are lower and areas exist where people with particular views on immunisation live,' she said.
'It's a national concern that we're trying to address by supporting immunisation and supporting parents in their decision-making.'
A Year 6 student is thought to have contracted the illness before it spread down through to Year 2 students, 7News reported.
The school had previously asked parents and other community members to be tolerant of people's views about immunisation.
'Staff respect the rights of every family to make choices about immunisation and we will definitely not exclude children who are not fully immunised from our service,' the school's December newsletter said.
Concerned parents have taken to Facebook and Twitter to express their concerns after it was said the school had previously asked families to be 'tolerant' of non-vaccinated children'
'We expect all community members to act respectfully and with tolerance when interacting with other parents and carers who may have a differing opinion to their own.
'This includes an opposing understanding about child immunisation.
'People from both sides of the discussion have expressed their thoughts in terms of the well-being and ongoing health of the children they care so much for.'The sweeping, dazzling music that fueled Star Wars will be reissued by Sony Classical in three new, definitive editions — Star Wars: The Ultimate Vinyl Collection, Star Wars: The Ultimate Soundtrack Edition, and Star Wars: The Ultimate Digital Collection. All composed by John Williams, these unique collector’s sets will be released worldwide January 8, 2016.
Star Wars: The Ultimate Vinyl Collection includes each of the six film soundtracks in deluxe gatefold sleeves faithfully replicating the original artwork.
Star Wars: The Ultimate Soundtrack Edition includes the original six soundtracks in mini-album jackets, plus a bonus CD featuring audio interviews with Harrison Ford and John Williams. Also included is the DVD Star Wars: A Musical Journey, a one-hour special highlighting select musical themes alongside key sequences from the films. Rounding out the set are a fold-out poster and three collectible stickers.
Star Wars: The Ultimate Digital Collection features a bundle of the six original soundtracks available for the first time as high-definition downloads.
STAR WARS: THE ULTIMATE SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION
DISC 1 – Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Main Title and the Arrival at Naboo Duel of The Fates Anakin’s Theme Jar Jar’s Introduction and the Swim to Otoh Gunga The Sith Spacecraft and the Droid Battle The Trip to the Naboo Temple and the Audience with Boss Nass The Arrival at Tatooine and the Flag Parade He Is the Chosen One Anakin Defeats Sebulba Passage Through the Planet Core Watto’s Deal and Kids at Play Panaka and the Queen’s Protectors Queen Amidala and the Naboo Palace The Droid Invasion and the Appearance of Darth Maul Qui-Gon’s Noble End The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon’s Funeral Augie’s Great Municipal Band and End Credits
DISC 2 – Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Main Title and Ambush on Coruscant Across the Stars (Love Theme from Star Wars Episode II) Zam the Assassin and the Chase Through Coruscant Yoda and the Younglings Departing Coruscant Anakin and Padmé Jango’s Escape The Meadow Picnic Bounty Hunter’s Pursuit Return to Tatooine The Tusken Camp and the Homestead Love Pledge and the Arena Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale
DISC 3 – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars and the Revenge of the Sith – Medley Anakin’s Dream Battle of the Heroes Anakin’s Betrayal General Grievous Palpatine’s Teachings Grievous and the Droids Padme’s Ruminations Anakin vs. Obi-Wan Anakin’s Dark Deeds Enter Lord Vader The Immolation Scene Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious The Birth of the Twins |
worlds for one and the same transaction," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
"Financial transactions can be taxed differently depending on the type of transaction, equity or debt," she pointed out.
The tax rulings allowing the schemes "contradict national taxation rules and allow GDF Suez to pay less tax than other companies", she added.
The decision to open the case comes as Vestager is starting a visit in the US, where the administration and businesses have strongly criticised the commission's sate-aid stance.
The US treasury said last month that the commission's order to Apple to pay over €13 billion to Ireland was "disappointing" and would "undermine the important spirit of economic partnership between the US and the EU”.
The timing of the new case has prompted speculation that Vestager is trying to appease the US by showing she also takes on European firms.
A commission spokesman denied the claims, saying that the commission "always apply state rules to everybody".
The GDF Suez case does not stem from the LuxLeaks revelations published in 2014 but from a review of tax rulings issued in member states that was launched in 2013.
The review was extended in December 2014 after the LuxLeaks revelations, and about 1,000 tax rulings were examined.
The GDF Suez case is the first opened after the review.
The commission did not say how much taxes it estimates GDF Suez avoided with the tax rulings, nor did it say whether it was the only company in that case in Luxembourg.On Nov. 3 in El Paso, Leonardo Wong, 71, voted for the first time in his life. (David Weigel/The Washington Post)
On Wednesday, shortly after El Paso County broke its record for early voting, Andres Villalobos walked into the downtown courthouse and cast a ballot for “Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats.” He was 65 years old and had earned American citizenship after years of crossing back and forth across the Mexican border, a few blocks away.
But he had never voted before. Nothing had compelled him to vote until Donald Trump ran for president. If Trump won the presidency, he predicted the absolute worst.
“Maybe chaos,” he said. “It would be ugly — very, very bad for the economy, for the city, for everyone. It would be bad for the border. It wouldn’t work.”
Leonardo Wong, 71, was also casting his first vote. He had registered while renewing the passport that let him walk back and forth across the border, and he had gotten behind Hillary Clinton.
“I don’t think everybody’s a rapist and everybody’s a narco like Trump says,” Wong said, referring to Trump’s claims that many Mexicans crossing into the United States are violent criminals.
Texas is expected to go Republican this year, as it has in every presidential election since 1980. At Trump’s lowest point, when he was buried by his own gaffes and debate performances, the state closed to single digits in polling; the latest polls have him leading by closer to 10 points.
[As race tightens, Clinton campaign is counting on minority support]
But Democrats have watched a turnout surge wash over the state’s most urban, least white areas. In 10 days of early voting, more than 115,000 ballots were cast in El Paso County, blowing past the record set in 2008. Turnout was up by 64 percent over 2012; it was up by close to 40 percent around Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
As the presidential race tightens, Democrats are going after voters in the Republican stronghold of Georgia. In Gwinnett County, a rising number of minorities could be changing the political landscape. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)
Turnout has also grown in the deep red suburbs, but in El Paso, Democrats are no longer struggling to get their voters to the polls. According to We(Fillintheblank), a student-run political group that conducts the area’s only exit polling, Clinton is on track to win 71 percent of the vote in El Paso, better than any Democrat since the Texas Republican Party became competitive.
The Trump candidacy has challenged a Republican project that had succeeded in Texas more than in any state — a coalition between conservative whites and culturally conservative Latino voters. Republicans, who have controlled every statewide office here since 1998, have won supermajorities of white voters and courted enough Latino votes to make the Democratic Party irrelevant.
[Early voting by Latinos may help Clinton in several states]
It was supposed to show Republicans the way to a one-party future. In 1998, during a reelection campaign designed to prove his appeal to voters beyond Texas, then-Gov. George W. Bush campaigned hard in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso. “I want it to be known that a conservative candidate can carry the Hispanic vote,” he told reporters.
He did so, and won El Paso, a feat he did not repeat in his campaigns for president. In Bush’s wake, even as the national party abandoned immigration reform, Democrats struggled to activate Latinos in Texas the way that they had in California, or Arizona, or the Midwestern states where there were more recent immigrants.
The struggle won national attention — the bad kind — in 2014. Battleground Texas, a political action committee created by Obama-campaign veterans, was launched on the theory that early spending and organizing could activate a slumbering nonwhite vote. “Texas isn’t as red of a state as people say it is, if you look at the numbers,” senior adviser Jeremy Bird said at the launch event.
The numbers did not change. Republican Greg Abbott, elected governor in a landslide two years ago, out-campaigned Democrat Wendy Davis with Latinos. Ads in the Rio Grande Valley played up Abbott’s marriage to a Mexican American. Turnout in El Paso fell by more than half of its 2012 total, allowing now-Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.) to flip a House seat that Democrats had considered safe.
Then came Trump. Some Texas Republicans had been edging toward his rhetoric, away from the Bush approach. Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor elected in 2014, did not sound different from Trump on the border, or when he crusaded against college tuition for undocumented immigrants in Texas. But voter awareness of Patrick was minimal; Trump blotted out the sun. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.), who in 2012 defeated an incumbent who had relied on the teetering Democratic machine, had never encountered a line for early voting. The line was 45 minutes long this year.
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) at the Kentucky Club in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Nov. 4. (David Weigel/The Washington Post)
“There wasn’t even a whole lot that someone like me needed to do to encourage that,” O’Rourke said. “Finally, there was a very clear reason to vote.”
In the summer, El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar began to notice that people who crowded into the semiannual citizenship ceremonies dashed across the courthouse to get registered to vote.
“I think everyone understands how closely tied we are to Mexico,” Escobar said, sitting in her office near one of the voting sites. “We lived through the devaluation of the peso, and when it happened, our economy was devastated. Insulting our most important economic partner and wanting to isolate it from us — most people here realize there’d be an economic price, and we would pay it.”
The border described by Trump simply did not resemble the one many El Pasoans see. The Republican nominee was not wrong about the drug wars in Ciudad Juarez or the smugglers constantly changing their tactics to get opium and meth into the United States. But El Paso is growing. Unemployment is sinking. Thanks in large part to a policing buildup on the border, someone in Dallas or Houston was twice as likely to be a victim of violent crime. What was Trump talking about?
“He’s an embarrassment,” said Ana Morales, 31, a victims advocate who works with noncitizens and frets about how a Trump presidency would affect them. “I think he would put up a lot of barriers. There are very vulnerable people who would be hurt by him.”
Said Edna Ortega, 42: “It would be like East Berlin. He would bring in an authoritarian type of government — very racist.”
Judge Veronica Escobar in her office in El Paso on Nov. 4. (David Weigel/The Washington Post)
Republicans, who do not need El Paso to win the state, said that Trump’s impact would be overrated. On Thursday, the local Republican Party headquarters was quiet but active. One volunteer made calls, near signs that advertised the summer social-media campaign to bring Trump to El Paso. (He never came.) Adolpho Telles, the county chairman, insisted that plenty of Democrats were quietly telling him that they would buck the tide and vote for Trump.
“People don’t necessarily like the fence idea, the wall idea, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “But when the cameras are off, they will tell you: They don’t believe in illegal immigration. They do believe in securing the border.”
In dozens of interviews at the polls, Trump supporters were happy to talk. None said that they were voting Republican because of Trump’s immigration policy. Mike and Destiny Tipton, 32 and 34, said Clinton’s record at the State Department put them off.
“These email things never seem to go away,” said Mike Tipton, referring to a later-retracted Fox News report that Clinton risked indictment.
“I’m disappointed with her over the whole Benghazi thing,” Destiny Tipton said.
Those sentiments were usually outweighed by genuine terror of Trump — and often admiration for Clinton. Some voters who spoke only Spanish talked about a hypothetical Trump presidency the way that tea party conservatives once discussed President Obama’s reelection — a world-shattering event, the end of America as they knew it. At a polling station inside the Bassett Place mall, the Thursday lunch hour found a steady stream of voters entering, filling out their ballots quickly and exiting to explain why they had voted for Clinton.
Frank Noriega, 72, accompanied his wife as she voted for Clinton, then stayed behind to finish some errands. He had long ago decided to oppose Trump. The mystery, to him, was why more people didn’t seem to trust Clinton.
“She’s out there with regular public. She talks to them,” he said. “For all the stuff that’s come out, they’ve never proven she did anything wrong. If they had the proof, she couldn’t be running.”
Ed O’Keefe in Washington contributed to this report.Specialised majors such as computing may give the most bang for your buck, according to a new study.
Computing and computer engineering courses took the top three spots in a study done last month on which university majors reaped the most financially in the first year of graduation.
Consumer research firm ValuePenguin compared tuition fees of different majors at the National University of Singapore (NUS) with annual starting salaries of students who graduated last year, adjusted for the employment rates of different graduates.
For $8,150 in annual tuition fees, graduates from the three computing-related courses can expect to earn gross median monthly incomes of $3,900 to $4,000.
Degrees with high tuition fees had the least immediate returns. For instance, medicine and dental surgery students pay $27,400 per year in tuition fees, and earn $4,000 to $5,000 in median gross income monthly in their first year after graduation.
The study showed general science and arts degrees were ranked among those with the lowest returns on investment.
COVETED SKILLS Specialised skill-sets require more training, and if they align with industry demand, tend to have higher returns of investment. VALUEPENGUIN'S SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT DUCKJU KANG
ValuePenguin senior vice-president Duckju Kang said: "The fact that the top three courses are all related to computing speaks of how much demand there is for talent in this field. The fastest-growing companies today are tech companies.
"We see the same trend happening in Asia and across the world. Governments are looking at tech solutions and there is a growth in start-ups."
Tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter can offer six-figure annual salaries to new graduates, he said.
The study used only NUS figures for ease of comparison across majors as each university defines its specialisations slightly differently, Mr Kang added.
Some 6,300 NUS graduates were surveyed by the university in last year's graduate employment survey.
NUS computing science graduate Rey Neo, 26, landed a job at online payment service PayPal as a software engineer during his internship with the company.
"I took the offer because I liked its work culture - friendly, open and flexible," said Mr Neo, who started work in June last year and is earning a monthly sum that is above the median gross salary of $4,000 for his peers.
Architecture, pharmacy, civil and electrical engineering, law and nursing courses were among the top 10 majors with the highest returns.
Said Mr Kang: "Specialised degrees are increasingly becoming more valuable and they definitely make more money than general ones as they help to differentiate you in the job market.
"Specialised skill-sets require more training, and, if they align with industry demand, tend to have higher returns on investment."
But these figures may not reflect the worth of a medical degree in the long run, as their graduates' pays typically pick up and become more stable five to 10 years down the road, said Mr Kang.
Mr David Leong, managing director of recruitment firm People Worldwide Consulting, shared the view.
"You need to invest more to earn a medicine degree, but the pay of a doctor will increase over the course of his career," he said, adding that there are pay variations even within the same industry.
Mr Leong said that the returns on investment "will improve over time, on their own momentum, not on the basis of a graduate's first degree".
"Education is a continuous effort and the basic university degree is just a starting point."An Italian consul has come under fire in his car in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi but was unhurt, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.
"He is completely unharmed," said the spokesman on Saturday.
"They shot at his car, but the car was armoured. He is fine, there are no injuries," a security source in Libya who declined to be named told the Retuers news agency.
The consul, Guido de Sanctis, is based in Benghazi.
Security for Westerners in Libya's second city has been an acute concern since the US ambassador was killed along with three other US embassy staff in an assault on the US consulate in the city on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Hot spot for violence
A police source in Benghazi said the shots had been fired from a car passing De Sanctis's residence. A Reuters reporter saw two bullet holes in the building, which was surrounded by police.
The Italian spokesman said security around officials in Benghazi was already high before Saturday's attack.
The city was where the anti-Gaddafi uprising broke out in February 2011. But Libya's new elected rulers in Tripoli have struggled to impose their authority on a country where armed groups wield the real power, and Benghazi's multitude of armed factions now make it a hot spot for violence.
In November, the city's police chief was shot dead. And last June, a convoy carrying the British ambassador was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade that injured two of his bodyguards.
The offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the city were also attacked last year, as was a convoy carrying the United Nations' former special envoy to Libya.I'm the Seattle-based publisher of a network of lifestyle websites read by roughly one million people each month. Almost all of our readers are women, most of them are educated and many of them are quite politically liberal. Because of this large, diverse and progressive readership, we deal with community issues that perhaps wouldn't be such a problem on smaller sites. And lately, I've started to notice a disturbing trend.
Over the past couple of years, I've watched the rise of a new form of online performance art, where liberal internet commenters make public sport of flagging potentially problematic language as insensitive, and gleefully calling out authors as needing to "check their privilege" (admit their privileged position within society and its associated benefits).
As a publisher serving readers who identify as both progressive and marginalised (in many different, varying ways), this issue is hugely important to me – I'm protective of the quality of debate on my sites. As a progressive myself, it's also complex and challenging because while I very much share the political values of the folks who engage in this kind of thing, I'm not on board with the tactics – which essentially amount to liberal bullying, and are way worse than anything I see from the conservatives who swing by my publications. The sad truth is that when it comes to the motivations behind this kind of commenting, it's basically the same as the GOD HATES FAGS guys – even though the values are the polar opposite.
Common trends in this online behaviour:
• Focus on very public complaints. I can think of exactly one time when someone emailed their concern about problematic language. These complaints seem to be always intended for an audience.
• Lack of interest in a dialogue. These complaints aren't questions or invitations to discuss the issue. They're harshly worded accusations and scoldings (which I've written about before).
• Lack of consideration for the context or intent. The focus is on this isolated incident (this one post, this one word, this one time), with de-emphasis on the author's background, experience, or the context of the website on which the post appears.
• And on a more stylistic note, these complaints are often prefaced with phrases like "Um," and other condescending affectations.
It's challenging for me because the values motivating these complaints are completely in line with both my personal politics and my professional passion for catering to niche markets and semi-marginalised cultures (I say "semi-marginalised" because let's get real here: readers of my websites are more likely to be a 20-something white plus-size roller derby player or an introverted 30-something information sciences grad student – neither of whom who are marginalised in the same way as, say, a gay Cambodian amputee immigrant living in Mexico City).
Increasingly, I've started recognising this kind of behaviour for what it is: privilege-checking as a form of internet sport. It's a kind of trolling, with all the politics I agree with, but motivations and execution that turns my stomach. It's well-intended (so well-intended), but when the motivations seem to be less about opening dialogue about the issues, and more about performance, righteousness, and intolerance toward those who don't agree with you … well, I'm not on board.
This is where it starts to feel like the "GOD HATES FAGS!" sign-wavers. While the political sentiments are exactly opposite, the motivations are remarkably similar: I WOULD LIKE TO DERAIL THIS CONVERSATION AND HAVE AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WITNESS HOW RIGHT I AM. I don't care if your politics are progressive and your focus is on social justice: if you're shouting at people online and refusing to have a dialogue, you're bullying. I don't care if you're fighting the good fight: if you're fighting in a way that's more about public performance, shaming and righteousness, I'm not fighting with you.
… Even if I agree with your goals.
My big challenge is knowing how to respond to this kind of feedback, which comes in almost daily. Sometimes it feels like I have two options:
• Acquiesce to every complaint of anyone anywhere on the internet, until we're putting trigger warnings at the top of posts that mention balloons because some people are globophobic (TRUE STORY!).
• Align myself with insensitive assholes who defend their right to hate speech.
Again, as a liberal I'm deeply conflicted about this issue. I love observing and following the ways that language shifts. It's exciting and fascinating to watch as the semantics of marginalised communities evolve. I recently had to talk to my ageing lesbian mother and her partner about how the word "tranny" causes a lot of issues for folks in the transgender community. My mothers are totally aligned with the cause and totally active in LGBT communities … they just hadn't got the latest memo.
I'm totally on board with the reasoning behind shifting the language from "illegal immigrants" to "undocumented immigrants." I get why the word "gypsy" is problematic. I've appreciated the lively discussions I've had with readers about words like "Derp" and "Tribe" (because these were discussions. Dialogues).
I love learning new things about how cultures are defining themselves. I love that people take the time to try to improve my publications by sharing the latest language that communities are using. I love that readers feel safe enough to voice their concerns. I love this shared concern for sensitivity around language. I love the social justice motivations, and the encouragement that we all be self-aware of how the language we use has powerful, sometime unexpected impacts on the people around us.
BUT. But. Seriously, I'm just not down with:
• The derailing of conversations to debate semantics.
• The need to process it all publicly ("Look at me look at me look at meeee! I am the very MOST aware of my privilege and am therefore the very BEST progressive on the entire internet!").
• The righteousness.
• The intolerance and inability to respect that those who share your values might not share your opinions on this particular subject.
This is where this kind of conversation begins to feel more like liberal bullying, where the only correct response is agreeing and acquiescing. Any other response is seen as ignorant at best, hateful at worst.
My priorities with online discourse are dialogue and respect. In my little corner of the online world, I keep my focus on constructive critique and articulate, compassionate communication. Shouting down people who disagree with you (even if I agree with your argument) simply doesn't feel productive or helpful. If I had a dollar for every time we have to delete a blog comment that I personally agreed with because it was stated as an attack … I could shift my whole business model. Being an asshole: it's not just for the GOD HATES FAGS people any more.
Ultimately, when these complaints come up (which has slowly gone from "monthly" to "weekly" to "almost daily"), my editors respond with comments like: "I understand what you're saying, and share your concern – but I disagree that this usage is problematic." Alternately, sometimes we just say: "I agree that this usage is problematic, but I'm going to leave it." I want to make sure that folks know readers' concerns are heard, but that it doesn't always guarantee that we'll make changes.
We're especially unlikely to make changes when readers engage in performance art privilege checking and refuse to have a direct dialogue with us. I often respond to a semantics-debating comment with an invitation for the commenter to email me directly to discuss the issue. Almost no one ever does. Apparently, having a one-on-one dialogue with a publisher isn't as edifying as performance art.
For those of you who like to fight the good fight for social justice and language sensitivity online, before writing that Tumblr missive or firing off that privilege-checking comment, I'd love to encourage you to take a moment to ask yourself these questions:
• Am I living my values with this exchange? If my goal is tolerance and sensitivity, am I embodying both those values in this conversation?
• What are my motivations here? Do I want to make a difference, or just feel like I'm right? What would "making a difference" look like in this context?
• Is this person an ally? How can I best communicate with them to ensure they stay that way?
• What is my ultimate goal in my activism? Is this exchange the best use of my time to achieve that ultimate goal?
In terms of my ultimate goal with this post: I want to support progressive activists in their very important work for social justice, but also beg them to carefully consider their methods and strategies with online communication. We're fighting for the same team, here. I wish we didn't have to spend so much time fighting with each other.
• A version of this blog post first appeared on Offbeat Empire.Some people find climate change ‘deniers’ the most irritating people on God’s green earth. On her Telegraph blog Martha Gill equates them with flat-earthers, which says a lot for the depth of her analysis. She points to a piece on the Huffington Post by Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (funded by billionaire Greenpeace contributor Jeremy Grantham, who also sponsors an $80,000 prize for environmental reporting – which this article will stand no chance of winning) and says it demolishes the deniers’ arguments. The problem is that it doesn’t.
Those who think ‘deniers’ are a problem and seek to put them down are in doing so misrepresenting the science they want to uphold. Once they said ‘deniers’ did not believe that carbon dioxide was a greenhouse gas or that mankind was pumping it into the atmosphere, or even that the globe had warmed in recent decades. And so-called deniers never took issue with any of this. Their questions were at a deeper level, but it took years for the media to notice.
You can make a strong case that all this ‘denial’ has been good for climate science. Some of these ‘deniers’ actually found that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s supreme icon – the ‘hockey stick’ graph showing a recent alarming rise in global temperature – was wrong. Then they pointed out that the global annual average surface temperature was not rising as predicted. To some it was an obviously fictitious, mischievous ploy to cast doubt on climate change, a misinterpretation of a minor recent blip in what is obviously an upward trend in global surface temperature that has been going on for well over a century.
But the ‘deniers’ were right. The non-publicity seeking real climate scientists who published their thoughts in peer-reviewed literature knew something was going on with global surface temperatures, and debated its significance and possible causes in unreported papers that only the ‘deniers’ seemed to read. Eventually the pause was recognised for what it is. The journal Nature called it the biggest problem in climate science, and so it is. Something that was said to be a denier’s ploy has now more than a dozen serious scientific possible explanations. The so-called deniers were closer to the science and far ahead of media commentators.
But there is still trouble with climate change ‘denial’ according to Bob Ward. He criticises Lord Lawson for saying that he denies any link between climate change and the weather events of earlier this year. Bob Ward said the Met Office has laid it out. Yes they have, and this is what their report said:-
‘As yet, there is no definitive answer on the possible contribution of climate change to the recent storminess, rainfall amounts and the consequent flooding. This is in part due to the highly variable nature of UK weather and climate.’
Bob Ward also cherry-picks his answer to counter Lord Lawson’s statement that the effect of carbon dioxide on the earth’s atmosphere is probably less than was previously thought. That is actually a fair and scientifically reasonable standpoint to take and were it made amongst scientists at a conference there would be sober discussion. It is significant that the latest IPCC report on climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide does not cite a best estimate, whereas the previous one did. The latest report notes a substantial discrepancy between observation-based estimates of the effect of carbon dioxide and estimates from climate models. This is not settled, there is room for debate.
Regarding the freezing of the Thames in the 17th century and the occurrence of Frost Fairs, Bob Ward says it is a ‘sceptic canard’ that this was due to a cold climate. He believes the narrowness of bridges and not the so-called Little Ice Age was to blame. Actually both had an influence, as did the building of embankments. The Little Ice Age – once thought to be confined to Europe but now recognised to have occurred worldwide – was a definite period of colder climate that had devastating consequences. We still cannot explain what happened.
Few scientists would say that scepticism is not a good thing in science, but somehow those who ask valid questions of climate science are different. Motives are impugned, qualifications questioned. The problem lies not with their questions but with the inflexible and dogmatic way that some commentators and indeed some scientists regard climate science. There is also a major problem with the quality of the scholarship of many commentators who are all too quick to dismiss sensible questions as ‘obviously fantastical rubbish supported only by anecdote and untested assertions.’
Climate science is important. We must deal with it and we must understand it. But it’s complicated. Not everything fits or is settled or consistent. Today’s obvious answers may not be tomorrow’s. Things change, values are revised up and down, and people have different opinions about the same data. Simple answers are seldom totally waterproof. It’s science and science is all about the awkward questions. The ‘deniers’ know this. Some others seem not to.
Dr David Whitehouse is an advisor to the Global Warming Policy Foundation. He is a former BBC science editor and European Internet Journalist of the Year.A January 29th report from Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) (LON:BARC) Equity Research suggests that investors are focusing too much on the bleeding in the energy sector from the huge drop in crude prices, and not enough on the major benefits to consumers (and consumers good producers) that can be expected from an additional $1.6 trillion in income in 2015 due to lower oil prices
Barclays analysts Ian Scott and colleagues argue that investors are too negative, and that the consumer discretionary sector currently represents a good buying opportunity. They note: “This [investor focus on the energy sector] suggests a “glass half empty” approach reflecting the negative side of a possible $1.6 trillion transfer of income from oil producers to oil consumers, but not yet the potential benefits.”
Crude oil plunge could result in $1.6 trillion wealth transfer in 2015
The Barclays report notes that if crude prices stayed at around $50 a barrel throughout 2015, this would imply a reduction of expenditures on oil from around 4% to 2% of global GDP. When you do the math, that ends up as a transfer of $1.6 trillion from “oil producers” to “oil consumers”.
Read more from ValueWalk
This material is reproduced with the prior written consent of ValueWalk. Please visit ValueWalk at http://www.valuewalk.com
ETFs: BNO, USO, XLE, XES, FRAK, XLP, XLYSee this post first please https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72246.msg1760069#msg1760069
Please note that the child deals are sort of hastily put together and are therefore probably a bit assymmetrical or off-centered. Should this IC become a group buy, all keys and legends would of course be properly spaced within the key to ensure that everything I could do to make the set of as high production quality as possible is done.
And before anyone asks, yes I copied livingspeedbumps Jukebox-set when it comes to child deals. I found his setup to be fair and well thought out, and would gladly accept it as some kind of standard.
1. The grey colour of mods. Darker, lighter, some different shade? Thoughts on it would be appreciated.
2. There have been suggestions of making all legends WA colour, instead of YCC and WA. Thoughts?
3. Novelties. I'm stumped. There is currently an enter key with a modified Aires on it, and a tab (CHANGE) key with a lowercase Koppa on it.
OUR FIRST RENDER IS A TKL WITH COLOURS AND NOVELTIES WOOOOO!
Hi! I've been designing a set a bit on and off, and this is what I've come up with.The set is called "ALPHA / OMEGA", inspired by the visual representation of classical physics and trigonometry which is present in my head, and I'm very much looking for feedback.The set features sculpted ABS DCS family keycaps with a 1-1-2-3-4-4 profile, as shown in the picture, using YCC colour for legends on GPA alphas, and WA on GG mods.Along with the base kit above, there will be child deals. These are as following:And here's an entire album of everything composed. Yes I made the logo. http://imgur.com/a/EJXxc As for feedback, there are currently a few things I'm uncertain about.Thanks for reading!I will edit in some renders in a while. I have chemistry finals tomorrow.Legislation providing for the granting of an amnesty and apology to Defence Forces members who fought with Allied forces during World War II passed all stages in the Dáil and Seanad today.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the legislation would help make amends for the shameful way they were treated after World War II.
The Second World War Amnesty and Immunity Bill 2012 was brought in to recognise the courage and bravery of around 5,000 soldiers court-martialled or dismissed from the Defence Forces for absenting themselves without leave or permission.
After the war, many returned home to be branded deserters.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Shatter said it was time to acknowledge the contribution made by Irish soldiers who deserted to fight against the Nazis in WWII.
The head of a campaign to pardon Irish soldiers who deserted to fight with the Allied forces in WWII has welcomed the amnesty.
Peter Mulvany, co-ordinator of the Irish Soldiers Pardons Campaign, said the anticipated passage of the bill was a good day for the country.
Giving an example of what some soldiers faced when they returned to Ireland after the war ended in 1945, Mr Mulvany said that one Irish army deserter who was involved in the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp had to emigrate after struggling to find work.
The man only returned to Ireland a few years ago, Mr Mulvany said.
He said that the men were ostracised in their own communities and considered traitors when it was learned that they had served in the British Army.
Mr Shatter won praise from the Opposition this evening, with Fianna Fáil acknowledging that he could "take a bow" after introducing the legislation.
Party spokesman Seán Ó Fearghaíl welcomed the legislation, but said the penalties the men and women suffered may have been understandable at the time.
Sinn Féin's Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said that others who had fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War, who were excommunicated by the Catholic Church and isolated by society when they returned, should also be acknowledged.
Mr Shatter said today was an important day for the families of those involved.
He said it was a tribute to how far we had come as a society that such a sensitive issue could get practically unanimous support from all sides in the Dáil.
However, he also acknowledged the work done by those who had remained loyal to the Defence Forces.
He said those who served during the war had performed a crucial duty for the State at a key time in its history.After almost 10 months and 500 hours of work, this 1/8 scale Bell 429 model is finally complete! Last May I began drafting the plans for this model using both measurements from the real helicopter and many pictures from the internet. At first I designed it to be to scale with my previous helicopter model, the Bell 407, but then I decided that I wanted this model to be even bigger than that. This Bell 429 is a little over five and a half feet long at maximum length, and about 20 inches tall at maximum height. I was comfortable making it so big because I had an idea of what building such a model would entail after building the 407. The fuselage began as a 65lb laminated block of wood, and after all of the cutting and hollowing, the entire model is now only 35lbs. Because of this, the tiny skids are not able to support the helicopter on their own, but that is not a problem as it is to be displayed on a stand. It is made entirely out of wood; absolutely no paints or stains were used! The two halves of the fuselage are maple and walnut, and the smaller strips are inlayed curly maple and cherry. This was my first attempt at any sort of inlay, and the fact that it was done on a curved, contoured surface made it very challenging. The panelling on the side and the cargo doors are all wood-burned. The different woods used are: maple, walnut, cherry, padauk, beech, yellowheart, bloodwood, ebony, hickory, wenge, and pine. The only non-wooden parts in the model are magnets (used on the swash-plate and doors) and laminated paper (used for the “glass” instrument panels in the cockpit), and bass (used for the door hinges). All of the doors open, and the two most-rear doors actually slide on a magnetic track. It took me a while to figure out how to make the sliding doors functional, but after much thought I discovered that small magnets on the doors sliding on an inlayed metal track on the body (made from an old bandsaw blade) was the best way to go. I tried to put as much detail in this helicopter as I could, and I think this is best displayed in two components; the cockpit and the rotor head. I tried to make the instrument panel as identical to the real one possible, and let me just say tweezers made that possible haha. I thought that printing off the digital display of the glass panels would best present the technology in the 429 cockpit. The rotor head is completely functional, and similar to my model 407, it performs both cyclic and collective movements. While it is fragile and I try to avoid playing around with it too much, I just like knowing and having the ability to tell people that it is moveable. In the cabin, I decided to go with the corporate seating because it is my favourite seating plan (and maybe because it saves me from making one more seat… haha). I wanted to put plexi-glass or some from of plastic windows in, but I could not figure out a way to make the front windshield. If anyone has an idea for making this windshield, I would love to hear it! It is finished with many coats of glossy spray lacquer, which to me is the best finish option to get in all of those tight corners. Overall, I am very happy with how this model turned out! As with my other models, this one is also for my Dad! We were hoping we could take it to the 2014 Heli-Expo, but transporting this by plane is just too risky. We are still unsure where to display it because of its large size, |
. But it is also true that the power of the modern state has been used for purposes of mass killing, and one should not pass too quickly over victims of state terror. With increasing historical knowledge it has become clear that the “Holocaust-by-bullets” – the mass shootings of Jews, mostly in the Soviet Union, during the second world war – was perpetrated on an even larger scale than previously realised. Soviet agricultural collectivisation incurred millions of foreseeable deaths, mainly as a result of starvation, with deportation to uninhabitable regions, life-threatening conditions in the Gulag and military-style operations against recalcitrant villages also playing an important role. Peacetime deaths due to internal repression under the Mao regime have been estimated to be around 70 million. Along with fatalities caused by state terror were unnumbered millions whose lives were irreparably broken and shortened. How these casualties fit into the scheme of declining violence is unclear. Pinker goes so far as to suggest that the 20th-century Hemoclysm might have been a gigantic statistical fluke, and cautions that any history of the last century that represents it as having been especially violent may be “apt to exaggerate the narrative coherence of this history” (the italics are Pinker’s). However, there is an equal or greater risk in abandoning a coherent and truthful narrative of the violence of the last century for the sake of a spurious quantitative precision.
There are many kinds of lethal force that do not produce immediate death. Are those who die of hunger or disease during war or its aftermath counted among the casualties? Do refugees whose lives are cut short appear in the count? Where torture is used in war, will its victims figure in the calculus if they succumb years later from the physical and mental damage that has been inflicted on them? Do infants who are born to brief and painful lives as a result of exposure to Agent Orange or depleted uranium find a place in the roll call of the dead? If women who have been raped as part of a military strategy of sexual violence die before their time, will their passing feature in the statistical tables?
While the seeming exactitude of statistics may be compelling, much of the human cost of war is incalculable. Deaths by violence are not all equal. It is terrible to die as a conscript in the trenches or a civilian in an aerial bombing campaign, but to perish from overwork, beating or cold in a labour camp can be a greater evil. It is worse still to be killed as part of a systematic campaign of extermination as happened to those who were consigned to death camps such as Treblinka. Disregarding these distinctions, the statistics presented by those who celebrate the arrival of the Long Peace are morally dubious if not meaningless.
Herman & Peterson write:
How does Pinker get around the seemingly large numbers of wars and militarization process that bother so many ordinary people and specialist observers such as Chalmers Johnson, Andrew Bacevich, and Winslow Wheeler? One Pinker method is to confine his focus to post-1945 wars among the great democracies, which have not fought one another in this sixty-seven-year interim, and to ignore or downplay the numerous wars that the great democracies have fought in the Third World. He calls this the “Long Peace,” while the other wars have no name. Pinker contends not only that the “democracies avoid disputes with each other,” but that they “tend to stay out of disputes across the board,” an idea he refers to as the “Democratic Peace.” This will surely come as a surprise to the many victims of US assassinations, sanctions, subversions, bombings, and invasions since 1945. For Pinker, no attack on a lesser power by one or more of the great democracies counts as a real war or confutes the “Democratic Peace,” no matter how many people die.
“Among respectable countries,” Pinker writes, “conquest is no longer a thinkable option. A politician in a democracy today who suggested conquering another country would be met not with counterarguments but with puzzlement, embarrassment, or laughter.” This is an extremely silly assertion. Presumably, when George W. Bush and Tony Blair sent US and British forces to attack Iraq in 2003, ousted its government, and replaced it with a regime operating under laws drafted by the Coalition Provisional Authority, this did not count as “conquest,” as these leaders never stated that they launched the war to “conquer” Iraq, but rather “to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger,” in Bush’s words. What conqueror has ever pronounced a goal other than self-defense and the protection of life and limb? It is on the basis of devices such as this that Pinker’s “Long Peace,” “New Peace,” and “Democratic Peace” rest.
It also rests on a patriotic rewriting of history and use of sources that will support this rewriting. A dramatic example is his treatment of the US-backed war in Vietnam. Pinker makes that war a case in which enemy fanaticism and the “life-is-cheap” mentality of the Vietnamese were responsible for the heavy casualties. He tells us that “the three deadliest postwar conflicts were fueled by Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communist regimes that had a fanatical dedication to outlasting their opponents.” It was thus the Vietnamese resistance and willingness to absorb the large casualties inflicted on them by the US invaders that fueled the war. There is not a word of criticism of the invaders who sent large forces across the Pacific Ocean to ravage a distant land; certainly no suggestion of “fanaticism,” no mention of the UN Charter, no word like “aggression” is applied to this attack. And there is no mention anywhere in the book that the United States had supported the French effort at recolonization, then supported a dictatorship of its own choosing; and that US officials recognized that those fanatical resisters had majority support as they killed vast numbers of Vietnamese to keep in power the minority government the United States had imposed. Claiming eight hundred thousand or more “civilian battle deaths” in the war, Pinker never explains how vast numbers of civilians could be killed in “battle” or whether these deaths might possibly represent a gross violation of the laws of war. Or how this could happen in an era of rising morality and humanistic feelings, carried out so ruthlessly by the dominant “civilized” power.
Nowhere does Pinker mention the massive US use of chemical warfare in Vietnam (1961–70), and the estimated “three million Vietnamese, including 500,000 children,... suffering from the effects of toxic chemicals” used during this ugly and very un-angelic form of warfare.2 What makes this suppression especially interesting is that Pinker cites the outlawing and non-use of chemical and biological weapons as evidence of the new evolving higher morality and decline of violence, so his dodging of the facts on the massive use of such weapons in Operation Ranch Hand and other US programs in Vietnam is remarkably dishonest.
Pinker’s Vietnam analysis relies heavily on Rudolf Rummel as a source for what Rummel calls “democide,” or the “intentional government killing of an unarmed person or people.” Rummel, a far-right analyst who believes that Barack Obama is an antiwar activist attempting a coup d’état in the United States, estimates that while the “communist” North deliberately killed 1.6 million of their fellow Vietnamese civilians, the United States deliberately killed only 5,500 Vietnamese civilians—or one-three-hundredth as many as were allegedly murdered by the “communists.” Rummel matches this kind of extreme apologetics for US violence in other areas as well, but for Pinker he is a preferred source.
In dealing with the US treatment of Iraq (1990–2010), Pinker’s bias is equally impressive. He ignores the “sanctions of mass destruction” imposed between 1990 and 2003, which according to John and Karl Mueller resulted in more deaths than “all so-called weapons of mass destruction throughout history.” Although Pinker cites John Mueller often in Better Angels, he never cites his (and Karl’s) 1999 article on this subject in Foreign Affairs or mentions this “violence” landmark. Pinker minimizes the US role in the Iraq invasion and occupation that began in March 2003 by distinguishing the invasion violence from the follow-up violence, allegedly strictly internal. He says that the initial stage of the war was “quick” and “low in battle deaths,” and the major deaths occurred during the “intercommunal violence in the anarchy that followed.” This ignores how all the violence flowed from the invasion/occupation, and the US involvement in that “intercommunal” violence never stopped.
Pinker’s analysis and use of sources on war-based deaths in Iraq is also compromised. The study of Iraqi casualties by the Johns Hopkins researchers published in the British medical journal the Lancet reported that 655,000 Iraqis had died during the roughly forty-month period from the March 20, 2003, invasion through July 2006, with some 601,000 of these deaths due to violence. This is unacceptable to Pinker, who prefers the much lower estimate of Iraq Body Count, which relies largely on news media reports of deaths, while the Johns Hopkins team used a standard retrospective survey method. Pinker objects to the “Main Street bias” of the Johns Hopkins sample, but he raises no questions about Rummel’s bizarre conclusions or the systematic low-ball estimates of “battle deaths” by an array of government- and foundation-supported organizations devoted to showing that modern wars have become more and more civilian-friendly since 1945. Elsewhere in Better Angels, Pinker reverses course and reports that there were “373,000 deaths from 2003 to 2008” in the Darfur states of the western Sudan, accepting a body count produced via the same retrospective survey method used by the Johns Hopkins teams for Iraq. This is the preferential method of research in action.
Fallacy 7: exaggerating violence in the distant past
This was written by Hugo at amazon.com:
Pinker’s records don’t reflect “man in a state of nature” at all. Instead of being a pacifier force, at first, the encroaching state wreaks havoc in the native population. Tribal groups have been affected by expanding states for at least 5,000 years, not only by Europeans but also by the Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs, Chimu and Inca peoples in America; Ancient Egypt in North Africa and the Near East, and many more. There is convincing evidence that Ancient Egyptian imperialism affected local patterns of warfare (see “The Prehistory of Warfare in Europe and the Near East” by R. Brian Ferguson, from the book ”War, Peace and Human Nature”) but no assessment has been done about the impact of other civilisations on the patterns of warfare in nearby tribal peoples. Worse, Pinker’s data about deaths in warfare was taken during the 20th century, when almost all indigenous groups were being robbed of their lands and being victims of genocide: “Dispossetion often forced enemy groups into intense competition for greatly reduced resources and the availability of firearms made the resulting conflicts far more destructive than previous conflicts. These increased conflicts combined with other new disturbances in economic and social patterns often placed new stresses on tribal societies and weakened them often to the point that they willingly accepted outside control and welfare” (book “Victims of Progress”). So, instead of ‘pacifying’ the peoples, at first, the colonial powers robbed them of much of their land making them fight for increasingly scarce resources only to impose their iron fist when the damage was done. It is estimated that from 1780 to 1930, the world’s tribal populations were reduced by 30 to 50 million, not only by direct killing but also by disease, suicide, and lack of will to have children. In Australia, the aboriginal population was reduced from 500,000 to an all-time low of 65,000. Indeed, for the Ache and Hiwi peoples, the 1st and 3rd with the highest rates of warfare deaths, all the so-called war deaths involved frontiersmen killing the indigenous peoples. To say that this table represents the level of war deaths that existed prior to the Agricultural Revolution is not just preposterous: it is ridiculous. Jonathan Haas and Matthew Pisticelli summarize this perfectly:
“(…) in turning to the historic ethnographic record to support their claims of the ubiquity of warfare in the prehistoric past, [they] fail to consider how hunters and gatherers of the ‘ethnographic present’ may be profoundly different from hunters and gatherers of the more distant archaeological past. How many of these societies were surrounded and circumscribed by existing states; pushed by the rippling effects of other refugees; armed by traders; provoked, directly or indirectly, by missionaries; cut off from traditional lands? The short answer to this is that all of them, by the very fact of having been described and published by anthropologists, have been irrevocably impacted by historic and modern colonial nation states” (p. 173-174 of the chapter “The Prehistory of Warfare: Misled by Ethnography” part of the book “War, Peace and Human Nature”).
Fallacy #8: Confirmation Bias
Epstein (2011) argues in Scientific American that “There is, however, another psychological process—confirmation bias—that Pinker sometimes succumbs to in his book. People pay more attention to facts that match their beliefs than those that undermine them. Pinker wants peace, and he also believes in his hypothesis; it is no surprise that he focuses more on facts that support his views than on those that do not. The SIPRI arms data are problematic, and a reader can also cherry-pick facts from Pinker’s own book that are inconsistent with his position. He notes, for example, that during the 20th century homicide rates failed to decline in both the U.S. and England. He also describes in graphic and disturbing detail the savage way in which chimpanzees—our closest genetic relatives in the animal world—torture and kill their own kind. Of greater concern is the assumption on which Pinker’s entire case rests: that we look at relative numbers instead of absolute numbers in assessing human violence. But why should we be content with only a relative decrease? By this logic, when we reach a world population of nine billion in 2050, Pinker will conceivably be satisfied if a mere two million people are killed in war that year.”
Fallacy #9: making excuses for modern violence
Pinker wrote: “There is no indication that anyone but Hitler and a few fanatical henchmen thought it was a good idea for the Jews to be exterminated.” Recent research has found 42,500 institutions set up to perpetrate the Holocaust.
According to Goldhagen (1998) and also Geoffrey Megargee, “Many more people knew about it and took part in it … it was central to the entire Nazi system … many other countries had their own camp systems.”
Fallacy #10: Only counting battlefield deaths and ignoring the dramatically increasing numbers of civilians killed:
John Arquilla writes in Foreign Policy:
The problem with the conclusions reached in the studies Pinker cites is their reliance on “battle death” statistics. The pattern of the past century — one recurring in history — is that the deaths of noncombatants due to war has risen, steadily and very dramatically. In World War I, perhaps only 10 percent of the 10 million-plus who died were civilians. The number of noncombatant deaths jumped to as much as 50 percent of the 50 million-plus lives lost in World War II, and the sad toll has kept on rising ever since. Perhaps the worst, but hardly the only, terrible example of this trend can be seen in the Congo war — flaring up again right now — in which over 90 percent of the several million dead were noncombatants. As to Pinker’s battle-death ratios, they are somewhat skewed by the fact that overall populations have exploded since 1940; so even a very deadly war can be masked by a “per 100,000 of population” stat.
Fallacy #11: Exaggeration and misrepresentation of past violence
Stephen Corry (2013) writes: “As proof of Middle Age depravity, Pinker cites a 1480 manuscript, which he calls “a depiction of daily life.” He reproduces drawings of people behaving grossly, entitled Saturn and Mars, but omits to tell us that they are intended to show the effects engendered by those planets, not “daily life” at all. Plenty of other drawings in the book show people going about their lives perfectly politely (busily undermining his theory).
This, of course, is the time of the extraordinarily original European cathedrals, of Thomas Aquinas, whose work has been called the philosophical foundation from which science originates, the age when Renaissance ideas started to be forged, when Francis of Assisi and Hildegard of Bingen promulgated revolutionary notions about humanity.
Fallacy #11: Ignoring inconvenient truths that don’t square with his “childish simplicity way of thinking”
Gray (2015) writes: “You would never know, from reading Pinker, that Nazi “scientific racism” was based in theories whose intellectual pedigree goes back to Enlightenment thinkers such as the prominent Victorian psychologist and eugenicist Francis Galton. Such links between Enlightenment thinking and 20th-century barbarism are, for Pinker, merely aberrations, distortions of a pristine teaching that is innocent of any crime: the atrocities that have been carried out in its name come from misinterpreting the true gospel, or its corruption by alien influences. The childish simplicity of this way of thinking is reminiscent of Christians who ask how a religion of love could possibly be involved in the Inquisition. In each case it is pointless to argue the point, since what is at stake is an article of faith.”
References
Arquilla, John. December 3, 2012. Rational Security The Big Kill. Sorry, Steven Pinker, the world isn’t getting less violent. Foreign Policy.
Corry, S. June 11, 2013. Why Steven Pinker, Like Jared Diamond, Is Wrong. Truthout.
Epstein, R. October 7, 2011. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined Rates of violent deaths have declined. But psychologist Robert Epstein argues in this review that it is too early to praise human nature’s “better angels.” Scientific American.
Goldhagen, D. J. 1997. Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans & the Holocaust. Vintage.
Gray, J. March 13, 2015. Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war. The Guardian.
Herman, E.S.; Peterson, D. 2013. Steven Pinker on the alleged decline of violence. ISR #86.
Please follow and like us:The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation put together a little pamphlet looking at municipal business regulations in 10 major American cities. They combine all the information into a somewhat arbitrary aggregate index, but some of the specific findings are striking. For example, if you want to start a professional services business in Chicago you are basically facing a dystopian nightmare:
Chicago also makes this relatively expensive with $900 in permitting fees, but New York charges even more — $1,306.
Things like the efficiency of the business permitting process is not, in my experience, typically a big issue in mayoral elections. But it can make a fairly big difference to individual people's lives. Immigrants, for example, often find it especially burdensome to navigate a complicated permitting process because they don't have as many language skills or local contacts as native born Americans. Chicago is responding to this with special programs to help immigrants deal with the system, but simplifying the system might be smarter.He and his wife were placed under guard at their £1.5m Oxfordshire home
The Mail on Sunday's exclusive pictures show him under close protection
Deemed 'credible', it required an immediate response from Scotland Yard
BBC boss Tony Hall has been placed under protection of elite bodyguards
The Director-General of the BBC is being protected by an elite squad of bodyguards after receiving a chilling death threat over the sacking of Jeremy Clarkson.
Tony Hall and his wife Cynthia have been guarded round the clock at their home since a terrifying email was sent to the BBC just hours after he took the dramatic decision to drop the controversial Top Gear star.
Last night Scotland Yard confirmed officers were investigating the 'threat to kill' made on Wednesday, after the BBC decided it was 'credible' and alerted police.
Scroll down for video
Tony Hall, the Director General of the BBC, leaves his home escorted by security officers
Lord Hall was placed under protection immediately after the BBC received the death threat
Lord Hall leaves his Oxfordshire home as a personal protection security van remains parked outside
The Mail on Sunday has learned that the BBC's head of security put out an urgent appeal for ex-Special Forces personnel to take part in the top-secret operation to protect Lord Hall, at a cost to licence payers estimated at more than £1,000 a day.
A security source told this newspaper: 'There was a sudden urgency on Wednesday to find an eight-man security team to protect the Director-General of the BBC.
'A select group of close protection officers were approached and told that, as a direct result of the Top Gear punch-up and Jeremy Clarkson being sacked by the BBC, the DG had received a death threat.
'Some of the operation was visible, as a deterrent, while other bodyguards would have kept a very low profile.'
Closely guarded: Lord Hall arrives back at his home in with security minders standing by
Under protection: Last night Scotland Yard confirmed officers were investigating the 'threat to kill' made on Wednesday, after the BBC decided it was 'credible' and alerted police
On alert: The Director-General of the BBC is being protected by an elite squad of bodyguards
Our exclusive pictures show that within hours of the death threat being made, Lord Hall and his wife were under close guard at their £1.5 million Oxfordshire home.
At 10.30am on Thursday, two men sat in unmarked Mercedes cars parked on double yellow lines outside Lord Hall's 18th Century townhouse, occasionally mounting patrols around the nearby streets.
At 4.40pm one of the cars, a saloon, pulled up outside the front door and the driver waved to the driver of the other car, an estate.
Lady Hall emerged from their house and was escorted to the saloon and driven off, before the car returned without her.
At 9pm that evening the two men in the Mercedes cars were relieved by a team from a leading provider of security services.
A Ford Transit Connect van marked London Protection Services Ltd drew up outside the house and two black-clad men sat outside the property overnight.
Security team members keep a close eye on Lord Hall's wife Cynthia as she escorted from the property
The firm, which has 1,000 operatives from military, Special Forces and police backgrounds, charges £300 per man, per shift.
At 6am on Friday, Lady Hall came out of her front door to speak to one of the security men, who then joined her inside the house.
Lord Hall, dressed down in a green Barbour jacket, black jeans and walking boots, then emerged and drove a mud-spattered Jeep to the front door. He filled up the boot of the off-road vehicle, watched by the bodyguards, before his wife joined him and they drove off together.
It is believed they went to their second home in the West Country for the weekend after Lord Hall's most turbulent week at head of the BBC since he took over two years ago in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
The Director-General became a target after taking the final decision to axe Clarkson, the BBC's biggest star, from his £1 million-a-year role presenting the Corporation's biggest global money-spinner.
Overnight shift: The guards remained stationed outside the property throughout the night
Two security team members hired to protect Lord Hall and his wife stand guard beside unmarked cars
He decided not to renew the 54-year-old's Top Gear contract after an internal investigation found that he had punched producer Oisin Tymon in a 30-second physical assault, following a prolonged verbal tirade. The 'fracas' was over the lack of a hot meal after a day's filming.
North Yorkshire Police are investigating – but although Mr Tymon does not want them to press charges, he has been the subject of sustained abuse from Top Gear fans who blame him for Clarkson's sacking.
One Twitter user said they hoped Mr Tymon 'visits the morgue very soon' while another wrote: 'Tony Hall BBC director, I wonder if Oisin's and your head can stop a bullet!!! just wondering.'
The chilling email was sent to the BBC just hours after Lord Hall announced Jeremy Clarkson (pictured) was being sacked
An insider said: 'With less than 12 hours' notice the close protection officers were asked if they could go to the DG's house to protect him and his family. The job was described as a "fastball", which meant that an immediate response to the threat was required. The threat was also regarded as credible.
'On that basis, requests for close protection officers to make themselves available for this job were put out on Facebook pages and groups which are strictly for approved and highly qualified security personnel. A number of close protection officers came forward and were briefed about the threat to Tony Hall.
'The security operation took various forms, including personal security at home and following his car when he was driving. '
Lord Hall has received a death threat before. In 1999 he went into hiding under police protection following a call that said he would be 'next' after the murder of Jill Dando. At the time, Lord Hall was chief executive of BBC News.
The new threat is the most serious made to a senior Corporation figure since a decade ago, when BBC 2 controller Roly Keating had to go into hiding after being accused of blasphemy for screening the Jerry Springer opera, which depicted Jesus in a nappy.
Scotland Yard said last night: 'Police in Westminster are investigating an allegation of threats to kill. The allegation was reported to police on Wednesday. Enquiries continue. No arrests have been made.'The protest temporarily shut down a meeting of the city’s police commission as the crowd called for Chief Greg Suhr to step down.
Mr. Woods was shot Dec. 2 after witnesses saw him shouting at people and mumbling to himself on a street in the Bayview neighborhood. A short time later, the police said, he stabbed a bystander in the arm.
Cellphone videos of the police response show a stooped Mr. Woods shuffling along a wall as at least seven officers surround him, yelling, with their guns drawn.
The police said Mr. Woods did not comply when told to put down a knife. Officers used pepper spray and a beanbag gun in an attempt to subdue him.
The videos show an officer step in front of Mr. Woods, who is walking away from the other officers, in an apparent attempt to stop him. Moments later, the officer fires at Mr. Woods, followed by shots from the other officers. Mr. Woods was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.Until 2007, web hosting was a huge expense for companies. If you wanted to make a website or server that handled any serious amount of traffic, you pretty much had to rent your own server.
You then had to put it in a data center, where it would be installed by some sad guy with a ponytail1.
1: Just jealous that my hair fros and I can’t grow a pony tail or man bun.
If you had the budget, you could use a company like Rackspace, where you could either rent their servers or share a server with a few people.
Then, the “VPS” (Virtual Private Server) revolution came in 2007. Amazon launched Amazon Web Services. Basically, anyone could spin up a server and pay Amazon an hourly fee, rather than having to buy the hardware and rent access to a rack in a data center. This reduced hosting costs substantially, especially in the beginning. It’s cheaper to rent a few servers by the hour than to own your own hardware. Once you are spending millions per year in server expenses, people still evaluate the option of owning their own hardware, but the VPS/hourly rental innovation changed the game entirely. Amazon competes in the space with Google Cloud, Salesforce (Heroku), Digital Ocean, Microsoft Azure, etc.
Another benefit to this is that it’s easier to scale up: if your app suddenly becomes an overnight success, you can triple the amount of server usage with the click of a mouse, rather than having to order hardware, drive to the data center, etc. This reduced lag time from weeks (buying the hardware, installing it, setting it up) to days.. or even a few hours of configuration within the AWS / Google Compute Engine / Azure console.
In 2015 or so, another innovation came: “serverless” functions. Instead of having to rent a server by the other, where you would then install/deploy your app/website/software, one may just write their app as a series of functions. Instead of paying to rent the whole server per hour, you instead just pay for the system resources your app is using. For example, let’s say you have an app that uses 100mb of RAM…. when in use. Yet the server has 2GB of RAM. If instead you only pay for the hosting costs of your app while it’s actually being used, you would be paying a fraction of the costs.
Serverless development has a few other benefits too:
Reduces expenses since you pay for the computing resources you use
Easy to measure function execution: instrumentation and measurement is built in to the concept
You no longer have to deal with server management. You don’t have to watch the operating system for vulnerabilities/viruses, you don’t have to upgrade the software, you don’t have to deal with machines that experience hard drive failure. All you have to worry about is your app, rather than the environment it runs on.
Infinitely scalable: all you have to do is deploy your app to Amazon Lambda/Azure Cloud Functions, and then Amazon figures out how to provision the server resources necessary to execute your app. The “cloud” reduced “time needed to scale” from weeks to days/hours. Serverless reduces “time needed to scale” from days to… nothing. It’s instant!
In summary….
Pre-2007: you essentially needed a data center or expensive web host (who had their own data center / hardware) to deploy your code for any serious scale
2007: Amazon launches AWS. This of course is the same thing as the cloud. 8 years later, pretty much every big company has a “Cloud” strategy
2015: Amazon launches serverless functions. 2 years later, the hardcore techies are enthusiastic about it and taking early advantage. Within 5 years this will be mainstream… TV commercials, etc.
Thanks to Rich Jones for checking my ponytail comment. Thanks to Justin George for underscoring the importance of the time-to-market differences.Generate Show Options Include dirty words? Include a number? Include a symbol? Include more words? Include spaces between words? Use the diceware wordlist Generate markov chain passphrase
Um, you're not quite done moving your mouse yet. Move your mouse around
Mouseware uses a cryptographically secure random number generator based on your mouse movements to generate secure, memorable passwords. Passwords are generated entirely in the browser, no data is ever sent over the network. The generated passphrases are similar to those generated by Diceware or popularized by xkcd, with an emphasis on easy memorization.
Mouseware can now optionally use the diceware word list. Enable secure diceware password generation.
Mouseware also provides an alternative markov chain based password generation method. This method generates passwords that provide a balance between ease of memorization and randomness by creating passphrases which feel like english words without being limited to actual english words. For a given length, the passphrases will on average be harder to guess, however this method provides weaker guarantees since the generation method is less uniform, and more difficult to analyze.
[1]1000 guesses/second is a worst-case web-based attack. Typically this is the only type of attack feasible against a secure website.
[2]100 billion guesses/second is a worst-case offline attack, when a hashed password database is stolen by someone with nontrivial technical and financial resources.A report claims that Wolfsburg defender Ricardo Rodriguez wants to join Inter Milan in this month's transfer window.
Wolfsburg defender Ricardo Rodriguez has reportedly rejected the chance to move to the Premier League as he only wants to depart his current club for Inter Milan.
The Switzerland international has been linked with a move away from Wolfsburg over the last couple of seasons, and it had been claimed that Arsenal and Chelsea wanted the left-back this month.
According to Tuttosport, Rodriguez, who is believed to have a £19m release clause, has refused to open talks with either Arsenal or Chelsea, instead telling his representatives that he wants to join Inter in the January transfer window.
The 24-year-old moved to Wolfsburg from Zurich in the summer of 2012 and is fast closing in on 200 appearances for the Bundesliga outfit.A coalition of telecom and tech giants sent a letter on data privacy policy to the European Commissioner and to MEP and rapporteur Jan Philipp Albrecht (pictured) | Archive Industry issues plea over data reform Companies torn between foreign laws for Europeans’ personal data.
A broad industry coalition is lobbying the European Union to strike out part of an impending privacy law that could force companies to deny requests for personal data from non-member countries.
Negotiators from EU institutions are hammering out the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the biggest reform of privacy law in Europe in the past two decades.
A small section, Article 43a, says companies should not always comply with requests from courts, tribunals and administrative authorities in non-EU countries for the personal data of Europeans. The only exceptions would be under law enforcement treaties or relevant agreements between those countries and the EU, or individual European countries.
The Parliament of the European Union added this exclusion to the draft in the wake of Edward Snowden’s 2013 surveillance disclosures. It is informally referred to as the “anti-FISA” clause, in a nod to the American Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes much of the U.S.’s international surveillance activities.
The controversy over Article 43a is emblematic of a core and perpetual Internet conundrum: services simultaneously operate across scores of jurisdictions and must somehow comply with the laws of each one, though they may often clash.
A section added by Parliament says that companies should not always comply with requests from courts, tribunals and administrative authorities in non-EU countries.
The clause could create a quagmire for companies: They may be ordered by a court in one jurisdiction to hand over the data of EU citizens, but forbidden by the EU to comply, according to the Industry Coalition for Data Protection (ICDP), which represents everyone from Apple and Google to Intel and AT&T.
The coalition sent a letter this week to Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová, parliamentary rapporteur Jan Philipp Albrecht MEP, and the Luxembourg presidency of the Council of the EU — the key representatives of the three institutions that are currently negotiating the regulation’s text.
The letter from ICDP said that adopting a "unilateral approach" would create deliberate conflicts of law and severely undermine "both the principles of reciprocity in diplomatic relations as well as the credibility of the EU data protection reform.”
The coalition also warned the clause’s inclusion may lead other countries to enact similar provisions, putting EU companies operating in those countries in a bind when EU authorities demand international customers’ data.
The trade group suggested the issue should instead be dealt with in the regulation’s accompanying data protection directive, which deals specifically with law enforcement issues. Directives give EU countries more leeway for levels of enforcement than regulations do.
National data protection authorities should not be tasked with authorizing data transfers to non-EU countries, as the clause also states, ICDP argued.
Albrecht, the parliamentary rapporteur and a key supporter of the clause, appeared unmoved by their plea.
“If a Chinese court, for example, orders that any London-based financial actor should send out all the financial details and personal data of its European client to the Chinese authorities, then the EU cannot just say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it and ignore European law.’ That’s impossible,” he told POLITICO. “It only means something if there’s also an agreement or a corresponding provision in European law.”
Commissioner Jourovà noted that “many stakeholders have given their views on the data protection reform” and negotiations were still on track to be wrapped up by year-end.
“The Commission wants the new rules to guarantee that EU citizens data are protected by strong safeguards. The regulation will at the same time provide businesses with more legal certainty,” she promised.
The Council, which represents EU countries, has not included the clause in its preferred text for the regulation.Global warming may not be caused by humanity's fossil fuel emissions, but could be due to changes in the Sun.
Research suggests that the magnetic flux from the Sun more than doubled this century. As solar magnetism is closely linked with sunspot activity and the strength of sunlight reaching Earth, the increase could have produced warming in the global climate.
Solar Wind
This magnetic field is caused by the Solar Wind, a stream of particles given off by the Sun which fills the solar system.
The Solar Wind brings the Sun's magnetic field into space
Evidence from before the space age suggests that the magnetic field is 2.3 times stronger than it was in 1901.
Scientists do not doubt that the increased magnetic field results from a more energetic Sun. Their problem is that the effect of these increases on the Earth is unknown.
Not our fault?
The research is published in Nature and in the same journal Professor Eugene Parker, of the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, University of Chicago, comments that it could explain global warming.
He notes that the increased solar activity has occurred in parallel with an increase in carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. And it may not be a coincidence, he says.
Professor Parker suggests that the Sun's increased activity caused the Earth's global temperature to rise and that in turn warmed the oceans.
Warmer oceans absorb less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So a warmer Earth has more of the so-called greenhouse gases. Humanity's burning of fossil fuels may therefore not be the cause of global warming.
Perilous plans
Professor Parker adds that that more research must be done about the Sun's role in global warming before drastic action is taken here on Earth.
"It is essential to check to what extent the facts support these conclusions before embarking on drastic, perilous and perhaps misguided plans for global action," he says.
Measurements of the magnetic field are not the only evidence for the Sun's variable influence on the Earth. The planet went through a "little ice age" during the 17th Century, at a time when very few sunspots appeared on the surface of the Sun.
And the so-called "medieval maximum" was a period of warmer than average |
. The game comes out on November 17th, 2009. Keep an eye out for this game and stay tuned with us.Throw out your DVDs of Louis Malle's Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields, purge your DVDs of Lolita, Taxi Driver and even the just released Beautiful Kate. The NSW Government wants to erode the current defence of "scientific, medical, legal, artistic or other public benefit purpose" of the Crimes Act (s 91H(4) Crimes Act).
Great works of art have as their basis that young people are sexual, precocious, attractive and careless with their affections. Romeo and Juliet were 13. In a knee-jerk-off reaction to Bill Henson's case last year, the Attorney-General wants to illegalise possession of images or words that appear to sexualise persons "under 16 or who looks like a child under 16". Beware flat-chested women.
Fair enough. No one wants to defend real child pornography but if, like Henson's work, it serves a higher purpose, is shown in relative seclusion and is a thing of acclaimed beauty, then are we not burning books?
Child pornography is in the eye of the beholder. The favourite television show of the rock spiders at Long Bay is It's Academic. At 4pm every day, they roll their sleeves and get down to basics. Many have posters of Bindi Irwin in jungle greens. No amount of censorship takes away the desire, imagination and cunning of the deviant. They cut out newspaper advertisements for school uniforms, search the internet for photos involving kids toys and clothes. They would get off on a postage stamp if it had one of the young princes on it. Civility, of course, must be maintained.
However, the Government's proposals in the Report of the Child Pornography Working Party claim they want to bring the NSW statutes in line with the federal law. Under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, "the literary, artistic or educational merit [if any] of the material" is just a factor in deciding if material is child pornography. It allows for expert evidence to be given on the issue. The proposed state laws would take away the defence of artistic merit and replace it with visions that suggest such intent and pursuits can be taken into account in deciding if the material is child pornography.Acland coal mine: Farmers silenced by agreements, Oakey Coal Action Alliance says
Updated
The company behind the New Acland coal mine on Queensland's Darling Downs is silencing nearby farmers with confidentiality clauses in signed agreements, an environmentalist says.
The Oakey Coal Action Alliance (OCAA) is using the Queensland Land Court to challenge an expansion of the mine to increase annual output, from 4.8 million to 7.5 million tonnes of thermal coal, across three new open-cut pits.
New Hope Coal plans to expand the mine onto 3,668 hectares of agricultural land — before it is expected to run out of coal this year.
OCAA secretary Paul King said New Hope had hired a consultant to negotiate "make good arrangements" to protect landholders surrounding the proposed stage three expansion.
"Those make good agreements they're insisting [on] have confidentiality clauses in them and we don't think that's fair," he said.
"It stops people from discussing it with their friends and neighbours, and it stops people from getting together and working out overall water loss in that district."
Mr King said there was no legal requirement for confidentiality in the agreements.
"We think that's a bit suspicious," he said.
"We need to have things transparent so everybody knows if their water table is being affected, because it goes beyond just the current landholders — it goes to the future of farming in the district.
"It's not fair, it's not transparent, and if they're doing the right thing then why do you have to keep it a secret."
Deals causing social problems in Acland community
Mr King said the agreements were also causing problems in social situations.
"Some people will start to talk about the mine and its effects and others will just simply clam up and become nervous and won't be able to talk at all," he said.
"It cuts the conversation short and it makes people unable to express what they really feel.
"If everyone's getting a fair deal then it should be out in the open.
"If they're [the company] trying to pull a swifty, then the best way to do that is to keep it confidential and with those agreements, you'd never know."
Mr King warned landholders that New Acland stage three may never proceed.
"It would be unwise, in our opinion, to enter into one of these agreements — we're advising great caution," he said.
"If New Acland coal can get these agreements all signed up then that's evidence that people are happy, and they may not be happy."
He said the company had engaged experienced consultants to work with farmers who had no legal experience.
"It's a first time runner against an experienced field, and that's an imbalance," he said.
New Hope Coal has declined to comment while the matter is before the court.
Topics: activism-and-lobbying, courts-and-trials, mining-rural, mining-industry, coal, community-development, regional, regional-development, acland-4401, oakey-4401, qld, australia, toowoomba-4350
First postedThe Official Programme of the Victory Celebrations.
The London Victory Celebrations of 1946 were British Commonwealth, Empire and Allied victory celebrations held after the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II.[1][2] The celebrations took place in London on 8 June 1946,[3] and consisted mainly of a military parade through the city and a night time fireworks display.[2] Most British allies took part in the parade, including Belgium, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg the Netherlands and the United States.[1] The parade arrangements caused a controversy surrounding the lack of representation of Polish forces.[1]
Victory parade
Representatives of the Greek armed forces, including two Evzones in their traditional fustanella
The first part of the parade was the Chiefs of Staff's procession, featuring the British Chiefs of Staff together with the Supreme Allied Commanders. This was followed by a mechanised column which went from Regent's Park to Tower Hill to The Mall (where the saluting base was)[3][4][5][6] and then back to Regent's Park. It was more than four miles long and contained more than 500 vehicles from the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, British civilian services and the British Army (in that order).[3][7]
Next came a marching column, which went from Marble Arch to The Mall to Hyde Park Corner.[3][4] This was headed by the flags of the Allied nations which took part in the parade, each with an honour guard. Next came units of the navies, air forces, civilian services and armies of the nations of the British Empire. They were followed by units from the Royal Navy, followed by British civilian services, the British Army, representatives of certain Allied air forces and the Royal Air Force. This was followed by a fly-past of 300 aircraft, led by Douglas Bader.[8] In the aftermath, 4,127 persons needed medical attention and 65 were taken to hospital.[2]
Most of the allies were represented at the parade, including representatives from the USA, France, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway and Transjordan.[9]
The only allied countries not represented at the parade were USSR,[10] Yugoslavia,[11] and Poland.[5][6][12][13][14]
Australian contingent
The Australian contingent was headed by Major General Ken Eather, an officer with a distinguished record in the war. The contingent consisted of 250 servicemen and women, drawn from the three services, including Private Richard Kelliher, who had won the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Lae in 1943. The Victory March Contingent sailed for the United Kingdom on HMAS Shropshire on 8 April 1946.[15]
New Zealand contingent
New Zealand was represented on the victory march by a contingent of 300 members and former members of the armed forces. The contingent consisted of 150 representatives of the army, 100 of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and 50 of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Women were also included in all three sections, and there was representation of the Maori Battalion. The contingent was commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Puttick, the General Officer Commanding of the New Zealand Forces During the war. The Contingent included the Victoria Cross holders, Colone Leslie Andrew VC,DSO Sergeant Alfred Clive Hulme VC and Charles Upham, VC & Bar.[16] The contingent sailed from New Zealand on April 20 on the New Zealand hospital ship Maunganui.[17]
Nighttime festivities
After sunset of the same day, the principal buildings of London were lit by floodlights, and crowds thronged the banks of the Thames and Westminster Bridge to watch King George VI and his family proceed down the river in the Royal barge. The planned festivities ended with a fireworks display over Central London. However, crowds continued to gather in London and surrounded Buckingham Palace even after the Royal family had retired from the festivities. Many festival goers could not return home that night and spent the rest of the night in public parks and other public areas around London.[2]
Political controversy
The parade caused political controversy in the UK and has continued to be criticised because of the lack of representation of Polish forces.[1][18][19][20][21][22] During the war, more than 200,000 members of the Polish Armed Forces in the West had fought under British High Command. These were loyal to the Polish government-in-exile, were opposed to the Soviet Union since the time of the Nazi-Soviet pact and hoped to return to a democratic, non-communist Poland after the war. However, by 1946, the British government changed its diplomatic recognition from the pro-democracy Poles in exile to the new communist-dominated Provisional Government of National Unity in Poland, where, according to Winston Churchill and others, totalitarian control was being established.[23]
The British government initially invited the Soviet-backed government in Poland to send a flag party to represent Poland among the allied forces in the parade, but did not specifically invite representatives of the Polish forces that had fought under British High Command. Britons including Winston Churchill, figures in the RAF and a number of MPs protested against the decision, which was described as an affront to the Polish war effort as well as an immoral concession to communist power.[1][24] Also, the pro-democracy Polish forces did not agree that the Soviet-backed Polish government could represent them, and saw the development as a negation of what they had fought the War for.
After these complaints, 25 pilots of the Polish fighter squadrons in the Royal Air Force, who had taken part in the Battle of Britain, were invited to march together with other foreign detachments as part of the parade of the Royal Air Force.[25] The government said this was a necessary compromise due to the political circumstances of the day.[25] Also, after the public criticism in Britain,[26] last-minute invitations were sent by Foreign Minister Bevin directly to the Chief of Staff of the Polish Army, General Kopanski, who was still in post in London, and to the chiefs of the Polish Air Force and the Polish Navy and to individual generals.
These invitations were declined,[27] and the airmen refused to participate in protest against the omission of the other branches of the Polish forces.[22] The Soviet-backed Polish government, in turn, chose not to send a delegation, and later cited the invitation to the pilots as its reason to stay away.[28] In the end, the parade thus took place without any Polish forces. The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia[11] also stayed away.
See alsoMySpace Music, a joint venture between MySpace and the major labels, completed a deal to acquire "certain assets" of the popular social networking site Imeem on Tuesday. Imeem is now offline. Various reports claimed the deal was done over the weekend, but MySpace Music CEO Owen Van Natta announced that the two companies only finalized the deal today.
So, what does MySpace Music have in store for imeem? According to Van Natta, MySpace Music plans to "leverage imeem’s industry leading technology" for starters, and "over time, meaningfully integrate their products into the MySpace Music experience."
The entire imeem service has been removed from the internet, and its smartphone applications no longer function. According to two sources with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named, imeem's full-track-playback licenses essentially expired as a result of its inability to keep up with licensing payments, which apparently combined with a lawsuit from The Orchard (more on that below) forced the site's sale to MySpace Music and near-simultaneous closure.
The imeem.com domain now redirects to MySpace Music, while links to some individual songs on imeem now redirect to their corresponding pages on MySpace's recently-acquired iLike site (where, ironically, some of the songs come from MySpace competitor YouTube). Embedded imeem songs and playlists, including hundreds I have posted on Wired.com, no longer load at all. Imeem CEO Dalton Caldwell, CTO Bryan Berg, COO Ali Aydar and VP of Sales David Wade have signed on to MySpace Music as consultants to "help manage this transition," including porting imeem playlists over to MySpace Music, which has its own licensing agreements.
Of particular interest to MySpace Music – the ad-supported, on-demand music service not to be confused with MySpace's band pages – are imeem's 16 million worldwide users and its staff's experience in building the first music service that allowed users to (https://www.wired.com/listening_post/2007/12/imeem-signs-dea/) on third-party websites. MySpace Music also gets imeem's SnoCap property – a large database of music, co-founded by Napster's Shawn Fanning, that allows independent bands to sell music on imeem, MySpace and other sites through embeddable widgets.
Visitors to imeem.com are now redirected to MySpace Music (updated).
According to insiders, imeem, which was already struggling to cover its music licensing fees in a weak advertising market, was brought to its knees by a lawsuit from independent music consortium The Orchard that accused imeem of playing TVT Records' music without the proper licensing. The lawsuit asked for the maximum penalty of $150,000 per infringed song; imeem apparently thought it had a case, but lacked the funds to pursue it.
You were fun while you lasted, imeem, rest in peace – although it looks like you'll rest in pieces instead. Fans now have one less licensed music source.
See Also:Updated with Defense Department response appended, 1:30 p.m. EST, Nov. 29, 2017.
MOGADISHU, Somalia—It was around five in the morning when Abdullahi Elmi heard the gunfire. Sitting in his small home in Bariire, in southern Somalia, the farm administrator had been recording the names of the laborers who had worked the day before. Stacks of accounting books sprawled on the floor around him. Across the room, his wife sat with their 3-year-old son who dozed as his mother rocked him back and forth in her arms.
When the sound of gunshots began, Abdullahi thought they were too far away to be heading toward his farm. But within seconds they seemed to grow louder, and closer, sending Abdullahi and his wife, carrying their young son, sprinting through the nearby forest of banana trees in search of safety.
Sheltering beneath the long leaves, Abdullahi came across his neighbor, Goomey Hassan, who had also sprinted into the banana grove with his wife when he heard the barrage of gunfire. The two families waited for 20 minutes before they decided it was safe to return, and began walking cautiously back to their homes, both Abdullahi and Goomey careful to walk in front of their wives in case the gunfire returned.
As the women entered their houses, the two men stood outside to see what had happened, eventually spotting Somali National Army soldiers walking in the distance. At first Abdullahi was relieved, the national army must have come to stop their rival clan from attacking their farm, he thought. But as the soldiers saw the men, they raised their weapons, ordering Hassan and Elmi to get down on the ground.
“ Blood from a gunshot wound poured into the earth around him. ”
“I put my hands up and they told us you are under arrest, then I heard the noise from their big cars and I knew this was more than just a clan fight,” Elmi said. “They told my wife to go back in our home and then they went inside to search. I was pleading with them not to take anything.”
When the soldiers finished their search, they ordered the men to move with them toward the scene of the shooting. There Abdullahi and Goomey saw their fellow farmers’ bodies sprawled across the ground. The small pot that one of them had been using to make tea still stood upright near the corpses. And they also saw what they later estimated to be around 20 American soldiers standing around the bodies. A Somali National Army soldier who was at the scene estimated 10 to 12 Americans were there. Abdullahi felt his chest tighten as he heard his friend, Ali-waay, calling for help, blood from a gunshot wound pouring into the earth around him.
One of the Somali soldiers ordered Abdullahi to put his head on the ground. The bottom of a boot belonging to an American soldier kept it there.
THE U.S.-LED OPERATION on Aug. 25 would result in the death of 10 civilians, including at least one child, and become the largest stain on U.S. ground operations in the country since the infamous Black Hawk Down incident in 1993.
In the operation’s aftermath, hundreds of people in the nearby town Afgoye flooded the city’s streets demanding justice for those killed, and survivors on the farm refused to bury their dead until the Somali government recanted its allegations that they were members Al Shabaab, and offered an apology.
The Daily Beast conducted an investigation into the Bariire operation and its aftermath, interviewing three of the operation’s survivors over the phone from Mogadishu and meeting in person with the Somali National Army Commander in charge of the Somali soldiers who assisted in the operation under the command of soldiers from U.S. Special Operations Forces.
The Daily Beast also met in Mogadishu with over two dozen Somali intelligence officers, political analysts, local leaders, and former and current government officials familiar with the incident. Two of these individuals are also involved in an ongoing local, non-government-sponsored investigation into the incident.
The Daily Beast also met in person with the commander of the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces whose purview under the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force includes Bariire, and who was approached by the Americans about their plan to re-capture and hold Bariire.
The vast majority of these sources preferred to speak anonymously, either because they were not authorized to discuss the incident or because they feared possible retribution from either the Somali Federal Government or the Americans for doing so.
The details that emerged paint a damning picture of at least one U.S. ground operation in the African nation. This includes U.S. Special Operators firing upon unarmed civilians, using human intelligence from sources widely considered untrustworthy to Somalis in the region as well as government officials, and instructing their Somali counterparts to collect weapons that were being stored inside a home—not displaced on the field in the course of the firefight—and placing them beside the bodies of those killed prior to photographing them. In the aftermath of the incident, according to our sources, American diplomats also pressured the Somali government to bury the unfavorable findings of a Somali Federal Government-led investigation.
Hours after the operation, AFRICOM released a statement noting that it was aware of allegations of civilian casualties in the operation and that AFRICOM was “conducting an assessment into the situation to determine the facts on the ground.” The AFRICOM press release also stated that “the Somali National Army was conducting an operation in the area with U.S. forces in a supporting role.”
Yet a majority of bullet casings collected from the farm that was attacked, which were seen by The Daily Beast, were from American—not Somali National Army—weapons. This appears to confirm that the Special Operations team did not command SNA while remaining behind during the operation, as the AFRICOM statement would have the public believe, but rather were responsible themselves for firing upon and killing unarmed civilians.
According to Maj. Audricia Harris, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, “this incident remains under investigation” and the DOD cannot comment on any specifics of the employment of U.S. Special Operations forces. She noted that U.S. Special Operations “take all measures during the targeting process to avoid or minimize civilian casualties or collateral damage and to comply with the principles of the Law of Armed Conflict.” (The complete list of queries and responses can be viewed here.)
The details surrounding the planning of this incident collected by The Daily Beast suggest, however, that the Special Operations Forces involved in this mission did not sufficiently vet the information they were presented with prior to carrying out this operation.
LOWER SHABELLE has long been a hotspot in Somalia’s decades of conflict, with Bariire town at its heart. The area is one of the most fertile regions in the otherwise barren Somali landscape: here farmers cultivate green fields of bananas, mangos, and tomatoes running parallel to the Shabelle River while businessmen sell the produce in the nearby capital Mogadishu.
But the same lushness that makes the region attractive to farmers has also made it desirable real estate for Al Shabaab: the plentiful crops are ripe for taxation, the vegetation is good for taking cover from drone surveillance, and the Shebelle River creates a natural barrier between Al Shabaab and enemy forces, while its bridges create opportunities for Al Shabaab’s hit and run attacks.
The Islamic extremist group has held sporadic control throughout the region since January 2009, when the Ethiopian forces that had helped oust the Islamic Courts Union, a confederation of Sharia courts that rose to power in southern Somalia in 2006, withdrew from the region. Though in the years following the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia or AMISOM retook some large towns and established Forward Operating Bases throughout Lower Shabelle, the area remains one of the last large swaths of territory where Al Shabaab maintains pockets of control.
For years the heart of Al Shabaab’s dominance in the area of Lower Shabelle near Mogadishu could be found in Bariire town, located just 45 kilometers from the capital. From this town the group ran courts they used to implement Sharia law in the region and organized attacks carried out in Mogadishu. According to Minister of Parliament Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, the town had acted as Al Shabaab’s “small capital” near Mogadishu. “[Bariire] had become a nightmare for the Somali government and created problems for Somalia’s security partners,” Fiqi says. “Every security report [Somali Parliament’s Security Committee] received, Bariire was included.”
“ The Americans appeared woefully unaware that in this vast and forest-rich region, Al Shabaab isn’t the only factor contributing to instability. ”
And the Somali Parliament wasn’t the only one taking note of Bariire. U.S. Special Operators recognized the town’s strategic significance as well, which is why in July this year they approached the Ugandan People’s Defense Force or UPDF Brig. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga, whose responsibilities under AMISOM include Lower Shabelle, about a plan they had developed to retake Bariire town and the surrounding region. Unlike U.S. operations in years past, this campaign wouldn’t consist of targeted airstrikes or raids, both of which have seen relative success in Somalia. Instead, the U.S. wanted to hold the land they would capture and provide intermittent on-the-ground support with the local force in charge of maintaining control of the territory.
According to Brig. Gen. Muhanga, the Americans were requesting the Department of State sponsored equipment for building Forward Operating Bases or FOBs, such as caterpillars and graders, from a nearby AMISOM FOB, as well as UPDF troops to be retasked with the Somali National Army to hold the terrain in Bariire and beyond. The UPDF general was skeptical of this plan. His troops were already overstretched across the region; not only would they not be able to provide adequate security for the FOB building equipment, but he questioned whether he could lend enough troops to hold a new FOB with the Somali National Army, which he knew to be under-trained, under-equipped, and likely unable to hold any outposts themselves.
And in addition to foolhardy planning of the hold-terrain operation, the Americans also appeared to be woefully unaware that in this vast and forest-rich region, Al Shabaab isn’t the only factor contributing to instability. Further complicating the security landscape is the ongoing conflict among Somali clans, primarily the Habar Gidr and Biyomal. The rivalry between them, like most clan conflict in the country, revolves around land and, with the emergence of a functioning Somali state, power.
Though clan alliances and clan conflicts span centuries, the current flare up in Lower Shabelle dates back five years when Biyomal and Habar Gidr renewed their fight over the majority Habar- Gidr-controlled land. The Biyomal, a smaller clan which have traditionally lived in Lower Shabelle, claim the land is rightfully theirs given their historic presence in the region, while the Habar Gidr began to migrate south to the fertile Lower Shabelle in the 1990s when civil war broke out and their clan won authority in the region. They maintain that having lived on the land for decades they can legitimately call it their own.
But unlike centuries past, clan conflicts in modern Somalia have been complicated first by Al Shabaab and later by the presence of AMISOM, American Special Operations, and other foreign militaries operating in the country.
Since Al Shabaab formed in 2007, the group has thrived on local conflicts, offering support to the militias in their clan wars in exchange for their firepower when Al Shabaab confronts government forces. But farmers in the region, who aren’t part of these militias, though they are often armed to protect their land and livestock, aren’t as lucky. When their territory is taken over by Al Shabaab, they don’t have a choice: either agree to pay taxes to the group and to live under their authority or risk disarmament and death.
This modus operandi creates a military landscape ripe for confusion, where distinguishing Al Shabaab militants from armed farmers in Al Shabaab controlled territories requires accurate, unbiased, on-the-ground intelligence.
Yet because foreign militaries, including U.S. Special Operations, often rely either on clan militias, or the Somali security forces which have incorporated some of these militias into their ranks, for human intelligence, there is ample opportunity for clansmen to label their rivals falsely as “Al Shabaab,” and garner the support of foreign forces, and their much more sophisticated weaponry, in their own clan wars.
When the UPDF commander, cognizant of the difficulties of terrain and this kind of operation, turned down the American’s request for UPDF support and advised against the mission, the Americans turned instead to the Somali National Army’s 20th Brigade, a poor semblance of a military at best.
“ These American guys are our friends, but they came in rushing into operations without understanding the SNA capability. ” — UPDF Brig. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga
“I told the U.S. guys the SNA can’t hold ground, they don’t have the weapons to hold ground,” Gen. Muhanga said. “These American guys are our friends, but they came in rushing into operations without understanding the SNA capability because they wanted to achieve something themselves.”
Unlike the SNA’s special forces unit, Danab, which has been trained by the Americans to operate alongside them in ground operations, the SNA brigade this U.S. team approached had not only never been trained by any U.S. Special Operators but also was led by a former Al Shabaab commander, Sheegow Ahmed Ali, who had worked closely with the Biyomal militia in the region, led by Abdullahi Ali Ahmed also known as “Wafo,” in the lead-up to this operation.
The Americans seemingly worked with them ignorant of both the clan dynamics pitting Wafo’s militia against Habargidir clansmen like those on the farm and of a complaint, obtained by The Daily Beast, made by the Lower Shabelle Community Elders committee to the regional president, the minister of interior, the United Nations mission, the U.S. Embassy, the E.U. Delegation and the African Union representative last year about Wafo’s Biyomal militia attacking civilians and using AMISOM protection to do so. The letter stated that “AMISOM is sheltering and providing logistical support to Biyomal militia forces….while Biyomal Militia is burning farms, looting properties and killing innocent civilians without discrimination (elders, children, women and youth) under the AMISOM protection in their barracks.”
The Daily Beast also learned from multiple Somali government and security officials, that the Americans were using a translator who had a history of suspected manipulation of U.S. Forces.
The translator, known as Bashir, had been involved in a 2016 operation in Galkayo, northern Somalia, in which a U.S. drone strike targeted and killed 22 members of a local militia which had been working in collaboration with U.S. forces, according to the Bureau for Investigative Journalism. After the incident, many believed Bashir was complicit in providing inaccurate intelligence to the American forces because the local force was from a rival clan to his own. Given that his wife is from the Biyomal clan, many suspect Bashir had helped persuade the Americans that the Habar Gidr on the farm were Al Shabaab as well, though the reason the U.S. would use a translator suspected previously of manipulating them into killing non-Al Shabaab combatants is unclear.
“We don’t believe the Americans have any agenda to kill us, they don’t have an agenda to support one clan against another,” says Ali Osman Diblawe, one of the farmers who was attacked in the operation. “But the Biyomal clan used misinformation and propaganda to wrongly kill us. They persuaded the Somali government and the Americans that we are Al Shabaab, which we are not.”
DIBLAWE’S FARM is located on one of Lower Shabelle’s fault lines where government soldiers and Al Shabaab militants meet.
Six days before the operation on his farm, the fighting had come so close to his village that he and other farmers fled, returning to their homes a day later when the smoke had settled and Al Shabaab militants vacated the area.
The fighting he and other villagers heard was in Bariire town, where even without the UPDF support, the American Special Operations team had begun their campaign to retake and hold first Bariire and then the surrounding area, according to UPDF Gen. Muhanga. At first, the strategy appeared to be working: the U.S. and SNA team successfully retook Bariire and set up four outposts on each corner of the city in order to hold it against Al Shabaab as planned.
With their farm just one kilometer away from Bariire town, now seemingly under government control, Diblawe decided to meet with the SNA in Bariire and explain the ongoing clan conflict in the nearly liberated area. Diblawe and some of his fellow villagers owned small arms, mostly old AK-47s, to protect their land against the Biyomal, which he feared the SNA might misinterpret as the farmers being fighters for Al Shabaab.
Diblawe walked with a friend and fellow villager, Ali-waay, to Bariire town where he met with Gen. Sheegow. A rotund man who stands roughly five foot five inches tall, Sheegow didn’t give Diblawe the impression of a feared military commander.
But a glimpse into the 56-year-old’s life before he joined the Somali National Army proves otherwise. Prior to 2012, Sheegow was an Al Shabaab commander who defected to government forces with between 50 and 100 of his fighters. But most suspect it was a defection born from the fear of being imminently captured by Somali government troops than a change of heart. The first battle his brigade fought with Al Shabaab under the SNA flag, they lost—along with a number of arms and military cars that fell into Al Shabaab’s hands. The incident raised questions about whether the general had lost on purpose in an effort to continue supporting the extremist group.
The Daily Beast met Sheegow in Mogadishu, where three government officials say he was to be reprimanded for the emerging pattern of civilian casualties under his leadership in the part of Lower Shabelle, for which his brigade is responsible. Sheegow denied those claims.
According to Diblawe, during his meeting with General Sheegow he explained that the Biyomal and the Habar Gidr had been fighting over land in the area Sheegow was now responsible for and suggested the general either disarm both groups or reconcile the two clans.
“He told us he would reconcile us with the Biyomal and that there wasn’t anything to worry about,” Diblawe says. Upon returning to his village, he told the villagers about his agreement with Sheegow and instructed them to place all of their small arms in one of the village’s corrugated tin homes, per the instructions of Gen. Sheegow.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Sheegow denied having met with Diblawe prior to the operation, although immediately after the incident he told local media that he had “talked with the farmers in the area and instructed them to put their weapons in their homes to avoid confusion” about who was and wasn’t Al Shabaab.
Waiting for the next steps in the reconciliation process, Diblawe and other villagers returned to their fields, hoping to hear word from Sheegow about when the reconciliation efforts would begin. But days later Diblawe and others in the village noticed something strange looming over their farms with a noise that pierced the sky around them. Staring at the sky from outside his home, Diblawe though it looked like a strange crow circling the village. But the loud hum that pierced the otherwise peaceful landscape suggested otherwise. Diblawe knew this wasn’t a bird. It was a drone.
“ Sheegow was an Al Shabaab commander who defected to government forces with between 50 and 100 of his fighters. ”
“It was coming in the morning, around five or six in the morning and again around five in the evening,” Diblawe said. “It was clear the Americans with Sheegow were interested in us, that’s why they were using their spy drone above us.”
Diblawe returned to the general, begging Sheegow to let him speak directly with the Americans so he could clarify who the villagers were. Diblawe suggested the foreign force search their farm so they could see the small arms and Diblawe could explain why the villagers were in possession of them. Again, Sheegow told him to be patient and that the reconciliation process would begin soon. Diblawe returned to his village wary of the general, and feeling disheartened knowing that without the general’s support, he had no chance of trying to communicate with the Americans directly.
The next day villagers spotted the drone hovering overhead again. Diblawe’s concerns grew. He returned to Sheegow for the third time, pleading to speak with the Americans. Again, Sheegow denied him.
That would be Diblawe’s last plea for help. The next morning gunfire tore through his small village and Diblawe’s concerns that the farmers had been mistaken for Al Shabaab were proven true.
AFTER GATHERING with roughly 20 other villagers to say the morning prayer on Friday, Diblawe had crawled back into his bed hoping to rest a bit more before starting his day. Less than 10 minutes later he heard the sound of gunfire and sprinted out of his bed to his doorstep, from which he saw his neighbor, Ali-waay, standing with his hands up and uniformed men in the distance. Diblawe immediately started running toward the forest behind his house.
“I was barefoot and there were a lot of bullets hitting near me but I didn’t stop for one second, I ran and started heading in the direction of Bariire town, I thought the military there could stop the firing,” he said.
Arriving in Bariire, Diblawe first saw an SNA lieutenant, Mohamed Mohamud Abor, and ran up to him, demanding to see Sheegow. The lieutenant brought the winded farmer to Sheegow’s outpost, where looking the general in the eye Diblawe was overcome by a sense of both despair and bewilderment. “I asked him why all of this is happening, we just left him here yesterday and told him our concerns, and now the people were being killed,” Diblawe said. “I told him let us rescue the people who are still alive, let us see if we can save these people.”
Meanwhile on the other side of the farm from Diblawe’s house, Abdullahi and Goomey were being escorted to the center of the village by Somali National Army soldiers. Told to lie down on the ground, the two men could hardly believe the carnage around them. Ten of their friends were sprawled across the ground. Some like Ali-waay—the same man who gone to town with Diblawe the day before—were barely alive and calling weakly for help. The soldiers around them were not listening.
Roughly thirty minutes earlier, Goomey had been praying with most of them, and saw the teapot they had begun to brew still sitting on the ground, the body of a pre-teen boy in a brown t-shirt and dark blue jeans stretched out beside it. He knew the others would have been waiting for the tea when the barrage of gunfire began. The Daily Beast has photographs of the villagers taken after the attack, although many are too graphic for publication. They show the teapot, a black water heater, and a large pot scattered around the boy’s body.
Near the boy, Goomey saw his friend, Dangaweyne, who had traveled with him from the nearby town Afgoye to their small village the day before. A few meters away was another wounded man, Abdullahi Abdullahi, weakly shouting “save me, save me!” in the direction of Goomey and |
expensive teas … even cheap teas sold as expensive ones.
The best part of the market, for me, are the hundreds and hundreds of utensils on sale here. Tables, pots, pickers, scoopers, cups, glasses, water boilers …
The market is big and getting bigger each year. It is located just northwest of the train station, but if you tell any cabbie “Wukuaishi Chaye Shichang,” they will be able to find it. If you are on a bike, just ride around the northside until you find it. Or consult this handy Google Map below:She is an unknown struggling writer. Her boyfriend is the new literary star. His book about American family life was the publishing sensation of last year. You'd think she'd be pleased for him. Think again. In a remarkably honest memoir, she describes what it's like to feel the one emotion more powerful than love...
THIS IS A STORY about two writers. A story, in other words, of envy. I met the man at an artists' colony, and I liked him from the first story I heard him tell. It was about how he'd once been jilted by a blind date, after which he went right out and bought himself some new clothes. He was working on his third book but had no particular interest in talking shop. He read the paper and watched sports on television. He was handsome in a shy, arrogant way, dressed safely but deliberately in his white shirts and black jeans.
He was, I soon learned, struggling.
There may be women out there who do not love this beyond all else in a man, but I'm not one of them.
He played pool after dinner and I would watch him through the window of the phone-booth door as I made my nightly call to my parents in California. My father, who was 81 and not in good health, had recently fallen. The anticipation of those 10-minute phone calls - during which I did nothing but listen, and even that not very well - dominated my days. The booth was tiny. The air felt pre-breathed and thick with the molecules of other people's long-distance calls, of their quarrels and appeasements. A small window was positioned at eye level if you were sitting down, and through it, while my parents' distress poured into my ear, I could see a slice of the man, a helping from his waist to the middle of his thighs, as he played pool. I watched him set his legs, wiggling them into place. As my mother spoke in the tense, coded voice that signalled that my father was in the room with her, I focused on the cue sliding forward and back across his body like a bow. As long as I kept my eye trained on that cue, I told myself, I would not get sucked through the tiny holes of the receiver.
One afternoon I ran into the man and, partly in a bid to keep him talking, told him about my parents and my uncertainty about what I should be doing to help them. His own father had died after a long illness, he told me, so he had some idea what I was going through. Just then a staff member came by and complimented him on one of his novels, neither of which I'd heard of - a fact that helped to equalise the discrepancy between his two published books and my none.
We both watched her walk away again, awkwardness rushing in to fill the space she left behind. He looked back at me. 'You have to do your work,' he said. 'That's your first responsibility.'
He meant, of course, my writing, and he spoke with a confidence I had never managed to feel about those hours of daydreaming at my desk, stringing together decorative little sentences to describe small, made-up events. Work to me always meant a job you were paid to do, necessary labour that someone else depended on.
He may have been struggling, but he knew what his work was. That was the first thing I envied about him.
WHEN MY FATHER, after at last agreeing to see the doctor, was immediately scheduled for major surgery, I made arrangements to fly back to California. I left my computer and most of my belongings behind to ensure my return to the colony, and I bought a copy of the man's second novel to take with me. Over the next week I read it in various locations - on the plane, in the hospital cafeteria, at my parents' breakfast table. There were moments, reading, where the recognition was so strong, and the life on the page so vivid, I could feel my pulse speed up.
This book is good, I thought with joy, the way you can when it's the work of someone you don't really know and expect you never will. Because it's the very fact of not knowing the writer that gives you that proprietary thrill, that frees up the book to belong to you.
But I did know him, at least a little, so I also felt, intermittently, the stabs of dread familiar to all writers - that here were sentences, paragraphs, whole pages I not only admired but wished I had written.
And I suppose pride was also in the mix because this man whose perception I envied had possibly liked me. I saw myself reflected, if in an incomplete and distorted way, in that possibility, the way you can see the ghost of yourself in a store window through which you can also see a real woman examining a shoe.
So from the start he was both man and writer, real and something more than real, to me. I had liked him as soon as I met him - a current rippled across my skin when he walked into a room - but something stronger kicked in once I met him on the page, naked and decked out in phrases I would never have thought of.
I was falling for another writer, and I recognised my descent by its peculiar calling card: the fear of what I wanted. Back at the colony, confident that nothing would actually 'happen' between us, I engineered as many coincidental meetings with him as I could. Because we lived on opposite sides of the country and would probably never see each other again, I felt crestfallen, and safe.
My father remained in the hospital, not so much recovering as trading one complication for another, for the next two months. Once I got home I visited him every day and never got over the feeling, as I searched for a parking space, walked to the entrance and made my way down the wide squeaky hallway to his open door, that I was pulling myself along like a reluctant dog who might one day slip my collar and make a break for the car.
Then one day in my mailbox there was a letter from the man at the colony. Of course I wrote him back right away, labouring for hours to strike an appro priately offhand tone. I drove my letter to the post office for faster pick-up and began waiting impatiently for a response. Before long we were corresponding, with a double-edged satisfaction that seemed destined to mark everything that happened between us. It was a simple thrill to see an envelope addressed in his hand in my mailbox, and then I would open the letter and begin answering it in my head, and the thrill would get complicated.
In my letters I was compelled to see my life as it must have looked from the outside: a lot of driving and errand-running, empty, necessary hours at the hos pital. His letters, chronicling his successes and failures at his desk, where he was at work on a novel about family troubles, reminded me of the writer's life I myself was failing to live.
I knew from his descriptions of his days that they were no easier than mine. He was still struggling, throwing away much of what he'd written, and I took a furtive solace in that. But occasionally he would report having had a good day, and I would feel, under my encouraging cheer, the shudder of panic you get when a friend deserts you by joining AA or leaving a bad marriage. It was one thing for him to be sitting down to it every day while I was not; but to hear that he might be getting somewhere made me feel abandoned and ashamed. Fortunately, over the next two months, such days were rare enough to discount.
Eventually my father came home to a house fitted for his wheelchair-bound return: doors taken off their hinges, rugs rolled up, and a hospital bed installed in the den, with a baby monitor so my mother could hear him call. But as he was ostensibly getting better, to the point where he was able to drag himself around the house behind a walker, he was also clearly getting worse. It was hard to get a firm sense of exactly what was wrong, and for a while I was frustrated because he seemed unwilling to make the necessary effort. Finally he agreed to go back to the hospital. As if his body had just been waiting for the signal, organ after organ began to shut down over the next few days. Even so, he fought to stay alive. He elected to go on a ventilator, after which he eventually slipped into unconsciousness. Two weeks later we finally decided to disconnect the machine that had been breathing for him. The doctor warned us that it might take him as long as a week to die. An hour later my father was gone.
I drove to the shopping centre that afternoon under cover of buying groceries and stopped to call the man from a payphone. I think he may have told me the story of the day his own father died, but I don't remember for certain. What I remember is just my relief that he was home, that when the phone rang, he answered. I remember standing outside a pizza parlour, watching the cars glide in and out of their spaces, listening to his voice.
The man seemed worried about me and surprised me by inviting me to come and visit him in New York. I still didn't know him well enough to feel comfortable with him, and I often felt nervous when I picked up the phone to call him. It was odd in one way and not odd at all in another to find myself sitting across the table from him in the apartment he had described to me in his letters. We talked for hours that first night, pushing the words back and forth while each of us tried to figure out what the other was saying underneath them. Finally I took my dishes to the sink and he came up behind me and, after all those months, put his hands on my shoulders.
OVER THE NEXT two years, as we visited each other for weeks and then months at a stretch, the man and I settled into a routine that included a lot of satisfying time together and a number of anguished fights. I looked forward to evening, to the sight of the man, who still felt new and mysterious, walking through the door, and I also dreaded that moment because it meant either lying about what I had accomplished or, worse, telling the truth. And it meant having to hear about his day.
Because the man, who had been struggling so agreeably when I met him, had finally found his key - the way in. In the months it took me to produce a drifty 15-page story about the end of a marriage, a short play about a woman who sleeps with her best friend's husband, and 70 pages of a screenplay that had the desperate signs of 'learning experience' written all over it, he piled up several hundred pages of his new novel.
It was, alas, good. My own reading told me this, but I had independent verification as well. As sections were finished they flew almost immediately into print, and just as immediately the phone would begin to ring with congratulatory messages, comparisons to dead writers and to living writers whose reputations were so established they might as well be dead. In the middle of this somewhat tense time the man came home one night, feeling frustrated after a couple of hard days and asked if I would read some pages that were giving him trouble. I was immensely relieved to think that he, too, could produce bad work, and grateful that he was willing to show it to me.
I had the sudden wish to knock him to the floor and hike up my skirt, but I thought I would read the pages first. He brought me olives and a glass of wine, and I sat down to read. Hoping for the worst and prepared to be encouraging.
'I don't understand,' I said when I finished. 'This is great.'
'Do you really think so?' he asked hopefully. 'You really think it's OK?'
'I think it's perfect. Funny, true, interesting.' I managed to shove the words up my throat and out of my mouth. I might have wished for it to be bad but I couldn't tell him it was if it wasn't.
'Thank you. That's a huge relief. That really helps. Thank you.'
You want to see bad work, I'll show you bad work, I thought, even as I was privately vowing never to show him another word I'd written.
I WAS 40, then 41, then 42 years old. I had no children. The husband I had thought I would be with for ever was gone, the father I always assumed would one day really know me was dead, and I had no career to speak of. And now I was with a man who could do this. The impulse to make love had passed.
When his novel was finally done, the man handed it in and his editor called every hundred pages or so to say he was loving it, then called to say he was cutting the cheque, and finally called to say he wanted to take the man and me out for a celebratory dinner.
Halfway through the meal, when the editor said something polite about wanting to read some of my work, I did not know what to say, and the man intervened: 'You did read it, actually. You passed on it.'
The editor, an urbane and gracious man, must have said something urbane and gracious then, but I couldn't hear him over the sound of my own voice in my head: Keep smiling, keep smiling!
Later that night, after the stony silence, the tears, the fury, I had to ask myself: What did I expect the man to do? I wanted it to be his fault, but it wasn't. I was angry about what he'd said but I would have been angry about whatever he'd said, even if he'd said nothing - because what I was really angry about was having to go out to dinner with an editor on whom my work had made so little impression he did not even remember reading it. An editor, it turned out, whom I liked, whom I thought was funny, sweet and smart, and who was going to do everything in his power to make sure the man I was with got the notice he deserved.
Over the next several months what had at first seemed like a pathologically extreme anticipation of the man's success on my part began to look like nothing more than a reasonable prediction. Advance copies of his book were released, and suddenly he was being interviewed, photographed, written and talked about by, it seemed, everyone. Clearly his book was on its way to becoming not a book but the book, and every day seemed to bring new evidence that he was on his way to becoming that rare thing, a writer people (not just other writers) had heard of.
On 11 September 2001 his book had been out about a week. I felt the sensation of disaster, the weird chill of fear and exhilaration at the possibility that the world and all its fixed routines might have changed in a single day.
As we tried along with everyone else to think about what had happened and what would happen next, another question went unasked: what would it mean for the man's book? I was sure he was wondering this, and I was too, but I let the day go by without mentioning it. In those strange hours when anything seemed possible, it seemed not all that unlikely that the book on which the man I loved had spent 10 years working might disappear before our eyes. And yet I said nothing.
I told myself it would be unseemly, even in the privacy of our apartment, to focus on our petty concerns when thousands of people had lost their lives and the fate of the world itself was suddenly uncertain. But the truth is I didn't mention his book because I didn't want to. Because for one day, at least, for the first time in what felt like months, he and his work had been eclipsed, and I was relieved.
That was the place envy had delivered me to.
MY FRIENDS, trying to be helpful, had this to say: 'I could never do that, be involved with a writer who was that much more successful than I was.'
But really: why not? Partly, I suppose, because a fellow writer's success makes it that much harder to console oneself with thoughts of what Virginia Woolf called 'the world's notorious indifference'. The world, Woolf said, 'does not ask people to write poems and novels and histories; it does not need them. It does not care whether Flaubert finds the right word or whether Carlyle scrupulously verifies this or that fact.' So when the man was merely gifted but not particularly rewarded I was comfortable; we were in it together, comrades in a world that didn't care what we had to tell it. But now, what did his success prove if not that when the gift is prodigious enough, the world does need us, it will pay?
When the subject of his success came up, often enough a friend would say, 'The great thing is he really deserves it.' Were they kidding? This was precisely what made it so hard. For once the gods hadn't made the stupid mistake of smiling on another no-talent, well-connected charlatan. No, this was a genuinely excellent piece of work by a man who had dedicated his life to doing such work and was now being rewarded for it: proof that the system was not essentially corrupt and misguided, incapable of recognising true merit, after all.
Where was the comfort in that?
I came home one evening and the man asked about my day, which had been unremarkable. I asked about his and learned that the British rights to his now-famous book had been sold for a whopping figure, higher than anyone had anticipated. It had been a big day, and he was proud and excited. It was the kind of news you want to call home with, and because his mother was no longer alive and he has no sisters, he had called his sister-in-law.
He hadn't known where to call me, he said, or he would have. But I could see it in his wary, eager face: he wanted to call someone whose enthusiasm he could trust. The part of me that was his girlfriend put her arms around him and told him how happy she was, and the other part, the miserable writer within, kept her distance.
Not long after this we broke up. At the end of a holiday trip to visit family in the west I told the man I couldn't imagine going back to New York; it was too hard there. I told him there wasn't enough air for both of us in that apartment; I told him I was drowning. He asked me to be more specific, and I told him I just didn't think I was cut out for this life together.
'What life? What are you talking about?' It was late; we were arguing in the dark, on a sofa bed in his brother's house.
'This life. Where you're so_ big, and I'm so little.' It made me feel littler just saying it.
'I don't think of you as little.'
The fact that I believed this helped not at all. I was drowning; what good did it do to hear that he thought I could swim?
But breaking up, it turned out, was not the answer, either. I still wanted him, and my pride, already inflamed, now fairly throbbed at the idea that it was my own weakness that kept me from having him. I was in pitched battle with myself, and the wrong side was winning.
A few months later, when I persuaded him to try again, I sensed this was our last good chance at being together. I also sensed, despite my recent conversion to the belief that problems are solved by talking, that this one, born of words, was one that words would never fix. The more I talked about it, the more secretive he would become and the more guilty and resentful we would both feel. It became, and remains, the thing we don't talk about.
When the man told me stories about his wife - his ex-wife, but she had a fearsome presence that made her more real to me than I sometimes felt to myself - I would feel a cool draught, as though someone had left the door to the future open a crack.
She had been a writer too. During the happy, lean years of their marriage they would both write eight hours a day, fuelled, in the starving-artist tradition, by a diet of rice and beans and jumbo packs of chicken thighs. They were going to publish together, the story went; their books would find their way to discerning, appreciative audiences. And when his first book made good on their bargain and hers did not, he tried to wait for her to catch up. She moved on to a second book and on to a second house, alone, where she hoped to work better without the distraction of his success. But the second book wouldn't come together; she couldn't finish it. It wasn't until they had finally separated, for good this time, that she gave herself the gift of putting that work away. As far as he knew, she had stopped writing altogether, except for an essay that had just been published in an anthology, which he learned about and bought one day.
In her essay, his ex-wife wrote about what it felt like when she and her husband separated. I had a hard time reading this; I was simultaneously so curious to know what she thought of their life together and so afraid to find out that the sentences kept shorting out on me. But I got the gist: she not only stopped writing when her marriage to the man dissolved; for a time, she stopped reading.
Well, I was in much better shape than that! On the other hand, he and I were still together. Who knew what I would have given up by the time it was over?
What would have happened, I wondered, if the situation had been reversed, and his wife had published first? He would have kept on, I'm sure; her success might have been satisfying or frustrating to him - perhaps both - but he would never have given up.
IT'S TEMPTING TO take comfort in generalisations, and I have. I see myself as belonging to a generation of women who were raised to believe that we could do and be whatever we wanted - by women who, by and large, had not enjoyed that freedom themselves (and who perhaps envied their daughters for it). I grew up still wanting all the old things - to be pretty, to be good, to be liked - and also wanting not to care about such things. But old habits die hard. Maybe it was no coincidence that when I was feeling most outstripped by the man's success and talent, when I was reading those pages of his that I wished I had written, I responded by withholding from him the gift of myself. When he was being lauded and invited, the world praising his intelligence and imagination, my way of evening the score was to shy away from him.
As long as he wanted and didn't quite have me, the logic went, we would be even, and I could stop feeling so outdone by what he had that I wanted. But what did that really mean? That if I could not be happy I was ready to make us both miserable. And that my answer to his work was my self ; he had his book to make the world love him, and I had my sex with which to take my revenge.
Life, obviously, is about more than this. It's not as though anyone thinks that being a good writer makes you a good person. But it helps. (Isn't this perhaps one reason why women, as a whole, are more apt than men to see writing and reading as therapeutic acts? All that private time spent rendering and transforming personal experience on paper is easier to justify if the writer - and, ideally, reader - is healed in the process.) If you're truly talented, then your work becomes your way of doing good in the world; if you're not, it's a self-indulgence, even an embarrassment.
But how do you know you're good if not by comparing yourself favourably to others (an essentially un-good activity)? And how many women are comfortable doing that? Here's Edith Wharton: 'If only my work were better, it would be all I need. But my kind of half-talent isn't much use as an escape.' Here's Joan Didion on the subject of her first novel: 'It's got a lot of sloppy stuff. Extraneous stuff. Words that don't work. Awkwardness. Scenes that should have been brought up, scenes that should have been played down. But then Play It As It Lays has a lot of sloppy stuff. I haven't re-read Common Prayer but I'm sure that does too.'
It's hard to talk about the category of 'women writers' or 'women's writing' without feeling that you're picking at a scab that will never heal as long as you keep picking. On the other hand, vexed as they are, those categories continue to be meaningful, even if we can't always agree on just what the meaning is.
Most women I know are reluctant to say, 'I am better than her, and her, and her - OK, I'll keep going.' And most men I know rely, when necessary, on some formulation of exactly that. Plus women have not only each other to compete against (in devious and exhausting ways, requiring much track-covering and nice-making as they go) but men to envy; because it's still the case that women writers are compared to each other, and the big (as opposed to, say, lyrical) literary novel persists as an essentially male category. Women's books are still not talked about in the same way men's books are, and women are still sensitive to that.
As I was turning all this over in my mind, I thought again about meeting my boyfriend for the first time. How before I had known anything about him, I had known this would happen - that one day he would write his Big Book, and the world would roll a red carpet to his door. All those months when he was miserably, triumphantly, cranking it out, page by artful page, I had known it, more certainly than I had ever known anything about my own life. (No wonder I had gotten so little of my own work done. I had been so preoccupied with monitoring his.)
Had I been clairvoyant, then? Or was it something more metaphysical: had my fear acted like a cosmic magnet, drawing to itself the object of its obsession (forgetting for a moment that my boyfriend might have had anything to do with his own fate)?
Or had I, in some perverse way, got exactly what I wanted? I had found a partner who, by being so good and so successful at what I wanted to do, had called my bluff. I didn't want to quit, it turned out. I wanted to find a way to keep writing, whether I could ever be good enough or not.
I did envy his talent - the way he could go off in the morning and come home at night with five smart pages, the way he could expertly tease out a metaphor, nail a character in a sentence, and tackle geopolitics or brain chemistry without breaking a sweat. I envied the fact that in airports and restaurants, strangers - readers! - would come up to him and rave about his book; I envied his easy acceptance at magazines that had been routinely rejecting my work for years.
For all that, though, I was startled to realise that I didn't wish I'd written his book, any more than I would have wished to wake up tomorrow looking like the beauty from a magazine cover. What I envied were what his talent and success had bestowed on him, a sense of the rightness of what he was doing. I wanted what women always want: permission. But he'd had that before this book was even written; it was, after all, the first thing I'd envied about him. It was arguably what enabled him to write the book in the first place.
I was raised to admire a life of service, and to this day I do admire it. When I see someone bend to the task of helping another I think she is doing the work of all, the human job. But someone else's good deed never stabs my heart the way a good book does. I admire it, but I do not envy it. Whatever else it has done, my envy of the man has helped me see the difference between what I was raised to want, what I wish I could want, and what I do want.
I FLATTER MYSELF that I'm doing better with it all, that I'm adjusting. The man and I are finally happy and at ease, for the most part, and his book and public stature are a fact of our life together.
But who am I kidding? At home sometimes I don't want to check the phone messages; when I step into a bookstore and see that stack on the new-book table, I can sometimes feel my heart rattling the bars of its cage. I read the reviews and the interviews, but not all of them; I want them to be good, and then I want to forget them. The book itself, which I've read twice, I don't even want to look at now.
That's how much better I'm doing.
And yet I am doing better because something within me has surfaced: another story. In this new story, every ugly impulse and selfish yearning, the whole insecure unlovable mess, has been given wing. There's no better self to protect any more; the moral high ground has been ceded.
In this story I don't do the work I was born to, perhaps not even the work I am best at, but the work I have chosen - incompletely, erratically, often unhappily and uncertainly. In this new story, I write to refute the ex-wife, and to avenge her. She is my enemy and my friend.
I have met the circumstances that are larger than my capacity to be gracious, it turns out. I have come up against the limits of my goodness: someone I love has what I want, and he probably always will. What else is there to do for it? I might as well work.
· The full version of this piece appears in the current issue of Granta magazine: Life's Like That, available in bookshops or direct from Granta for £9.99. Observer readers can subscribe to Granta for £24.95 for a year (37 per cent discount) and get Life's Like That free. Telephone FreeCall 0500 004 033 for details.Getty Images
The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.
Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers say that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.
That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone's home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.
An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Nathan Wessler, a staff attorney at the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, said in a blog post that the IRS's view of privacy rights violates the Fourth Amendment:
Let's hope you never end up on the wrong end of an IRS criminal tax investigation. But if you do, you should be able to trust that the IRS will obey the Fourth Amendment when it seeks the contents of your private emails. Until now, that hasn't been the case. The IRS should let the American public know whether it obtains warrants across the board when accessing people's email. And even more important, the IRS should formally amend its policies to require its agents to obtain warrants when seeking the contents of emails, without regard to their age.
The IRS continued to take the same position, the documents indicate, even after a federal appeals court ruled in the 2010 case U.S. v. Warshak that Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their e-mail. A few e-mail providers, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook, but not all, have taken the position that Warshak mandates warrants for e-mail.
The IRS did not immediately respond to a request from CNET asking whether it is the agency's position that a search warrant is required for e-mail and similar communications.
Before the Warshak decision, the general rule since 1986 had been that police could obtain Americans' e-mail messages that were more than 180 days old with an administrative subpoena or what's known as a 2703(d) order, both of which lack a warrant's probable cause requirement.
The rule was adopted in the era of telephone modems, BBSs, and UUCP links, long before gigabytes of e-mail stored in the cloud was ever envisioned. Since then, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Warshak, technology had changed dramatically: "Since the advent of e-mail, the telephone call and the letter have waned in importance, and an explosion of Internet-based communication has taken place. People are now able to send sensitive and intimate information, instantaneously, to friends, family, and colleagues half a world away... By obtaining access to someone's e-mail, government agents gain the ability to peer deeply into his activities."
A March 2011 update to the IRS manual, published four months after the Warshak decision, says that nothing has changed and that "investigators can obtain everything in an account except for unopened e-mail or voice mail stored with a provider for 180 days or less" without a warrant. An October 2011 memorandum (PDF) from IRS senior counsel William Spatz took a similar position.
A phalanx of companies, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, eBay, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Twitter, as well as liberal, conservative, and libertarian advocacy groups, have asked Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to make it clear that law enforcement needs warrants to access private communications and the locations of mobile devices.
In November, a Senate panel approved the e-mail warrant requirement, and last month Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. The Justice Department indicated last month it will drop its opposition to an e-mail warrant requirement.Beijing rejects arbitration tribunal South China Sea ruling
China on Wednesday rejected a Hague-based arbitration tribunal's ruling giving it six months to respond to a legal claim by the Philippines over disputed waters in the South China Sea.
China's stance of not accepting or participating in the arbitration proceedings filed by the Philippines has not changed, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular briefing on Wednesday.
The response came after the tribunal of The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, issued a statement on Tuesday, which requires China to submit evidence to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea before December 15.
The tribunal cited an obligation to assure "each party a full opportunity to be heard and to present its case," according to a Tuesday statement.
The Philippines in March filed a memorandum to the international arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), questioning the validity of China's "nine-dash" territorial claim.
However, experts said that without a bilateral agreement, the UNCLOS has no jurisdiction to interfere in sovereignty issues, which made China's stance reasonable and lawful.
"The international arbitration procedure must be agreed by both parties. If China rejects participating, the arbitration will not work," Ji Qiufeng, a professor of international relations with Nanjing University, told the Global Times.
Ji noted that the international tribunal is most likely to withdraw the Philippines' case.
"It will be a wise decision for the international tribunal as it lacks power to enforce. Even if the tribunal makes a judgment by default, China will not accept its verdict," Ji said. "The tribunal may lose its credibility."
The United States has said it supports the Philippines' arbitration case, which is closely watched by other claimant countries including Vietnam, which said last month it was considering legal action against China after a Chinese oil rig started to operate in waters near the Xisha Islands that Hanoi claims as it territory.
Ji pointed out that Vietnam's legal threat is very likely to depend on the result of the Philippines' case. "As China stands firm against the Manila plea, Hanoi should be aware that the threats would prove in vain."Downtown Yonge Street isn't what it used to be.
The high energy of street life is fast disappearing. There are not many people around. We rarely walk far along the street because it lacks a sufficient variety of shops or range of sensory experiences to tempt us.
We do most of our specialty shopping and eating elsewhere. We do our chain-store shopping in the Eaton Centre and the many other interior malls linked by the underground PATH network that are vacuuming the life and the paying customers from Yonge.
The Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue (which occupy the old Simpson's store) are still in full-blooded conversation with the street. Yonge-Dundas Square and Ryerson U have made a big difference, but their energizing effects seem locally concentrated.
The condo invasion has hit Yonge, but oddly, the hyper-densities haven't added much public life to the street.
The key to Yonge Street's success has been the rows of independently operated, narrow-fronted shops and businesses that collectively support intense social and commercial activity. What sustains Toronto's main street are the many comings and goings from shops, cafés and bars at street level and the offices, showrooms and apartments on the upper floors. Entrances occur every few metres. There's an intense synergy between the repetitive building type and the street. But this synergy is disappearing as buildings are stuffed and preserved in a lifeless trend I call urban taxidermy.
The stretch just south of St. Joseph is typical of this trend. Seven independent shops and businesses and approximately five apartments or businesses on the upper floors are all accessed directly from the street. That is, 12 sets of comings and goings from 60 feet of frontage on Yonge.
Further north on the same block, four similar narrow frontages are combined and integrated into a much larger redevelopment that extends along St. Joseph. The backs of the |
abdicate after he suggested last summer that his age and health problems were affecting his ability to carry out public duties.
Only a cruel despot would stop Japan’s emperor retiring | Jake Adelstein Read more
Akihito, who has reigned since 1989, had cancer surgery in 2003 and a heart bypass operation in 2012.
In a rare televised address last August, he said: “I am concerned it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole body and soul as I have done so far.”
Japanese media reports said the popular emperor would step down at the end of 2018, to allow his eldest son, crown prince Naruhito, to become the 126th occupant of the Chrysanthemum throne early the following year.
While he is not the first Japanese monarch to abdicate, the current imperial household law, passed in 1947, does not permit a living succession.
The swiftly introduced new law, passed by the upper house of Japan’s parliament on Friday, applies only to Akihito, but includes a nonbinding resolution calling for the government to consider way to ensure the future stability of the monarchy.
Akihito’s retirement and the forthcoming engagement of his granddaughter, princess Mako – who will have to leave the imperial family after she marries – have reignited debate about the shortage of male heirs and a possible succession crisis in an imperial line some claim stretches back 2,600 years.
Mako’s exit will leave the imperial family with just 18 members – 13 of whom are women – and only four heirs to the throne: 57-year-old Naruhito, his younger brother Akishino and his son, 10-year-old prince Hisahito, and the emperor’s 81-year-old brother, prince Masahito.
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, resisted opposition pressure to include a clause allowing princesses to establish their own branches within the imperial family after they marry commoners – enabling them to take on their share of official duties and their sons to become emperors.
Instead, the resolution calls on the government to “swiftly study” ways to secure a stable imperial succession, including the possibility of allowing women to ascend the throne – a measure popular among the public but opposed by Abe and other conservative politicians.
The law does not, however, set a deadline for the government to report its findings to parliament.
Emperor Kokaku, who gave up the throne in 1817, was the last Japanese emperor to abdicate.Will Smith delved into politics at a press event for his latest film Bright this week, calling the country’s current political environment a “natural reaction” to what he described as the more favorable years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The 49-year-old actor — who has previously teased a future run for public office himself — did not mention President Donald Trump by name but speculated about the country’s future during Wednesday’s event in Beverly Hills for Netflix’s Bright, a dystopian police thriller directed by David Ayer that reportedly cost the streaming service $90 million.
“This is the purge, right?” Smith said, according to Indiewire. “This is the cleanse, this is what happens. This is the natural reaction to the amount of light that came into the world when Barack Obama was the president.”
“We had to expect that [the pendulum] was going to go the other way,” he added. “As a cleanse – this is the darkness before the dawn.”
The actor went on to add that he believes the current political climate will reveal “what the next age of humanity” will be going forward.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see how humanity reacts to it, and it’s going to be a f**king mess. It’s going to be a mess, but it’s the mess in the cleanup,” he said. “It’s the mess and the purge before that new, real light shows up.”
Smith — who plays a police officer tasked with tracking down a powerful weapon in a world in which humans live alongside mystical creatures in his latest film — has become increasingly politically outspoken in the last few years, in accordance with Trump’s own political rise.
As far back as December of 2015, Smith had said that “crazy” discussion surrounding Trump’s policy proposals, including building a security wall on the southern border, had made him consider his own run for office.
“If people keep saying all the crazy kinds of stuff they’ve been saying on the news lately about walls and Muslims, they’re going to force me into the political arena,” he said in an interview with CBS.
In August of last year, shortly before the election, Smith said Trump’s political rise had the benefit of allowing a “cleanse” of his ideology from the country.
“As painful as it is to hear Donald Trump talk and as embarrassing as it is as an American to hear him talk, I think it’s good,” Smith said then, according to the Associated Press. “We get to know who people are and now we get to cleanse it out of our country.”
Bright is due out December 22 on Netflix and in select theaters.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaumOTTAWA—Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird invoked images of the Holocaust in defending the notion of possible Israeli military action against Iran. Appearing on CTV’s Question Period Sunday, he suggested the Jewish state has every right to feel threatened and pointed to recent comments by the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, who vowed to remove a “cancer” from the Middle East.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says Israel has every right to feel threatened by Iran, and invoked images of the Nazis' Holocaust in an interview on CTV Sunday. ( Nir Elias / REUTERS )
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast across Iran on Friday, also pledged to aid any nation or group that challenges Israel. “Obviously you can understand why the Jewish people and why Israel would take him seriously,” Baird said in an interview with the news program from Israel. “Hitler wrote Mein Kampf more than a decade before he became Chancellor of Germany. And they take these issues pretty seriously here.”
Article Continued Below
The book Mein Kampf laid the foundation of Nazi ideology, which led to the Second World War and eventually the Holocaust. Baird’s comments added to the escalating war of words during the weekend over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard also warned in an interview with the semi-official Fars news agency that any country in the Middle East whose territory is used to launch a military strike will face retaliation. Hossein Salami was quoted as saying Tehran will use “retaliatory aggression” against its neighbours if they aid in such an attack. The Iranian Charge d’Affaires, Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani, recently criticized both Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an email to the Ottawa publication Embassy Magazine, calling their statements on Iran “uninformed, undocumented, and inflammatory” rhetoric.
Harper is on-the-record several times over the last few weeks describing the regime in Tehran as “a grave threat to peace and security” and warning that it would have no estimation about using nuclear weapons. Baird, who wrapped up a visit to Israel and is now on his way to join Harper in China, emphasized that Canada supports U.S. President Barack Obama in keeping “all options,” including military action, on the table.
Article Continued Below
“At the same time, I think we have an incredible responsibility to take every single diplomatic effort necessary,” he said. Repeatedly throughout his visit to the Middle East, Baird has said the new wave of sanctions imposed on Iran by the international community, including a European embargo against Iranian oil, are having a significant impact on the hard-line regime. The concern with the possibility of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons is not limited to Israel, he said. “The fear in the Arab world, the entire Gulf, the entire Middle East is palpable on this issue and it is increasingly a significant security threat for the West,” Baird said. Also in the interview, Baird expressed “deep disappointment” with both Russia and China’s decision to veto a United Nations resolution that called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to give up power. He wouldn’t say whether the issue would be raised during Harper’s visit this week to Beijing and tread softly when asked whether Canada will ask the Communist government to reconsider its action. There would be a “full range of discussions,” Baird said. The UN vote on Saturday came following reports by activists that claimed Syrian forces had fired artillery into the City of Homs, which has been at the epicentre of the uprising against Assad. Reports say the barrage killed more than 200 people.
Read more about:The Inside Scoop: Game Day (Pens vs. Leafs) by Sam Kasan / Pittsburgh Penguins
Good afternoon hockey fans. Tonight the Pens are in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs in a Halloween showdown at the ACC.
The two teams are coming in on different streaks with the Pens riding a 3-game win streak and having won 6 of the previous 7 games. The Leafs, on the other hand, have lost 3 in a row, including last night in New York against the Rangers, and have only 1 victory this season.
But tonight’s game is all about one man.
PRODIGAL SON
Pens winger Phil Kessel returns to the city of Toronto tonight for the first time.
“It feels good,” Kessel said of his return. “Obviously, this was home for me for a long time. I always consider it home. I love this city. It’s a strange feeling, but I’m happy to be back.”
Kessel played the previous 6 seasons for the Leafs and led them in scoring every year. Kessel, who is tied for the team lead with 4 goals, recorded 181 goals and 394 points during his years in Toronto.
Though he had a lot of individual success during his tenure, he doesn’t expect to be warmly received.
“I figure there will be some boos,” Kessel joked. “That’s always how it is. But I loved my time here. I don’t regret anything. It should be fun tonight.”
Kessel has already faced his former club in a 2-1 Pens’ victory on Oct. 17 in Pittsburgh. He had 2 shots in over 20 minutes of ice time. Kessel had a chance right in the slot to score, but his shot went just wide of the post.
Tonight will be Kessel’s first game in Toronto since April 11 of last season when he had a goal and an assist against Montreal in his final game as a Maple Leaf. Still, he said it won’t be weird sitting on the visitors bench.
“I played against the Leafs my first three years in the league so I’ve been in (the visiting) dressing room before,” Kessel said. “It’s another game. I’m going to try and have fun and go get another win.”
FEHR DEBUT
Pens forward Eric Fehr is poised to return to the ice and make his team debut tonight against the Leafs.
“It’s great that I can come in today with Phil coming back to Toronto so I can slide in under the radar and not have to worry about anything,” Fehr joked. “It’s great to get in there and play and do what I have to do.”
“He’s a versatile player,” head coach Mike Johnston said. “He can play wing, he can play center. He’s very good on draws. He’s a good penalty killer. He adds some size to our lineup. He was a big addition to our group in the summer.”
Fehr, who has been out all year following elbow surgery in the summer, missed all of training camp and the preseason. His last NHL regular-season game was May 13.
“Once the season starts there aren’t a lot of contact drills in practice so it’s really hard to get a feel for the way the game is going to be played,” Fehr said. “I know what to expect. When you’re in the mix the timing is a little bit off so that’s something I’ll be working on trying to pick up as quickly as possible today.”
Though he is a natural center, Fehr worked on the wing on the fourth line. Considering it’s been a long time since he’s played a game, starting on the wing is a smart choice by the coaching staff.
“Trying to get my feet wet in the first couple of games it isn’t bad to throw me on the wing and get a feel for the pace of play,” Fehr said.
“In a perfect work I would prefer center,” Fehr admitted. “But if you look down our lineup we have an abundance of great centermen. I’ve played a lot of wing in my career so I have no problem going over to the wing.”
Fehr has been on the ice for the past several months so Johnston expects his conditioning to be as good as it can get without game action.
“Eric has been skating for two months now and working out,” Johnston said. “I anticipate his legs should be pretty good. It’s the game timing for him.”
MORNING SKATE
The Pens used the following workflow at their morning skate…
Dupuis-Crosby-Hornqvist
Perron-Malkin-Kessel
Kunitz-Bonino-Bennett
Plotnikov-Cullen-Fehr
Cole-Letang
Maatta-Scuderi
Lovejoy-Dumoulin
There was no change on their power-play look/units:
1st unit: Letang on midpoint, Kessel on half wall, Hornqvist at net-front, Malkin and Crosby rotating on wall and goal line.
2nd unit: Cole and Maatta flipped on midpoint. Bennett on half wall, Kunitz at net-front. Perron and Bonino rotating on the wall and goal line.
Sprong did not do line rushes with the team, though Johnston didn’t confirm what the lineup will be for be the game.
“We haven’t determined who is out tonight because we have a couple of nagging injuries that we want to check on first,” Johnston said. “Sprong may not be in every night. Sometimes it’s good for a young guy to take a look at the game from up top and get a couple extra days of practice.”
Sprong has played in 8 NHL games this season. He has 1 more game left before the team must decide whether to keep him in Pittsburgh and start the first year of his entry-level contract or return him to juniors.
GAME INFO
Where: Air Canada Centre
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
TV: ROOT Sports
Radio: 105.9 the X, the Penguins Radio Network
Social: @penguins, @PensInsideScoopo
PENS TV VIDEOS
View LessI didn’t think I would be able to cry on command. When my good friend, the poet and performance artist Jennifer Tamayo, invited me to an event called “CRYING; A PROTEST” at Dia: Beacon’s Carl Andre retrospective in honor of Ana Mendieta, I knew it was important for me to attend, but I had no idea how I would make myself cry. Organized in conjunction with We Wish Ana Mendieta Was Still Alive, a public action by No Wave Performance Task Force — which also staged a protest of the Andre show outside Dia’s Chelsea offices last year — the event was billed as: “TEARS of JOY/ TEARS of TERROR/ TEARS for ANA MENDIETA. come celebrate the last day of Carl Andre’s DIA retrospective at a public cry-in/silueta party. bring your own tears.”
This past Saturday, we arrived at the Beacon train station parking lot to organize, then headed over to the museum at around 3pm. There were about 15 of us, all feminist poets and artists and activists. We entered the museum in groups of two to appear less conspicuous, since we had heard the museum was expecting us. The plan was to walk around the Carl Andre exhibit for about 20 minutes, crying and/or emoting individually, then convene in the show’s main room for a “crying climax” of loud wails.
As I walked around the show, my tears came more quickly than I expected. My anxiety about the day came to a head as I looked around at Carl Andre’s sparse, linear art — metal, wood, and other industrial materials arranged in crisp geometric rows and shapes. They felt to me in that moment like elegant exercises in cool logic, a stark contrast to Mendieta’s violent death, and to the messy tears we cried in her honor.
Members of our group had begun sitting near individual works, staring at them with tears streaming down their cheeks, or just simply taking up space while emoting unapologetically. I looked at an installation of metal squares placed in patterns and shapes along the floor. I thought about how women’s emotions are policed in our culture. How Mendieta’s powerful artwork — some of which features imagery challenging gendered hierarchies and violence against women — was used in court by Andre’s lawyer to suggest she committed suicide. How prominent male artists of the time came to Andre’s defense. How to this day we’re all too eager to defend male artists who are abusers and to point fingers at women who are abused. I thought about women artists like Yoko Ono and Courtney Love, who are often defined by their great artist husbands’ lives, and sometimes even blamed for their deaths; how their own powerful work is frequently eclipsed. I thought of how Mendieta’s work has been largely overshadowed by her death, yet Andre’s retrospective is not touched by it; I searched the museum booklet for Mendieta’s name and found it nowhere. I cried into my hands, wiping my eyes sloppily on my giant scarf as nearby museum guards eyed me suspiciously, speaking quietly into walkie talkies.
I walked into the exhibit’s main room at 3:15 to end the performance with loud group crying. The space filled with a cacophony of sobs and wails and sniffing snot and choking back tears and gasping for air. It was stunning, and I started crying more intensely immediately, glancing from the artwork to the museum booklet and back again. Other museum attendees were stopped in all corners of the room, staring at us crying women and talking quietly to one another. Several performer/protesters collapsed on the floor, sobbing in front of individual installations like they were at a loved one’s grave. Many of these women are my best friends; they make up my community of feminist poets and artists mostly in our 30s, so close to the age Ana was when she died with still with so much artistic brilliance to offer the world.
Dia’s guards began to escort us out of the building — to one performer, a guard said, “We respect your emotions, but we cannot have you disrupting the work.” Some of us exited the museum shouting “We wish Ana Mendieta was still alive!” while others stayed behind, scattering pieces of paper featuring the same phrase around Andre’s artwork. (This was a reference to the Women’s Action Coalition’s protest of the inclusion of Andre’s work at the opening of the Guggenheim Soho in 1992, wherein members of the group strewed copies of a drawing of Mendieta throughout the museum.)
Mendieta’s work was largely ephemeral, incorporating natural materials as well as her own body. In her well-known Silueta Series, she used her body to create silhouettes in grass, earth, and sand — what she called “earth-body sculptures.” She also used blood as a medium. Outside Dia:Beacon, we paid homage to her legacy with our own siluetas in the snow and the word “Ana” written in fake blood just outside the museum’s parking lot. Security guards followed us to the end of the museum’s property, where we unfurled and held a long paper banner that read, “We Wish Ana Mendieta Was Still Alive.”
Crying is often seen as a sign of weakness, of emotional excess, and coded as feminine. As a group, though, our tears were seen as a disruption — a threat. Like much of Ana Mendieta’s art, our performance was ephemeral. The tears are gone now. Our siluetas will melt away with the snow. But it felt powerful and important to bring this raw, emotional confrontation into Andre’s exhibit; to remind the world that people are still angry, that we remember Mendieta’s work, and her legacy, and her death — and that we’re still crying.
“CRYING; A PROTEST” took place at Dia:Beacon (3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York) on March 7.Hello from bugzilla.mozilla.org and happy 2017.
You might recall that you can tag comments in Bugzilla to mark abuse, off-topic discussion, and spam.
Please use the right tags when reporting comments that violate our etiquette policies so that site admins can take the right actions and keep Bugzilla a friendly and spam-free place to report and track bugs.
spam: comments that look like someone's trying to game search results by adding links to unrelated sites to comments should be tagged as spam. Look out for comments of the form "I see this happening on my site too," as they may be spam and not additional information for a bug.
off-topic, offtopic, me-too, or advocacy: "me too", "fix this ''now''!", "I can't believe this isn't important to Mozilla" and similar comments should be tagged with one of these. See our etiquette guide.
abuse, abusive, or admin: Flames, threats, name-calling, and slurs are abuse, and should be marked as such so they are brought to the attention of an admin.
obsolete and typo should only be used to remove comments which are no longer relevant, contain outdated or incorrect information, or ones the author wishes to redact.
Our response to violations of Bugzilla etiquette depends on the type of violation. We don't want to mark an eager new contributor, who just needs some coaching, as a spammer, and we don't want to go uninformed about abuse.
If in doubt, tag with admin, and we'll have a look at it.The regional government of Spain's Basque Country has decreed that all software produced for Basque government agencies and public bodies should be open sourced. Joinup, the European Commission's open source web site, cites an article in Spanish newspaper El Pais, saying that the only exceptions will be software that directly affects state security and a handful of projects which are being conducted in conjunction with commercial software suppliers.
Source code will be published on openirekia, the open source section of the Basque Country's open government website irekia. Irekia also has links with the corresponding web sites for the provinces of Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia and Catalonia. Government agencies plan to use this software pool, rather than developing their own applications.
Meanwhile, the Galician government has announced that it will promote the use of open source software in companies, government agencies and public bodies. It also wants to investigate migrating Galician government agencies to an open source office suite.
(fab)Word is starting to spread that some developers responsible for top-charting games and apps on the iOS App Store are seeing less than stellar revenue from what seem to be "successful" apps on the new Apple TV App Store.
That's according to TouchArcade editor-in-chief Eli Hodapp, who published an editorial yesterday about the state and potential future of developers launching apps for the revamped Apple TV that launched late in October with its own App Store.
"I've been talking to many different developers who have released games or apps on the device, and the general vibe is that if things don't turn around following Christmas, Apple is going to have a real problem on their hands," writes Hodapp. "'Successful' apps are making $100 a day on a good day, with revenue continuing to trail off since launch."
Though Hodapp's perspective is based on anecdotal reports, mobile game makers may appreciate hearing how some of their compatriots are faring in this new marketplace.
When Apple debuted the game-ready Apple TV in September many game developers seemed cautiously optimistic about making (or porting) games for the device, though Apple later constrained their efforts by (among other things) forbidding developers from making Apple TV games that require a controller to play.Financial Markets, Machine Learning and the Intelligent Robotic Future
Difitek Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 23, 2016
Markets always move toward greater efficiency, history has taught us that much. Technological advancements in computing power has been remarkable, but the growth and pace of development keeps on accelerating. Have you thought through the extent of the plausible impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the financial services market? Go ahead, try.
Cognitive psychology teaches us that humans are easily fallible as it comes to assessing the extent to which events are within their control. Humans also easily overestimate their own importance in the events that befall them and in turn underestimate the impact of factors beyond our control, such as timing, the environment and sheer luck. Are we over estimating our importance in financial markets? Without a doubt.
Through the conversations we’ve been privy to, there is hardly a sector that does not discuss the future implications of the electronification or digitization of value chains, some times using words such as commoditization. Companies such as law firms, consulting firms, investment banks have long debated the areas of their operations that are commoditized and that do not require specialized, unique knowledge. An IPO process has several components that are crucial and high value, and it has even more components that are tedious and ripe for commoditization. Same is true for the few business areas that an investment bank will be involved in.
Financial services by volume has several interesting occupations, least of which is trading. However, if you look at the complex, though logical and information rich environment,s what exactly is defensible for us humans that we can actually hold on to? Are we of the opinion that a human is required to execute a complex hedging strategy? Are we wrong, and if so by how wide a margin?
AI and machine learning are still clear hype terms, but the practical implications with modern processing power continuously increasing is phenomenal and unprecedented. In raising these points in conversations with more traditional firms in financial services or market participants, a common dismissal is “We’ve been using the basics, a phone and a relationship for decades. It worked then, it works now” and debunks such as “I’m too old for those things”. Not only do these represent demeaning way of looking at some of the most promising technological advancements, arguably they represent a deep misunderstanding of just how fundamental this change in landscape is.
By the way, none of this spells the end of human capacity, human creativity or human intelligence. Quite the contrary. But we’ve yet to see any plausible and defensible logical argument just why this human brilliance should be spent barking orders to another human that enters numbers into a sheet. We should be focusing our minds on areas where we actually add value, not areas where we think we do.
None of the current market applications in digital finance make use of real AI, despite what hype around robo advisor services may imply. But in the next wave of applications, we are going to be seeing new models unfold that will dwarf our imagination and displace tens of thousands of professionals into new capacities and capabilities. Like all change it will be uncomfortable and fought against, but try arguing the contrary point. Can you justify all the roles humans play in financial markets? Why are we relevant?Sup. I’m Seth Wieder. A creative developer with expertise in UI/UX design and front-end development. I work with start-ups, agencies, and software companies to bridge business goals, user needs, and technology into a focused, engaging, and useful user experience. 😎
Designer Entrepreneurs and start-ups work with me to translate their concepts into reality. Through research and extensive experience, I craft a focused UX and modern UI. Case Study:
View Project Redesigning a more efficient, future-friendly sales tool
Engineer Software companies entrust in me to architect their web app in an organized, performant, responsive, and future-friendly codebase. Agencies know I create engaging content with a flare of creative technology; combining animated motion graphics, 3D WebGL, and emerging technology such as VR, AR, and AI. Case Study:
View Project Building a 3D data vizualization to simplify financial story-telling
Professional Both as a leader and a collaborator, I’ve got a proven track record of satisfied clients and succesfully launched campaigns. “I’ve worked with Seth at two companies now, and...he consistently delivers superior quality work on time and on budget. He’s also a wonderful collaborator with other developers and creatives, which leads to a better end product. Put it this way: when I need an A‑list creative developer, he’s literally my first phone call.” — Jamie Watson,
COO at Digital Citizen LLC,
previously Executive Director Technology & Innovation at Condé Nast
Portfolio Check out more of my previous works.
I'm happy to share more details in person. 👍
Utilizing IBM Watson AI for real‑time social media analysis Integrating image recognition for a second‑screen experience Leading the design of a new automotive software start-up Building a high-profile homepage powered by a professional CMSLast year I was in a Subway trying to buy lunch when their credit card machine stopped working. They tried to get it to work, but it began to hold up the line so they had to give up. I didn’t have any cash, and wasn’t expecting the machine to break in the first place. The worker behind the counter just told me it was OK to sit down and eat. They clearly didn’t care. While I’m eating, an old woman came up to me and demanded to know if I actually paid for my meal and if what I was doing was OK. Firstly, she isn’t a police officer so she has no right to interrogate people. Secondly, if the workers aren’t saying anything to me, then she has no right to. And thirdly, if she was in line behind me then she should have seen what was going on. Why do older people think they have the right to police younger people they’ve never met before?
If you’re wondering, yes, I did pay.Sometimes life presents you with opportunities that are simultaneously utterly ridiculous but simply too good to pass up on. Case in point: What do you do when you have a buttload of leftover McNuggets and sauce from McDonalds sitting on your desk right next to a plastic syringe?*
*don't ask what the nuggets and syringe were doing there in the first palce.
You inject the nuggets with sauce, of course.
There's not really much to say about this project that the pictures don't already explain much better. I opted for the Tangy Barbecue sauce not because I love the careful balance of herbs and spice or the gentle, tangy heat, or even its sweet kick, but because it was the only one that looked like it was a truly inject-able consistency.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit," I thought of saying (I didn't really say it).
There was a touch of excess, but nothing a few deft licks couldn't take care of.
And there you have it. McNuggets with the sauce built-in, and they tasted exactly like you'd think. Are there any real advantages to eating these over the traditional dip-and-pop method? Not really. But after downing a couple of'em, regular McNuggets just feel so... empty inside.
I predict that these will hit the stores within the next 6 months, perhaps starting in Asia or Kansas for a test run before hitting the rest of the U.S. mass market. You listening Ronald? I want full credit for this, ok?
P.S. When Ed gets back to the office next week I'm gonna have a tough time explaining why there's a BBQ-sauce-tinged syringe sitting on my desk. Wanna help me think of excuses?
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.The Smart Home future is rapidly arriving - the personal home is getting connected. Lamps, Fridges, Toasters, Stereos; everything these days is available with an internet connection that allows controlling and networking of different devices from a central hub, usually a smartphone app.
I have been working on connecting lamps, LED strips and a bunch of sensors in my room for years now. I can come into my room and lights turn on automatically with different settings depending on weather and time. And when I leave home, they automatically turn off for me. However, I have always had one issue with my whole setup: A good old light switch is much faster and more natural to use than pulling out my phone, opening an app and toggling a switch.
This is why I have been exploring different ways that allow a more natural and intuitive way of interacting with connected appliances.
Introducing IOT-KINECT
The first step was an application written in Processing that interfaces with a Kinect depth sensor and any IOT hub capable of receiving commands via HTTP requests or websockets (in my case that is the brilliant and open source Home Assistant).
Vectors calculated by IOT-KINECT
So called “actuators” are defined on a virtual wall on the pane that is the Kinect’s Field Of View. The application takes two points from a detected user’s skeleton: The right elbow and wrist. It calculates a vector between the two points, and multiplies it by three - which creates an “extended arm” of sorts: A point in 3D space that follows where the user is pointing. Another vector is now calculated from that point towards the before-mentioned virtual wall, in a 90 degree angle. Whenever an external trigger comes in (in this case a hand closing gesture), the application checks for collisions of that very vector with any of the defined actuators on the virtual pane. If a collision is found, the application communicates with the smart home hub to toggle the light the user was pointing at during the trigger.
I control the Force.
This allowed me to turn lights in my room on and off just by gesturing at them. A very swift, natural and easy way to interface with smart appliances without even touching them.
Next up: Brainy Things
But a hand gesture really wasn’t cutting-edge enough for my taste. So why not incorporate brain waves?
Whenever you blink, a large (it’s actually tiny, but relatively large) electrical current is created by the muscles surrounding your eyes. Using a Brain Computer Interface, a device with varying amounts of electrodes that pick up electrical activity in your brain, that current is easily detected as a large spike.
All you really are is a little bio-electric activity in a bunch of strange white goop. Deal with it.
Usually, that spike is an anomaly that needs to be gotten rid of in order to better read actual brain activity. In my case though, that spike was all I needed.
After testing a number of different BCI technologies (including a massively overkill 3D-printed open source solution), I ended up with the NeuroSky Mindwave headset. It’s a really simple device with only a few electrodes, one of them on the forehead. There’s a small application called the ThinkGear Connector (they are really good at naming these) that creates a TCP server that broadcasts a bunch of information about brain activity, as well as a BLINK event every time the user blinks their eyes.
I modified IOT-KINECT to pick up these BLINK packets and use them as a trigger instead of the hand gesture. The result is functionality frequently interpreted as black magic.
The exhibition
As part of my university’s RUNDGANG exhibition, I installed a prototype installation of this.
I used the IOT app Blynk and two ESP8266 microcontrollers to build two WiFi-enabled lamps.
If there’s one thing to say about the places I work at, it’s that they are always breathtakingly tidy and organized.
Most important component being the bunch of cables.
Once the two lamps were fully functional, I modified IOT-KINECT again to communicate with the Blynk Cloud, allowing it to toggle on and off those two very lamps. I then built a little exhibition room using black cloth and a few tables, beautifully hid the Kinect’s cables, and voila:
Fantastic.
This project was by far the most interesting of my IoT - endeavours to this day. I learned a lot about brain waves, real space interaction and gesturing. However, it is far from being perfect. Right now, due to the Kinect’s relativeness, the user has to be roughly in the same spot every time they gesture at actuators. The bigger the actuators are defined in IOT-KINECT, the bigger the tolerance for that spot becomes - however, the likeliness of false triggers becomes larger too. By adding more Kinects to the space and defining actuators as actual, 3D objects in virtual space, the interaction could work regardless of the user’s physical location.
In addition, by applying machine learning to higher resolution brain interface data and individual training for a given user, the number of possible, hands-free commands could be increased substantially. So called “mental commands” are certain patterns in one’s brain that an algorithm was trained to recognize as a given command. When you think of the color red, a similar pattern can be read every time - and a model trained to recognize that pattern along with the ones for other colors could for example allow you to point at an LED strip in your home and tint it with your mind alone.
Either way, I think that in the future, after the IoT bubble has expanded to a point where every pen you hold sports 5GHz WiFi connectivity, the industry is likely to focus on interaction instead of volume. And that’s when things are gonna get real interesting.PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Visitors to a safari park in Georgia were given a glimpse of a snack-happy giraffe's greedy side when the animal reached into their car to steal a bag of food.
The video, recorded at the Wild Animal Safari drive-through park in Pine Mountain, shows a woman giving a treat from a bag to a hungry giraffe who approached the window of the vehicle.
The amused park visitor picks up the bag to give the giraffe more treats, offering the animal the opening it needs.
The giraffe puts its head inside the car and grabs the bag from the woman's lap.
"Hey! Hey! OK, you can have the bag," the woman says with a mixture of shock and laughter.
The giraffe then uses the top of the car as a table for its snack while the occupants watch through the sun roof.Largest EV Fast-Charging Station In World Opens In Norway
September 2nd, 2016 by James Ayre
The grand opening event for the station in rural Nebbenes, Norway, proved quite a hit — around 150 Tesla electric vehicle (EV) owners showed up, despite the location being some 60 kilometers north of Oslo. But then, the Tesla crowd has always been quite enthusiastic, hasn |
cathedral in Cairo during a service. IS said it was behind the attack February 2016: A court sentenced three Christian teenagers to five years in prison for insulting Islam. They had appeared in a video, apparently mocking Muslim prayers, but claimed they had been mocking IS following a number of beheadings
A court sentenced three Christian teenagers to five years in prison for insulting Islam. They had appeared in a video, apparently mocking Muslim prayers, but claimed they had been mocking IS following a number of beheadings April 2013: Two people were killed outside St Mark's cathedral in Cairo when people mourning the death of four Coptic Christians killed in religious violence clashed with local residents
The blasts came weeks before an expected visit by Pope Francis intended to show support for the country's Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt's population and have long complained of being vulnerable and marginalised.
This sense of precariousness has only increased in recent years, with the rise of violent jihadism in parts of Egypt, the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says.
The community's trust in the state's ability and willingness to protect them will now be even more deeply shaken after the attacks, our correspondent adds.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Security forces were deployed in Alexandria following the attack
What is the Coptic Christian faith?
Image copyright AFP
The Coptic Orthodox Church is the main Christian Church in Egypt. While most Copts live in Egypt, the Church has about a million members outside the country.
Copts believe that their Church dates back to around 50 AD, when the Apostle Mark is said to have visited Egypt. The head of the Church is called the Pope and is considered to be the successor of St Mark.
This makes it one of the earliest Christian groups outside the Holy Land.
The Church separated from other Christian denominations at the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) in a dispute over the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ.
The early Church suffered persecution under the Roman Empire, and there were intermittent persecutions after Egypt became a Muslim country. Many believe that continues to this day.
More about the Coptic Orthodox ChurchOverview (5)
Mini Bio (1)
Janis Lyn Joplin was born at St. Mary's Hospital in the oil-refining town of Port Arthur, Texas, near the border with Louisiana. Her father was a cannery worker and her mother was a registrar for a business college. As an overweight teenager, she was a folk-music devotee (especially Odetta, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith). After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School, she attended Lamar State College and the University of Texas, where she played auto-harp in Austin bars.She was nominated for the Ugliest Man on Campus in 1963, and she spent two years traveling, performing and becoming drug-addicted. Back home in 1966, her friend Chet Helms suggested she become lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, an established Haight-Ashbury band consisting of guitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew, bassist Peter Albin and drummer Dave Getz). She got wide recognition through the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, highlights of which were released in Monterey Pop (1968), and with the band's landmark second album, "Cheap Thrills". She formed her "Kosmic Blues Band" the following year and achieved still further recognition as a solo performer at Woodstock in 1969, highlights released in Woodstock (1970). In the spring of 1970, she sang with the "Full Tilt Boogie Band" and, on October 4 of that year, she was found dead in Hollywood's Landmark Motor Hotel (now known as Highland Gardens Hotel) from a heroin-alcohol overdose the previous day. Her ashes were scattered off the coast of California. Her biggest selling album was the posthumously released "Pearl", which contained her quintessential song: "Me & Bobby McGee".
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Trade Mark (3)
Distinctive raspy voice
Mezzo-soprano vocals
Shoulder-length brown hair
Trivia (26)
Was a member of the Glee Club and the Future Teachers of America while in high school.
Was arrested for using "vulgar and indecent language" while performing at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida on November 16, 1969. Unlike Jim Morrison, who was arrested onstage in the middle of his Florida performance earlier in 1969, Joplin was allowed to finish her concert and then got handcuffed by police backstage. Was released on a $504 bond after spending approximately an hour behind bars. During the four days, she remained in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area awaiting a preliminary hearing, she went fishing. At the hearing, she was advised by a local lawyer she hired, Herbert Goldburg, that jail time was unlikely. A photographer for Associated Press captured the two of them leaving police headquarters after the proceedings. The image shows Joplin, clad in a fur coat, grinning and flashing a "V" sign with her fingers. Goldburg looks displeased. Joplin made a point of telling the AP that her sign stood for "victory, not peace". The following March she was fined $200 in absentia and the case was closed without her ever returning to Tampa. Curtis Hixon Hall has been demolished.
Was the oldest of three children: has a younger sister, Laura Joplin, and a younger brother, Michael Joplin
In 2001, Topps trading cards, in their American Pie Baseball brand produced a "Piece of American Pie" memorabilia insert set that included a Joplin-worn dress that is seen on her album "Pearl".
Ranked #3 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll
She was voted the 47th Greatest Artist in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone.
Was friends with Jimi Hendrix
Was good friends with Grace Slick and Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson wrote her song "Me and Bobby McGee", which became her only 45 single to reach #1 on the Billboard chart.
Loved to drink Southern Comfort.
Was cremated and her ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean.
Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
October 4, 1970: Died of a heroin overdose while she was legally drunk in Room 105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel located next door to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, California. After she mainlined the drug, she was able to leave her room, walk to the lobby, ask the desk clerk to change a five-dollar bill so she could spend 50 cents on a pack of cigarettes, pull the rigid knob on the cigarette machine, return to her room and remove some of her clothes. She then fell suddenly, breaking her nose. The desk clerk later stated that while he was giving her change she talked happily about the new album she was recording, although he believed, based on having interacted with her since her August 24 check in, that she "was not a happy person". Her body was discovered approximately 18 hours later by her road manager, who was the son of Alistair Cooke
Wrote her will shortly before her death. Drawing up the document with her Los Angeles lawyer, she set aside $2500 for her friends to throw a party in the event of her death. After she died of a heroin overdose on October 4, 1970, her friends followed her wishes and threw a party in her honor at a club in San Anselmo, California. The party invitations read: "Drinks are on Pearl". Younger sister Laura Joplin, six years her junior, was among those who attended.
Was high school classmates, in Port Arthur, with former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, who gave her her nickname "Beat Weeds".
Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen penned "Chelsea Hotel #2" about her.
The manual dexterity displayed during the very last moments of life (changing a five-dollar bill, using a cigarette machine and undressing despite drunkenness and expectation of a heroin high) was a lifelong trait. Biographer Myra Friedman was told by Joplin's parents that when they interacted with other new parents in Port Arthur, Texas in the 1940s, everyone noticed their first-born child's dexterity with eating utensils, drinking glasses and napkins. The Joplins often took their toddler to the homes of other new parents to demonstrate these motor skills. Regularly drove drunk in California (in her custom-built Porsche) during the last two years of her life. No accidents were ever reported (in newspapers or several biographies), and only one instance of getting pulled over is noted (in a book by Peggy Caserta, who claimed the officer recognized the singer and let her go with a warning). Only one known injury during a performance, which happened in College Park, Maryland and turned out to be a source of humor on The Dick Cavett Show (1968). Manual dexterity and the appearance of controlling her own destiny, no matter how drunk or stoned, diverted many people's attention from the possibility of imminent death. However, personal manager Albert Grossman expected it and (in June 1969) took out a $200,000 insurance policy on his client in case of accidental death. Grossman, famous for signing the young Bob Dylan, collected $112,000 from the San Francisco Associated Indemnity Corporation almost four years after his female client's "accident". During a three-week trial in the New York State Supreme Court, Grossman swore under oath he had not known in June 1969 that Joplin used heroin. He won the 1974 case against the insurer despite its efforts to prove Joplin's death had been a suicide.
Her good friend and former lover, Kris Kristofferson, has on numerous occasions stated that he is absolutely sure she did not commit suicide, but also believes that the course that Janis had chosen to take was a dangerous, self-destructive one, a fact of which he knows she was also aware.
Along with Grace Slick, she was one of the first female rock stars and an important figure in the directed change of rock music in the late 1960s.
Pictured on a USA nondenominated commemorative postage stamp in the Music Icons series, issued 8 August 2014. Price on day of issue was 49¢.
She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 4, 2013.
Her passing was acknowledged in Don McLean's classic song "American Pie": "I met a girl who sang the blues/And I asked her for some happy news/But she just smiled and turned away.".
Over the years there have been many unsuccessful attempts to film a biopic on Janis Joplin. Actresses who have been attached to play the singer include: Melissa Etheridge (circa 1996, in Gary Fleder's project Piece of My Heart); Brittany Murphy (in 1999, also in Fleder's project); Lili Taylor (in a competing 1999 project); Laura Theodore (also 1999; in a never-filmed adaptation of the off-Broadway play "Love, Janis" by Janis's sister Laura Joplin); Renee Zellweger (2003, in Piece of My Heart); Pink (2004) and Zooey Deschanel (2006) (both in Penelope Spheeris's The Gospel According to Janis); Reese Witherspoon (2007, in an untitled Catherine Hardwicke project); Nina Arianda (2012 in Sean Durkin's Janis); Amy Adams (2010 in Get It While You Can); and Michelle Williams (2016 in Durkin's Janis). As of July 2017, none of these projects have ever been filmed; most of them never even came close to going into production. Many were stymied by extensive legal problems with obtaining music rights to Joplin's songs.
The many decades of failed attempts to film a biopic on Janis Joplin eventually became such a publicly well-known Hollywood phenomenon that it was a running joke on the third season of the NBC sitcom "30 Rock": The character of Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) is cast in a Janis Joplin biopic. However, the producing company has failed to obtain Joplin's life rights or the music rights to any of her actual songs. The filming continues, but for legal reasons the main character has to take a series of names that are increasingly removed from the name "Janis Joplin": "Janet Joppler," "Janie Jimplin," and finally "Jackie Jormp-Jomp," in a movie that is eventually titled, "Sing Them Blues, White Girl: The Jackie Jormp Jomp Story." Jenna is also obliged to sing "sound-alike" songs and lyrics such as "Chunk of my Lung" (instead of "Piece of My Heart") and "Synonym's just another word for the word you wanna use" (instead of "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose" from "Me and Bobby MCGee").
Personal Quotes (10)
My advice to everyone is come to California and I'll buy you a drink.
On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.
[asked by a reporter what "acid rock" was] I wouldn't know. I'm a juicer.
You know, I have to have the umph. I've got to feel it, because if it's not getting through to me, the audience sure as hell aren't going to feel it either.
They're frauds, the whole goddamn hippie culture. They bitch about brainwashing from their parents and they do the same damn thing. I've never known a one of those people who would tolerate any way of life but their own.
I don't believe in gate-crashing. The people aren't up there when I'm sweating on a stage at a festival, breaking my ass. You can get the money to buy a concert ticket, man. Sell your old lady, sell your dope. Look at me, man, I'm selling my heart.
I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned to make that feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porches, I must make amends.
Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day man.
Most television shows are such shit, like selling plastic raindrops.by
Dalarna, Sweden
The film’s US opening was December 20th, with a Reuters review of David Fincher’s too-real thriller titled, “Dragon Tattoo” film paints Sweden in darkest shades. But, the sad fact is that there’s a very uncomfortable amount of truth in Stieg Larsson’s fiction.
Larsson’s riveting story of moral wasteland and Nazi heritage, the courageous investigative journalist and troubled feminine genius that rise above it, does depict a number of real-life issues Sweden is yet struggling to hide, especially it seems from itself.
Dragon tattoo’s heroine, Lisbeth Salander, is brutally bound and raped at one point by the man placed as legal guardian over her, Larsson providing comment upon the disturbing reality here of those that have been found to use their official position to ruthlessly prey upon the vulnerable. In example, about a year ago the former police chief of Uppsala County, a major city area in Central Sweden, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for a string of serious sex crimes.
According to an English language article in Sweden’s The Local, Ex-police chief given lighter sentence, the court found the former chief guilty of “aggravated rape, rape, assault, pimping, buying sex and attempting to buy sex.” The article noted that the crimes included the rape of a seventeen year old girl, with the court determining that the “girl spent much of the rape tied up”, paralleling Salander’s being bound and raped.
This story, as with many that The Local prints, was also pursued widely in regular Swedish language media. But, much of the nation’s darker side just doesn’t make it into the major english-language press, and — to my thinking — not every ‘rape’ here need involve sex.
Glaringly highlighting the dichotomy between the nature of the ‘ex-Chief’s’ official position and the reality of what he ruthlessly pursued, the fellow headed Sweden’s National Police Academy between 1989 and 1997, was one of the Swedish Police’s leading authorities on morals and ethics, and remarkably, a nationally well-known lecturer on issues such as sexual harassment and feminine equality.
Recent other scandals include: a senior charity official having been convicted of defrauding the Swedish Red Cross and the Swedish Cancer Society, over a million dollars said to have been involved; city officials in Gothenburg’s building and housing sector facing assorted corruption charges; government acknowledgement and the promise of $38,000 each to what is estimated as thousands of children that were badly abused in foster care, and, the list goes on. The common thread running through the scandals is an abuse of power by those placed in authority by this society, and worse still, long term neglect and/or tolerance of abuses by those charged with preventing them.
As I said, not every ‘rape’ here need involve sex.
In Larsson’s two subsequent works, The Girl Who Played with the Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Larsson addresses the issues of Salander’s violent abuse as a child at the hands of the Swedish System’s bureaucracy, portraying elements of the bureaucracy with a tolerance of, and complicity in, the worst kinds of criminal activity. This is not to say that Larsson implies the majority of those in the Swedish bureaucracy act in a monstrous manner, as that certainly isn’t the case, but — in this journalist’s opinion based upon what I have personally witnessed — too many do, and too often they are not stopped.
The dichotomy, between the ‘proper and noble’ image versus a ‘shameless and brutal’ reality, is highlighted by Larsson again and again.
Repeatedly, the actual fact of Steig Larsson’s ‘dark Sweden’ has been seen in Swedish news accounts, including those relating to the country’s Nazi heritage. Just this past August, a Swedish book was published that claims Ikea founder and philanthropist Ingvar Kamprad was “active in recruiting to Sweden’s main war-time Nazi movement the National Socialist Workers’ Party (Svensk Socialistisk Samling – SSS)”, according to The Local and the Swedish News Agency TT.
“It confirms only one thing – that Ingvar time after time has told about the biggest mistake of his life and apologised to all involved 20 years ago”, the article noted a Kamprad spokesman observing. But today, while all of the Nordic countries have far-right parties in their parliaments, it is only Sweden’s party, the Sweden Democrats, that has neo-Nazi roots.
Perhaps more troubling still, following the Norwegian mass-murder rampage of far right Islamophobe Anders Behring Breivik, the Swedish daily Expressen revealed that it’s believed Breivik had lived in Sweden and acquired a substantive portion of his political beliefs here. A Swedish hamburger chain even made international headlines some months ago when parents found their young son had received a swastika tattoo with his child meal, and, just days ago, neo-Nazis marched past the Jewish community’s headquarters, decrying a so-called ‘Jewish conspiracy’.
Contrary to its progressive image, Sweden also founded the world’s first ‘racial biology’ institute in 1922, the Statens institut för rasbiologi (SIFR), with the SIFR subsequently associated with the forced sterilization of 63,000 in a program that only ended in the mid-1970s. According to a Swedish government 2005 report upon the country’s “structural discrimination”, Det blågula glashuset (The blue/gold glass house), in some areas Roma were sterilized simply for being Roma. But, the report also notes how strong ‘structural discrimination’ still exists in Sweden, with immigrants, the indigenous people (Sami), and all others not seen as ‘typical Swedes’ being subjected to it.
The report’s English language summary is worth quoting:
Sweden, it is popularly assumed, lacks a history of racism and oppression of ethnic minorities.
Sweden’s treatment of, for example, the sami and the roma are clear examples in Swedish history that demonstrate the problems with this view. The fact that Sweden established the world’s first institute for race biology is another. Sweden’s history is a part of Europe’s history. The same racism that arose and spread in Europe, has thus occurred and occurs in Sweden. The racist view of, for example, people from Africa and Asia has been widely disseminated inSweden, being almost a part of popular culture.
Before writing his Millennium Trilogy, Larsson was an investigative journalist specializing in the far-right. Shortly before his death, he predicted that the Sweden Democrats would be elected to the parliament in 2010, something which is now a fact. He was also concerned about a return to the abuse of women, immigrants, and Jews, as had once been quite strong in Sweden. And over the last five years, this journalist has personally experienced that the levels of discrimination and abuse have risen dramatically.
To say my own circumstances are both nightmarish and life-threatening is accurate…I seriously wonder if I’ll survive much longer. But as startlingly nightmarish as that is, perhaps even more disturbing is that the abuse I and others suffer usually occurs quite casually, in plain sight, as if it is simply ‘the right and proper thing’. Beyond this, and paralleling the Millennium saga, to my eyes such abuse seems typically aided by those with a duty to prevent it, assuming they are not perpetrating the abuse in question themselves.
It is as if some members of Swedish society are ‘subhuman’, and ‘deserve’ to be treated accordingly.
The election of the Swedish Democrats provided an indicator of how much Sweden has changed in recent years, with very obvious xenophobia and structural discrimination increasingly felt by many. But worst is what is perhaps best termed the ‘banality of evil’ that has taken root, something which Larsson would seem to vividly convey in his descriptions of the Swedish courts and bureaucracy, the damage they are capable of inflicting.
It was 1963 when political theorist Hannah Arendt exploded into world view with her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”. The Jerusalem trial of Nazi mass-murderer Adolf Eichmann provided the impetus for Arendt’s examination,, and while there are certainly no extermination camps in Sweden, that doesn’t mean there isn’t the institutionalized and unspeakable abuse of some.
Arendt’s belief was that those responsible for committing nightmarish acts, in the performance of their duties, were often quite ordinary, not the ‘madmen’ one would like to believe. She revealed these people as mainly simple functionaries that did what they felt ‘was expected of them’, not bothering to examine the horrific implications of their acts.
As the American writer Edward S. Herman wrote some years ago:
Doing terrible things in an organized and systematic way rests on “normalization.” This is the process whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and unspeakable acts become routine and are accepted as “the way things are done.”
Is it possible that many of Sweden’s scandals occur because those presently in the governing bureaucracy have come to see scandalous conduct as just “the way things are done”, with unspeakable acts having been “normalized”? At a pre-school called Guldstigen, in the area I live, both very young Swedish children and the pre-school’s personnel suffered severely for months from the toxic effects of mold, with the municipality’s initial denials of any problems ending only after a concerted effort by both parents and local media.
At first, local authorities claimed the Guldstigen problem was merely one of “dust”, but after numerous headlines and some heated confrontations with parents, it was months later when a headline noted, “The municipality admits wrong about Guldstigen” (Kommunen medger fel om Guldstigen), with the mold sickening the pre-school finally acknowledged and addressed. But what about the other official denials of problems where hard evidence states they exist, and what of a bureaucracy that seems to callously enable suffering?
As for how immigrants can be treated, a headline in one of the national papers last January read, “We live worse than animals here” (Vi bor sämre än djur här). But what can one expect when the country has come to a point where authorities question if a man whose both legs are amputated is suffering a “permanent” condition (Legless man denied wheelchair – The Local), and where nursing home personnel made August headlines for betting on when a patient would die?
There are many good, decent, and fine Swedes that I’ve met, and some of these are indeed among the finest people I’ve ever encountered, but there are others. In the Swedish-film version of Dragon Tattoo, there is a scene where a torture/murderer explains himself, noting: “I’m taking whatever I want…I love the disappointment in their (his victims’) eyes – it doesn’t seem to fit with what they planned. They always seem to think that I’ll show mercy. It’s a fantastic moment when they finally realize they’re not getting away”.
To recall an 18th century political theorist and statesman, Edmund Burke, “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing”…and, perhaps some things never change.
Ritt Goldstein is an American investigative political journalist living in SwedenFrank Cho, who you may know from his “sexy cover art” antics on Spider-Gwen (and more), has walked off of working on a series of Wonder Woman variant covers. Earlier this year, he was commissioned to create a series of 24 variant covers for the new Wonder Woman comic written by Greg Rucka. Cho only made it about six covers in before walking off, citing “censorship” and “political agendas.” In a statement to Bleeding Cool, Cho wrote:
All the problem lies with Greg Rucka. EVERYONE loves my Wonder Woman covers and wants me to stay. Greg Rucka is the ONLY one who has any problem with covers. Greg Rucka has been trying to alter and censor my artwork since day one. Greg Rucka thought my Wonder Woman #3 cover was vulgar and showed too much skin, and has been spearheading censorship, which is baffling since my Wonder Woman image is on model and shows the same amount of skin as the interior art, and it’s a VARIANT COVER and he should have no editorial control over it. (But he does. WTF?!!!) I tried to play nice, not rock the boat and do my best on the covers, but Greg’s weird political agenda against me and my art has made that job impossible. Wonder Woman was the ONLY reason I came over to DC Comics. To DC’s credit, especially [Art Director] Mark Chiarello, they have been very accommodating. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place. I just wanted to be left alone and do my Wonder Woman variant covers in peace. But Greg Rucka is in a hostile power trip and causing unnecessary friction over variant covers.
Cho’s no stranger to cover art controversy—as stated earlier, he’s been at the center of more than a few firestorms regarding the overtly sexualized covers that he draws of female comic book heroes. In one particularly egregious example, his “sexy cover” of Spider-Gwen is especially skeezy because, well, she’s a teenager, but there she is, sexualized anyway.
That aside, Cho’s drawn more than a few other cheesecake pieces, some of which feel like very pointed jabs at folks who “overreact” to such pieces. The Wonder Woman art in question hasn’t been released, and after this controversy, it doesn’t seem likely that it will be.
We’ve reached out to Cho and Rucka for comments, and will update as necessary.
[UPDATE]: Cho has responded to our request for comment, and we’ve included his statement below.
Since you’re asking me a straight question, I’m going to answer honestly as possible from my point of view. Wonder Woman was my dream job at DC Comics. I love and respect the character very much. When I was invited by DC to draw the 24 variant covers for Wonder Woman, I was ecstatic. I was told that I had complete freedom on the variant covers and the only person in charge of me was the senior art director, Mark Chiarello, who I greatly respect. Win-win for everyone. Now the variant covers are handled by entirely separate editorial office than the rest of the books. I was given assurance that I would not have to deal with the Wonder Woman book writer or editor at all, and were told I would only be dealing with Mark Chiarello. So I came onboard and started working right away. Everything went smoothly at first. I turned in my first batch of cover sketches and Chiarello approved them, and I started finishing and inking them ASAP since these were biweekly covers and we had limited time. Then Chiarello started getting art notes from Greg Rucka ordering him to tell me to alter and change things on the covers. (Remove arm band, make the skirt longer and wider to cover her up, showing too much skin, add the lasso here, etc.) Well, Chiarello and I were baffled and annoyed by Greg Rucka’s art change orders. More so, since the interior pages were showing the same amount or more skin than my variant covers. (For example: Issue #2, panel One, etc.) I requested that Greg Rucka back off and let me do my variant covers in peace. After all, these were minor and subjective changes. And let’s face it, being told by a non-artistic freelancer what I can and cannot draw didn’t sit too well with me. Then things got ugly. Apparently unbeknownst to Chiarello and me, DC, for whatever reason, gave Greg Rucka complete and total editorial control on Wonder Woman including variant covers by contract. My promises of creative freedom were verbal. I think this is a case of complete miscommunication and things falling through the crack during the post-DC headquarter move to LA. Had I’ve known Greg Rucka had complete editorial control over the variant covers, I would have never came onboard Wonder Woman. Since we were on the same team with the same goal – making great Wonder Woman comics, Mark Chiarello and I tried to reason with Greg Rucka to back off and let me do the variant covers in peace. But Rucka refused and tried to hammer me in line. Things escalated and got toxic very fast. The act of a freelance writer art directing me, overruling my senior art director, altering my artwork without consent was too much. I realized after Rucka’s problems with my Wonder Woman #3 variant cover, my excitement and desire for the project have completely disappeared and I decided to bow out quietly after I finish my Wonder Woman #4 variant cover. (This was around end of May.) But DC wanted me to stay and finish out #5 and #6 covers to give them some time to find my replacement. So I stuck it out and tried to deal with the flagrant disrespect for six issues, and quietly stepped off until Bleeding Cool gave me little choice but to respond. They caught wind that there was some discord in the Wonder Woman office over my covers and was about to cast negative light on the wrong people. So I went public yesterday and set the story straight, correctly naming Greg Rucka as the source of the problem before the wrong information was published.
We’ll continue to update as necessary.
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.Michel Vorm: New contract at Swansea
The deal is a major boost for the Swans as the former Utrecht stopper has been in impressive form since arriving at the club in August 2011.
"I'm delighted,"' Vorm said. "I'm enjoying my time here very much and it is one of the reasons why I've signed an extension.
"I can also only see things at Swansea getting better and better. I can see a lot of positive things happening here and I believe the club has a bright future ahead of it.
"The club has signed a lot of its quality players for longer periods, which is a good thing.
"The Premier League has been all I expected it would be - and better. When you play in front of our fans and witness the support they give you, it's fantastic.
"We know how much the club means to them. And I'm not just talking about the Liberty Stadium. They also travel in their thousands to away games. It makes every game in a Swans shirt enjoyable."The future of Destiny 2 may be found in Warframe Yes, THAT Warframe
Warframe was panned by critics and played by few people when it was released in early 2013. But Digital Extremes constantly updated and improved its free-to-play loot shooter. It grew with time, becoming one of the most consistently popular games on Steam. It’s in the top 10 most popular games nearly all the time, and it worked hard to get there.
Bungie’s Destiny was met with mixed reviews when it was released in 2014, but it quickly became one of the most popular games of the year.
Destiny had the initial playerbase to make a run at the long term. But, unlike Warframe, there was a sense that it was just the first game in a series, rather than something to be built on as a living game. Content updates were big, but relatively infrequent. Players wanted more.
Then, Destiny 2 was announced. To some (maybe many), it felt like a betrayal. We had committed so much time in the first game that it only felt natural for it to grow more and more until it had evolved into something bigger, much like the PC MMOs of the past.
There’s a sense of déjà vu a few weeks into Destiny 2. The endgame meatiness just doesn’t seem to be there. Meanwhile, I’ve been playing the same Warframe character for months with no end in sight.
Can Destiny 2 become the living game that Destiny seemed, to fans, destined to become? The answer may just lie in whether Bungie can learn the lessons of Warframe.
Same in loot only
Destiny and Warframe have the same gameplay loop at their core. You shoot dudes, get better loot from the dudes and then use that loot to kill increasingly more difficult dudes. It’s the Diablo model, where every action you take is intended to find stuff to make your stats go up. Watching numbers go up in a game is extremely satisfying, as it turns out.
But their approaches to the loot game genre differ drastically.
Destiny 2 is all about the straight up loot grind. The constant drip of new guns and armor is key to its gameplay loop. The first 20 levels are a constant cycle of finding a new gun, dropping the old one, finding yet another one, dropping that last gun and so on. It’s a great way to constantly demand players to test out new gear while showing off every style of weapon the game has to offer.
The late game focuses on improving the guns you like by way of infusion and mods, but gear is perpetually shifting for the vast majority of any player’s time with either of the Destiny games. Even while I work my way through the raid, I’m still finding myself constantly swapping guns and armor, never sticking with any one of them long enough to fall in love with a specific play style.
Warframe has a very different type of grind.
Warframe asks its players to craft gear and level it up much in the same way you’d level any RPG character. That means you’re sticking with that assault rifle right up until you run enough missions and kill enough robots (or Warhammer 40,000-style marines or “Infested” versions of either) to get that particular weapon up to level 30. Every item level increases your account level, in turn making any future weapons slightly easier to level up. You’re also collecting materials to craft more guns and Warframes (effectively classes in Warframe) to level up in the future along the way.
Like in Destiny, most of the time spent in Warframe is hopping from planet to planet, completing a variety of mission types. There are wave-based survival, hostage rescue, assassination and just straight up “Kill X enemies” missions, all set on randomly generated levels. Think Diablo level design, but in a fast-paced third-person shooter. Warframe has more gameplay similarities to Vanquish than it does Gears of War.
No weapon or Warframe is inherently better than any other. Instead, it’s up to players to plug mods into them, changing their stats to favor specific combat situations or just player preference. Mods also have to be leveled up, adding to the huge — occasionally bloated — amount of stuff to do.
The result is a grindy game with a heavy focus on figuring out loadouts, customizing them with mods and slowly grinding out even higher numbers. Because Warframe is free to play, some of that grind can be reduced by throwing Digital Extremes a few bucks for more resources or to speed up crafting times, since guns can take 24 real-time hours to craft, while Warframes take three days.
That may seem bananas at first, but there’s a ton to do in Warframe. The crafting often happens in the background while you’re off doing something else.
I want to make this clear: I love the changes Bungie has made so Destiny 2 becomes palatable to more players than its predecessor. Loot games are often difficult for new players to get into, particularly when the best content sits behind a barrier of entry only broken by hundreds of hours grinding out gear. And I certainly don’t want it to go to the extreme of Warframe.
I just worry that these changes were made in sacrifice of late game depth. Granted, it’s early in Destiny 2’s lifespan, so there’s plenty of time for that lack to be addressed. I’d also never argue that Destiny 2 should go for the full-on grind of Warframe. But there are things Bungie’s premium shooter could learn from the design of Digital Extremes’ slow burn of a success.
A reward for every session
I feel like I’m accomplishing something every time I log into Warframe for a few missions. Meanwhile, I’m regularly walking away |
January "if you tick 'yes please', filters will be better, stronger and will not overblock"—the government has announced that rather than taking filters back to the drawing board, a wait-and-see approach will be adopted, whereby the impetus is on sites incorrectly blocked to flag up the issue with ISPs. According to the report by the BBC, a whitelist of all these sites will be drawn up and will include sex education, health, and drug awareness charities.
"Research suggests the amount of inadvertent blocking is low. However, if you are a charity and you deal with teenagers in distress that one or ten matters to you," conceded David Miles, chair of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety's overblocking group. (That's right Perry, there's an entire government group dedicated to investigating the problem.)
The government's call for the system is very much late to the game. Filters were never going to be foolproof—a study carried out by mobile security provider AdaptiveMobile in 2013 found, for instance, that 34 percent of free Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK block sex education sites and 44 percent block religious sites. It was naïve to think this wouldn't happen with the new filters, and therefore seems logical a system would already have been put in place ahead of time to counter problems.
Andy Phippen, professor of social responsibility in information technology at Plymouth University, says that the potential system described by Miles sounds like a "pretty clunky solution" at best. "What if you are a new site wishing to start up, is the onus then on you to check whether your site is blocked by the various filters and then you have to apply to have it unblocked? It strikes me that this is a little bit censorial for a site which isn't doing anything wrong. 'Hello, I've set up a website to help children learn about sexuality, please can you check it to make sure it's not serving porn by mistake'!" he told Wired.co.uk.
This year all major ISPs will have to electronically ask all customers whether they'd like to use the filters, so numbers are expected to rise substantially (for now only new customers are asked). Miles told the BBC: "At the ISP level, on public Wi-Fi and via mobile operators, the UK will be subject to a substantial amount of network-level filtering all of a sudden. That new network-level filtering could increase the level of over-blocking."
So, the inadvertent blocking—or perhaps we should say, much more accurately, the inadvertent web censorship—is just going to get worse. The government does not seem deterred in its course of action, however. The filters have been in the planning for years now, with Perry arguing for total pornography-block opt-out filters in 2010. The government is committed to the cause, and cannot do a U-turn now. Emailing Wired.co.uk, Phippen points out just one of the many reasons the filter system is perhaps not the solution Perry and David Cameron would have us believe it is.
"There is also an issue not with over blocking but with inequality of access," he said. "For example, I am currently sat in the café in Asda at Bodmin writing this. If I try to access the FHM site through its Mumsnet-approved family friendly filtering, it gets blocked. However, I am perfectly at liberty to pop downstairs, purchase a copy of the magazine, then return upstairs to read it (and for everyone to see me reading it). It all seems a little daft..."
This story originally appeared on Wired UK.
Listing image by unwiederbringlichbegangenesThe main federal handout for the wind energy industry has grown considerably despite the fact that it expired at the end of 2013. Over the past two years, IRS administrators have relaxed the eligibility requirements to make it easier for in-progress wind farm projects to qualify for government subsidies (known in Washington as the ‘production tax credit’ or “ PTC ”). The IRS has done so repeatedly and quietly, often without action from Congress.
Back in December 2012, while Senate Minority Leader McConnell and Vice President Biden were negotiating a last-minute deal to prevent income taxes from rising across the board, special interests in the wind industry engaged in a flurry of lobbying activity. Congress slipped in a provision in the Fiscal Cliff at the 11th hour that extended and greatly expanded wind subsidies through lower eligibility requirements. Previously, wind farms had to be placed in service and generating electricity in order to claim the credit; after the Fiscal Cliff deal, they only had to be in the beginning stages of construction.
The IRS clarified shortly thereafter that wind farm projects would be able to receive the special tax giveaway if they spent as little as 5 percent of the construction costs. This meant that projects would have to do barely any work by the deadline in order to qualify.
Again, in April 2013, the PTC raised the amount of the subsidy. The IRS issued a notice that raised the value of the tax credit from $22 per megawatt-hour of electricity produced to $23 per megawatt-hour.
That September, the IRS issued additional guidance that expanded the qualifying requirement for taxpayer subsidies even further: This time, the agency said that wind farm projects that generate power before the end of 2015 could claim this special tax credit. This meant that any wind farm project that began generating electricity before Jan. 1, 2016 would eligible for the handout—even though the PTC was on track to expire at the end of 2013, which it did. The IRS also said in the notice that even projects that come online after that might still qualify; the agency intends make decisions on a project-by-project basis.
On a recent Friday afternoon during August recess, the IRS issued new guidance that expanded the PTC even further. Now, in certain situations, the IRS will allow wind farm developers to sell a project that is either completed or in-progress and the use the selling costs they incur to count toward qualifying for the PTC. The IRS also clarified what "significant work of a physical nature" is needed in order to qualify for the tax credit. The IRS provided a loose definition, saying they that it is the nature of the work that matters (e.g., digging foundations, installing transformers, building roads), not the extent or the cost.
These repeated changes occur with little public notice, seemingly always on Friday afternoons while most in Washington are away from their Blackberries. These are a problem because arbitrary action by a handful of unelected bureaucrats is quietly expanding this taxpayer subsidy, increasing the price tag of this handout more and more every year. Historically, the PTC program has cost an average of $5 billion per year; thanks largely to these expansions, a 1-year extension would cost a whopping $13 billion over the next decade. Given the federal government's serious fiscal problems, it makes no sense to increase giveaways like this to any private industry, let alone one as economically unviable as wind energy.
Further alarming is the fact that this is happening without actions from elected officials. Members of Congress facing future elections are able to be held accountable to their constituency; out-of-control IRS bureaucrats like Lois Lerner are not. Since Congress has outsourced so much of its authority to federal agencies over the course of the Obama Administration and its predecessors, the IRS can claim that it is acting within the scope of its legal authority when it issues this type of new “guidance” that expands this controversial subsidy program even though it's expired.
We can’t get federal spending under control if our elected officials aren't willing to stand up to special interests like those in the wind energy industry. Congress should reject efforts to extend or grow this special carve-out for wind producers, and it should disapprove of the IRS's ongoing actions to expand it.SAN RAMON, CA — The tragic San Ramon collision that killed a 3-year-old boy and injured his mother and siblings has drawn national attention because the driver involved has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving twice in the last 90 days.
The case was featured on the Nancy Grace Show Wednesday night. During a tearful phone interview with Grace, Chuck Manioki, the grandfather of 3-year-old Elijah Dunn, the toddler who was killed during the Sept. 9 crash, says he wants justice for his family.
Yarenit Liliana Malihan, 39, the wife of an Alameda County Sheriff's deputy, was arrested by CHP officers on suspicion of driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter after the fatal Friday night crash on I-680 in San Ramon.
Malihan was driving on a provisional license Friday night as the result of another alleged DUI-related crash in Pleasanton. According to Alameda County Court records, Malihan was arrested in June and faces three charges, including child cruelty and driving under the influence, which were filed in August.
Pleasanton Police Sgt. Larry Cox said several people had reached out on social media criticizing the Police Department for not suspending Malihan's license after her first DUI, and that perhaps if they had, Friday's tragedy wouldn't have occurred.
"Police do not suspend licenses, and that night we went through the correct process, which is to refer the case to the Department of Motor Vehicles," Cox said.
According to police, officers filled out a DMV form the night of her first arrest, which would become Malihan's temporary license until she attended a formal hearing to determine the status of her license. Cox said he doesn't know what the status of Malihan's license would have been after the hearing, but that a license being suspended is not always the outcome for driving under the influence.
"It depends on the circumstances of each case, but the police do not have the authority to suspend licenses," he said.
Alameda County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said Malihan's attorney appeared in court on Aug. 31 for the DUI incident in Pleasanton, but she did not know what happened at the hearing.
On Sept. 9, a black 2007 Toyota Camry with three children and their mother inside was parked on the shoulder of the highway after they ran out of gas when Malihan's white 2008 Toyota Sequoia crashed into the back of it killing Dunn and hospitalizing his mother and siblings, CHP officials said.
Malihan has not yet been charged in Contra Costa County for the second alleged DUI.
The East Bay community is rallying to raise money to help the Dunn family pay for the loss of income, medical bills and funeral costs following the crash. Click here to find the Elijah Dunn Family account.
Previous coverage:
Photo via Shutterstock
Bay City News contributed to this report.Roll Call is reporting that “U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine has submitted a letter of resignation to the Capitol Police Board, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation have confirmed.”
As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, Dine’s tenure as Capitol Police Chief has been troubled.
Dine’s failure to release the Capitol Police event report of the New Year’s Day incident in which then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sustained gruesome injuries is just the most recent controversy in which Dine has been involved.
As Roll Call reports:
Dine’s stated intent to leave the agency comes at a moment when frustrations have come to a head, not just from rank-and-file officers but from the Capitol Police Board. The board made the decision to hire the former police chief from Frederick, Md., in December 2012, confident he could restore trust and accountability in the ranks after long-simmering discontent with Dine’s immediate predecessors in the top brass. The chief’s letter of resignation comes amid reports of conflict within the department, which employs 1,775 sworn officers and 370 civilians. A recent CQ Roll Call report detailed growing frustration among rank-and-file officers regarding alleged policies passed down from department brass that officers should not participate in “low value” stops around the Capitol campus. The officers said the top priority was combating terrorist threats against the Capitol and lawmakers, with day-to-day policing taking a backseat. Lawmakers questioned Dine about officer morale at a recent House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, following the reports. Dine has also been under scrutiny for the handling of a car chase the night of the State of the Union, which ended without an arrest despite the fact that the suspect was driving without a license. Members of Congress also grilled Dine after the October 2013 fatal shooting of Miriam Carey, as well as the decision to call back officers from the September 2013 Navy Yard shooting.
For his part, Reid has been very supportive of Chief Dine’s leadership.
“I’m for a strong Capitol Police. We need to give them more resources, rather than less,” Reid said on March 3.
“I do everything I can to be a stalwart protector and defender of the Capitol Police,” Reid added later at a March 13 press conference.
“They have a job that is very very difficult. We see the uniformed people trying to help us, and they do help us,” Reid added. “I’m not going to be picking apart something that somebody that doesn’t like the Chief or the Sergeant at Arms.”
“I think they do a masterful job. I support the Chief of Police, I support the new Sergeant at Arms, I support the old Sergeant at Arms,” Reid concluded.
On Wednesday, Reid named former Senate Sergeant at Arms Drew Willison as his new Chief of Staff, a move that raised concerns about conflict of interest.
As Breitbart News reported, in his role as Senate Sergeant of Arms Willison was a member of the three person Capitol Board, which supervises Capitol Police Chief Dine.
Willison held that position on January 1, 2015, the day on which Reid sustained severe injuries in his Henderson, Nevada home and was transported to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson by his Capitol Police security detail.
The Capitol Police under Dine’s leadership have refused to release the event report of that incident, which should have been filed by Reid’s security detail.
Breitbart News asked for Willison to release all communications he had with the Capitol Police during the days between December 31, 2014 to January 6, 2015, but, to date, Willison has stonewalled that request.
Breitbart News has asked Capitol Police spokesperson Kim Schneider to confirm or deny the Roll Call report of Dine’s resignation but has not received a response.
Breitbart News has also asked Senate Sergeant at Arms spokesperson Becky Daugherty to confirm or deny the Roll Call report, but has not received a response.During the summer of 2011, when gold was rising parabolically, you could find no one who would dare even consider a top for gold that was below $2000. At the time, the market pundits were quite certain that $2,000 would be well eclipsed by the fall of that year. And, if one applies linear thinking to a market, it is certainly understandable why most maintained that expectation. The only problem is that financial markets are not linear beasts, but, rather, they are emotional and non-linear.
It was in August of 2011 that I published my first gold article, which called for a top at $1915. That target was based upon a 200 year Elliott Wave and Fibonacci mathematics study I conducted. And, as we now know, the market topped within several dollars of that target.
In a comment to that same article – even before the metals topped – I noted my downside targets of a minimum of 1400, with greater potential for gold to drop to the 700-1000 region. And, let’s just say that neither of these expectations were taken seriously by the readership of that article at the time.
We are now over 3 years later in time, and most are still stunned by the significant correction we have experienced in metals. But, for those that follow the metals closely, I have one question for you: How many “bottoms” have been called in this market over the last 3 years?
Well, I think the answer is that this market has turned just about every bottom-calling analyst on his/her head over the last 3 years. As for me, there have been two times over the last 3+ years where I was “looking” for a potential bottoming pattern set up, yet, each time, the market invalidated that bottoming potential, which made it clear to me that lower levels were still in order. So, I am still searching for my first confirmed bottom call – which, amusingly, may then mean it will be my turn to follow in the footsteps of my analyst brethren. But, I have to go with that which my analysis dictates, especially since it has led us quite well over the last 3+ years, whereas many others have failed.
As an illustrative example of how confused this market has been, a noted German gold-stock newsletter writer was quoted by The Gold Report on Oct. 27 that he has been continuing to buy miners "when there is blood in the streets." Yet, just three days later, he publicly noted that he "had to liquidate the whole portfolio." And, yes, within the next week, the metals bottomed.
As another example, back in the summer when I began shorting metals again, another investment advisor publicly noted his perspective that Elliott Wave analysis does not work — in fact, he called it "nonsense" and "demonic," and he was going to prove it by showing that the metals and miners were about to break out in their next bull market. He felt lower lows were just not going to happen, even though Elliotticians, such as myself, were quite certain we would see lower lows, which we did. Unfortunately, his understanding of Elliott Wave was very superficial, and he suffered for it. Sadly, he and his followers have lost a lot of money - according to his most recent post - and he was forced to go to cash.
And, if you remember, back in November, when we briefly broke the lows of 2013, almost the entire market adopted the perspective noted by this analyst:
"It now seems unlikely that gold will begin a new bull market any time soon."
So, what did the market then do? Yes, it rallied. But, when we broke the 2013 low, many lost faith in the metals. Many threw their hands in the air, and suggested it was time to sell. Yet, I was telling my subscribers that this was an opportune time to buy. In fact, I wrote articles on MarketWatch and Seeking Alpha imploring those who were contemplating selling their metals positions to reconsider. As I noted in an article posted to Seeking Alpha on November 8th, entitled “Please Do Not Over-react,” I pointed out that “I noted to my subscribers that I was buying long-term positions in silver and various miners this past week.” This was the first time I went net-long miners and silver in over 3 years.
The question I am sure you are now asking is why do so many highly respected analysts get so badly whipsawed in metals? Well, when one understands that the metals movement is dictated by emotion and sentiment, it is much easier to develop a trading plan around such movement. You need a method that tracks sentiment. So, while one of the analysts noted above was supposedly following Barron Rothchild’s “buy when there is blood in the streets,” and, yet, sold at a loss several days after his “street-blood-buying,” we need to have a better understanding of when to buy which is more specific than just “blood in the streets.”
Over the last week or two, we have been dealing with a market wherein many were so certain that the November bottom was the final low in this multi-year correction. Yes, again, a rally brings out the standard bottom calls. Maybe they are right this time. But, so far, nothing in the move off the lows has suggested that they are. To me, we have an uncompleted pattern to the downside, followed by a pattern up which is still suggestive of lower lows yet to come. So, rather than assuming every rally is the start of the next bull market phase, I am still sticking to my guns and expecting those lower lows. But, I am going to be maintaining an open mind to allow the market to prove me wrong.
From my Elliott Wave perspective, I am looking for a final 5th wave higher in this c-wave in gold and miners. Once this move completes, then I will be going back into the market on the short side, and fully hedging my newly developed long-term portfolio (right now 50% hedged), as well as taking some speculative short positions.
Ultimately, I still think that we may get some downside surprises in 2015 before the bull market resurrects. But, you should be focusing on developing your long side positions more so than focusing on the short side for the next decline phase. Just my two cents.
Charts on GDX, GLD & YI (all daily) for Monday February 2nd 2015
********
Courtesy of ElliottWaveTrader.netIt’s impossible to talk about the work at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project without mentioning the spies. And yet, for the first five years of the atomic age, nobody would have mentioned them, because they had escaped the view of the security services. It’s one of the great ironies of the top-secret atmosphere: despite listening to phone lines, reading mail, and endlessly snooping, the security forces of General Groves caught not one spy at Los Alamos.
The Los Alamos spies are the ones we spend the most time talking about, because they were the ones who were closest to the parts of the bomb we associate with real “secrets”: the designs, the experiments. They were also the most sensational. There is a bit of an error in looking at them in this way, an over-exaggeration of the work at Los Alamos at the expense, say, of Oak Ridge. But they do make for fascinating study. None of them were James Bonds — crack-trained intelligence experts who could kill you as much as look at you. (I appreciate that in the latest James Bond movie, much is made of the fact that Bond is more assassin than spy.) They are really “moles,” volunteers who were doing more or less their normal jobs, just working for two masters at once.
This sense of the term “mole,” as an aside, was popularized (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) by John Le Carré’s classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974): “Ivlov’s task was to service a mole. A mole is a deep penetration agent so called because he burrows deep into the fabric of Western imperialism.” It is remarkable to me how much of our language of intelligence work is indebted to fictional depictions. I admit I am much more a fan of the Le Carré approach to espionage writing than the Ian Fleming approach — I like my spies conflicted, middle-aged, and tormented. In a word, I like them human. James Bond seems to me to be nothing but a standard male ego fantasy (a well-dressed killer with gadgets who gets and then promptly discards the girl), and it makes him boring. (Daniel Craig’s Bond is, at least, middle-aged and tormented, so it makes the character tolerable, even if the plots are just as silly as ever.) Even this, though, is misleading, because occasionally there are spies who are in something like a Bond mode, destroying factories and assassinating enemies and wielding gadget-guns. But I suspect most intelligence workers look more like George Smiley (or, even more to the point, Connie Sachs, the “librarian” of Smiley’s “Circus” who is crucial but ever behind-the-scenes) than Bond.
Why would someone become a mole? There are several short-hand ways of talking about motivations for espionage, like M.I.C.E.: Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego. They are as valuable as these kinds of short-hands can ever be — tools for generalizing cases, not understanding the individual motivations, which are always tailored by a million tiny specifics.
One of my favorite members of the atomic spy rings, for example, is Harry Gold, a “courier” to others. Gold was the one who ferried information between the moles (scientists at the lab) and the “real” Soviet espionage agents (NKVD officers working under diplomatic cover at the Soviet embassy). The courier was a crucial part of the network, because without him you have the problem of two “watched” groups (weapons scientists and Soviet officials) having to come together, a conspicuous thing. Gold, by contrast, was completely inconspicuous: a chubby little man with a dim-witted facial appearance. But he was a hard worker. Why’d he do it? Not for money — he wouldn’t take any, not in any great amounts. Not so much for ideology — he had favorable thoughts towards the Soviet Union, but he doesn’t appear to have been especially radicalized. He wasn’t being coerced.
So that leaves ego, and that isn’t the worst way to think about Gold, though it doesn’t quite do him credit. As Allen Hornblum explains in great detail in his fascinating The Invisible Harry Gold (Yale University Press, 2010), Gold had a “needy,” vulnerable personality that made him desperate for friendship and approval. He fell in with a group of Communists who realized how far he would go for that approval, and gradually worked towards bigger and bigger assignments. All the agents needed to do to get Gold to work his damnest, and to put his life on the line, was to give him encouragement. In the end, this same trait made Gold a nightmare for the other spies, because once he was caught, he wanted the FBI agents to be his friends, too. So he told them everything. What goes around comes around, I suppose.
What about Fuchs? Ideology, all the way. Fuchs wasn’t new to that game — he had been putting his life on the line years before he became a spy, as a Communist student in Germany during the rise of the Nazis. It’s probably a very a different thing to go from a very proud, spoken form of politics to the quiet subterfuge of becoming a mole. Fuchs himself, in his various confessions and later statements, indicated that he found this work to be an unpleasant struggle. In his 1950 confession to William Skardon, he put it this way:
In the course of this work, I began naturally to form bonds of personal friendship and I had to conceal from them my inner thoughts. I used my Marxist philosophy to establish in my mind two separate compartments. One compartment in which I allowed myself to make friendships, to have personal relations, to help people and to be in all personal ways the kind of man I wanted to be and the kind of man which, in a personal way, I had been before with my friends in or near the Communist Party. I could be free and easy and happy with other people without fear of disclosing myself because I knew the other compartment would step in if I approached the danger point. I could forget the other compartment and still rely on it. It appeared to me at the time that I had become a “free man” because I had succeeded in the other compartments to establish myself completely independent of the surrounding forces of society. Looking back at it now the best way of expressing it seems to be to call it a controlled schizophrenia.
From the point of view of those who knew him at Los Alamos, Fuchs succeeded greatly — they were entirely caught off-guard by the revelation that he was a spy. Hans Bethe took pains to emphasize (to a fault, the FBI seems to have thought) that Fuchs worked very hard for everyone he worked for: the Americans, the British, and the Russians.
(I have written elsewhere on David Greenglass and will not go back over him. He is another curious case, to be sure.)
And what about Ted Hall? Hall was the youngest scientist at Los Alamos, and, as such, the youngest atomic spy of note. He was only 19 years old when he decided that he ought to be giving secrets to the Soviet Union. 19! Just a baby, and his Soviet codename, “MLAD,” reflected that: it means “youngster.” (In retrospect, that is a pretty bad codename, a little too identifying.) When I show his Los Alamos badge photograph to my students, I always emphasize that they’ve met this kid — the 19-year-old genius who thinks he knows better than everyone else, who thinks he has the world figured out, who is just idealistic enough, and just confident enough, to do something really terribly stupid if the opportunity was made available.
Why did Hall spy? Ideology, apparently. I say “apparently” because most of what we know about Hall’s motivations is what he said, or seemed to have said, much later, far after the fact, decades later. A much-older Hall rationalized his spy work as being about the balance of power, an easier thing to say in 1997 than in 1944. Having known 19-year-olds, and having been one, I view this post-hoc rationalization with a bit of suspicion. Even Hall himself seems to recognize that his 19-year-old was brash and arrogant, that ego might have played a large role in his decision.
I have been thinking about Hall a lot recently while watching Manhattan. Towards the end of season 1, it is revealed that one of the scientists the show has been following was a spy, based loosely on the case of Hall. I don’t want to speak too much to the specifics on here, because if you haven’t been watching the show, there are many spoilers involved with just talking about this aspect of the plot, but it’s been pretty interesting to see how the writers handled a spy. He’s not a James Bond, to say the least. He’s someone who, like most real people, see himself as a “good” person fundamentally — but whose actions give him grave doubts as to this proposition. This season there is another figure in the show who is loosely based on Lona Cohen, a courier of Hall and a fascinating figure in her own right, and a complicating factor for the spy scientist. Those interested in learning more about Hall and Cohen should definitely take a look at Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel’s Bombshell (Times Books, 1997).
In current season of Manhattan, the spy character has realized that what started as something of a “game” is no game at all, no game any sane or sensitive person would want to play. The actor who plays him (who I regret not naming, do to aforementioned spoiler concerns!) manages to convey perfectly that panicky feeling one gets when one realizes one has gotten in too far, that one has taken on too much risk, that one cannot turn back, cannot turn off the ride, cannot get off the carousel. It’s a sickening feeling, that feeling of being trapped.
Did Hall feel trapped? One wonders. Of the identified wartime Los Alamos spies (Fuchs, Greenglass, Hall), he is the one who got away, the one who lived out a free life until the end, even though the FBI had a pretty good idea of what he had done by the 1950s. The lack of enough evidence for a “clean case” against him (Hall used a different courier than Fuchs and Greenglass, so the testimony of Harry Gold was worthless in his case), and his isolation for further work on weapons, seems to have allowed them to let him alone. But does one ever “get away” with such a thing? Was there any time in which he was truly at ease, wondering if the hammer might drop? His spying was eventually revealed two year before his death, but he was still never charged with anything.
Hall was interviewed for CNN’s (excellent) Cold War documentary miniseries in the late 1990s. To my eyes, he seems somewhat hollow. Is this just how he was, or an artifact of his age? (He died not too long afterwards, at the age of 74.) Or an artifact of a life staring down the barrel of a gun? On the Rosenberg execution, Hall is recorded saying, grimly: “It certainly brought home the fact that there were flames consuming people, and that we were pretty close to being consumed.”
Can you come out of the cold without resolution of one form or another? Maybe Hall was lucky that, by the end of his life, he got to contribute to the narrative about himself, about his actions, even if he did it in a roundabout admitting-but-not-quite-confessing way. Hall claimed, in his 70s, that the youth of 19-years-old had the right idea, in the end, even if the Cold War went places that that youth couldn’t have anticipated. Hall’s motivations seem to come somewhere out of that unconscious land between ideology and ego, where many monsters live.
Hall, Fuchs, Gold, and Greenglass — not a James Bond among them. They are strictly out of the Le Carréan mold. Conflicted, scared, self-sabotaging: the Le Carréan spy is always his own worst enemy, his friends barely friends at all, his punishment always of his own making. There’s no right way out of a John Le Carré story. If you think things are going to end up well, just you wait — any victory will be bittersweet, if you can call it a victory at all.
Notes
Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1990s, Espionage, FBI, Klaus Fuchs, Leslie Groves, Los Alamos, Manhattan (show), Manhattan Project, Rosenbergs, Ted HallThe ground attack was a big reason for the Saskatchewan Roughriders' success this season and they executed it flawlessly in the biggest game of the year.
Kory Sheets earned MVP honours after running 20 times for a record 197 yards and two touchdowns to power Saskatchewan to a dominant 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Sunday's Grey Cup. The Riders became the third straight host team to win the CFL title with their first-ever championship at Mosaic Stadium, which will be replaced in 2017.
Sheets anchored an effective running game that racked up 268 total yards to net Saskatchewan its fourth Grey Cup title but first since '07. He delighted the raucous crowd of 44,710 by smashing the previous mark of 169 yards, set in 1956 by Edmonton's Johnny Bright.
Everything. The pass, the run, protection was great, the defence was great, special teams was great. It was just our night. - Roughriders RB Kory Sheets
Sheets finished second in CFL rushing this season with 1,598 yards while the Riders had the league's No. 2 ground game (128.8 yards per game).
Sheets was especially dominant in the first half Sunday, running for 128 yards and a TD in leading Saskatchewan to a commanding 31-6 halftime advantage. But the running back said the ground attack wasn't all that was clicking for the Riders.
"Everything," he said. "The pass, the run, protection was great, the defence was great, special teams was great. It was just our night."
Sheets said the Rider fans — who turned the stands into a sea of green — also gave the West Division champions a huge advantage.
"I said it before the game started, this is not a neutral crowd," he said. "The fans are going to be in here knocking and rocking and they proved it.
"I can't wait to hit the streets and party with the fans. It's going to be amazing."
And in Sheets' mind, his Grey Cup performance only solidifies his case as the CFL's best running back.
"You're looking at him," Sheets said.
Previous Next
But while Sheets grabbed most of the headlines this season, Riders GM Brendan Taman built his team to win a championship.
In January, he acquired veteran slotback Geroy Simon from B.C., then in free agency signed defensive ends John Chick and Canadian Ricky Foley as well as outspoken defensive back Dwight Anderson. All four were previous Grey Cup champions and proven veterans who were looked upon to provide leadership to an already solid existing core.
In October, Taman gambled by acquiring rush end Alex Hall from Winnipeg. Hall had a CFL-leading 15 sacks at the time but is scheduled to become a free agent in February and plans to pursue NFL opportunities.
Saskatchewan's defence established itself as the CFL's stingiest, allowing a league-low 22.1 points per game and finishing tied for the interceptions lead (24). And in Sunday's first half, the Roughriders held Hamilton to just three yards rushing and five first downs.
Great leader
For years, Simon was the No. 1 pass catcher in B.C., but had assumed more of a supporting role in Saskatchewan. Although Simon became the CFL's all-time leading receiver this season, he was fourth on the Riders with 40 catches for 565 yards and three TDs. On Sunday, he had three receptions for 67 yards and his first two Grey Cup touchdowns.
"When I came here I said I was willing to do whatever it took for us to win," Simon said. "But I knew eventually the ball would come my way. (Riders quarterback Darian Durant) said early in the week that he was going to give me opportunities and we took advantage of those opportunities.
"I've won Grey Cups before. I've won a Grey Cup at home before but this is a little bit special, leaving the situation that I left in B.C. to come here and just to feel that it was the right decision. Nothing would have made it right but winning the Grey Cup."
Riders slotback Chris Getzlaf, a Regina native, was the game's top Canadian with three catches for 78 yards.
The aerial game was a key element of Hamilton's offensive gameplan. Led by CFL passing leader Henry Burris, the Ticats had the league's No. 2 passing attack, averaging 299.7 yards per game.
But Hamilton had just 127 yards passing and 130 total yards in the first half and Austin said his club simply fell too far behind.
Not enough
"We didn't make enough plays, period," he said. "We played a better football team, they were just better than we were. They converted a lot of second downs, especially in the first half. We just dug too deep of a hole."
Burris, who rallied Hamilton from a 24-10 deficit to beat Toronto 36-24 in the East final, pulled Hamilton to within 31-16 on his 18-yard TD run early in the third quarter and a drive that Luca Congi capped with 33-yard field goal early in the fourth. But Sheets cemented the win with a five-yard touchdown with just over five minutes remaining.
Weather was a consideration but not because of the frigid temperatures that gripped the city for most of the week. At kickoff, it was 1 C and had only dropped to -2 C at the end of the game. On Saturday, the Grey Cup parade was held in frigid -35 C conditions. The biggest obstacle was the brisk northwest wind that gusted between 30 and 50 kilometres an hour. Saskatchewan was more opportunistic, outscoring Hamilton 37-10 with the wind.
Riders fans serenaded Burris — a former Saskatchewan starter who was the '08 Grey Cup MVP with Calgary — with chants of "Henry!" throughout the contest |
Minister Tony Abbott's election commitments to increase the overall defence budget.
Originally proposed by then-Prime Minister John Howard, cost over-runs and delays hit the multi-national JSF project.
Despite the need for budget savings dominating headlines for weeks, Mr Abbott on Tuesday argued the project was needed to "ensure Australia maintains a regional air combat edge".
Mr Abbott said the massive purchase would bring "significant economic benefits to Australia, including in regional areas", likely through manufacturers in South Australia and Victoria.
The total cost of the project includes $1.6 billion in new infrastructure at RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales and RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory.
Overall, the project will see the first new F-35 aircraft arrive in Australia in 2018, to enter service by 2020, with the remaining 58 to enter service in following years.
The 58 new jets approved by the Abbott Government will be in addition to the 14 approved by the previous government in 2009.Farhia and Jason were astounded that their beautiful wedding photographs went viral on the Internet. The pics of this chic and hip urban couple are on many many Blasian and interracial couples Tumblr site as well as bridal and wedding websites. I even covered them here on BBW. Amal and Nada, the fab female photographers who make up Black Earth Studios deserve an award for The Koyama Wedding Shoot. These photogragphs are absolutely beautiful. I did not want to just piece together facts and display photos, I wanted an interview. So now I am sharing a little of Farhia and Jason’s story with you. Farhia is very open minded and had no inhibitions dating or marrying interracially in the least bit.
Where were you born/ grew up?
I was born in Somalia, grew up in Kenya and came to Canada when I was 13. Husband was born in Canada and grew up in Canada as well.
What is your husband’s ethnicity?
He is Japanese.
How did you meet?
We met at his 23th Birthday party. I was invited by a mutual friend and we exchanged numbers at the end. He messaged me before I even walked out of the door lol. We continued texting back and forth the entire time and he called me when I arrived home. We ended up talking till the wee hours of the morning and met up for a lunch date the following day. The rest is history.
And how long had you known him when you got married? We had known each other for a year and a half. When were you married? March 14th 2013.
Was this your first interracial relationship?
Yes it was.
How did you feel about interracial marriage and relationships before you were in one?
In a melting pot like Toronto Canada, Interracial couples are plenty. I was used to seeing so many different types of couples; I suppose I felt that the odds of being in an interracial relationship were high for many people. I never thought it strange at all to be romantically involved with another race; in fact, I thought it would be somewhat exciting.
Do you feel any different about interracial/international marriage and relationships now?
I still feel the same.
Did you face skeptics and criticism from friends and/or family about your interracial/international marriage?
My immediate friends and Family were very supportive about us. The only skepticism we received was from the odd acquaintance and strangers.
Do you recall how you first informed your friends and family of your interracial relationship?
I did not introduce Jason to my family in the traditional Somali fashion. Typically how it works is, the man you intend to marry has to approach the oldest male in the family and ask for your hand in marriage. In my case it would be my older brother. After they talk, my brother would assess if he would be suitable for me and if so, would accept him. A dowry would be agreed upon (the man has to offer something of value to my family) and then a Makkah (a marital ceremony) would occur. I explained to Jason how it worked and he agreed to do so. He offered to drive me to my mom’s for a visit and as he was dropping me off, my mom happened to be sitting in the balcony. Jason got out and opened the door for me and next thing we know, we hear my mom’s voice. We turned around and waved awkwardly and she asked Jason to come in for some tea. My mother is not reserved or shy in any way and started off with the hard questions right away, I eventually ended up telling her I’m seeing him and we wanted to tie the knot. She took an instant liking to him and so did my siblings. Though it didn’t go as planned, it couldn’t have worked out better. It was a huge relief for me.
Jason invited me to a dinner with his mom and dad. He had already told them about me and that is how we initially met. A year and a half later, he told them he planned to propose to me and after that event; we had a celebratory dinner with his family.
What about your husband’s family —- did you or he face any criticism from them?
Not in the slightest. They are the most accepting and gracious people.
Have you ever felt pressure or experienced a significant difference between your non-interracial and interracial relationship?
Yes, a few cultural differences — things such as greetings, holidays, customs, foods. Nothing major but definitely an adjusting period needed (Farhia says smiling).
Do you feel that there are societal criticisms and pressures concerning interracial relationships?
Yes, people expect you to somehow conform to their stereotypes about what type of person you should be and who you should be with. If you don’t fit their mold, they have many negative things to say about you. I have heard some disgusting things I would rather not repeat.
Do you attribute or connect it to negative images of blacks from slavery, African colonialism or something else?
Perhaps Colonialism. It has left a negative sentiment that has echoed through the centuries. It is something repulsive and to be feared, and an abomination.
Do you have children?
Yes, we have a son who was born this year on March 13th..
Does race figure into child rearing for you?
Well, we would like to teach him both his cultures and languages.
When your children first experience racism, what will be your advice will be to them?
People fear what they do not know, doesn’t mean there is something wrong with him, and it means that they just don’t understand that people come in different shapes, sizes and color. He is perfect just the way he is!
Are your families’ different religions?
Yes, my family is Muslim. His is Buddhist, however Jason converted to Islam and he is also Muslim.
What about politics? Are you both on the same page politically?
We aren’t very politically involved or inclined. But if I had to pick, I’d say we are both liberal.
Where do you live?
Toronto Ontario, Canada.
Do you think Toronto in general is a good place for interracial couples and families?
Yes. I think it’s probably one of the best.
Do you work outside the home?
Currently a stay at home mom, Jay works at the Japanese Cultural Centre.
What do you do for fun?
We’re both very active, we like playing all kinds of sports together, we both love trying different foods and play board games. Dancing, karaoke amongst other things.
Do you have any suggestions for black or African women just entering or considering an interracial relationship?
Do it and go with it. It opens up a new world you may not have known otherwise, the world becomes just a little bit more beautiful.
Thank you so much Farhia and I just have to tell you again; you looked like royalty in your wedding pics and your little family is just beyond beautiful.Gamesville Tabletop is a destination game store and gaming play space.
We carry many styles of board and card games. We have contemporary eurostyle games and traditional games like Monopoly and Clue. We carry chess, dominoes and backgammon. We have Magic the Gathering and other TCGs, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and other RPGs and supplies. We have a full line of Fantasy Flight games and LCGs. We have brainy toys, puppets, kids games and plush unicorns and dragons.
We have Cards Against Humanity too!
Gamesville Tabletop has a growing library of games for the customers to check out and play. Our table fee is $5 per day. We have memberships that will waive the fee and come with equal store credit. See our Membership Page for more info.
We’re here to help customers make choices about the games they would like to play or purchase and even offer instruction.
We have events every day of the week. Please see our calendar for more details.
We’re looking to add more events all the time. Keep checking back. If you play something that’s not on the calendar and you want to game in the store let us know.
Check out our Pointy page to see what we carry and have in stock: https://www.pointy.com/shops/usa/florida/gainesville/gamesville-tabletopAbout
For My Brother follows a girl who is willing to give everything for her younger brother. As she fights to gain the powers of untamed nature in order to save him, she becomes less and less human and their bond is changed forever.
Throw Trucks With Your Mind, our first kickstarter-backed game, hit beta as scheduled and promised to backers. Now we're excited to be back for a second title with members of the amazing Machinae Supremacy creating the soundtrack!
For My Brother is heavily inspired by the Insular Art style, (the art of the early Romanization of the British Isles), and from broader illuminated manuscripts.
Insular art has a beautiful tradition of strange and fantastic beasts, and these have been deeply inspirational in creating our own creatures for Sister to fight! Some of the forms of Cat The game beautifully showcases an ancient backdrop of nature, which lets the reference style really shine. It also lets us harken back to many classic standbys of the late 80's, such as parallax backgrounds, while giving a fresh new look to the 2D platformer genre.
Sidescroller puzzle platformer movement
Enemy-sparse environment with epic bosses
Defeat a boss form, gain its powers
Use your powers to explore more areas
Gameplay influences: Shadow of the Colossus, Megaman, Super Metroid
Transform along with Sister into something more powerful but no longer human.
Human Movement
Sister with Claws
Sister with Dash
This gameplay mechanic, along with animation quality, are two of the primary reasons we have decided to make a sidescrolling game with a 3D engine. After shipping our last game with UE3, we're thrilled for the chance to take advantage of all the new features of UE4. Using a 3D engine we're familiar with will allow us to produce excellent levels, bosses, and other content for you to enjoy.
Robert Stjärnström, Jonas Rörling, and Andreas "Gordon" Gerdin of Machinae Supremacy will be joining the development team to create an all-new original soundtrack for For My Brother. Machinae Supremacy has a long history of awesome, combining their love of metal, video games, and all things nerdy.
For this game they are bringing together traditional Celtic folk music with their famous SID metal for an over-the-top original soundtrack, just like they did for the trailer.
The poster, unsigned in packages $70 and up, signed in packages $130 and up
Wooden Laser Cut Pendants. Cat (leftmost) in packages $90 and up, full set in $150 and up (what you see here are mockups)
The shirt! Available in packages $110 and up! American apparel, unisex and women's cuts
The Cat Plushie! (in the $250 package and up) made with love by Diane of DianesDungeon
$5: Your name in the Credits
$15: The game and your name in the credits
$30: For my Brother, the soundtrack, and your name in the credits!
$30: add our previous game!
$50: add the soundtrack and a PDF art book!
$70 add an unsigned poster!
$90 add the Cat pendant!
$110 add a T-shirt!
$130 Get the poster signed!
$150 A full set of pendants!
$180 Special Tier: add a digital commission!
$250 add a cat plushie!
$350 Special tier: add artifacts from the music!
Special Tier $600: add a physical commission
$1000: Add a wooden 3D scene and either a digital or a physical commission
With our powers combined, members of our team have contributed to making 10 great games come to life, including Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Guild Wars 2, and our very own Throw Trucks With Your Mind. We've made robots for NASA and software for Google. We know what needs to be done to scope out, build and deliver a project, no matter if it's making 250K in 6 months to save a hackerspace, creating 8 albums of music or delivering a title to our backers. We're excited for the challenges of making this game, but we're more than ready for them.
(Team from left to right, top row: Lat Ware, Katy Levinson, Caspian Priebe, Kiyome Provost. Bottom row: Lynda Miller, Matt Olch, Stephanie Chan, Robert Stjärnström, Jonas Rörling, Andreas "Gordon" Gerdin)Saturday, November 8, 2014
Smart meters are coming to replace your traditional and conventional meters over the coming years. And by 2020, it is likely we will all have one. Research by uSwitch highlighted that 55% of us are “in the dark” as to what smart meters are.
What are Smart Meters?
So firstly, what is a smart meter? Smart meters are a new type of electricity and gas meter which will replace your current meters. In many ways they act in the same way as your current ones; they record how much electricity or gas that you are using. The clever bit is that they are “connected”, some using technology similar to a mobile phone, and will automatically send your energy meter readings to your gas or electricity supplier. We will come back to this bit later.
Another clever thing about a smart meter is that it can record and display your energy usage in near real-time. Each smart meter comes with an ‘in-home display’, which will show you how much energy you are using at that moment in time and how much your energy has cost you during the last day, week or year. Also, the display can even help you see if you are using more or less energy than a previous day or against a target. They can therefore help you understand if your energy saving efforts are working.
Other benefits of smart meters are:
your supplier you will no longer have to ask you to submit meter readings, and also
they bring an end to estimated bills. No more bill shocks!
When do I get one?
Smart meters are being rolled out nationally from Autumn 2015 through a Government lead initiative. Your energy provider (gas or electricity), will have an obligation to offer installation of a new meter/s, free of charge, over the roll out period between 2015 and 2020. You are going to see a lot more of Gaz & Leccy, the mascots of the roll out. You are not obliged to have a smart meter installed if you do not wish to. Some energy companies have started to introduce smart meters already, such as British Gas.
How much do Smart Meters Cost?
The roll out of smart meters have been controversial due to the estimated costs of installation, up to £10.9 billion. Households will not pay for a smart meter to be installed, the cost will be covered by the supplier installing your meter. Consumers and households will pay indirectly through their energy bills, much like how part of our energy bills cover costs of maintenance and reading of our current meters.
The Government have touted that smart meters will help households save money, £26 per year, or about 2% off your bill. Unfortunately, the smart meter itself will not save your money. It will however give you more, and hopefully better, information to help you reduce your energy consumption and hence save money on your bills. According to the Public Accounts Committee, your energy bill will £11 per year bigger from 2017 to cover the costs of installation. Be sure to check out our other Know-How pieces, blog and of course the Forum to find some great energy saving tips.
Who owns my smart meter data?
I promised we would come back to the issue of data, and here goes…smart meters will potentially capture A LOT of data on and how and when we use energy. Firstly, you own your data and the Information Commissioner’s Office (the independent body that protects information rights and the public’s interest) are establishing a new code to empower households to control who has access to your data and how it can be used.
Your electricity or gas supplier does not have direct access to the data created by your smart meter. The data from all smart meters is collected by a national company (Smart DCC), operating under licence from Government. Your meter data is collected by a regional company depending on where you live in the UK. Your supplier requests your data from the data services provider (part of Smart DCC). They will have basic access to your energy usage data. A household can allow other organisations to access their data if they give permission e.g. a switching site.
Share your experiences of Smart Meters
Have you had a smart meter installed already? If so, how are finding the experience, are you becoming more aware about your energy usage? Share your experiences on our Forum here and help support others before smart meters roll out.
If you found this Know-How helpful, or know someone who could benefit from reading it, use the Facebook and Twitter sharing features below to share the knowledge.AUSTIN (KXAN) – It's been almost 5 years and Pete Hernandez is still waiting for an apology from the city of Austin.
He was mistaken for a suspect and tackled by Austin police officers in 2012. Dash camera video shows officers pulling out their guns and forcing him to the ground at a south Austin Walmart parking lot. "It's always with me that day," said Hernandez. "I try sometimes to forget about it but it's always with me."
Hernandez says he had serious injuries to his back that still cause him pain. He filed a lawsuit and last year a federal jury handed down a punishment of $877,000, but he's yet to get any money from the city, or an apology.
Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Attorney Robert Ranco and his client Pete Hernandez asking City of Austin for apology. (KXAN Photo)
Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Attorney Robert Ranco and his client Pete Hernandez asking City of Austin for apology. (KXAN Photo)
"We want our Police Department to be accountable to have transparency and when they make a mistake to be able to say, 'I'm sorry we shouldn't have done that,'" said his attorney Robert Ranco. "We are not trying to gain a litigation advantage here we want to heal the relationship between the citizens and the city."
Ranco said while they wait for the trial court to approve the verdict, he has sent a letter to Mayor Steve Adler asking the city to apologize for what happened to Hernandez. Ranco is even willing to give up his six-figure fee to make that happen.
"I would feel a little comfort. I could sleep at night at least [rather] than going to bed mad," said Hernandez "I count my blessings every day. It could have been worse."
A spokesperson with the city of Austin said a city attorney expressed a willingness to continue settlement discussions, but because this case is still ongoing, wouldn't comment further.Standing in a crowded U-bahn, trousers around your ankles, with just an iPad shielding your privates from the gaze of curious strangers might not be everyone's idea of art, but for one Berlin-based performance artist, it's all in a day's work.
With his provocative 'live advertising' stunt, Mischa Badasyan says he is breaking boundaries – and sometimes local laws - to get people thinking about the prevalence of advertising in public spaces.
Armed only with a blank-screened iPad and a t-shirt declaring “Your advert here” in various languages and an arrow pointing to his genitals, Badasyan is touring European capitals as a 'walking billboard' to see how locals react.
But the artist was disappointed to find that few onlookers have so far taken up his offer to use him as a living, breathing poster boy.
“I was surprised to get negative reactions or aggressive feedback,” Badasyan, 25, told The Local. “Some people shouted at me in Berlin, they didn't like my idea at all.”
The Armenian-born artist, who came to Dresden as a student in 2008, said he wants to “break stereotyped thinking” and challenge social norms with his art. He aims to take his 'ADbuster' pants-down project to every European capital.
So far he has hit landmarks and public transport in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest and Rome – at times with explosive results.
RELATED PHOTO GALLERY: Naked in the train - Badasyan gets mixed reaction from Europeans
“In Italy two guys blamed me for disturbing and reckless behaviour towards children. One guy screamed at me and violently pulled up my trousers,” Badasyan told The Local.
“In France I got in trouble with the security guards at the Pompidou Centre, they tried to call the police but I ran away.”
Badasyan feels the influence of advertising – particularly what he sees as manipulative sexualised adverts - on modern life is often ignored.
“Every step of your life in modern society is influenced by advertisement,” the artist writes on his website. “Each commercial advertisement can be viewed as an invasion of privacy.”
But many who spotted the trouser-less Badasyan in a public place did not immediately catch the point of his message.
“Mostly people asked me why I was doing it and what on earth the iPad was doing there,” he said. “Some people found it funny.”
“Some supported my idea that we have to rethink … billboards with sexual ads in the city,” he added. “Just a small number of people absolutely supported me and liked my campaign.”
Yet in the end, Badasyan said it did not matter what people thought, as long as his work provoked a reaction.
“I always have a message but my performances are open [to interpretation],” he said. “People should have their own idea about what they see in my works.”
Josie Le BlondPosted by: Naamen Gobert Tilahun
One item that comes up over and over in discussions of racism is that of tone/attitude. People of Color (POC) are very often called on their tone when they bring up racism, the idea being that if POC were just more polite about the whole thing the offending person would have listened and apologized right away. This not only derails the discussion but also tries to turn the insults/race issues into the fault of POC and their tone. Many POC have come to the realization that the expectation of politeness when saying something insulting is a form of privilege. At the core of this expectation of politeness is the idea that the POC in question should teach the offender what was wrong with their statement. Because in my experience what is meant by “be polite” is “teach me”, teach me why you’re offended by this, teach me how to be racially sensitive and the bottom line is that it is no one’s responsibility to teach anyone else. And even when POC are as polite as possible there is still hostility read into the words because people are so afraid of being called racist that they would rather go on offending than deal with the hard road of confronting their own prejudices.
When someone is accused of racism/prejudice and they don’t want to address the concern or even think about it, well then the POC accusing is too loud, too angry. But that ignores the fact that we have every right to be loud and angry. If I were to say something sexist/classist/racist/ablist/etc. I would not expect my friends to say “Well I’m offended by what you said and let’s have a calm discussion of why.” (especially with my friends) I would expect their first and most visceral reaction to be “Listen up, what you just said is fucked up and you better research and correct yourself!” Hell, I’d expect the same response from strangers because I don’t expect them to teach me or help me work through my unconscious prejudices. If I have some fucked up unconscious thoughts it’s my job to break it down and deal with it, no one else’s. Sure there are friends I could turn to but I don’t expect people to help me. For clarifications sake in my mind asking friends for help is not the same as expecting people to teach you. A white friend coming up to me and saying ‘Hey I’m writing this story with a black main character can you read it over?’ is completely different from putting some prejudiced writing/thoughts/beliefs out there and expecting me to be nice and teach you when I run across it. It’s the expectation not the asking that is privilege.
So if you say something racist I may write a detailed reply pointing it out and teaching a bit. I may also go off. Or I may just ignore it. It all depends. Depends on if I just spent the whole day dealing with racism, if I know you, if I think you can learn, if it’s something that’s been repeated over and over and I’m tired of dealing with it and think that you as an (assumed) intelligent person should know better. But you know what they say “If if was a fifth we’d all be drunk.” The point is I should not be expected to respond to racism with a happy-go-lucky smile and a will to teach. I’m not saying it’s okay to say ‘You stupid shit how dare you write this!’ There is a difference between being angry when addressing racism (or sarcastic or “rude”) and insulting people.
See this post has been brewing a long time which is maybe why I seem so “angry” or “rude”. I’ve noticed that when discussions of racism happen online the posts that go up in the aftermath, even some of the ones that address and acknowledge the issues of racism in the incident still say “They didn’t have to be rude about it. There was no call for it.” or “If they had just been more polite the person would have listened.” or some other variation (they of course referring to POC). What these people fail to understand is that if you’ve said something racist and fucked up you’ve already been rude to me. You’ve already offended me and ignorance is no excuse because you are a grown person, you can read, you can research, you can figure out how to treat people with respect and equality.
The question I always ask in these situations and no one ever answers: Why do I (or anyone) have to be polite when we are offended? If someone offends me with racism (either unconscious or deliberate) why should I be nice while confronting them? No one has given an answer to me yet because the answer is for the accused’s comfort level, which brings me back around to the title of this post. It is a privilege to expect someone to confront you on any kind of prejudice politely! I go through every day knowing that I will be offended and there is no politeness when it happens but in return I have to be nice? I have to be polite? I have to be willing to teach you is what is really being said.I was using the website “Live Chat” to talk to a guy that uses Keto Chow, turns out he does a podcast, not one that has anything to do with Keto or nutrition but, well I’ll just quote from his subreddit:
The C-Realm community concerns itself with such topics as peak oil and resource depletion, the manufacture of consent and worldview management by the corporate media, social transformation, accelerating technological development, and the varieties of psychedelic or entheogenic experience.
The podcast I was on was one of his “Members Only” Vault podcasts. After a month or so he posts them to the Internet Archive which is where you can find the interview I did. Added win that he found a screenshot from Futurama of “Batchelor Chow” which is where the “chow” in Keto Chow comes from. Anyhow, check out the podcast.
In other news, I added a “Keto Chow in the Media” page where I can link podcasts like this, news stories, and the like. You’ll find my recent press release about the 4 week experiment there too.The Rub has a new 3 hour Rub Radio show streaming on
Scion's broadband internet radio every month.
The Rub's weekly show on Brooklyn Radio.
The Rub presents Hip-Hop History on Brooklyn Radio! Another year of our favorite rap records every week, mixed by Cosmo, Eleven & Ayres.
Stream at BrooklynRadio.net / Archives (1979 - 1989)
http://therub.crewcial.org/history/TheRub1999.mp3
Youngbloodz "85" feat. Big Boi
DJ DMD "25 Lighters" feat. Lil' Keke & Fat Pat
Cool Breeze "Cre-A-Tine" (I Got People)
Mac Mall "Pussy Whipped"
Missy Elliott "Hot Boyz"
Nelly "Country Grammar (Hot Shit)"
DMX "What These Bitches Want" feat. Sisqo
Nas "NY State Of Mind, Pt. II"
Gang Starr "All 4 Tha $"
Thirstin Howl III "Brooklyn Hard Rock" feat. Unique London
Eminem "My Name Is"
Dr. Dre "XXPlosive" feat. Devin The Dude & Nate Dogg
Jay-Z "Snoopy Track" feat. Juvenile
Black Rob "Whoa"
Common "1-9-9-9" feat. Sadat X & Talib Kweli
Common "Car Horn"
Method Man "Break Ups 2 Make Ups" feat. D'Angelo
Quasimoto "Microphone Mathematics"
Goodie Mob "Chain Swang"
Mos Def "Ms. Fat Booty"
Choclair "Flagrant"
Noreaga "Cocaine Business (Hysteria)" feat. Kelis
Rahzel "All I Know"
Geto Boys "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster"
E-40 "Earl, That's Your Life"
Eve "Gotta Man"
C-Murder "Down For My Niggas" feat. Snoop Dogg
Juvenile "Ha" (Remix feat. Jay-Z)
Eminem "Guilty Conscience" feat. Dr. Dre
Pharoahe Monch "Simon Says"
Tear Da Club Up Thugs "Hypnotize Cash Money"
Ja Rule "Holla Holla"
Jay-Z "Girls Best Friend"
Naughty By Nature "Jamboree" feat. Zhané
Common "Dooinit"
The Roots "Act Too... The Love Of My Life" feat. Common
Jay-Z "So Ghetto"
Grand Agent "Mingling (With Mayhem)"
Beanie Sigal "What A Thug About"
Mos Def "Mathematics"
Jurassic 5 "Without A Doubt"
The Beatnuts "Muchachacha"
Snoop Dogg "Bitch Please" feat. Xzibit
Gang Starr "Full Clip"
Nas "Nas Is Like"
Natural Elements "Two Tons"
Q-Tip "Let's Ride"
Screwball "F.A.Y.B.A.N."
U-God "Bizarre"
The Roots "You Got Me" (Remix)
Dr. Dre "The Next Episode" feat. Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg
Hobo Junction "Greenlite Monks"
Hot Boys "I Need A Hot Girl" feat. Big Tymers
Tash "Pimpin' Ain't Easy"
GZA "Breaker, Breaker"
50 Cent "How To Rob An Industry Nigga"
B.G. "Bling Bling"
Whoridas "Do Or Die" feat. Yukmouth
Dr. Dre "The Watcher"
Phat Kat "Don't Nobody Care About Us"
Slum Village "Get This Money"
Lootpack "Whenimondamic"
MF Doom "Doomsday"
Handsome Boy Modeling School "Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)" feat. DJ Shadow & DJ Quest
Q-Tip "Breathe And Stop"
Mobb Deep "Quiet Storm"
Mobb Deep "Quiet Storm" (Remix feat. Lil' Kim)
Method Man & Redman "Da Rockwilder"
DMX "Party Up"
The Beatnuts "Watch Out Now"
Slick Rick "Street Talkin'" feat. Outkast
Lyrics Born "I Changed My Mind" (Stereo MCs Rattlesnake Remix)
Ol' Dirty Bastard "Got Your Money" feat. Kelis
Prince Paul "More Than You Know" feat. De La Soul
Wu-Tang Clan "Protect Ya Neck (The Jumpoff)"
Redman "Da Goodness" feat. Method Man
Mos Def "Umi Says"
Busta Rhymes "What's It Gonna Be!?" feat. Janet Jackson
Dr. Dre "Forgot About Dre" feat. Eminem
Jay-Z "Big Pimpin'" feat. UGK
Ruff Ryders "Down Bottom" feat. Drag-On
Trick Daddy "Nann Nigga" feat. Trina
dead prez "Hip-Hop"
http://therub.crewcial.org/history/TheRub1998.mp3
DMX - Get At Me Dog
DMX - Ruff Ryder's Anthem
Noreaga - Superthug
Jay-Z - Money, Cash, Hoes (remix)
The Lox ft Lil Kim & DMX - Money, Power, Respect
Cam'ron & DMX - Pull It
Big L - Ebonics
Missin Linx - MIA
Rasheed & Ill Advised - 1.9.8.6.
Cocoa Brovaz ft Raekwon - Black Trump
Busta Rhymes - Rhymes Galore
Juvenile - Ha
Juvenile ft Manny Fresh & Lil Wayne - Back that Azz Up
Jay-Z ft Memphis Bleek - It's Alright
Cam'ron ft Mase - Horse & Carriage
Sporty Thieves - Cheapskate
Redman - I'll Be Dat
The Roots ft Beenie Sigel - Adrenaline
Big Punisher - Beware
Showbiz & AG - Spit
DMX ft The Lox & Mase - Nigga Done Started Something
Cocoa Brovaz ft MOP - Bucktown Remix
MOP - Breaking the Rules
All City - The Actual
Dilated Peoples - Work the Angles
Gangstarr ft Freddie Fox & Big Shug - The Militia
Canibus - Second Round K.O.
The Dead - The Projects
A Tribe Called Quest ft Punch & Words, Jane Doe & Mos Def - Rock Rock Y'all
Medina Green - Crosstown Beef
Slum Village ft Jazzy Jeff - I Don't Know
Pete Rock ft Inspectah Deck & Kurupt - Tru Master
Adam 12 ft Heltah Skelta & Saukrates - Ultimate Rush
Saukrates, Masta Ace & OC - Rollin Remix
Pace Won - I Declare War
Dujeous - Cinematics
Black Star - Definition
Lauryn Hill - Lost Ones
Big Pun - Don't Wanna Be A Player pt 2
Tupac - Do For Love
E-40 - I Hope I Don't Go Back
A Tribe Called Quest - Find A Way
Eminem - Just the Two of Us
Self Scientific - The Return
AZ - Tradin Places
Saukrates - Father Time
Xzibit, Rass Kass & Saafir - 3 Card Molly
Outkast - Return of the Gangster
Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More
Jay-Z ft Jaz-O & Amil - Nigga What Nigga Who
Gangsta Boo - Where Dem Dollas At
Master P f. Fiend, Mia X, Mystikal & Silkk The Shocker - Make Em Say Uhh!
Mystikal f. Silkk The Shocker - It Ain't My Fault
Devin the Dude - Do What You Wanna
Outkast - Spottieottiedopalicious
http://therub.crewcial.org/history/TheRub1997.mp3
1. The Notorious BIG – Ten Crack Commandments
2. Jay-Z – Face Off feat. Sauce Money
3. Wu-Tang Clan – Triumph feat.CappaDonna
4. CNN – Capone Bone
5. Reflection Eternal – Fortified Live
6. Gang Starr – You Know My Steez
7. M.F. Doom – Dead Bent
8. Master P – Make Em Say Uhh
9. CNN – Closer (Sam Sneed Remix)
10. Laster – Off Balance feat. EDO.G.
11. Natural Elements – Bust Mine
12. Krumb Snatcha – Gettin Closer To God
13. Jay-Z – Imaginary Player
14. Rasco – The Unassisted
15. Royal Flush – Iced Down Medallions
16. DITC – Day One
17. The Beatnuts – Do You Believe?
18. CNN – Calm Down feat. Nas
19. Common – Hungry
20. No I.D. – State To State feat. Common
21. Mobb Deep – Hoodlum feat. Rakim & Big Noyd
22. Outkast – In Due Time feat. Cee Lo
23. Mos Def – Universal Magnetic
24. Wu Tang Clan – The M.G.M
25. EPMD – Never Seen Before
26. Rakim – Guess Who’s Back
27. Mase – 24 Hours To Live feat. The LOX & DMX
28. LL Cool J – 4,3,2,1 feat. Redman, Method Man, Canibus, DMX
29. The Beatnuts – Off The Books feat. Big Pun
30. Tha Alkaholiks – Hip Hop Drunkies feat. Ol Dirty
31. D.J. Pooh – Whoop! Whoop! feat. Kam
32. Master P – Ghetto D
33. KRS-One – Step Into A World (Rapture’s Delight)
34. KRS-One – Step into a World (Bad Boy Remix) feat. Puffy
35. Busta Rhymes – Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See
36. Cocoa Brovaz – Won on Won
37. Redman – Pick It Up (Remix)
|
question of the Bahá’í attitude toward recent advances in medical science which increase the probability of conception in cases of infertility.
"The Bahá’í view is very balanced. While appreciating the value of the new medical techniques which enable previously childless couples to enjoy the blessings of a family, the teachings define such limits as are necessary to preserve the dignity of the individual and the sanctity of marriage.
"… While artificial insemination is a very different process from in-vitro fertilization, the principle enunciated by the Guardian is the same, namely, that to be acceptable to Bahá’ís the egg cell of the wife should be fertilized by the sperm of the husband in the procedure.
"The spiritual and social implications involved in the use of surrogate mothers to provide for the gestation of the embryo, even when the embryo results from the fertilization of the husband's sperm and the wife's egg cell which is later implanted into the womb of the third party, are too far-reaching for such a procedure to be permissible to Bahá’ís."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly, October 25, 1984)
*(See also: No. 973)
1169. Individuals Must Decide Hazards of Contraceptive Agents at Present: Permanent Sterilization
"As to birth control methods, the House of Justice does not wish to comment on the effectiveness or possible hazards of present-day contraceptive agents, and leaves it to individuals to decide what course of action they will take in light of the teachings and the best medical advice available…."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, March 4, 1981: From a compilation entitled, Birth Control and Related Subjects, p. 3)
1170. Letter to a Physician Specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology
"Since you are a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, your professional decisions in this field are frequent and difficult ones. In each individual case your physician's judgement and your Bahá’í conscience should guide you to the correct decision whenever permanent sterilization of a patient is contemplated. Of the four categories you have listed, only the first, grave sickness of the mother, clearly falls within Bahá’í permissibility. In the second category, only grave genetic defects, but obviously not all genetic defects could be considered to be valid cause for intervention. As for lack of social and financial means, and anticipation of supernumerary children where individual maternal request is decisive, neither can be acceptable as reasons for permanent sterilization.
"What can now be considered to be a form of family fertility control for some patients are those methods of intervention which are reversible and therefore do not necessarily bring about permanent sterility. Where such methods have been employed, the wish by patients to have additional children, for whatever reason, can be realized through a corrective operation."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, April 18, 1982: Ibid.)Theresa May’s education policy in question as north London school says it cannot expand due to financial pressures
Theresa May’s plans to revive grammar schools risk being undermined by government cuts in education funding, after one leading selective school said it was is unable to expand and had asked parents for donations to meet looming deficits.
Parents of pupils at Latymer school, a popular grammar school in Enfield, north London, have been warned that unrelenting financial pressures may mean staff cuts, larger class sizes and fewer subjects for pupils to study at GCSE and A-level.
Latymer’s leadership invited parents to a meeting last week to discuss the school’s “very significant financial shortfall”, with parents urged to make regular donations.
“We are now appealing to all parents and carers of current students to support the school either by making a new or increasing an existing voluntary regular donation,” parents were told in a letter from the school’s headteacher and chair of governors.
Justine Greening indicates ban on grammar schools will be lifted Read more
“Typically the amount you would pledge would be £30-£50 per month (£360-600 per annum) over the period your child attends Latymer. This averages out at between £1.89 and £3.15 per school day and is considerably less than the average fees of an independent school.”
The financial plight of even successful schools such as Latymer, one of the most over-subscribed in London, suggests grammar schools are looking to retrench rather than expand, as is widely believed by supporters of selective schools.
Founded in 1624 by a city merchant, Latymer is highly sought-after for its excellent exam results and is rated outstanding by Ofsted. But its headteacher, Maureen Cobbett, said grammar schools such as Latymer were subject to the same budget pressures as other state schools.
“We’ve appealed to parents for any support they can give us, and like many other grammar schools we’re appealing to alumni as well, to see if they can offer us any support,” Cobbett said.
The school has been asking parents for voluntary donations for 20 years, and in the past has used the donations to fund new sports facilities and school refurbishment.
“The difference is that we’re saying there’s more urgency this year, because of all the cuts that have affected the school,” Cobbett said.
Expanding the school – suggested by some as a way of increasing the school’s income, and envisaged by the government’s recent green paper as a means of meeting demand for selective schools – isn’t an option.
“If you expand the number of pupils you need more teachers, so it works both ways. We would have considered it, working with the London borough of Enfield, but we are aware that if we expand we would need more buildings, and I don’t think there is any money in Enfield to fund buildings for us,” Cobbett said.
“It’s not always as straightforward as people think – you need more more staff, you need more teachers, you’ve got to pay staff more if they are in charge of a faculty because they have got more work to do.”
Cobbett said that although funding and the government’s efforts to expand grammar schools were “clearly” different, it was funding that was the most pressing issue. “If you ask any headteacher what is concerning them most at the moment, they will say funding for schools and their financial position.
“It’s quite a depressing position to be in for most headteachers – they are facing funding being slashed and yet they are being asked to make standards rise. I don’t see how the two go together,” Cobbett said.
While the government pledged to protect the schools budget from cuts before the last election, increased staffing costs and cuts in funding for 16- to 19-year-olds have seen school budgets shrink in real terms, with little relief in sight other than cost cutting.
With few students eligible for additional funding through the pupil premium top-up or special needs allowances, grammar schools are facing tighter margins than many comprehensive schools.
My school’s broad social mix benefited all pupils. I’m glad it wasn’t a grammar | Poppy Noor Read more
“The government has claimed that education budgets have stood still – but clearly they haven’t, because of extra costs imposed. They’ve actually gone backwards,” Cobbett said.
“I honestly, hand on heart, can’t see how the government expects state secondary schools – not just grammar schools – to continue to improve standards and to get better results for children, but at the same time impose cuts on our budgets. It just doesn’t make sense. Something’s got to give – and I’m not just talking about Latymer.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We want all schools to have access to the resources they need so that every pupil can reach their full potential. We have protected the schools budget so that, as pupil numbers increase, so will the amount of money for our schools – in 2016-17 that will total over £40bn, the highest on record.
“All schools need to manage their finances to deliver the best education for their pupils and to prevent going into debt.”Terry Pedwell, The Canadian Press
GATINEAU, Que. -- Canada's small Internet service providers are promising "faster speeds, better service, affordable pricing" following a decision by the country's communications regulator that will force the big telecom firms to open their fibre optic networks to competitors.
The new requirement, announced Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, will give independent ISPs access to much higher speed networks.
The move should also foster greater competition in the broadband Internet market, the CRTC said in releasing the decision.
"Large incumbent companies will now have to make their fibre facilities available to their competitors," the regulator said in a statement.
"This measure will ensure that Canadians have more choice for high-speed Internet services."
The big telecom companies, including Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw, have so far made fibre optic services available to about three million homes across the country.
But they have limited smaller ISPs to access of their slower networks, through cable or copper wire connections.
During hearings into Canada's wholesale wireline services conducted last fall, the big players warned that allowing competitors access to their fibre optic networks would deter investments in equipment needed to deliver better service and faster speeds to Canadian homes and businesses.
But smaller ISPs dismissed the warning, accusing the big players of shutting them out of fibre networks in order to protect their market share.
The new rules "will have a profoundly positive impact on Canadian consumers, competition, and competitors," said William Sandiford, president of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium, which represents 37 telecommunications services providers across the country.
The CRTC is also moving to a so-called disaggregated model of providing high speed access, which will require smaller ISPs to invest in equipment to access networks in different locations.
"We also are telling those competitors that they're going to have to invest in the transport infrastructure," said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
"Because the commission wants to encourage facilities-based competition."
Officials say those investments could actually reduce costs for independent ISPs, which currently access the larger networks through trunk locations.
The changes are to be phased in, starting in Ontario and Quebec.
There are more than 500 independent ISPs operating in Canada, under names including Distributel, Teksavvy and Primus.
Currently, the big telcos are mandated to offer competitors access to their networks on an "aggregated" basis, which gives them access through just one location in each province.
Moving to disaggregated means independent ISPs can access broadband networks locally, through multiple interfaces, and will have the option of building their own provincial networks, or paying to piggyback on other providers.
Small players can then branch out and provide other services, such as home phone services, rather than only Internet. The CRTC is predicting that will lead to more stability within the independent ISP marketplace.
One of the bigger independent ISPs, Distributel Communications, lauded the decision.
"Fibre infrastructure is essential because it accommodates the anticipated bandwidth needs of Canadian telecom consumers of the future," said company CEO Matt Stein.
"For independents to offer viable, alternative choices to Canadians, they too must have access to that telecom infrastructure."
Distributel has already branched out beyond providing Internet service, to TV, home phone and long distance services in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
The CRTC said it is also maintaining the regulation of pricing for network access, which allows the big firms to recover the cost of providing network access, and to charge a markup that has typically ranged from 30 to 40 per cent, depending on the provider.
The markup for access to fibre optic networks is expected to be determined by late next year.Ok, last of the sandwich series for a while. or maybe not. This brunch Sandwich. Bored of eating the scramble, quiche or Frittata.. put it in a sandwich. Along with baby greens, ketchup or Sriracha, and Hash browns! I say make some and eat it now.
Seahawks didnt make it :(, but hey they played so well all season.. Yeah yeah, I did not watch all the games. but I did watch ll the last quarters of almost all of them..You cant run away from a yelling and jumping husband a few feet away, and the firecrackers and yells from the people in downtown. The 12th man! It gets to you..:) So who are we rooting for.. I think the 49ers.. Whoever hubbs decides 😉 And most likely we will be munching on some burgers and baked fries.. If you havent decided on a menu yet.. scroll down for a few last minute easy options:)
The Frittata is Soy-free with Mushrooms, rainbow chard and Almond Feta. The buns in the pictures are made from my Everyday Wheat Sandwich Bread dough, or use these onion bagels or english muffins! Topped with a layer or 2 or more Hashbrowns and some Ketchup or hot sauce. Its Brunch in a burger.
This Sandwich can be made glutenfree with glutenfree buns.
Question of the day.. how do you eat this tower of deliciousness.
Method:
Remember this Soy free Mushroom Chard Almond Feta Frittata. Make some and cut it to the size of the bread roll. Or use your fave frittata recipe.
Layer some greens or lettuce, Frittata slice and Tomato slices or veggies, mayo or mustard and ketchup.
For Hash browns, this is how I make mine.
Grate a Russet potato in a bowl. Add water and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Press and squeeze to remove moisture. Use paper towels if needed.
In a large non stick pan, add just enough oil to coat. Heat for a minute and swirl to coat.
Press the grated russet onto the pan.
Let it cook for 6-8 minutes on medium heat or until the edges are brown. Longer for crispier hash brown.
Sprinkle some salt, pepper/chili powder and flip it. (You can sprinkle it later before serving as well. )
Cook for another 5-6 minutes..
Break a portion to fit the roll. or fold up into as many layers.
Top with Tomato slices.
Pour ketchup or Sriracha or other sauce and Serve.
It looks tall but those are slider buns.. so probably a 3.5 to 4 inch.
More Ideas for Game Day!!
Burgers.. Sweet Potato Adzuki Bean, Roasted Butternut Squash, Chickpea Tempeh Fritter burger, Beet Chickpea Burger and more.
Pizzas and more Pizzas.. Collection on the Facebook Page
more than 20 options:), Glutenfree options too.
Or posts with Pizza label.
Stuffed or plain Pretzels
Baked Potato Fries. GF
Fried Apple Fries. GF
MY LATEST VIDEOS
Mung Bean black eyed Pea Stew or Pumpkin Black Eyed Pea Chili – GF
Easy 4 ingredient Almond Oat Dark Chocolate Chunk cookies GF
And some Fudgy Chocolate Bark. There should always be some Chocolate. GF
This round up is being shared at Heathy Vegan Fridays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Allergy Free WednesdaysHELL’S KITCHEN — You’ll be somewhere around 39th Street on the edge of Ninth Avenue when the drinks begin to take hold.
A '70s-themed lounge inspired by “literary libertines” like Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway and George Plimpton is opening its doors at 515 Ninth Ave., near West 39th Street, on Nov. 8, the bar said in a release.
“Bar Gonzo's vibrant interiors are inspired by Me generation nightlife haunts like the Polo Lounge, Old San Juan Hotel and swanky Las Vegas nightclubs,” the release said.
The venue “skillfully marries modern sophistication with retro vibes and revelry,” it added.
The bar’s menu will include raw bar items, meats, and cheese and a signature “Latch Key Kid Pizza” — a “cheeky take on an iconic childhood staple” — as well as cocktails, punches and tiki drinks.
The lounge plans to host live performances ranging “from fire breathers to burlesque performers, famous DJs and everything in between,” its release said.
“From delicious food to decadent cocktails and over-the-top special events and entertainment, Bar Gonzo aims to reignite some of the hedonistic magic of an erstwhile era,” it added.on •
.
The Phantoms are right back at it later this afternoon, as Toronto comes to town to cap off three games in three days.
.
.
Looking Back
In a rematch with the P-Bruins last night–and the second half of a home-and-home–the Phantoms took care of business and got their first home win. A nice night in goal for young Stoli and a 3-1 win following an empty-netter in front of 8,220. The pre-season games and the opening night game seem so long gone now. The season is really underway.
Goulebourne and Straka had the first two goals, while Palushaj added the EN. Goully finished the night as the top star of the game as he came up an assist short of a Gordie Howe hat trick. His fight was something to behold: 1 punch TKO!
Team Report
The Phantoms are now 1-1 at home and 1-2 on the road for a 2-5-0 overall record and 4 points. Not nearly good enough to be near the top of the standings, but we’ve got to start stacking those wins sometime–and last night was as good a time as any. Hopefully we can add two more points today.
Player Report
We were the first in the Lehigh Valley to tell you yesterday that wing-man Evan Rankin would be joining the Phantoms on loan from ECHL Toledo, and he’s officially a “PTO” now, and played in last night’s game. He has 142 games of AHL time over the past three years, and 45 goals in those games. He doesn’t qualify as a “veteran” under AHL rules, so this move allows the Phantoms to dress 12 forwards along with forward Jay Rosehill and defenseman Andrew MacDonald, while David Drewiske qualifies at the “tweener” exemption. Rankin is a Notre Dame alum.
G Jason LaBarbera was called to Philly late yesterday morning to back up Mason in the Flyers’ net for their game versus the Rangers last night. Ouellette was added from Reading to back up Stolie in Allentown.
Points Leaders
Conner 6
Cousins 6
Straka 5
Plus/Minus and Penalty Minutes
Conner +5
Cousins +4
Straka +4
—
Goulebourne -3
Padakin -3
—
Morin 10 PIM
Straka 7 PIM
Goalie Report
LaBarbera 0-3, 4.67 GAA
Stolarz 2-0, 1.0 GAA
Ouellette —-
Lines
23 Leier – 37 Brent – 16 Palushaj
24 Straka – 25 Cousins – 22 Conner
38 Rosehill – 17 Goumas – 19 Alderson
12 Goulbourne – 27 Padakin – 10 Rankin
14 Gostisbehere – 47 MacDonald
5 Drewiske – 2 Alt
8 Pettersson – 3 Morin
41 Stolarz
**Lashoff was the “veteran scratch” as the Phantoms must abide by AHL experience rules.
Royal Report
Reading opened up their home slate last night at the Santander with a 7-2 loss. It wasn’t the best showing for the Royals, and perhaps it’s catching up with them having lost the players who were added to the Phantoms. Nevertheless, they’re 2-2 and tied for second place in their division. They’re off today, but will be home on Wednesday for Elmira
I expect to have news this week on how you can get discounted tickets for the Royals game on Friday, November 20. Stay tuned.
Game Day!
Opponent: It’s the Toronto Marlies–AHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’re ending a 3-in-3 as well, coming to town from Binghamton, where they got spanked by the Senators 5-1. The “Marlies” name comes from the former Toronto Marlboro’s which was in tern named for the Toronto Marlborough Athletic Club.
They’re 4-2 and a talented group, featuring young talent Kasperi Kapanen, who scored his first ever professional goal at the PPL Center when he came up with the Pens last season. He was involved in an off-season trade (Phil Kessel) between Pittsburgh and Toronto. Centerman William Nylander 62 is their top point scorer, while winger Richard Clune 17 leads the team in penalty minutes. It’s a cross-division match-up so we don’t have a full write-up, but may have some additional pre-game analysis up later today. Check back prior to the game to learn more.
Puck Drop: 5:00PM
Doors: 4:00PM (only an hour this time, but makes sense with the late afternoon start)
Tickets: Tickets are going fast–I would advise purchasing tickets before driving downtown for the game.
Parking: Remember, Allentown Parking Authority does not monitor the meters or lots on Sundays–take advantage if you can find a meter or if you’re parking in a lot before they’re collecting the event parking. As of Saturday afternoon, pre-purchase parking is still available in the arena “Linden” garage.
Broadcast: TV-2 as per usual for video–along with AHL Live if you have the home package. Radio will be on 790-AM today as the Steelers game will be on 1470. On the web at 790WAEB.com. In the arena use 89.9-FM.
Promotion: Free replica jersey to the first 2,500 kiddos 14 and under. Last season Kram3 and I showed up after the game had started and we were still able to get one. However, get there early if your kids really must have one.
Pre-game: Last time we had a Sunday–during the preseason–we went up around 3PM and easily got seats in Chickie’s where we could watch the football games and take advantage of their football-day drink specials and so on. Today, we’re planning to go out to get a bite post-game. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Last night we grabbed burgers and brews at Bell Hall before the game. They were hoppin–and they’ll need to put in more, larger tables for some bigger groups–but it was really good. They have more than just burgers: there were dinners and salads and appetizers–it was a full menu. They feature craft beers on rotating taps, but also had the standard varieties, a wine list, and a nice selection of liquors as well. Prices were fair–and less than the higher end Hamilton, Dime or Shula’s. All burgers come with fries–regular or sweet potato–automatically. Service was a bit slow, but I imagine they’ll do better once they get used to the hockey night crowds. One more thing: They’re closed on Sunday. It makes sense, except they might want to make exceptions for “event” nights when there are 8,000-some people downtown looking for a bite to eat.
Radio pre-game starts at 4:20PM, while the TV-pregame live from Chickie’s and Pete’s, goes on the air at 4:30PM.
What To Watch
Watch to see who gets the start in goal, with LaBarbera up with Philly and Ouellette promoted from Reading. Stolie on the quick turnaround, or give Marty a shot? FWIW, Ouellette did have some good games last season in the Allentown barn, but I’d absolutely like to see Stoli in there if he’s up to the quick turn-around for today’s 5PM game.
With Toronto in town we’ll enjoy a rendition of “O Canada” prior to the game. Please be respectful–and remember that many, many of the players on the ice are Canadian–perhaps more than from any other country. Wednesday and Friday will also have “O Canada” as the St Johns Ice Caps will be in town for two tilts.
Watch to see how the Phantoms match up against a quality opponent. Syracuse was that, on opening night, but I’d like to see if we look a little better than that.
Watch to see how the Phantoms do setting up their offensive attack. I thought they did fine breaking out of the defensive zone and through the neutral zone, but sometimes got tripped up at the opponent’s blue line. Sometimes this is a function of what the opposing defense is doing, I know, but something to watch.
Continue to observe the power play. We were able to get a goal last night, but the high-risk, high-reward “umbrella” scheme has it’s drawbacks. The point-guy on the blue line has to move his skates is one. The Marlies are a team not afraid to take penalties, so there should be some opportunities.
Watch that penalty kill. They did a good job last night keeping the Providence PP off the scoreboard, but have been one of the weaker units of late.
I still say it’s time for Ghost to get a goal…
Watch out for kiddos running around on the concourse. I was one who pushed for more Sunday afternoon games–I thought it would be good to cut down on the Wednesdays and good for attendance. It’s also a nice option for families. It’s really difficult to take a whole family to an NHL game–so this is the way new hockey fans will be formed. I hope it works out.
Watch to see how the restaurants do after the game. They certainly get their fair share of business prior to hockey games (and events), but this early start–I don’t think I’ll be the only one going out to dinner following the game, and several places are closed Sunday. Check the restaurant schedules before you head out after the game.
Watch to see who gets the “veteran scratch” tonight. It could be a break for AMac or perhaps Lashoff again. Rosehill’s had it a couple times. Maybe they’ll give one of the forwards the afternoon off.
Watch again to see which sweaters they sport. Last night they wore the “home whites” for the first time this season. Will they go orange? Or are we saving that for Fridays like last season? What happened to those pre-season jerseys? Will they auction them off soon? Just something to watch…
Looking Ahead
No buses in sight, as the Phantoms remain home to face the Ice Caps Wednesday and Friday at the PPL Center. Wednesday will be “Pink in the Rink” night–but I’ve been told that the ice will NOT be colored pink for the night. No matter, important to raise awareness, regardless. Friday will be “Cap Night” sponsored by Service Electric and honoring John Walson Jr. I’m told the caps will be of particularly high quality and sharp design.
What I haven’t been told yet is when the doors will open on Wednesday (perhaps not necessary to open up early on a week day?) and if the Coors Light “happy hour” will be in effect. I’ll let you know what I find out–expect a “Hockey Night” post every single game day.
See you at the arena,
@Kram209
Like this: Like Loading...
Categories: Kram's Korner - From the Club Level, Phantoms Hockey1 Halo
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and District 9 solidified two directors as that we, as an internet, video game nerd community, would never doubt. Once Peter Jackson or the extremely talented guy he rightfully took under his wing, Neil Blomkamp, are announced to be working on any project, one loud, wet, projectile nerdgasm can be felt throughout the entire planet. It's sticky, but most people don't mind it.
So, when it was announced that not only would Peter Jackson be producing a movie of what was the largest, best-selling video game franchise in the world (at the time), and that Neil Blomkamp, director of upcoming movie District 9 (at the time), which even in trailers and even just the short itself, looked amazing, were going to be working on the Halo movie together, and that WETA would be doing the effects, it seemed perfect. Neil Blomkamp would have directed. It could have looked SO MUCH like this trailer.
If this were the trailer for the real film, I would be okay with everything but the CGI
Like Starship Troopers meets Saving Private Ryan meets Aliens. Awesome.
I mean, there's a huge political/religious backstory to the franchise itself. It's spawned some really successful book series, as well as an expanded universe that starts to delve into Star Wars level depth. This would be the video game movie to change video game movies. This could, along with one or two other choices on this list, be the Video Game Movie genre's Dark Knight.
A movie that wins something other than effects nominations at The Oscars and shows people that not only can you do a great video game movie, but you can do an amazing one that really just transfers perfectly into the sci-fi genre. Treated correctly, this movie could be like the best parts of J.J Abrams's Star Trek mixed with the explicit war scenes from District 9.
So What Happened?
In 2009, as E3 was coming up, it was announced that the project really just fell through, mysteriously, just as some great anticipated projects often due. Be it creative differences or scheduling, or what have you, this was by far the greatest potential video game movie that was never made, but almost was.
Even the plotline feels solid.
IMDB Plotline: After fleeing from the destroyed planet Reach the last surviving human ship, The Pillar of Autumn, finds an ancient ringworld, Halo, in unknown space. A navy captain, his surviving marines, the ships A.I and the last Spartan-II must fight The Covenant, a collective group of alien races determined on humanity's extinction, for control of the ringworld. However, The Covenant may not be the worst enemy on Halo.
"That Halo project is no longer happening" Peter Jackson said, while everyone else tried to ignore the fact that New Zealand reminded everyone too much of Flight of the Conchords in 2009, "it... collapsed when the movie didn't end up happening..." which is a lot like saying that "it just didn't happen."
Then we got the cheap-stripclub-tease of Guillermo Del Toro being on board with the project, or at least expressing interest in it until that fell through completely. Because when Peter Jackson doesn't want to do something, Guillermo Del Toro gets the next spot in line in the rumor mill until it doesn't happen after a year of hype, then reality happens (The Hobbit, anyone? The fact that we're actually getting Jackson after all seems like a miracle).
And as of right now, the movie is currently in talks to have a script by Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, is good friends with Danny Boyle) with some help from Game of Thrones writer D.B Weiss. So yes, this can still be pretty damn epic, it'll just be a little more of a crapshoot for any excited geeks.
Given the amazing live-action trailers we've gotten for the games, this movie could be absolutely amazing. If they were filmed at all in the style of the game trailers, this would be one of the greatest movies of all time.
Hell, at this point, I'd even settle for the Bollywood version:This is post 1 of 2 in the series “The Creation of a Christian Culture” The Creation of a Christian Culture The Creation of a Christian Culture, Part 2 Nicholas Kotar shows us how liturgical art and traditional forms can inspire the creation of para-liturgical and secular works of art.
“Christianity has a great calling, which many do not ever realize. This purpose can be defined as the creation of a Christian culture.” – Ivan Ilyin
Of all the great callings that Christians are reminded of on a daily basis, the creation of culture is not among the most mentioned. I would even hazard a guess that many Orthodox would find Ilyin’s quote mildly frightening, even smacking of some ancient, unpronounceable heresy. And indeed, those arts that we associate as obviously (and safely) Orthodox, such as iconography, sacred chant, church architecture and the like, seem to exist for many in a sort of bubble safely out of the reach of those who might defile them.
But what if Ilyin was right? What if creating culture was a part of our duty to witness to Christ? Where would the liturgical arts fit? Is there some way that they could be integrated into an Orthodox expression within secular culture, grounded in liturgical Tradition? Is it just a meaningless paradox to suggest that two such obvious opposites as the sacred and the profane are able to coexist in the same space without one destroying the other?
Paradox
Comfort with paradox, or even more than that – relishing paradox – is very typical of us Orthodox. Paradox appears constantly in our hymnography, in the writings of the Church Fathers, in some of our best sermons. It is also particularly inexplicable to a rationalist Western mind. You can almost hear the inevitable questions: Isn’t it better to avoid those things that the mind can’t possibly absorb? At least try to explain it in a way that normal reasoning adults can accept. But why do you insist on the paradox, as if the paradox itself were somehow instrumental?
But of course the paradox is instrumental. Orthodox experience of the divine never stresses the rational mind, noting its particular clumsiness when faced with the eternal, limitless, and omnipotent. So, rather than trying to reconcile the illimitable with the limited mind, paradox has the propensity to shatter the limits and boundaries that the mind likes to impose for its own benefit. And in that moment when the mind, trying to contemplate the unthinkable, just stops working, the mystery comes rushing in and the whole person can exist in the presence of his Creator.
This “strange and most glorious” reality is obvious even to non-Orthodox when they enter an Orthodox temple. Immediately something is different. One way to describe this would be to say that “time stops”. The destruction of time, the encroachment of the eternal into the temporal is absolutely necessary for anyone to actually hear God’s “still, small voice.” (1 Kings 19:12) Orthodox liturgical tradition, in its purest form, is uniquely suited for this destruction of time, this rushing in of mystery.
Familiarity
Getting anyone, even some Orthodox, actually into the church building can be a Herculean effort. And no wonder. Why wouldn’t the devil use every means possible to prevent God’s beloved from crossing the threshold of eternity? This begs the following question: Is there any way of infusing liturgical art into a secular space, so that people can still encounter God?
There is the very real problem of familiarity – the ability of a liturgical art form to conquer time outside of its natural setting is limited by the mind’s constant “normalization” of its surroundings. David Brook’s recent book The Social Animal draws on a wealth of research to confirm what everyone already knew – familiarity breeds contempt. Outside the sacred space, the rational mind has the upper hand, and the sense of eternity, the sense of mystery is easily dissipated. I notice it in myself when I can no longer listen to a particular CD of sacred music because it’s become boring.
If we Orthodox are to be true to our missionary calling, this is a problem that must be grappled with constantly. Some would say that all liturgical art must therefore be limited to the sacred space – no icons should ever be displayed in museums, concerts of sacred music should only be held in churches. And they may be right. But once again the very-Orthodox Russian émigré philosopher Ivan Ilyin would strongly disagree:
“The good news of the Gospel does not consist in the fact that heavens and the earth are opposed to each other or severed from each other because of sin. Rather, it is that the heavens have already come down to earth in the person of the God-Man… that the possibility and reality of a meaningful “taking on” and transfiguration of the world exists. The Gospel brings to the world not a curse, but a promise, and to humanity not death, but salvation and joy.”
Ilyin’s central point – that there cannot be a conscious estrangement between the Church and the world – is yet another paradox. How, if the world tends to make the sacred normal, even banal, can we transfigure the secular by infusion with the sacred? What role would the liturgical arts play in this mystery? Ilyin begins to address the glorious paradox:
“[The Gospel] teaches not flight from the world, but the Christianization of the world. Thus, the sciences, the arts, politics, and the social order can all be those spiritual hands, with which the Christian takes the world. And the calling of a Christian is not to chop off those hands, but to imbue their work and toil with the living spirit of Christ. Christianity has a great calling, which many do not ever realize. This purpose can be defined as the creation of a Christian culture.”
Of course Ilyin doesn’t give his readers the “how”, leaving it to us to figure out.
Conquering Time
A few years ago, a small group of Orthodox artists and writers in San Franciscodecided they would stop endlessly discussing this problem, and actually try to do something about it. Admittedly brazen, we call ourselves “Conquering Time.” Our purpose was the creation of some sort of artistic form – a play, a concert, a book, a painting – that would allow the audience to have a “point of intersection of the timeless with time.” (T.S. Eliot)
The trick was to find a way to use the liturgical arts within a secular context. But again, the problem of familiarity and contempt presented itself. We needed an art form that would in itself serve to accentuate the “time-destroying” qualities of liturgical art. Drawing heavily on Tolkien’s ideas of sub-creation from his essay “On Fairy Stories”, we decided to try our hand at storytelling. Four of us wrote an original fairy tale, in poetry and prose, based on Russian and North European models, called “The Gift”. We also chose ten hymns from the Christmas cycle, some of which were recent compositions, and interspersed them within the story. Thus, they could stand alone as pieces of sacred music, but they also were intended to provide a commentary on the story – quite literally a “chorus”.
The story itself followed the journey of three sisters who set out from their home to find |
"Mac Daddy" and "Beau Mac" the same person? If not, do you have to refer to them by their full names at all times, Guy? Isn't that annoying? And don't they constantly mishear you and think you're talking to the other one. This seems like a terrible use of nicknames, Guy. They should make your life easier, if anything. Anyway, the food sounds appropriately disgusting.Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, has a birthday today. So how much do you really know about Lincoln, the man?
Emancipation_proclamation More
We’ve gone through the tons of research available about Abraham (don’t call me Abe) Lincoln, so you can impress your friends and family with your Lincoln knowledge.
Here are our top 10 Lincoln facts, followed by 40 other pieces of trivia that you can research on your own.
Top 10 Abraham Lincoln facts
1. He was the only president to have a patent: Lincoln invented a device to free steamboats that ran aground.
2. He practiced law without a degree. Lincoln had about 18 months of formal schooling.
3. He wanted women to have the vote in 1836. The future president was a suffragette before it became fashionable.
4. He was a big animal lover, but he wouldn’t hunt or fish. If he were alive today, Lincoln would be running an animal shelter.
5. He really was a wrestler. Lincoln was documented as taking part in wrestling bouts. We don’t think he wore a mask or had a manager.
6. He lost in his first bid for a presidential ticket. The unknown Lincoln was an unsuccessful vice presidential candidate in 1856 at the Republican convention.
7. He never belonged to an organized church. Lincoln read the Bible daily, but he never joined an organized church in his lifetime.
8. He didn’t drink, smoke, or chew. Lincoln was a simple man of tastes, and he never drank in the White House.
9. He didn’t have a middle name. Lincoln went through his life with two names.
10. He hated being called Abe. Apparently, he preferred being called by his last name.
40 more Lincoln facts
11. Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
12. He was the first president born outside of the 13 original states.
13. Lincoln loved to eat oysters.
14. Lincoln’s cat ate at the White House dinner table.
15. His dog was named Fido.
16. His cat was named Tabby.
17. His favorite food was fruit.
18. He was also a big fan of chicken casserole.
19. Lincoln was the first president to use the telegraph.
20. He used the telegraph like email to communicate with generals.
21. Lincoln’s mother was killed by poisoned milk.
22. Lincoln’s life was saved twice when he was young.
23. Grave robbers were foiled in 1876 when they tried to steal Lincoln’s body.
24. He was the first president with a beard.
25. Lincoln argued a case before the Supreme Court in 1849 and lost.
26. Lincoln failed in his first business.
27. Lincoln’s shoe size was between 12 and 14.
28. His coffin has been opened five times.
29. Lincoln was estranged from his father and didn’t attend his funeral.
30. Lincoln didn’t play musical instruments.
31. Lincoln served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
32. He ran for the U.S. Senate twice and lost.
33. Lincoln won the popular vote in Senate campaign against Douglas but lost the election.
34. Lincoln was shot on Good Friday.
35. Lincoln was photographed with John Wilkes Booth at his second inauguration.
36. There are no direct living descendants of Abraham Lincoln.
37. Booth’s brother saved the life of Lincoln’s son on a New Jersey train platform.
38. Lincoln was part of séances after his son died in the White House.
39. Lincoln’s animals also died in a White House stable fire.
40. Someone shot at Lincoln in 1864 and put a hole in his stovepipe hat.
41. Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated.
42. He was a judge on the circuit court in Illinois.
43. Lincoln defended the son of his most famous wrestling opponent from murder charges.
44. Lincoln battled depression for much of his life.
45. Lincoln was seemingly obsessed with cats.
46. He was set to take part in a duel, but it was cancelled at the last second.
47. Lincoln kept his important documents inside his hat.
48. Lincoln’s dog Fido was killed by a drunken assailant a year after Lincoln died.
49. Lincoln’s suit was made by Brooks Brothers.
50. Lincoln’s guest at Ford’s Theater was Ulysses S. Grant, who cancelled at the last second.
More Constitution Daily Stories About Lincoln
Myths and mysteries about the Gettysburg Address
How Abraham Lincoln lost his birthday holiday
Did Abraham Lincoln omit God from the Gettysburg Address?
50 interesting facts about Abraham Lincoln’s lifeProfessor Matthew Kaufman MA MB ChB PhD DSc ScD FRCP FRCS FRS Edin, professor of anatomy and stem cell pioneer.
Born: 29 September, 1942, in London. Died: 11 August, 2013, in Edinburgh, aged 70.
prof Matthew Kaufman’s decision to change careers from medicine to academia led to him becoming one of the pioneers whose research paved the way for stem cell therapy.
Along with a colleague, who later received the Nobel prize for medicine, he was the first to culture the embryonic stem cells of mice and cultivate them in a laboratory.
A world authority on mouse embryology, he went on to produce The Atlas of Mouse Development, regarded internationally as the standard textbook on the subject, plus a panoply of other papers and books, many on medical history including anatomy teaching in Edinburgh in the 18th and 19th centuries.
He had begun his career in the Scottish capital, where he qualified in medicine and practised obstetrics for a time, before working on in vitro fertilisation research and later moving permanently into academic life at Cambridge University. When asked why he switched careers he always replied, with a wry smile: “I play with mice and virgin birth.”
Born at London’s Hackney Hospital, to Ben and Dora Kaufman, he attended Westminster City Grammar School before coming north to Edinburgh University in 1960. He qualified in 1967 and spent the next year in Birmingham, in surgery and medicine, before becoming a senior house officer at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital where he met young staff nurse and future wife, Claire – whisking her off on a date in his vast vintage Armstrong Siddeley.
He then returned to Edinburgh, working in obstetrics at the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion for another year before deciding his future lay in academia. Drawn to reproductive biology, he spent a short period as a research associate at the Institute of Animal Genetics at Edinburgh University where he worked on aspects of IVF.
By 1970 he was at Cambridge doing a PhD in physiology. He remained at Cambridge until 1985, apart from two years in Israel, supported by Royal Society and Medical Research Council fellowships, when he worked on parthenogenesis – virgin birth – in mice.
At Cambridge he was a demonstrator, then lecturer, in the university’s anatomy department, becoming a fellow and director of studies in medicine and a fellow and lecturer in anatomy at King’s College.
His friend, Emeritus Professor Jonathan Bard, described him as an extremely skilful embryologist, able to dissect, culture and manipulate mouse embryos at their earliest stages.
In 1981 these skills were to the fore in his collaboration with Dr Martin Evans which provided the methodology for the establishment for the first time of pluripotential stem cells in tissue culture. Initially named EK (Evans-Kaufman) cells, but now known as ES (embryonic stem) cells, this immensely important work laid the foundations for subsequent studies in stem cell biology, chimera formation and cloning.
However, before their longer-term significance was realised, he moved on to his real love, mouse developmental anatomy. Meanwhile Evans explored and developed the use of ES cells, leading to his Nobel prize and Kaufman’s contribution faded into the background.
“The success of mouse ES cell technology naturally led to attempts to obtain human ES cells so that they could be used to repair and replace faulty tissues,” said Prof Bard. “The difficulties in doing this are formidable and reaching the stage where they are available has taken more than a decade but the field is now confident that the basics are now in place for a new generation of therapeutic treatments.
“It is rare that pure research in the lab leads to a single major technological industry. The distinction of the work of Matthew Kaufman and those mouse embryologists in the late 1970s is that it led to two such advances, with the second taking more than 30 years to achieve. It is sad that Kaufman, trained as a doctor, did not live to see the full medical fruits of his early work.”
His subsequent work, though, was also of great significance. After his move to Edinburgh University in 1985, as professor of anatomy and head of department, he collaborated with developmental biologists and computer scientists to prepare 3-D reconstructions of many of the stages of mouse development, illustrated in his Atlas, published in 1992. The book is regarded worldwide by developmental biologists working with mice embryos as the standard reference text on the species.
Kaufman also explored both normal embryonic development and abnormalities that occur when an embryo is subjected to chromosomal disorders and stress factors such as alcohol. In 1988 he won the Evian Health Award for research into the effects of alcohol on embryonic development.
In 2006 he was made an honorary research fellow of leading genetic research facility, the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, USA, receiving an award from the lab for his major contributions to the understanding and teaching of mouse embryology.
During his time at Edinburgh he had also been curator of the university’s anatomy collections and he rediscovered its collection of 18th and 19th century life and death masks, curating important examples to exhibit.
Elected Emeritus Professor of anatomy in 2008, he was said to be incapable of not working and continued to be in demand as an expert on mouse embryology. Over his career had also authored more than 250 papers and at least a dozen books.
Earlier in his professional life he had been president of Edinburgh’s Royal Medical Society and latterly he produced numerous papers and six books on various aspects of medical history.
Topics included surgeons at war, musket ball and sabre injuries, the history of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society, and more recently a biography of Dr John Barclay, extra-mural teacher of Human and Comparative Anatomy in Edinburgh during the late 18th and early 19th century, and the story of pioneering Scots surgeon Robert Liston.
Away from public life, he had been married to Claire since 1973 and continued to indulge his love of vintage cars, including Armstrong Siddeleys and Lagondas. After buying a 1934 Lagonda Rapier – and becoming the father of two sons – he decided to convert the two-seat sports car into a four-seat family tourer.
This enterprise took several years to complete as he used his woodworking skills to steam, bend and shape solid ash into the sweeping lines of an Abbott Tourer body.
Though he habitually wore a black beret, he could regularly be seen in his flying helmet, putting the glorious car through its paces on the Edinburgh bypass. He is survived by Claire, his sons Simon and David and grandchildren Angus and Georgia.From the author of the international mega-bestseller, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, comes another counterintuitive guide to the problems of modern life.
We live in an interesting time. Materially, everything is the best it’s ever been—we are freer, healthier and wealthier than any people in human history. Yet, somehow everything seems to be irreparably and horribly f*cked—the planet is warming, governments are failing, economies are collapsing, and everyone is perpetually offended on Twitter.
At this moment in history, when we have access to technology, education and communication our ancestors couldn’t even dream of, so many of us come back to an overriding feeling of hopelessness.
What’s going on? If anyone can put a name to our current malaise, it’s Mark Manson. In 2016, Manson published The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, a book that brilliantly gave shape to the ever-present, low-level hum of anxiety that permeates modern living. He showed us that technology had made it too easy to care about the wrong things, that our culture had convinced us that the world owed us something when it didn’t—and worst of all, that our modern and maddening urge to always find happiness only served to make us unhappier.
Instead, the “subtle art” of that title turned out to be a bold challenge: to choose your struggle; to narrow and focus and find the pain you want to sustain. The result was a book that became an international phenomenon, selling millions of copies worldwide while becoming the #1 bestseller in 13 different countries.
Now, in Everything Is F*cked, Manson turns his gaze from the inevitable flaws within each individual self to the endless calamities taking place in the world around us. Drawing on mountains of psychological research, as well as the timeless wisdom of philosophers such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Tom Waits, he dissects religion and politics and the uncomfortable ways they have come to resemble one another. He looks at our relationships with money, entertainment and the internet, and how too much of a good thing can psychologically eat us alive. He openly defies our definitions of faith, happiness, freedom, and even of hope itself.
With his usual mix of erudition and where-the-f*ck-did-that-come-from humor, Manson takes us by the collar and challenges us to be more honest with ourselves and connect with the world in ways we haven’t considered before. It’s another counterintuitive romp through the pain in our hearts and the stress of our soul.
“Mark Manson continues to break down questions about human happiness and well-being in creative and unexpected ways. The result is a wonderfully accessible book that tackles some of the deeper questions about where our world is headed, as well as how to take better care of ourselves (and each other) until we get there.”
– Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and Host of The Psychology Podcast
Get Excited Motherfuckers: Here’s How to Pre-Order
You can pre-order Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope from any of the following vendors:
United States
International Retailers
Canada
UK:
Australia
NEW ZEALAND:
You can also get the international English version here.
Come to My Book Tour!
I’m having a book tour! For more information and tickets, go here.
Here’s A Bunch of Really Smart People Saying How Awesome My Book Is
“Mark Manson is a master of thought-provoking and counterintuitive insights. His easy-to-read style will have you turning pages for hours.”
– James Clear, NYTimes Bestselling Author of Atomic Habits
“Just because everything appears to be a mess doesn’t mean you have to be one. Mark Manson’s book is a call to arms for a better life and better world and could not be more needed right now.”
– Ryan Holiday, Bestselling Author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy
“Mark Manson has succeeded in explaining a crazy world to an entire generation by invoking hard science, moral philosophy, and gobs of hilarious wit. This book is guaranteed to make you laugh, question your beliefs, and (hopefully) change your life.”
– Nir Eyal, Bestselling Author of Hooked and Indistractable
“Mark provides an antidote to our era of spiritual malaise with a much-needed tincture of laughter, practical advice and philosophical wisdom. His counterintuitive insight will keep a three-bourbon smile on your face the whole time you’re reading it.”
– Eric Barker, Bestselling Author of Barking Up the Wrong Tree
“While we’re all afraid of the evils in the world, Mark Manson shows us how to avoid the dark side in ourselves. A witty and enlightening book that we all need to read before throwing in the towel.”
– Shane Parrish, Founder of Farnam Street and Host of The Knowledge Project Podcast
How can I interview Mark or book an event with him?
To schedule an interview or book an event with Mark, contact Mark’s team directly through the Contact Page.Yesterday I mentioned that the next IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks list would shortly be released, whereby select hotels are available for just 5,000 points per night.
While the new list only becomes bookable tomorrow (typically the list goes “live” mid-morning Eastern Time), IHG Rewards Club has already released the “preview” list with all the participating properties.
The new IHG Rewards Club’s PointBreaks list is valid for stays through May 31, 2015.
Keep in mind as well that last year IHG Rewards Club updated the terms of PointBreaks bookings, and you can only book two stays per hotel per promotion:
Due to the limited availability, each member may only book two PointBreaks® Reward Nights reservations per hotel during the special offer time period.
The list of properties isn’t especially as exciting (though that has been the case for a couple of years now), but if you’re traveling to these areas I’d definitely recommend planning ahead now, as the more popular ones tend to disappear from the list fairly quickly. The two InterContinental properties on the list are in Phnom Penh and Lhasa.
Redeem just 5,000 IHG points for a night at the InterContinental Phnom Penh
Here’s the full list:
PointBreak hotels in Asia, Middle East, and Africa:
InterContinental Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
Crowne Plaza Chongqing New North Zone (China)
Crowne Plaza Jinan City Center (China)
Crowne Plaza Tianjin Jinnan (China)
Crowne Plaza Xiangyang (China)
Crowne Plaza Zhongshan Wing On City (China)
Holiday Inn Express Nantong Xinghu (China)
Holiday Inn Hangzhou Xiaoshan (China)
InterContinental Lhasa Paradise (China)
Holiday Inn New Delhi Int’l Airport (India)
Crowne Plaza Ube (Japan)
Holiday Inn Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)
PointBreak hotel deals in Europe:
Holiday Inn Tampere (Finland)
Holiday Inn Express Saint – Nazaire (France)
Holiday Inn Express Marseille – Provence Airport (France)
Holiday Inn Fulda (Germany)
Holiday Inn Express Guetersloh (Germany)
Holiday Inn Budapest – Budaörs (Hungary)
Holiday Inn Genoa City (Italy)
Crowne Plaza Vilnius (Lithuania)
Holiday Inn Express Arnhem (Netherlands)
Crowne Plaza Bucharest (Romania)
Holiday Inn Elche (Spain)
Holiday Inn Express Campo de Gibraltar – Barrios (Spain)
Holiday Inn Express Braintree (United Kingdom)
Holiday Inn Cardiff – North M4, Jct.32 (United Kingdom)
Holiday Inn Darlington – A1 Scotch Corner (United Kingdom)
Holiday Inn Express Hamilton (United Kingdom)
PointBreak Hotel Deals in Central and South America
Holiday Inn Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport (Argentina)
Holiday Inn Express Belém Ananindeua (Brazil)
Holiday Inn Fortaleza (Brazil)
Crowne Plaza Suites Tequendama Bogota (Columbia)
Holiday Inn Express Medellin (Columbia)
Crowne Plaza San Jose Corobici (Costa Rica)
Hotel Indigo San Jose Forum Costa Rica
Holiday Inn Guatemala (Ciudad De Guatemala, Guatemala)
Holiday Inn Express Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
PointBreak Hotel Deals in Mexico
Crowne Plaza Tuxtla Gutierrez
Holiday Inn MEXICO COYOACAN
Holiday Inn Express TOLUCA GALERIAS METEPEC
Holiday Inn Express TOLUCA ZONA AEROPUERTO
Staybridge Suites Guadalajara Expo
Holiday Inn Monterrey Norte
Holiday Inn Express Queretaro
Holiday Inn Express GUAYMAS
Holiday Inn Reynosa Zona Dorada
Holiday Inn ORIZABA
PointBreaks Hotels in Canada
Staybridge Suites West Edmonton (Alberta, Canada)
Holiday Inn Express Milton (Ontario, Canada)
PointBreaks Hotels Deals in the United States
Alabama
Holiday Inn Express Dothan North
Candlewood Suites Huntsville – Research Park
Arkansas
Holiday Inn Little Rock-Airport-Conf Ctr
Arizona
Holiday Inn Express Nogales
Holiday Inn Express Page – Lake Powell Area
California
Holiday Inn Express Beaumont – Oak Valley
Holiday Inn Express Calexico
Holiday Inn Express Moreno Valley (Lake Perris)
Staybridge Suites Sacramento Airport Natomas
Colorado
Holiday Inn Express Fraser – Winter Park Area
Holiday Inn Express La Junta
Connecticut
Holiday Inn Express Southington
Florida
Holiday Inn Express Tampa-Anderson Rd/Veterans Exp
Georgia
Holiday Inn Express Commerce-Tanger Outlets
Holiday Inn Express Macon-West
Holiday Inn Express Warner Robins North West
Holiday Inn Express Waycross
Iowa
Holiday Inn Express Clinton
Holiday Inn Express Le Mars
Idaho
Holiday Inn Express Boise-University Area
Illinois
Holiday Inn Express Bloomington West
Candlewood Suites Elgin NW-Chicago
Holiday Inn Express Rochelle
Staybridge Suites Rockford
Indiana
Holiday Inn Express Auburn-Touring Dr
Candlewood Suites Bloomington
Candlewood Suites Indianapolis Airport
Holiday Inn Express Scottsburg
Kentucky
Holiday Inn Express Murray
Holiday Inn Express Pikeville
Louisiana
Holiday Inn Covington
Holiday Inn Morgan City
Holiday Inn Express Scott-Lafayette West
Massachusetts
Candlewood Suites West Springfield
Maryland
Holiday Inn Express North East
Even Hotels Rockville – Washington DC Area
Holiday Inn Express Waldorf
Michigan
Holiday Inn Express Grand Blanc
Minnesota
Holiday Inn Express Mankato East
Missouri
Holiday Inn Express Kirksville
Holiday Inn Express Lebanon
Holiday Inn Express St Louis – Central West End
Mississippi
Holiday Inn Express Greenville
Holiday Inn Express Meridian
Candlewood Suites Tupelo North
Holiday Inn Vicksburg
North Carolina
Holiday Inn Express Conover (Hickory Area)
Holiday Inn Express Laurinburg
Holiday Inn Lumberton North – I-95
Nebraska
Holiday Inn Express Lincoln South
New Hampshire
Crowne Plaza Nashua
New Jersey
Holiday Inn Express Vineland Millville
New Mexico
Holiday Inn Express Silver City
Nevada
Holiday Inn Express Fallon
New York
Holiday Inn Middletown-Goshen
Holiday Inn Express East Greenbush(Albany-Skyline)
Ohio
Holiday Inn Express Bryan-Montpelier
Holiday Inn Express Toledo North
Oklahoma
Holiday Inn Express Bartlesville
Holiday Inn Express McAlester
Candlewood Suites Woodward
Pennsylvania
Holiday Inn Express Drums-Hazleton (I-80)
Holiday Inn Express Frazer-Malvern
Candlewood Suites Harrisburg
Holiday Inn Lansdale
Holiday Inn Express Irwin (Pa Tpk Exit 67)
South Carolina
Candlewood Suites Columbia-Ft. Jackson
Holiday Inn Express Greenwood
Holiday Inn Express Lexington-Hwy 378
South Dakota
Holiday Inn Express Vermillion
Holiday Inn Express Watertown
Tennessee
Holiday Inn Express Athens
Texas
Candlewood Suites Abilene
Holiday Inn Express Carthage
Holiday Inn Express Center
Holiday Inn Express Cleveland
Candlewood Suites Decatur Medical Center
Holiday Inn Express Ennis
Holiday Inn Express Falfurrias
Staybridge Suites Laredo International Airport
Holiday Inn Express Levelland
Holiday Inn Express Lufkin South
Candlewood Suites Mount Pleasant
Holiday Inn Express Fort Worth North – Northlake
Holiday Inn Express San Antonio SE by AT&T Center
Staybridge Suites San Antonio – Stone Oak
Holiday Inn Express Wharton
Utah
Holiday Inn Express Salt Lake City South – Murray
Virginia
Holiday Inn Express Christiansburg
Holiday Inn Petersburg North- Fort Lee
Candlewood Suites Richmond North-Glen Allen
Holiday Inn Norton
Holiday Inn Express Rocky Mount/Smith Mtn Lake
Staybridge Suites Quantico-Stafford
Washington
Holiday Inn Downtown-Everett
Holiday Inn Express Tacoma South – Lakewood
Wisconsin
Holiday Inn Conference Ctr Marshfield
Holiday Inn Wausau-Rothschild
West Virginia
Holiday Inn Express Newell-Chester WV
Wyoming
Candlewood Suites Sheridan
If you’re traveling to these areas I’d definitely recommend planning ahead now, as the more popular ones tend to disappear from the list fairly quickly.
Does anyone see any properties above that interest them?A title given to denote virtual reality. Popularized by people who have spent immense amounts of time in an Oculus Rift headset and were unable to fully communicate the things they had seen and experienced while present in what they consider a different realm.
Recruiter: Why should we hire you for our VR division? Jack: Aye. In my time I have seen many things in the Rift. Things the likes of you, could never imagine... Recruiter: Why are you crying? Jack: I held my virtual daughter in my arms as the light vanished from her eyes. I fought dragons in Russia trying to protect the refugees of a city that's now burnt to the ground. I spent almost two years in isolation in the Rift reading about the ancient tombs of Java Script and Lisp. I'm hoping that this position will help me forget about my past. My time in the Rift. Recruiter: Why am I crying...A Hefeweizen has to be one of the best styles to enjoy on a hot day. A good balance of clove and banana from the German yeast, silky mouth feel, yet still light and thirst quenching. Last summer I had a Hoppy Hefeweizen near the top of my list to brew.
I ordered a pack of Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068 ahead of time as special orders can take some time at my LHBS. I had my recipe written, yeast in hand and was comfortable with my hop choices. I was hoping for varieties that would compliment the German strain, not over power it. I decided on Cascade because of its citrus character, and I find it to be not overly punchy. I also wanted to use Mandarina Bavaria because it has peach and fruit character, and that sounded like it would all mesh well together. Again, I’ve used this hop before and found it to be mild to moderate in intensity.
The grain bill was fairly straight forward, the majority being Pilsner and wheat malt as well as some oats (not a traditional addition). The wheat and oats tend to give the beer moderate to full mouth feel and allows the yeast to push into that silky character. It also helps to contribute to the hazy look the style is so well known for. Finally some acid malt for ph adjustment.
With all of that planned, life happened as it always seems to, and this recipe got pushed back for so long that it was well into the fall before I thought about it again. By then I wasn’t in the mood for the style anymore and I ended up moving onto other styles.
Fast forward to a little while ago. I noticed that pack of 3068 still in my beer fridge. I knew it would take a while to order a new pack and I had always been curious about reviving an old yeast pack. This one was 15 months past the manufactured date. So I decided to start with a small starter (250ml) and build the culture from there. Next I stepped it up to 500ml, 1L, and 2L over a two week period. Each step up resulted in noticeable activity so I knew I had grown something.
Now to be honest, I didn’t do a ton of research into what would happen using an old yeast pack if I was able to get it going. Most of what I read said that the original yeast should be nearly impossible to propagate at this point. So I was happy just to see activity as I built up the culture.
Looking back I definitely should have asked myself and read more into the possible pitfalls of this approach I was taking. I assumed the yeast would be impacted but I had no idea just how much until I tasted the final product. Not only did this beer not taste like a Hefe in the slightest, it didn’t taste good at all. It had a host of off flavours. Ranging from wet cardboard, grassy notes and an odd mouth feel. I let it sit in keg for about two weeks, sampling every few days to see if any of them were starting to subside. I tried, but failed, on every attempt to drink more than a couple of ounces.
Given the fact that the beer was treated properly in every way aside from the yeast, I had to conclude this was the culprit of all the off flavors. I decided to cut my losses and pour this down the drain. It was disheartening to say the least, I’m sure anyone that’s dumped a batch can attest to how that feels.
Recipe Targets: 4 Gallons, OG 1.048, FG 1.011, ABV 4.9%, IBU 24, SRM 3.5
Grain:
0.15 kg Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) 1 4.4 % 1.90 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) 55.2 % 1.00 kg White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) 29.1 % 0.20 kg Oats, Flaked (Briess) (1.4 SRM) 5.8 % 0.19 kg Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) 5.5 %
Hops:
14.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10 min 4.6 IBUs 14.00 g Mandarina Bavaria [8.50 %] - Boil 10 7.1 IBUs 28.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5 min 5.1 IBUs 28.00 g Mandarina Bavaria [8.50 %] - Boil 5 min 7.8 IBUs 28.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0 min 0.0 IBUs 28.00 g Mandarina Bavaria [8.50 %] - Boil 0 min 0.0 IBUs
Extras:
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10 mins)
Yeast:
Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068)
No tasting notes, just what I mentioned earlier. I definitely want to try brewing this style next summer, with a fresh pack of yeast. Until then, this was yet another lesson learned. I do wonder if I had built the culture up a number of times over the winter if it would have behaved the same way. But the cost of DME alone would have out weighed that approach compared to simply ordering a fresh pack.
After this experience I can say without hesitation, use fresh yeast; always. When in doubt, buy a fresh pack, the relatively small cost is easily out weighed by the potential waste of grain and especially hops. Not to mention the hit your pride will take.
AdvertisementsNVIDIA's GTX 1080, not the GTX 1070, is placed on a table with the box behind (Photo : YouTube / Paul's Hardware)
Semiconductor foundry TSMC is reportedly being blamed for all of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 supply issues which leads to most retail and online stores still out of stock for the Pascal cards.
NVIDIA has initially launched the GTX 1080 on May 27 and the GTX 1070 on June 10 but stocks are still scarce until now even for the Founders Edition cards that were initially rolled out. As of this writing, simply checking the nowinstock pages for both the cards show almost all models and stores out of stock.
Advertisement
Retail outlets have been receiving less than 10 units of the cards which poses a problem for those who are looking to buy them in populated areas. Amazon and Newegg seem to have more stocks but they are quickly sold out in just minutes.
The problem is now being traced back to the supply end. TSMC is reportedly having trouble producing the 16nm FinFET chips that power the Pascal GPUs in the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, Mobipicker has learned. Coupled with the high demand from the public, the lack of supply does really pose a conundrum for those who have not bought the cards yet.
There are also those who would like to buy two GTX 1080 cards for an SLI setup using the HB SLI bridge from NVIDIA. Some reports have shown that the SLI setup provides over 100 frames per second running on 4K resolution.
Due to the problems in the supply, some retailers and scalpers are already gouging the prices for the Pascal cards. One EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 was even priced at $2000 on Amazon, TechFrag reported.
For many, the GTX 1070 is the sweet spot even for 1440p gaming. The hundred-dollar difference in the price tag is a huge benefit for budget-conscious PC gamers considering that the GTX 1070 still outperforms the GTX 980 and can even be on par with the $1000 GTX Titan.
TSMC and NVIDIA has not yet commented on the supply issue but the serious lack in stocks is really concerning some gamers. AMD seems to be avoiding the problem altogether as they plan to launch the RX 480 with an ample supply to accommodate everyone.
There are still some GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards in stock from other sites but they are either the Founders Edition cards or overpriced above the MSRP of $699. Some stocks also come and go on Amazon and Newegg.The University of Lincoln Students’ Union has become the first to break away from the National Union of Students following the election of Malia Bouattia (pictured) as national president.
ULSU president Hayley Jayne Wilkinson said that she “no longer felt confident that the NUS represented the views of our students” in the wake of a referendum in which 881 of the 1,734 voters backed disaffiliation, and 804 supported continued membership.
Ms Bouattia’s victory over serving president Megan Dunn represented a significant step to the left for the NUS, and there are campaigns to disaffiliate under way at a number of other institutions, with students at Newcastle University and the University of Exeter due to vote in referendums this week.
Ms Bouattia faced allegations of anti-Semitism during her election campaign – something that she vehemently denied – and her support for controversial advocacy group Cage has also drawn criticism.
Following the referendum, the ULSU will disaffiliate from the NUS on 31 December.
“For ULSU, our priority is our members and what they tell us matters to them in today’s rapidly changing higher education environment,” Ms Wilkinson said. “Put simply, this debate has been about what students want from the organisation that represents them nationally, and for some time, we have felt that the focus of debate within the NUS has been far removed from the issues that our students tell us are important to them every day on campus.”
Ms Dunn said that she was “disappointed” by the ULSU decision, particularly as it was based on such a narrow victory margin in a referendum that attracted the participation of 13 per cent of Lincoln students.
She said that while the ULSU would save £31,831 in affiliation fees, it would lose £153,024 with no NUS funds being reinvested in the union, prices going up on campus as a result of the loss of shared purchasing, and students losing their NUS Extra cards.
“Our door will always be open to Lincoln students’ union should students wish to affiliate again,” Ms Dunn said. “Now, more than ever, students need and deserve a strong, united movement to ensure we continue to work to get the best deal for students.”
chris.havergal@tesglobal.comManuel M T Chakravarty |
Haskell is an awesome language, but we need to remember that it is not very useful in isolation. In almost any realistic application, Haskell has to coexist with other languages, even if only to call existing C libraries or to make use of operating system services. In actual practice, the more easily we can fit Haskell into existing ecosystems, the more application domains we can unlock.
Beyond bridging
The core of Haskell’s ability to interoperate, the ForeignFunctionInterface language extension, has been available and stable for a long time. However, for all but the simplest interoperability requirements, it tends to be tedious to use. So we have tools such as hsc2hs and c2hs to automate some of the work of declaring foreign entities and writing marshalling code. This does not just save work, it also prevents many common mistakes.
Over time, we realised that this is not sufficient either. Tools like hsc2hs and c2hs are typically used to implement, what I like to call, bridging libraries. These libraries wrap the API of a foreign library in Haskell, usually by exposing a Haskell API that is close to the original and, occasionally, by providing a more functional, more high-level API. This works fine up to a certain API size. After that — just think about the API surface needed to write Android, iOS, macOS, or Windows apps — the overhead of bridging libraries tends to weigh down and break that bridge:
The initial implementation is a huge undertaking, which few people, or institutions, are willing to embark on.
API evolution of the foreign library creates a significant ongoing maintenance burden. Even worse, typically, multiple versions need to be supported simultaneously.
Documentation becomes a major headache. It is infeasible to transliterate all of the original documentation, but referring Haskell users to the original requires to exactly mirror that original API and demands an understanding of the bridging conventions by the library user.
Even just the overhead of linking all the bridging code starts to be an issue for large APIs.
Inline foreign code in Haskell sidesteps these issues. The effort to implement an inline library for a foreign language is fixed and supports an arbitrary number of foreign language libraries of arbitrary size without any further overhead. Documentation is naturally just the original and marshalling overhead is in proportion to its use in any single application. Admittedly, a user now needs to know both Haskell and the foreign language, but, given the documentation issue, that was always the case for large APIs.
I have illustrated this in a talk at the 2014 Haskell Symposium, where I introduced language-c-inline to use Objective-C code inline in Haskell to code against macOS APIs. |
500,000 $6,500,000
Labor, health, education Funding for research comparing effectiveness of treatments funded by Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP. $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $0
Labor, health, education Money to help low-income families pay for home heating and cooling. $1,000,000 $0 -$1,000,000
Labor, health, education Money for extra child care services for low-income families. $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $0
Labor, health, education Grants to state social services and non-profits serving low-income and unemployed people suffering from the recession $0 $400,000 $400,000
Labor, health, education Extra money for Head Start programs for low-income pre-schoolers, infants and toddlers. $2,100,000 $1,050,000 -$1,050,000
Labor, health, education Grants to faith-based and community organizations $100,000 $0 -$100,000
Labor, health, education Grants for community employment, food, housing and healthcare projects. $1,000,000 $200,000 -$800,000
Labor, health, education Grants for elderly nutrition services including Meals on Wheels $200,000 $100,000 -$100,000
Labor, health, education Extra money for Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. $2,000,000 $3,000,000 $1,000,000
Labor, health, education Funding for: National Vaccine Program, National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, chronic disease, health promotion, genomics programs, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, STD and TB prevention programs, environmental health programs, injury prevention and control programs, public health workforce development programs, research by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and National Center for Health Statistics, national plan to prevent healthcare-associated infections, prevention and wellness strategies and public health workforce developments. $3,000,000 $0 -$3,000,000
Labor, health, education Funding for advanced resarch on preparing for pandemic influenza, countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. $900,000 $0 -$900,000
Labor, health, education Funding for 'Title I' education programs for disadvantaged children. $13,000,000 $12,400,000 -$600,000
Labor, health, education Construction funding for school districts without a local property-tax base. $100,000 $0 -$100,000
Labor, health, education Funding for school computer and science laboratories and technology training for teachers. $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $0
Labor, health, education Funding for services to homeless children including meals and transportation. $66,000 $70,000 $4,000
Labor, health, education School renovations. $14,000,000 $0 -$14,000,000
Labor, health, education Charter school renovations. $25,000 $0 -$25,000
Labor, health, education Grants for teacher training and professional development. $200,000 $0 -$200,000
Labor, health, education Special education funding. $13,600,000 $13,500,000 -$100,000
Labor, health, education Independent living centers and state grants for the disabled and services for elderly blind people. $200,000 $610,000 $410,000
Labor, health, education Money to increase maximum Pell Grant of student aid by $500 to to $5,350. $15,636,000 $13,869,000 -$1,767,000
Labor, health, education Money to increase size of colleges' Perkins Grant student aid funds. $0 $61,000 $61,000
Labor, health, education Money for colleges' work-study programs. $490,000 $0 -$490,000
Labor, health, education Money to cover cost to Department of Education of administering extra student aid. $50,000 $0 -$50,000
Labor, health, education Grants for states to address teacher shortages. $100,000 $50,000 -$50,000
Labor, health, education College renovations $6,000,000 $0 -$6,000,000
Labor, health, education Funding for grants for states to create systems tracking individual student data. $250,000 $0 -$250,000
Labor, health, education Education spending oversight. $15,000 $4,000 -$11,000
Labor, health, education Extra money for AmeriCorps programs. $200,000 $200,000 $0
Labor, health, education Extra money for oversight of AmeriCorps programs $1,000 $0 $0
Labor, health, education Construction of new National Computer Center for Social Security Administration. $400,000 $750,000 $350,000
Labor, health, education Extra money for Social Security Administration to process disability and retirement claim backlogs. $500,000 $140,000 -$360,000
Labor, health, education SSA spending oversight. $2,000 $3,000 $1,000
Oversight GAO oversight of stimulus bill. $25,000 $20,000 -$5,000
Military and veterans Army training and recruit troop housing, and child development centers, including energy efficiency renovations. $920,000 $676,377 -$243,623
Military and veterans Navy and Marine Corps training and recruit troop housing, and child development centers, including energy efficiency renovations. $350,000 $990,092 $640,092
Military and veterans Air Force training and recruit troop housing, and child development centers, including energy efficiency renovations. $280,000 $967,893 $687,893
Military and veterans Construction on military hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, including energy efficiency renovations. $3,750,000 $118,560 -$3,631,440
Military and veterans Army National Guard construction. $140,000 $150,000 $10,000
Military and veterans Air National Guard construction. $70,000 $110,000 $40,000
Military and veterans Army Reserve construction. $100,000 $0 -$100,000
Military and veterans Navy Reserve construction. $30,000 $0 -$30,000
Military and veterans Air Force Reserve construction. $60,000 $0 -$60,000
Military and veterans Expansion of financial aid to military and some civilian personnel in areas where property values have declined after a base closure. $0 $410,973 $410,973
Military and veterans Extra funding for cleanup at closed military installations. $300,000 $0 -$300,000
Military and veterans Improvements to VA benefits administration, IT and claims processing. $0 $195,000 $195,000
Military and veterans Renovations and energy efficiency improvements to veterans medical facilities. $950,000 $3,415,628 $2,465,628
Military and veterans Monument and memorial repairs at veterans cemeteries. $50,000 $64,961 $14,961
Military and veterans Grants for construction and repairs of state veteran care homes. $0 $257,986 $257,986
Military and veterans Extra money for Veterans Affairs operating expenses, medical support and compliance. $0 $5,125 $5,125
Military and veterans Veterans Affairs spending oversight. $1,000 $4,400 $3,400
Military and veterans Repairs to national cemeteries and monuments $0 $60,300 $60,300
State Department Money for diplomatic and consular programs. $0 $90,000 $90,000
State Department Creation of information management backup facility for State Department, funding for participation in cybersecurity program. $276,000 $228,000 -$48,000
State Department State Department spending oversight. $0 $2,000 $2,000
State Department Repair to flood control systems along Rio Grande damaged by Hurricane Katrina. $224,000 $224,000 $0
State Department Extra money for USAID capital investments overseas. $0 $58,000 $58,000
Transportation and housing Grants for airport improvements $3,000,000 $1,100,000 -$1,900,000
Transportation and housing Grants for airport facilities and equipment. $0 $200,000 $200,000
Transportation and housing Grants for highway improvements $30,000,000 $27,060,000 -$2,940,000
Transportation and housing Competitive grants to state and local governments for highway, transit, rail, or port transportation investments. $0 $5,500,000 $5,500,000
Transportation and housing Grants to Amtrak $800,000 $850,000 $50,000
Transportation and housing Grants to states for investments in high speed and intercity passenger rail $300,000 $250,000 -$50,000
Transportation and housing Grants for capital investments in designated high-speed rail corridors. $0 $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Transportation and housing Extra grants to states for public transit infrastructure investment. $6,000,000 $8,400,000 $2,400,000
Transportation and housing Rail modernization funding. $2,000,000 $0 -$2,000,000
Transportation and housing Grants for new commuter rail and other light rail systems. $1,000,000 $0 -$1,000,000
Transportation and housing Grants for investments and improvements to small domestic shipyards. $0 $100,000 $100,000
Transportation and housing Transportation spending oversight. $20,000 $7,750 -$12,250
Transportation and housing Repairs and modernization of public housing projects. $5,000,000 $5,000,000 $0
Transportation and housing Grants to rehabilitate and improve energy efficiency on Native American housing programs. $500,000 $510,000 $10,000
Transportation and housing Grants for community and economic development projects. $1,000,000 $0 -$1,000,000
Transportation and housing Grants for short-term help with rent and housing relocation for homeless families. $1,500,000 $1,500,000 $0
Transportation and housing Energy efficiency retrogrades to low-income housing, including new insulation, windows and furnaces. $2,500,000 $2,250,000 -$250,000
Transportation and housing Funds for communities to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed and vacant properties. $4,190,000 $0 -$4,190,000
Transportation and housing Funds for building and rehabilitating low-income housing using green technology. $1,500,000 $2,250,000 $750,000
Transportation and housing Grants for removing lead-based paint in low-income housing. $100,000 $100,000 $0
Transportation and housing Funds for rural building projects. $10,000 $0 -$10,000
Transportation and housing HUD spending oversight. $15,000 $2,750 -$12,250
Aid to states State Fiscal Stabilization Fund $79,000,000 $39,000,000 -$40,000,000
Tax cuts $500 credit for single taxpayers, $1000 for couples. House bill phases out at $75,000 for individuals, $150,000 for couples. Senate phases out at $70,000 and $140,000 respectively. $145,309,000 $139,800,000 -$5,509,000
Tax cuts Increasing earned income tax credit from 40% to 45% of first $12,570 earned by families with more than three children $4,663,000 $4,663,000 $0
Tax cuts Increasing eligibility for refundable portion of child tax credit. House bill lowers income threshold to $0, House to $8100. $18,272,000 $7,200,000 -$11,072,000
Tax cuts Education tax credit: $2500 for tuition and books expenses. House version is 40% refundable up to $1000, Senate version is 30% refundable up to $750. $13,707,000 $12,900,000 -$807,000
Tax cuts House version offers a refundable credit for 10% of purchase of home, up to $7500, for first-time homeowners buying between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. The Senate version expands the credit to $15,000 and applies it to all home purchases. The Senate version of the credit can only be claimed by buyers who owe income taxes. $2,562,000 $35,500,000 $32,938,000
Tax cuts Allowing computers to qualify for inclusion in tax-advantaged savings education plans. $0 $6,000,000 $6,000,000
Tax cuts Equalization of parking and transit tax-free employer benefits at $230 for 2009. $0 $192,000 $192,000
Tax cuts Tax break on loan interest and sales taxes for new car purchases. $0 $11,000,000 $11,000,000
Tax cuts Temporary renewal of exemption for middle-income taxpayers from alternative minimum tax for 2009. $0 $70,000,000 $70,000,000
Tax cuts Temporary suspension of tax on first $2400 of unemployment benefits. $0 $4,700,000 $4,700,000
Tax cuts Extension of tax credit to wind energy facilities placed in service before end of 2013 $13,143,000 $13,143,000 $0
Tax cuts Allowing renewable energy projects to claim investment tax credit instead of production tax credit $218,000 $218,000 $0
Tax cuts Removal of cap on investment tax credit for small wind property. $872,000 $604,000 -$268,000
Tax cuts Creation of $16 billion extra clean renewable energy bonds $578,000 $578,000 $0
Tax cuts Creation of extra $24 billion of bonds for state and local government programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions $803,000 $803,000 $0
Tax cuts Increasing tax credits for home energy efficiency equipment to 30%, up to total of $1500 $4,275,000 $1,900,000 -$2,375,000
Tax cuts Increasing tax credits for gas stations installing alternative fuel pumps to 50%, up to $50,000 $54,000 $54,000 $0
Tax cuts 20% tax credit for renewable energy research in 2009 and 2010 $18,000 $18,000 $0
Tax cuts Removal of $2000 cap on 30% credit for solar thermal and geothermal property, and $4000 cap on small wind property $0 $268,000 $268,000
Tax cuts 10% tax credit for bicycles and other low-speed vehicles $0 $118,000 $118,000
Tax cuts Reducing depreciation schedule for smart meters $0 $22,000 $22,000
Tax cuts Increasing monitoring and verification for CO2 capture and sequestration tax credits $0 $0 $0
Tax cuts 30% investment tax credit for facilities manufacturing advanced energy property $0 $1,400,000 $1,400,000
Tax cuts Extending bonus depreciation for businesses to 50% write-off for capital expenditures made in 2009 $5,074,000 $5,300,000 $226,000
Tax cuts Write-off for small businesses for up to $250,000 of capital expenditures incurred in 2009 $41,000 $41,000 $0
Tax cuts Extending carryback of net operating losses for 2008 and 2009 from 2 years to 5 years -- except for companies receiving government bailout funds $15,041,000 $17,200,000 $2,159,000
Tax cuts Allowing businesses to carryback business energy tax attributes from one tax period to another $0 $0 $0
Tax cuts Tax credit of 40% for first $6000 of wages for each new unemployed veteran or 16-25-year-old hired. House version includes veterans discharged between 2008 and 2010, Senate version includes veterans discharged between 2001 and 2010. $208,000 $320,000 $112,000
Tax cuts Restoration of tougher rules on taxpayers claiming losses incurred by a company before they bought it -$6,977,000 -$6,977,000 $0
Tax cuts Allowing some businesses to to claim tax exemption for specific kinds of business debt repurchased in cash in 2009 and 2010. $0 $813,000 $813,000
Tax cuts Monetization in lieu of credits for alternative minimum taxpayers and loss taxpayers in 2009. $0 $805,000 $805,000
Tax cuts Allowing individuals to exempt up to 75% of some small business stock sales held for more than five years. $0 $829,000 $829,000
Tax cuts Temporarily shortening holding period of assets subject to built-in gains tax, from 10 years to seven. $0 $415,000 $415,000
Tax cuts Accelerates claims for tax credits for low-income housing investment. $0 $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Tax cuts Change in eligibility for industrial development bonds $0 $203,000 $203,000
Tax cuts Plug-in manufacturing and retooling incentive $0??
Tax cuts Creation of tax credit bonds for 2009 and 2010 investment in 'economic recovery zones' ($25 billion in House version, $15 billion in Senate version). $5,989,000 $2,900,000 -$3,089,000
Tax cuts Allows tribal governments to issue $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds for projects without previous restrictions. $315,000 $315,000 $0
Tax cuts Widens qualification for high-speed intercity rail bonds to facilities with a top speed of 150 miles per hour or more. $0 $288,000 $288,000
Tax cuts Increase in funds allocated as part of "new markets tax credit" $0 $1,050,000 $1,050,000
Tax cuts Tiered investment tax credit for broadband infrastructure investment. $0 $110,000 $110,000
Tax cuts Rule changes to improve marketability of tax exempt bonds. $3,700,000 $3,700,000 $0
Tax cuts New tax credit bonds for school building, rehabilitation or repair and other infrastructure projects. $9,877,000 $4,500,000 -$5,377,000
Tax cuts Extra authority for state and local governments to issue bonds in 2009 and 2010 to schools working with businesses $1,045,000 $1,000,000 -$45,000
Tax cuts Direct payment to state and local governments to replace federal tax credit subsidy for bonds issued in 2009 and 2010 $18,270,000 $4,800,000 -$13,470,000
Tax cuts House version repeals 3% withholding on government contractors. Senate version delays implementation by one year. $10,946,000 $291,000 -$10,655,000
Tax cuts House version makes a one-time payment of $300 to supplementary security income beneficiaries. Senate version also gives payment to social security beneficiaries, disabled people, railroad retirees and disabled veterans who receive benefits. $4,200,000 $16,700,000 $12,500,000
Tax cuts Two-year extension of program providing income support and training benefits for workers who lose their jobs because of outsourcing overseas. $0 $108,000 $108,000
Tax cuts Prohibiting Customs and Border Protection from demanding that U.S. lumber, steel and other companies repay money they were given from Canadian and Mexican import duties. $0 $90,000 $90,000
Tax cuts Curbs to executive compensation at companies receiving financial assistance: The government will raise $3.2 billion from a requirement for participants who paid big bonuses to buy back an equivalent amount of government-held stock. However, the CBO has assessed a net revenue loss because previously taxable compensation will remain within the company, which is not assumed to generate a taxable profit. $0 $10,847,000 $10,847,000
Aid Workers who have exhausted regular unemployment compensation will get an extra 7 weeks of extended benefits, to a total of 20 weeks. Workers in 29 "high unemployment" states are eligible for a total of 33 weeks. Weekly benefit will be raised by $25. States will receive tax credit incentives for extending their existing qualification criteria. $38,735,000 $39,475,000 $740,000
Aid Extra money for temporary assistance for needy families. $2,300,000 $2,658,000 $358,000
Aid Child support enforcement $1,000,000 $1,150,000 $150,000
Health insurance Money for states to extend Medicaid coverage to the unemployed and their families, and extending the COBRA eligibility period for some people. $40,032,000 $22,601,000 -$17,431,000
Health insurance IT Payment incentives for Medicaid and Medicare providers to adopt health information technology. $17,053,000 $16,010,000 -$1,043,000A Toronto woman who began handing out purses filled with pads and tampons to women living in the streets says she is overwhelmed by the response from the community since her appearance on CBC Toronto's Metro Morning just over two months ago.
The thought of menstruating and having limited or no access to feminine hygiene products is what led Jana Girdauskas to come up with The Period Purse earlier this year. By February, she had handed out 11 purses filled with tampons, pads and feminine hygiene products to homeless women or those living in shelters.
Other than pads, tampons and feminine hygiene products, the purses also include scarves, deodorants and coffee gift cards. (Jana Girdauskas)
Since then, more than 750 purses have been handed out. The idea of Period Purses has also expanded to seven other cities.
"I think it's something so simple and basic and a natural body process that all women go through so I think it is hitting people that it is not our choice, it is needed and we know how expensive those products can be," Girdauskas said.
She said she has received support from all kinds of people, from senior retirement homes to high schools.
"A six-year-old girl didn't want Easter chocolate or presents …She wanted her family to donate. A six-year-old went out and bought tampons and pads," she said.
"A mother passed away and her son — that one makes me cry — he donated her stuff to us."
More than 750 period purses have been handed out to homeless women in Toronto. (Jana Girdauskas)
Girdauskas, a working mother with two young children, thought the enthusiasm initiative would fade over time but it has only gotten more popular. She now has a team of volunteers helping her organize packing parties.
"A lot of people [are] donating their talents and services. We are now a corporate non-profit organization," she said.
The Period Purse has a "packing party" Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at Kimbourne Park United Church in the upper Beach area where volunteers will put together more purses to hand out.
The team has also launched a new website where people can volunteer and find out what and where to donate.
The Period Purse team has launched a new website where people can volunteer and find out what and where to donate: www.theperiodpurse.com (The Period Purse)
Other than feminine hygiene products, the purses also include a variety of things, such as scarves, deodorants and coffee gift cards.
"I think people have really attached to the idea. It's simple; you can just open your closet and pull out some toiletries and feminine products and an extra purse, Girdauskas said.
"It's opening minds and starting uncomfortable conversations."The Christopher Commission, writing on the LAPD, found that "perhaps the greatest single barrier to the effective investigation and adjudication of complaintsis the officers' unwritten `code of silence'....[the principle that] an officer does not provide adverse information against a fellow officer."120 The commission concluded: [P]olice officers are given special powers, unique in our society, to use force, even deadly force, in the furtherance of their duties. Along with that power, however, must come the responsibility of loyalty first to the public the officers serve. That requires that the code of silence not be used as a shield to hide misconduct.121 In its first report, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners' Office of the Inspector General (IG) found a decrease in the number of code-of-silence administrative actions - brought against officers who failed to provide information on alleged violations. These had dropped from fourteen in 1993, to twelve in 1994, ten in 1995, and none, at the time of the report, in 1996. Only four of the cases related to excessive force allegations. The IG was unable to ascertain whether the decrease related to a decline in the use of the informal code of silence to protect themselves or other officers, or lax enforcement of prohibitions on the code.122 The New York police force is also notorious for its officers' silence when misconduct occurs. As the Mollen Commission noted: "The pervasiveness of the code of silence is itself alarming."123 The commission found that the code of silence is strongest in the most crime-ridden and dangerous neighborhoods and is considered essential to prove loyalty to other officers in those areas of the city. One policeman who admits to corrupt and brutal practices, former NYPD officer Bernard Cawley, testified that he never feared another officer would turn him in because there was a "Blue Wall of Silence. Cops don't tell on cops....[I]f a cop decided to tell on me, his career's ruined....[H]e's going to be labeled as a rat."124 Other officers who testified concurred with Cawley, including one who kept his identity hidden during the Mollen Commission hearings precisely because of the code, and whostated that officers first learn of the code in the Police Academy, with instructors telling them never to be a "rat."125 He explained, "[S]ee, we're all blue...we have to protect each other no matter what."126 There is even a name for the way officers cover for each other and cover their own misconduct in court. It is called "testilying," offering false testimony in court. In justifying his inability to find NYPD Officer Francis X. Livoti guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for the "negligent homicide" of Anthony Baez, Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Sheindlin asserted that officers had committed perjury during the trial.127 Repercussions for breaking the code of silence include ostracism, threats, and the fear that officers will not "back up" or protect an officer who breaks the code.128 In Officer Livoti's trial, for example, one officer's account differed in important ways from those of fellow officers who supported Livoti's claim that Baez had resisted arrest.129 After her testimony at Livoti's trial, she asked for an administrative assignment because she reportedly feared she would not get back-up in dangerous situations from fellow officers. In an unprecedented move in Philadelphia, eight officers were ordered suspended for ten days without pay in May 1996 for their silence in the citizen review board's hearings on a high-profile death in custody. Police Commissioner Richard Neal said that the suspensions were necessary because the officers had shown a "lack of candor."130 The officers' punishment was somewhat ironicbecause, during hearings on the case, Commissioner Neal did not require the officers to comply with the board's requests for information, and the department was known for its strong code of silence. Fraternal Order of Police lawyer Jeffrey Kolansky told a reporter that he rejected the notion that there is a code of silence, but then refused to answer a reporter's questions on the subject.131 To its credit, and in response to growing corruption and abuse scandals in the Philadelphia force, the black officers' Guardian Civic League called on fellow officers to turn in corrupt colleagues and report misconduct.132 In a 1993 study of the New Orleans police force, the city's Advisory Committee on Human Relations found a relatively small percentage of bad officers. One of the report's authors stated: "[T]he police department itself helps to cover up such people through the code of silence, and anyone who rats on another guy will find himself never promoted. Those signals come from the top and work their way down."133 In Boston, the police force's claims of reform were brought into serious question after a black plainclothes officer, Michael Cox, was allegedly beaten severely by fellow officers, who apparently believed he was a suspect.134 Following the January 1995 incident, the officers accused of the beating gave wildly inconsistent accounts of it, initially contending that Cox was either not at the scene at all or that he was not hurt. The two dozen other officers present at the end of the chase denied seeing Cox at all, or claimed they were not near him at the time of the beating. Because of the code of silence, the officers identified by Cox as the assailants have not been disciplined by police officials or charged criminally more than three years after the incident. (Federal and local prosecutors intervened in 1997, and brought obstruction of justice and perjury charges against one of the officers present during the Cox beating who gave a particularly unbelievable account of the incident.) In all the cities we examined, and particularly in those like Philadelphia or New Orleans where police abuse and corruption have been visibly rampant, the code of silence is not limited to the street officers who witness abuses and fail to report them, or who lie when asked about reported incidents. In these cases, responsibility for the "blue wall of silence" extends to supervisors and ultimately police commissioners and chiefs. Furthermore, local district attorneys, when they prosecute criminal suspects based on officers' patently fabricated justifications of searches or suspects' injuries, and who continue to cooperate with officers who commit human rights abuses rather than attempt to prosecute them on criminal charges, join in complicity. In the end, the code of silence all but assures impunity for officers who commit human rights violations since, without information about brutal incidents from fellow officers, administrative and criminal penalties are much less likely. In such a climate, officers who commit abuses flourish.
120 Ibid., p. 168. 121 Ibid., p. 170-1. 122 Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioner's Office of the Inspector General report, January 1997, p. 41. 123 Mollen Commission report, p. 53. 124 Ibid. 125 Ibid., p. 55. 126 Ibid. p. 58. 127 Michael Cooper, "Revenge cited in shooting of a captain," New York Times, January 8, 1997. In September 1997, the Bronx District Attorney's office announced it would reopen its perjury inquiry involving fifteen officers of the 46th Precinct. 128 Mollen Commission report, p. 53. 129 The officer had also filed a sexual harassment suit about the treatment she and other policewomen received at the 46th Precinct. Joyce Purnick, "The Blue Line Between Rat and Right," New York Times, October 10, 1996. 130 Jeff Gammage, Mark Fazlollah and Richard Jones, "8 City officers suspended in DeJesus case," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 30, 1996. The commissioner also stated he would "disregard" the findings of the Police Advisory Commission, which found that one of the officers had used excessive force, and was responsible for the death; the PAC also found that five officers had shown a "lack of candor." PAC report on DeJesus case,December 19, 1995, PAC. NO. 94-0015. 131 Jeff Gammage, "Code of silence: a barrier to truth in investigations of police," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 1996. 132 Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1995. 133 Susan Finch, "NOPD told to put stop to brutality," Times-Picayune, May 20, 1993. 134 Dick Lehr, "Department unwilling to face brutal facts," Boston Globe, December 8, 1997.Select a topic Codes and promotions Game information Manage my account Missing content Orders Report a bug Report concerns or harassment Technical support Warranty
Back
Results: showing 10 of 14
Battlefield 4 Battlelog Info We are taking a big step forward with Battlelog for Battlefield 4, applying everything we learned on Battlefield 3.
Battlefield 4 Punkbuster Troubleshooting Information on how to troubleshoot various Punkbuster problems in Battlefield 4.
Transfer your Battlefield 4 stats to a newer console Stats transfer is no longer available for Battlefield 4 on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
Battlefield 4 Shortcut Kit info Storm the battlefield quicker with Shortcut Kits to catch you up with Battlefield 4 veterans.
Battlefield 4 fixes and workarounds Find fixes and workarounds for the most common issues with Battlefield 4.
Reset your Battlefield 4 stats As long as you have Premium, you just need to follow our steps to reset your stats in Battlefield 4.
Battlefield 4 Battlepacks Info Battlefield 4's all new Battlepacks add an additional layer of persistence and excitement to your multiplayer progression, consisting of bundles of content that can be earned and used in-game.
Rental servers not appearing in Battlefield 4 My Servers lists Due to a small user interface or menu issue, some Battlefield 4 players are unable to find their rented-servers in their My Servers lists.
Troubleshooting Battlefield 4 soldier resets If you ever find your rank, stats, and weapon customization seemingly reset to level 0 when trying to load a multiplayer game in Battlefield 4, try these common steps to get into the fray.Every share makes Black Voice louder! Share To Share To
Alabama inmates have organized a coordinated prison strike to protest against “slave labor” and deplorable prison conditions.
Three inmates in solitary confinement organized a state-wide prison strike, which began on May 1 at Alabama’s Holman, Staton, and Elmore Correctional Facilities, the Solitary Watch reports.
According to the Solitary Watch, inmates from St. Clair Correctional Facility are expected to join some 400 prisoners on May 9, to demonstrate against the unfair “slave-like” labor practices at their prisons.
The organizers have been identified as Kinetik, Dhati and Brother M, the leaders of the Free Alabama Movement, which hopes to carry on the strike for up to 30 days depending on the willingness of lawmakers to negotiate.
The inmates are enraged at the fact that private organizations make millions from their hard work, for which they get little or no payment.
“We will no longer contribute to our own oppression,” Kinetik told Solitary Watch. “We will no longer continue to work for free and be treated like this.”
People incarcerated at the prisons are paid $0.17 to $0.30 an hour to perform a variety of functions, which include giving assistance to correctional employees in the maintenance, upkeep and staffing of prison facilities, and engaging in manufacturing or industrial jobs from private organizations.
According to AL.com, Alabama is ranked third in the nation for number of prisoners per capita, and Blacks make up 72 percent of its prison population, despite accounting for only 30 percent of the state’s population.
Prison officials are retaliating against the striking inmates by serving reduced meal sizes to all inmates at the striking prisons.
Alabama’s long history of animosity towards Black inmates is well established in the state’s Reconstruction era practice of mass incarceration of African-Americans and their re-enslavement in coal mines. Black convicts, some of whom are in jail for crimes they didn’t commit or for trivial offenses, are often kept in dangerous and deplorable conditions and subjected to “slave labor.”
Their voices needed to be heard and the situation needs to change, not just in Alabama correctional facilities, but in all prison facilities nationwide.
Ensure to visit this page for all exclusive updates and uncensored news. Kindly SHARE this article on any social media of your choice.Jacob Eliosoff is a computer programmer and former Wall Street quant who runs Calibrated Markets LLC, a cryptocurrency investment firm with holdings in BTC and ETH.
In this opinion piece, Eliosoff discusses why he believes the ethereum community needs to unite around one implementation of the protocol, and why he believes it should be the version that opted for a controversial fork.
The ongoing ethereum classic drama is yet another illustration of the great irony of cryptocurrency – a technology invented as a way to form consensus keeps facing its greatest threat from the inability of its communities to form it.
When there’s a fork, it’s important for the community to choose wisely between the two branches. But it’s also important, often more important, for the community to converge on one branch.
In a case like ethereum, which now has two competing versions, ethereum (ETH) and ethereum classic (ETC), not converging will do more harm than converging on the inferior branch.
We’ve reached the point where there are only two realistic outcomes for ethereum: a bifurcated project, confusing users and developers, or convergence on the ETH chain.
Fork or not?
During the original fork debate, I saw legitimate arguments on both sides, though no clinchers. I wasn’t an investor in The DAO, which struck me as doomed from the start, and saw no need to rescue its backers. Concentrating 4.5% of all ether in the hacker’s hands wasn’t ideal, but didn’t seriously threaten the network either.
The most common anti-fork argument is that fiddling with the ledger sets a bad precedent. This is true. But how bad? It’s not like if this one sticks, we’re all doomed to a future of hard forks any time the FBI asks or one of the admins loses a few coins.
Whichever branch wins out, this fork has been messy enough that no one is keen to go through another one anytime soon.
I agreed with Cornell researcher Emin Gün Sirer and others that ethereum was a young technology still very much at the dress rehearsal stage. Even if you want a future of 100% self-driving cars, you have to expect the occasional manual override early on.
Many questioned the financial incentives of Ethereum Foundation members who had bought into The DAO, but as Alex Van de Sande wrote, they had a vastly larger stake in ethereum’s success than in The DAO. And meanwhile, there was amazingly little coverage of the fact that the hacker had a $60m stake in stopping the fork!
Even now, the hacker’s stake is worth $7m on the old chain, $0 on the forked one. It would be quite a surprise if he or she hadn’t been pushing ETC behind the scenes.
So, you can argue that ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin forced the fork through, or |
Heads
“Hot Blooded” by Foreigner
“Bubbles in the Wine” by Bob Calame (1913–1967), Lawrence Welk’s long-standing theme song
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police
“Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones
“My Generation” by The Who
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 1
Thematic Unity: 1
Flow: 2
Timeliness: 1
Innovativeness: 3 (first one)
Overall score: 1.86
Comedy highlight: The “I’m a man! Am I bi? I’m a slave, I’m a little girl, when we make love together!” bit from “Sex!”
Polka highlight: After “Hot Blooded,” he uses the bubbles sound from Lawrence Welk’s theme song to transition out. Hot blood = bubbling; that’s some polka genius.
The “slow down” song: “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner
Closing phrase: “My-my-my generation!”
Compared with the slickness of the later ones, this one is all over the place in terms of song selection. Rather than make a time capsule of the era, about half of these are from the 1960s (“Hey Jude”, “L.A. Woman”) and the songs that ARE from the then-current era seem arbitrarily picked, and not the biggest hits: (“Sex” from Berlin, “Jocko Homo” from Devo).
It’s almost as if he thought that just doing a polka arrangement of ANY assortment of pop songs was funny enough and that he wasn’t going to be analyzed against the rest of his life’s work by some jerk blogger in the year 2015.
11. “Hot Rocks Polka” from UHF: Soundtrack (1989)
“It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)”
“Brown Sugar”
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
“Honky Tonk Women”
“Under My Thumb”
“Ruby Tuesday”
“Miss You”
“Sympathy for the Devil”
“Get Off of My Cloud”
“Shattered”
“Let’s Spend the Night Together”
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
Funniness: 1
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 1
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2
Timeliness: 1
Innovativeness: 3 (all one band)
Overall score: 2.00
Comedy highlight: Happily yelping “Hey! You! Get off of MY CLOUD!”
Polka highlight: Cool accordion moves after “Honky Tonky Blues”
The “slow down” song: None
Closing phrase: “Satisfaction! Satisfaction! Satisfaction!”
For this one, all the songs are from the Rolling Stones (the title comes from the Rolling Stones greatest hits collection Hot Rocks). An impressive feat but not as much fun as his others. It seems songs which are critically acclaimed don’t become as funny in polka form as more disposable pop songs. Like, “Sympathy For The Devil,” even as a polka, stays surprisingly bad-ass.
It’s worth noting that this album was the soundtrack to UHF, which was Weird Al’s 1989 movie. His MOVIE. Just six years after his first album, he was writing and starring in his own movie. And he’d already he’d hosted his own MTV specials, been on the Tonight Show, and toured the country multiple times playing parody songs on his accordion.
He must have at some point been reeling from his own success. Was there debauchery? Are there women out there with stories of sneaking into an MTV New Year’s Party in the late 1980s and hooking up with Weird Al Yankovic? If so, is that something you keep secret, or do you roll it out as the world’s most fascinating ice-breaker?
10. “Bohemian Polka” from Alapalooza (1993)
Just one - “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
Funniness: 1
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 1
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2
Timeliness: 2
Innovativeness: 3 (all one song)
Overall score: 2.14
Comedy highlight: The exaggerated breath at the start
Polka highlight: Some cool moves in between the first two verses
The “slow down” song: None
Closing phrase: “Any way the wind, any way the wind, any way the wind blows!”
He does just one song, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, inspired by that song’s resurgence from the Wayne’s World soundtrack. It’s a hilarious idea, though a polka version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is somehow not as crazy sounding as the actual “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Still, this medley is one of the many that showcases how genuinely musically talented Al is. I mean, it takes someone with the backbone of a stegosaurus to do a Freddie Mercury song in ANY genre, and Al pulls it off pretty damn well. You’re sort of the Kanye West of parody guys when you tell your band “We’re doing Queen next.”
9. “Angry White Boy Polka” from Poodle Hat (2003)
“Last Resort” by Papa Roach
“Chop Suey!” by System of a Down
“Get Free” by The Vines
“Hate to Say I Told You So” by The Hives
“Fell in Love with a Girl” by The White Stripes
“Last Nite” by The Strokes
“Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed
“Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against the Machine, originally by Afrika Bambaataa
“My Way” by Limp Bizkit
“Outside” by Staind
“Bawitdaba” by Kid Rock
“Youth of the Nation” by P.O.D.
“The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 1
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.3
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.19
Comedy highlight: “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down is more hilarious than normal
Polka highlight: “My Way” by Limp Bizkit actually makes for a good polka
The “slow down” song: “Last Nite” by the Strokes
Closing phrase: “Stand up, Shady! Stand up, Shady! Stand up, Shady!”
I’m so torn. On one hand, this is one of the all-time great Weird Al polkas because there is no better target than the chest-puffing alpha male aggression of early 2000s dude pop. What better way to take Fred Durst’s aggro posturing down a peg than to set it to an oom-pah tuba beat? But on the other hand, I found that on repeated listens I grew just a bit – JUST A BIT – weary of the dudes being dudes, even veiled in accordion.
Then again, ALL of these medleys are restricted by how interesting the music of their time was. And listened to in a row, they make the case that pop music gets more interesting and varied as we proceed. The 1980s medleys seem to pull one-half of their songs from guys in their 40s playing guitar rock. Whereas the 2000s medleys have hip hop, dance, rock, indie, singer-songwriters and good old disposable pop all living comfortably together.
8. “Polka Party!” from Polka Party! (1986)
“Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel
“Sussudio” by Phil Collins
“Party All the Time” by Eddie Murphy
“Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie
“Freeway of Love” by Aretha Franklin
“What You Need” by INXS
“Harlem Shuffle” by The Rolling Stones, originally by Bob & Earl
“Venus” by Bananarama, originally by Shocking Blue
“Nasty” by Janet Jackson
“Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco
“Shout” by Tears for Fears
“Papa Don’t Preach” by Madonna
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 2
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.5
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.36
Comedy highlight: The “wah wah” sound in “Say You, Say Me”
Polka highlight: The instrumental in “Party All The Time”
The “slow down” song: none
Closing phrase: “Keep my baby! Keep my baby! Keep my baby!”
A great one. This is his third polka medley but the first one to really serve as an accurate time capsule for the pop songs of the time. It’s also the shortest medley, with very little “real” polka separating the songs.
I’m not sure if it still happens but for a long time every Weird Al album had at least one parody song where the guitar solo was replaced by a guy “playing” the solo via fart sounds he made with his hands. That’s not relevant to the polka medleys; I just think it’s interesting to bring that up.
7. “Polka Your Eyes Out” from Off The Deep End (1992)
“Cradle of Love” by Billy Idol
“Tom’s Diner” by DNA featuring Suzanne Vega
“Love Shack” by The B-52’s
“Pump Up the Jam” by Technotronic
“Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.
“Unbelievable” by EMF
“Do Me!” by Bell Biv DeVoe
“Enter Sandman” by Metallica
“The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground
“Cherry Pie” by Warrant
“Miss You Much” by Janet Jackson
“I Touch Myself” by Divinyls
“Dr. Feelgood” by Mötley Crüe
“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice
Funniness: 3
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 2
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.2
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.46
Comedy highlight: The cry for “drum solo!” followed by just a drum machine continuing to hammer its steady beat.
Polka highlight: The yodel at the end of “Do Me”
The “slow down” song: “Humpty Dance”
Closing phrase: “Ice ice baby! Ice ice baby! Ice ice baby!”
Man, the ridiculousness of era really helps this one. You’ve got the tackiness of Motley Crue, the instantly-datedness of Vanilla Ice and the shameless bravado of Bel Biv Devoe: just a montage of the actual songs would be hilarious.
By this time in his career, Al uses a lot less of a “jokey voice” when he does his polkas and instead just seems to sing the songs straight (albeit over a polka beat). It’s that way with any artist. Scorcese uses fewer fancy shots, Dave Chappelle gets lower energy and more thoughtful, Picasso uses fewer and fewer lines. The great ones get simpler as they go. I know I sound like I’m making fun of Al but I mean it earnestly: he’s getting more confident as he goes.
6. “The Alternative Polka” from Bad Hair Day (1996)
“Loser” by Beck
“Sex Type Thing” by Stone Temple Pilots
“All I Wanna Do” by Sheryl Crow
“Closer” by Nine Inch Nails
“Bang and Blame” by R.E.M.
“You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette
“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins
“My Friends” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
“I’ll Stick Around” by Foo Fighters
“Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden
“Basket Case” by Green Day
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 2
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 1.7
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 3 (first overt theme)
Overall score: 2.53
Comedy highlight: Substituting the “Fred Flintstone bonked on the head sound” for the f-word in “I’m gonna (bonk) you like an animal.”
Polka highlight: The great yodel in “You Oughtta Know”
The “slow down” song: None
Closing phrase: “Am I just stoned? Am I just stoned? Am I just stoned?”
The first Al polka to overtly name its theme in the title. This one was gonna include “Buddy Holly” from Weezer but they retracted permission at the last minute, which slightly hurts the flow of this song where it was going to be, right before “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”
This take-down of the “alternative movement” came out a full two years after the death of Kurt Cobain. Al doesn’t have that kind of time anymore to make his comment. With the internet, lesser parody groups can get songs out whenever it’s relevant. It’s why Al says he’ll not do another traditional album, though that doesn’t mean he’s stopping. With iTunes, he can and needs to strike when the iron is HOT.
5. “Hooked on Polkas” from Dare To Be Stupid (1985)
“State of Shock” by The Jacksons & Mick Jagger
“Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top
“What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner
“Method of Modern Love” by Hall & Oates
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister
“99 Luftballons” by Nena
“Footloose” by Kenny Loggins
“The Reflex” by Duran Duran
“Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” by Quiet Riot
“Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 2
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 3 (first time capsule medley)
Overall score: 2.57
Comedy highlight: The voice flutter on “The Reflex” (Which, when he performed this on The Tonight Show he did just by grabbing his throat skin and rattling it around)
Polka highlight: The “Yeee-haas!” after “Sharp Dressed Man”
The “slow down” song: “Footloose”
Closing phrase: “When! you! want! to! come!”
This medley is great and more to the point: Al’s third album Dare To Be Stupid is one of the greatest comedy albums ever made. It’s his Pinkerton, his Paul’s Boutique, his Sgt. Pepper’s. If someone really knows their Weird Al, they point to this one as one of their favorites without hesitation. The preceding album (3-D, with the single “Eat It”) made him a star, but on this one he really showed he had range. The originals (“One More Minute”) are just as funny as the parodies (“Like A Surgeon”) and the Devo homage (title track) is astoundingly on-point. Amongst my siblings we regard this album with the same reverence we have for the second side of Abbey Road, maybe more.
4. “Polkarama!” from Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)
“Let’s Get It Started” by The Black Eyed Peas
“Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand
“Beverly Hills” by Weezer
“The Nina Bobina Polka” by “Weird Al” Yankovic
“Speed of Sound” by Coldplay
“Float On” by Modest Mouse
“Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz featuring De La Soul
“Don’t Cha” by Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes
“Somebody Told Me” by The Killers
“Slither” by Velvet Revolver
“Candy Shop” by 50 Cent featuring Olivia
“Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell
“Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
“Gold Digger” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx
Funniness: 2
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 3
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.4
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.63
Comedy highlight: “Don’t Cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me”
Polka highlight: “Drop It Like It’s Hot” makes for a genuinely good polka.
The “slow down” song: “Candy Shop”
Closing phrase: “Gold gold digger! Gold gold digger! Gold gold digger!”
As pop music gets more varied, so do the polka medleys get more satisfying. Indie, hip-hop, pop, dance and rock all figure into this one.
Isn’t it surprising and also nice how much Al has become beloved these days? Despite his fairly immediate huge success, he was still most often brought up as a punch line during the 80s. But by the time this album came out (with his monster hit “White N’ Nerdy”) in 2006 the comedy elite was populated with people who had grown up listening to him. And there’s few things we are more protective of than the pop culture we loved as children: (See the similar adoration locked in on Ghostbusters, The Goonies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Duck Tales – depending on your age).
In 3D, Al’s second album which came out in 1983, was the first album I ever bought. (Second? Soundtrack to Footloose.)
Maybe there’s also something reassuring about Al’s wholesomeness. He works hard, he doesn’t parody anyone without permission. He makes fun of songs and is genuinely funny but he is never truly mean. So many comedy heroes seem to turn out to have such horrible dark pasts. Maybe we are all just collectively glad that Al DOESN’T seem to ever have a debauched period.
3. “Polka Power!” from Running With Scissors (1999)
“Wannabe” by the Spice Girls
“Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger
“Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)” by Pras featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mýa
“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by the Backstreet Boys
“Walkin’ on the Sun” by Smash Mouth
“Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys
“Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba
“Ray of Light” by Madonna
“Push” by Matchbox Twenty
“Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind
“The Dope Show” by Marilyn Manson
“MMMBop” by Hanson
“Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground
“Closing Time” by Semisonic
Funniness: 3
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 3
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.6
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.66
Comedy highlight: “Sex and Candy”
Polka highlight: The horns backing up “Tubthumping”
The “slow down” song: None
Closing phrase: “It’s closing time! Closing time! Closing time!”
Starting with the 1999 medley, Al really steps up the flow of his songs. One songs ends and fits right into the next one, making the whole piece remarkably seamless. Maybe the medley is a running gag, but Al seems determined to make it better each time.
In that regard, Al reminds me of – and I mean this as an enormous compliment – Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts. Laboring in a medium that few respect, the newspaper strip, Schulz found more critical and commercial success than he could ever dream of. He responded by working harder than ever. The strip would go in and out of fashion, yet Schulz would never leave his drawing board, continuing to inject his personal feelings into Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy day after day.
Schulz worked as long as he could, and then when his hands were too shaky to continue, he finished a small backlog of strips and announced his retirement. As the final strip was being delivered to the printers in February 2000, fifty years after its debut, Schulz died in his sleep – pretty much simultaneously with his life’s work ending.
I think it’s easy to let it go unappreciated when successful people continue to work hard, to perfect, to enjoy the simple pleasure of a job well done.
Al’s career is so far only half as long as Schulz. But he seems to have the same work ethic, the same relentlessness. Will there be a new Weird Al release in 2033, fifty years after he began?
2. “Now That’s What I Call Polka!” from Mandatory Fun! (2014)
“Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus
“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People
“Best Song Ever” by One Direction
“Gangnam Style” by Psy
“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen
“Scream & Shout” by will.i.am feat. Britney Spears
“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye feat. Kimbra
“Timber” by Pitbull feat. Kesha
“Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO
“Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz
“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams
Funniness: 3
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 3
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.7
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 1
Overall score: 2.67
Comedy highlight: Either the Jerry Lewis shout-out with “Sexy LADIES!” in “Gangnam Style,” or Al going “It’s large!” in the background of “I’ve got this big ‘ol coat” during “Thrift Shop”
Polka highlight: “Scream and Shout”
The “slow down” song: “Sexy And I Know It”
Closing phrase: “We’re gonna get lucky! Get lucky! Get Lucky!”
This one is his most recent medleys and like all of them, it is terrific.
Another thing you notice when you listen to all of these in a row: Al seems to condescend LESS as he gets older, which is the opposite of almost every other human being’s relationship to pop music. He’s more open and affectionate towards the songs he parodies, channelling their fun rather than mocking them.
As I noted in the intro, this album reached number one on the pop charts, the first time a Weird Al album hit that mark.
1. “Polka Face” from Alpocalypse (2011)
“Poker Face” by Lady Gaga
“Womanizer” by Britney Spears
“Right Round” by Flo Rida ft Ke$ha
“Day ‘n’ Nite” by Kid Cudi
“Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum
“Baby” by Justin Bieber ft Ludacris
“So What” by Pink
“I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry
“Fireflies” by Owl City
“Blame It” by Jamie Foxx ft T-Pain
“Replay” by Iyaz
“Down” by Jay Sean ft Lil Wayne
“Break Your Heart” by Taio Cruz ft Ludacris
“The Tick Tock Polka” by Frankie Yankovic
“Tik Tok” by Ke$ha
“Poker Face” by Lady Gaga (Reprise)
Funniness: 3
Musicality: 3
Variety of Songs Parodied: 3
Thematic Unity: 3
Flow: 2.5
Timeliness: 3
Innovativeness: 2 (for having a reprise)
Overall score: 2.78
Comedy highlight: “Replay”
Polka highlight: Getting a snippet of an actual polka by the unrelated but revered-in-Polish-neighborhoods-everywhere Frankie Yankovic in the mix.
The “slow down” song: “So What”
Closing phrase: “Pah-pah Poker Face! Pah-pah Poker Face! Pah-pah Poker Face!”
And here is your winner. Regardless of how badly-conceived my scoring system may be (and I’m sure it is), it did right with this choice because this is a goddamn terrific polka medley.
It tackles a wide range of styles, it knits them together seamlessly. It’s funny. It represents its time well. It has cool little comments which Al probably didn’t intend – like starting with current Pop Queen Lady Gaga followed by dethroned pop Queen Britney Spears saying “Womanizer, Womanizer.” His take of “Need You Now” has more pathos and feeling than the original. His approximation of T-Pain’s auto-tune is done just with his own singing and it’s goddamn good.
And then it wraps it up with a reprise of where it started, making it feel like a PIECE with a nice coherent wholeness. We, the listeners, feel when we have gotten to the end of this song that we have arrived at home.
I’m not kidding. This one is great.
I hope there is never an Al backlash. I hope he keeps doing these albums, and these medleys, for decades and decades. He’s both a continual success, but also an underrated musician/craftsman. I’m proud to be a fan of Al. An Al-ien? A Weirdling? A Yankovitizen? Whatever we’re called, I’m one. Thank you.
* * *
1And you know what polka is, right? Traditional Eastern European style of music featuring accordion, tubas doing an oom-pah beat, maybe a few trumpets doing a sort of Slavic version of salsa? Usually performed by a bunch of Polish guys in their 50s who all shout “hey!” to punctuate the end of a chorus? Point is that polka is VERY square sounding, so when you do a polka version of a pop song it sounds funny. Okay, now you’re caught up.
2To figure the “flow” for a medley I graded each transition within the song from 1 (needed a string of polka music to get there) to 3 (seamless — one right into the next) to and averaged THOSE. The point is I went deep, mathematically speaking.
Will Hines is a teacher/performer with the UCB Theatre in LA.Crying Wolf Or Bitcoin Bubble
Mainstream media coverage of bitcoin price has been picking up over the last year. It might even resemble the rise in bitcoin prices over this period of time. With the rise in bitcoin prices and mainstream media coverage, also come the quotes from “experts” that are crying wolf, or rather bitcoin bubble. There are a few fundamental problems with this approach. Apart from the fact that human kind has never seen an asset quite like bitcoin before 2009, which makes it hard to study, the “experts” seem to miss the point altogether.
Bitcoin Bubble in Mainstream Media
The latest example of this kind of ‘cry wolf’ comment, came from The Guardian’s article written by renowned economist Kenneth Rogoff. His argument is that the bitcoin bubble will burst under pressure from governments, basically because government has always eventually stepped in to regulate and appropriate when the private sector innovates, especially when it comes to the prevention of criminal activity and tax evasion. It is clear that Rogoff cannot free himself of the assumption that the future will mirror the past. But beyond that, Rogoff and other “experts” tend to miss the point altogether when it comes to bitcoin. Here is a reminder of why bitcoin is different and why talking about a bitcoin bubble is as speculative as singing its praises beyond the logic of its fundamentals:
Bitcoin is the first asset in human history that can be used as money across borders, without government control, which can also be transacted effortlessly, relatively cheaply and, by historical standards, at break-neck speeds.
Supply is finite and
Price is driven by adoption, but also by its value as one of the few assets that cannot be censored, put under sanctions or centralized.
Essentially, bitcoin is the only credible hedge against the system dominated by the monopoly that governments have over the economy, and their ability to selectively promote or shut-down economic activity according to their political agenda.
Looking at Bitcoin Prices is Deceptive
Therefore, any “expert” that concludes that there is a bitcoin bubble just by looking at the price and assumptions about government behavior, is completely missing the point. Hypothetically, if there is a bout of hyper-inflation, bitcoin prices could sky-rocket into the millions, but those millions would be worthless. That is exactly what bitcoin is telling the world: if you are not hedged, you can be a victim of reckless government behavior, just like all those people who lost their jobs and pensions during the 2008-09 economic melt-down. Functionally speaking, fiat price of bitcoin ought to be less relevant, especially when only one side of the equation is considered.
Standing on a Soap Box Selling the Bitcoin Bubble
Furthermore, governments would be foolish to pursuit a bitcoin ban or any kind of assault on bitcoin – the argument on which Rogoff relies to sell the bitcoin bubble to the public. Bitcoin cannot be stopped. It is impossible to censor it, it cannot be shut down and as a protocol, sending coins resembles sending data over other networks. Legally it would be extremely difficult to challenge the freedom to send and receive little pieces of data over a network, especially in “free” “democratic” countries.
Beyond that, any government that prides itself in being free, democratic and espouses some free market principles, would be shooting itself in the foot if it prevents people from hedging their investments with bitcoin. That kind of behavior will make the next economic melt-down unnecessarily painful and costlier.
Looking Back Into the Future
Nevertheless, since Rogoff and other “experts” keep on drawing comparisons between a possible bitcoin bubble and other asset bubbles in the past, then they at least owe their readers some consistency in their analysis. Governments have a long history of allowing or actively causing the economies they manage to crash. If that is a historical given, then the bubble is more likely to come from other sectors in the economy, and can only be ameliorated by a strong alternative to the traditional government controlled economy. Furthermore, the criminal activity comes from governments then using tax-payer money to apply their too big to fail policies once the bubbles they enable, burst. Shouldn’t that be a crime on par with tax evasion?
Just as Rogoff makes his argument about a possible government crackdown world-wide, he must concede that this is an exogenous force, which has little to no influence on the value of the asset as it stands. If this crackdown ever comes, there is no doubt that bitcoin prices would be affected, but that doesn’t mean that there is a bitcoin bubble, or that the price will not recover precisely because more people see the benefits in being hedged against government excess. Moreover, a government crackdown and an attempt to subdue bitcoin while adopting blockchain technology, can quickly backfire.
Rogoff Advocating for Governments to Close Pandora’s Box
The same technology that gives people freedom through the bitcoin network and its quasi-anonymous transactions, can spell authoritarianism and outright economic serfdom in the hands of a central bank. A blockchain-powered national currency controlled by a central bank is also inconsequential to the likelihood of future bubbles. It might be able to curtail criminal transactions done with national currencies, but it would subject society to the control of a police state that monitors every transaction. Criminals will eventually find an alternative, and so will concerned, law-abiding citizens that strive to preserve their freedom. That would defeat any government attempt to coopt the technology and suppress bitcoin. Pandora’s box is open and that means a bitcoin bubble or a price crash, might only be temporary because bitcoin offers advantages that no other asset in human history can match.
Click here to read Rogoff’s article.Please read the following instructions carefully.
Write an essay answering each of the ten questions below.
Each essay should be between 250 and 350 words, and so your total submission should be between 2500 and 3500 words. Don't include any text other than your email answers. If your answers are under or over the required length, the entire test may be discarded.
Submit your answers by clicking on the "Respond via email" link below. Enter your name, the email address you want us to use to contact you, the subject line "GDS2 Essay Answers", and your essays.
To avoid losing your entire submission in case of technical error, we highly recommend typing out your answers in a text editor, then transferring them to the email form.
You may submit your answers at any time, but submissions received later than 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight time on Monday, October 11 will not be accepted. (If you're not in the Eastern time zone, take careful note of the time difference. For reference, 12:00 a.m. Eastern time is when the site updates each day.)With the rise of Netflix and the advent of binge watching, watching TV has arguably become something of a solitary affair. That’s all well and good, but if you’d like to be even just a tad more social while otherwise camping out on your couch and watching Netflix alone, we’ve got you covered.
Showgoers is a nifty little Chrome extension which lets friends watch the same Netflix programming in real time. The extension itself is rather simple insofar as it links up user Netflix accounts and lets viewers send out invitations to friends asking them to join a stream. All in all, Showgoers is a great way to have a virtual viewing party when people can’t otherwise get together.
DON’T MISS: 15 of the best movies on Netflix that you’ve probably never heard of
“When you’re in a Showgoers watching party, clicking play/pause or seeking to a specific spot in the movie will cause the Netflix player of everyone else in the watching party to do the same thing,” the website reads. “With your Netflix players automatically connected together, you can focus on just sharing the experience together in real-time.”
Setting it up is also as easy as can be.
Once you install the plugin — itself a super fast download from the Chrome web store — your Netflix screen will feature a pair of 3D glasses in the upper right hand corner when you hover over a program and bring up the play controls.
If you click on the glasses, you’ll be given the option to start a sharing session. Simply confirm and you’re then presented with a URL that you can share with friends who also have the plugin installed.
Once your friends accept the invitation, simply by clicking on the link, you can continue to use Netflix as you would normally. Only now, everyone you’ve invited can now watch the same programming alongside you. All in all, it’s a pretty clever feature and one Netflix might want to bake into the app itself in the coming future.
A video demo showing how it all comes together can be seen below.
Incidentally, the impetus behind Showgoers is somewhat interesting as the developer writes the idea was borne out of a long-distance relationship he was in in an effort to “diversify the types of shared experiences” they could have at a distance.
“We figured out how fun it can be start watching a Netflix together and video chat via Skype but grew tired of the whole routine of counting down and pressing play to sync up our players. Showgoers was created to get around this annoyance.”
As a final point, note that syncing via Showgoers cannot be used to skirt around geographical restrictions for video content. In other words, both viewers must be capable of viewing a program in order for syncing to work.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
EAST CLEVELAND - The Fox 8 I-Team has learned a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas jury awarded a man $22 million after he sued East Cleveland police for beating him and locking him in a closet for four days.
The jury reached the decision Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge John Sutula.
East Cleveland officials say they plan to appeal.
Atty. Bob DiCello says his client Arnold Black was fraudulently arrested in 2012.
"I asked them why they arrested me and they wouldn't say," Black said.
He was handcuffed, beaten, and then put in a storage closet. He said he was locked inside the closet for four days.
"I had to use the lockers for a bathroom," Black said.
He said he was given no food during his stay.
"This should never have happened," DiCello said.
East Cleveland officials say the officers involved in this case no longer work for their department.FBI Director James Comey has prompted the U.S. Ambassador to Poland to issue an apology to that nation for remarks in which he implied that Poland was partially to blame for the Holocaust, and not exclusively a victim of Nazi Germany during its occupation.
In a speech delivered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 2015 National Tribute Dinner, later reprinted in The Washington Post, Comey wrote that a major lesson from visits to the Holocaust Museum–which he requires for FBI agents–is that “people who loved their families, took soup to a sick neighbor, went to church and gave to charity” were just as participatory in the Holocaust as the “sick and evil people” running Germany’s Nazi party. He added:
In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That’s what people do. And that should truly frighten us.
The Polish government has taken great umbrage to those remarks, |
a big risk. About half of Heyward's past comparables are Hall of Famers; when you have a chance to lock up a player with that kind of potential, you do it.
Jason Heyward is the type of player that you build a franchise around, and a fitting heir to Chipper Jones. Keeping him in Atlanta is worth the risk.Japanese city Kesennuma scrapping fishing boat that became symbol of 2011 tsunami disaster
Posted
A northern Japanese city has begun scrapping a fishing boat that was swept far inland by the 2011 tsunami and became one of the most poignant symbols of the disaster.
A ceremony to bless the ship was held nearby before workers got started dismantling the 60-metre vessel, named the No. 18 Kyotoku-maru, according to officials in the city of Kesennuma, which was flattened in the disaster.
The scrapping operation came after nearly 70 per cent of local people said in an opinion poll that they wanted it gone.
The work is scheduled to finish by October 19, officials said.
Japan's Jiji Press news agency quoted the ship's owner as saying: "I apologise for troubling disaster sufferers with the presence of the ship, but it helped show the dangers of the tsunami."
The move reverses earlier plans to preserve the boat as a monument to the quake-tsunami disaster, which killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a nuclear accident at Fukushima, the worst atomic crisis in a generation.
The stranded vessel had been swept about 500 metres inland by the tsunami on March 11, 2011, and survived a subsequent fire that engulfed the small city on Japan's northeast coast.
Since then, the partially charred blue and red vessel has rested in the middle of a residential district, drawing visitors who pray and leave flowers at the site.
AFP
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, storm-disaster, earthquake, industry, sea-transport, japanThe Great Depression and World War II in Color
Hermon Lister Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 12, 2016
The U.S. Library of Congress holds an incredible collection of vivid color photos from the Great Depression through the Second World War that capture an era people generally have only ever seen in black and white.
Working for the United States Farm Security Administration and later the Office of War Information, photographers captured their images between 1939 and 1944.
1940: Jim Norris and wife, homesteaders, Pie Town, New Mexico
c1940: Mississippi
1940: Hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed, Delta County, Colorado
1940: Hay stack and automobile of peach pickers, Delta County, Colorado
1941: Barker at the grounds at the Vermont state fair, Rutland
1942: Instructor explaining the operation of a parachute to student pilots, Meacham Field, Fort Worth, Texas
c1942: Boy near Cincinnati, Ohio
1942: Boilermaker at the roundhouse at the Proviso yard, Melrose Park
1942: Getting a nose door ready to put on a C-87 transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
1943: Typhoid innoculation at a rural school, San Augustine County, Texas
1943: General view of part of the South Water street Illinois Central Railroad freight terminal, Chicago
1943: Working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber, Tennessee
See the entire collection here.Last season’s rookies have a lot of work to do. The 2016 NBA draft is widely regarded as one of the weakest in recent memory. With no. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons sitting out the entire season with a broken foot, there wasn’t much competition for Rookie of the Year. Malcolm Brogdon, a second-round pick of the Bucks, ran away with the award despite fairly pedestrian stats: 10.2 points, 4.2 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game on 45.7 percent shooting. The only other players to get first-place votes were Joel Embiid (who played only 31 games) and Dario Saric (whose hot streak happened too late in the season). Both were drafted in 2014. The 2016 lottery picks were nowhere to be found.
A bad rookie season doesn’t have to define a player’s career. A lot of guys improve dramatically between their first and second seasons in the league. They are more comfortable as professionals on and off the court, and they get a full offseason with NBA coaches and training staffs to work on their game. Playing in the NBA can be a wake-up call for many young players. Their physical tools are no longer enough. Bad habits they could get away with at lower levels of the game get exposed. Even guys drafted in the lottery need to hone their craft to survive at the next level, much less succeed.
Just as important as coming back as different players in their sophomore seasons is coming back into different situations. Team context is huge for young players. Some guys need to change their position in the NBA, while others need a different role in the offense. One of the benefits of being a lottery pick is that teams will typically give those players more opportunities to show what they can do. They are more invested in their success than people taken later in the draft. If a second-rounder fails to impress, they may not get another chance.
The quarter mark of the season is a good time to check in one some of the notable players from the 2016 draft to see what, if anything, has changed.
Jaylen Brown has taken the league by storm in Boston, but progress has been more mixed for his peers.
Brandon Ingram, Lakers
For all the attention Lonzo Ball generates, the Lakers have become Ingram’s team. The no. 2 pick in the 2016 draft had an up-and-down rookie season, averaging 9.4 points a game on 40.2 percent shooting. The team revamped itself in the offseason, in part to clear salary cap space and in part to feature Ingram more in the offense. L.A. has four new starters this season, and they complement Ingram better than the guys they replaced.
Lonzo Ball is more of pass-first point guard than D’Angelo Russell, the lead ball handler from last season’s team. Larry Nance Jr. takes fewer shots than Julius Randle does, who is now coming off the bench, while Brook Lopez stretches the floor and creates more driving lanes than Timofey Mozgov does. All those changes have given Ingram more room to operate in the half court and more time with the ball. He has taken advantage of the opportunity, averaging 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game on 44.3 percent shooting.
The biggest change in Ingram’s game is that he’s attacking the rim more. He’s taking 51.6 percent of his shots within 5 feet of the basket this season, compared with only 33.2 percent last season, and he’s getting to the line more often. Changing his shot distribution has made him a more efficient player: His field goal percentage (40.3 percent to 44.3 percent) and true shooting percentage (47.4 percent to 50.7 percent) have spiked. An increase in usage usually means a decline in efficiency, but Ingram has reversed the general trend. If he can make a similar jump next season, he will be a star.
Getting to the rim is the first step for Ingram. The next is finishing more effectively. He’s shooting 64.3 percent within 3 feet of the rim, right under the league average of 65.4 percent. Even shooting that well is impressive considering his body type. At 6-foot-9 and 190 pounds with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, Ingram is all skin and bones. Defenders can bump him off his spots, and he struggles to finish through contact. The strength should come: Ingram is only 20 years old. He has everything else. He can elevate over smaller defenders, and he eats up space on shot blockers when they are rotating over to contest his shot. As he becomes stronger, he will either finish through Michael Carter-Williams on plays like this or draw the foul:
Ingram was known as a shooter in college, but he shot only 29.4 percent from 3 as a rookie. Luke Walton asked him to de-emphasize the shot this season. Ingram cut his number of 3-point attempts per 36 minutes of playing time nearly in half, from 3 to 1.7. It’s what Jason Kidd did with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker in Milwaukee. He wanted them to focus on scoring inside first, and then build up the rest of their game.
The Lakers are laying the first piece of the foundation down with Ingram this season. There’s a lot of work to do before they are finished.
Dragan Bender, Suns
The Suns still don’t know what they have in Bender. Phoenix exiled its starting point guard and fired its coach in the first week of the season, and Bender is one of several young players who have been lost amid the chaos. He is playing seven minutes a game more than last season, but he’s not doing much with the additional playing time. His per-36-minute averages are down from his rookie campaign, when he was one of the worst players in the NBA. Bender has the worst net rating of anyone on the Suns roster. Phoenix is minus-15.4 when he’s on the court, and only minus-1.3 when he’s off.
The Kristaps Porzingis comparisons were inevitable for an athletic European 7-footer with perimeter skills, but Bender is a different type of player. He doesn’t have KP’s strength or explosiveness, or the offensive game to take advantage of mismatches against smaller defenders. He’s more of a cerebral player who can spread the floor and help facilitate the offense. The problem is that all Bender does is shoot 3s: 64.5 percent of his career shots are from beyond the arc. If there’s a bright spot for Bender this season, it’s that at least he’s knocking them down. He’s shooting 32-for-90 from deep (35.6 percent) after going 28-for-101 (27.7 percent) as a rookie.
The Suns need to find a new role for Bender. They have used him mostly as a power forward, where he has not been able to use his size to his advantage. Bender moves well for a 7-foot-1 player, but he’s not fast enough to keep up with smaller players at the 4. A player with his skill set would be more valuable at center, where he could open up the floor and take slower defenders off the dribble. Bender has the rim-protection ability to make it worth a shot. He has a career block rate of 2.8 percent, and opposing players are shooting worse at the rim against him than against Tyson Chandler. According to stats.NBA.com, they have a field goal percentage of 57 percent in 3.4 attempts against Bender a game, and 60.2 percent in 4.7 attempts against Chandler. Bender has some real defensive potential. He had four blocks all over the floor in a game against the 76ers in December:
Unfortunately for Bender, the Suns already have too many centers. Chandler is making $13 million a season, and he is backed up by Alex Len, the no. 5 pick in the 2013 draft, and Greg Monroe, who came over in the Eric Bledsoe trade. That doesn’t even count Marquese Chriss, another second-year big man who could play as a small-ball 5. Like so many bigger players in the NBA who can no longer play the 4, Bender is a victim of a numbers crunch upfront. He may eventually play at the 5 in Phoenix: Len and Monroe will be unrestricted free agents this summer, and Chandler has only one more year left on his deal. But until Bender moves to the 5, his game isn’t likely to change much.
Buddy Hield, Kings
There have been two different versions of Hield this season. He’s averaged 10.3 points on 35.4 percent shooting in seven games as a starter, and 13.4 points on 50 percent shooting in 18 games as a reserve. It took Dave Joerger a while to find a rotation that clicked. The Kings got off to a brutal 1-6 start, and Hield was part of four different starting lineups in that stretch, none of which were effective. Sacramento has a more respectable 8-12 record since moving Hield to the bench, where he has found some chemistry with rookie point guard Frank Mason III. The two have a net rating of plus-9.8 in 232 minutes together, the highest for any two-man unit the team has used regularly this season.
The move has helped Hield in two ways. He’s facing less-talented defenders, and his role has been simplified. Hield plays on the second unit with Mason and fellow rookie guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, capable playmakers who can run the offense and score out of the pick-and-roll, two areas where Hield has struggled. He has never averaged more than two assists per game in college or the NBA, and he’s in only the 38th percentile in the league as a ball handler in the pick-and-roll this season. Coming off the bench, Hield can jack shots as much as he wants, which is when he’s at his best.
Hield is too one-dimensional to be an effective starter at this stage in his career. He is one of only five players in the NBA who average more than 10 points per game, but fewer than four rebounds, two assists and 1.5 free throw attempts. Josh Richardson is the only starter of the five, and he’s a defensive specialist. There’s a long list of things Hield can’t do right now: He doesn’t create much offense for his teammates, he doesn’t get to the free throw line, he doesn’t rebound particularly well, and he’s a one-position defender without the quickness to defend 1s or the size to defend 3s. A player with his frame (6-foot-4 and 214 pounds with a 6-foot-8 wingspan), athleticism, and shooting ability will have a long career in the NBA, but he has to expand his game to be more than a sixth man.
Domantas Sabonis, Pacers
Sabonis is the poster child for how much a young player’s situation matters. He barely looked like an NBA player with the Thunder, but he’s blossomed into a key contributor for the Pacers, one of the most surprising teams in the league this season. Despite playing only an extra 4.5 minutes per game, Sabonis has doubled his averages in points (12.1), rebounds (8.5), and assists (2.1), and his field goal percentage has shot up from 39.9 percent to 54 percent. He had some monster games with Myles Turner out: 18 points and 12 rebounds against the Heat, 22 points and 12 boards against the Spurs.
The key for Sabonis was changing positions, not teams. He was forced to play as a stretch 4 next to Steven Adams and Enes Kanter in Oklahoma City; 83.5 percent of his minutes as a rookie came with one of those two on the floor. The percentages have flipped this season. He has played 16 percent of his minutes with Myles Turner, and he’s the only traditional big man in the game the rest of the time. It’s much closer to the role he had in college, where he was one of the best interior players in the country. Sabonis is on pace to take 36 3s this season after taking 159 as a rookie, and he has quadrupled his offensive rebound rate.
The problem with playing Sabonis on center comes on defense. He has the size (6-foot-11 and 240 pounds) but not the length (6-foot-10.5 wingspan) to protect the rim. He has blocked only seven shots this season, and the Pacers’ defensive rating is five points lower with Turner at center. Turner is a developing shooter who is taking 2.6 3s a game this season, so there is a chance the two could learn to play together on offense. Nate McMillan may not want to experiment much with Indiana making a playoff push, but the team needs to figure out whether Sabonis and Turner can work together, or if Sabonis tops out as a good backup 5. The good news for Indiana is that’s still better than what he seemed to be in Oklahoma City.
Taurean Prince, Hawks
The Hawks are resetting this season, and no one has benefited from a fresh start more than Prince, the no. 12 pick in last year’s draft. He has played nearly as many minutes in 26 games this season (841) as he did all of his rookie season (981). With Tim Hardaway Jr. and Thabo Sefolosha gone, Prince is now the full-time starter at small forward. He’s putting up excellent all-around numbers for a second-year player: 13 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks a game on 45.2 percent shooting. Most impressively, he’s shooting 42.1 percent from 3 on four attempts per game. Draw up a 3-and-D wing in a lab and they will look a lot like Prince. Watch him fight over two screens and recover to block his man’s shot at the rim:
At 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds with a 6-foot-11 wingspan, Prince has the size and athleticism to match up with all but the biggest wings in the league. Like all young players, he is still learning the fine points of playing defense at the NBA level, but the physical tools are there. He is getting better, especially in defending the ball handler in pick-and-rolls. One thing to track with Prince is how often Atlanta uses him as a small-ball 4. Eight of the 10 most frequently used lineups he appears in feature two traditional big men, and he could be a more dangerous offensive player if he’s moved up a position.
Prince was drafted to be a role player on offense, but the lack of talent around him has given him the freedom to spread his wings. He has shown flashes of an intriguing all-around game: He had eight assists in a game against the Kings and five assists in a game against the Knicks. The most encouraging sign for Prince is that he’s making more plays without turning the ball over more. His assist rate has increased by four points, while his turnover rate has slightly declined. He’s making the most of his opportunity, and he looks like a building block for the future in Atlanta.When you are a 30-year-old playing on the youngest team in the NHL, an unscheduled day off is music to your ears. And when Tyler Bozak turned 30 earlier this year, he knew he would be spending more time on recovery.
“I remember when I was younger, I wasn’t doing as much stuff in the gym or on the training tables,” he said. “But now, I catch myself in there every day getting some work done on my body,”
The Maple Leafs had another unscheduled day off on Friday, the day after their 6-1 rout of the Florida Panthers at Air Canada Centre. The free time was their second such unexpected break this season, and as the physical toll of an 82-game schedule sets in, different coping techniques become essential.
Bozak has had his share of injuries. The longest-tenured Leafs player had two stints on injured reserve last season, costing him a combined 25 games. Bozak was sidelined with an undisclosed ailment during the pre-season, but was able to return in time for...WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The man accused of killing four people inside a Washington, D.C. mansion after holding them against their will for hours has been indicted on 20 felony counts, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
The indictment, returned by a D.C. Superior Court grand jury Wednesday, charges Daron Wint with counts including first-degree murder while armed, burglary, kidnapping, extortion, arson, and theft, prosecutors say. He's accused of killing forty-six-year-old business executive Savvas Savopoulos; his 47-year-old wife, Amy; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and the family's housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa in May of 2015.
Savvas and Amy Savopoulos, left, Philip Savopoulos, center, and Veralicia Figueroa CBS News
The four were held captive inside the home for at least 18 hours while they arranged for $40,000 in cash to be dropped off at the home for their captors, authorities say. After the money was delivered, all four were killed, court documents said. Prosecutors say Wint, a welder who once worked for Savvas Savopoulos' company, then lit the home on fire.
Authorities were able to tie Wint to the murders after finding his DNA on pizza that was ordered to the house while the Savopoulos family and Figueroa were being held against their will, reports CBS affiliate WUSA9. Wint, 35, was captured in the D.C. area after investigators say they narrowly missed the suspect at his girlfriend's Brooklyn, N.Y. apartment during a multi-state manhunt.
The indictment includes 12 counts of first-degree murder while armed, prosecutors say, including four counts of first-degree murder while armed in the course of a kidnapping; four counts of first-degree murder while armed in the course of a burglary, and four counts of first-degree pre-meditated murder while armed. The indictment specifies "aggravating circumstances," including a finding that the murders were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A boot print found on the exterior of the Savopoulos' home Metropolitan Police Department
Wint also faces one count each first-degree burglary, extortion, arson, and first-degree theft. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips and D.C. Metropolitan Police Department chief Cathy Lanier.
Authorities said in a previous court document that they believed the killings "required the presence and assistance of more than one person"but no one else has been charged. Prosecutors said in their statement Wednesday that the investigation into the murders is continuing.
Wint was initially charged in only the death of Savvas Savopoulos.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of life in prison.Sony's Project Morpheus virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4 is progressing very nicely.
At GDC in March, Sony unveiled a "near finished" version of Morpheus, which it says will launch in the first half of 2016. The new headset is lighter, has a larger display with higher resolution and faster refresh rate. It also has a wider field of of view, with nine exterior LEDs for positional tracking.
See also: I flew around on a Pegasus by riding a bike hooked up to a VR headset
This week, I finally got to try it out with four demos and all I can say is: next year can't come soon enough.
Compared to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Morpheus is the most comfortable VR headset. While other VR headsets fit on your face like a pair of ski goggles with elastic straps on the sides and top, Morpheus has a hard adjustable band.
Oculus VR says its consumer version of the Rift fits on like a baseball cap, but I'd argue the Morpheus does so better.
Dodging objects in "The VR Room." Image: Lili Sams/Mashable
Morpheus' hard band puts the headset's weight on the top of your head and distributes it evenly rather than putting the weight on your face. It never slipped off my face like the Rift and Vive did.
Morpheus' display can also be adjusted to fit closer or farther or away from your face — a huge plus, if you wear glasses.
The VR Room
In the first demo called The VR Room, I was a cartoony Godzilla-like monster attacking a city and trying to dodge objects being thrown at me by as many as four other players. Yes, I was wearing the VR headset, while three other players had DualShock 4 controllers.
The pacing is a little quick and I had to swing my head left and right quickly in order to smash buildings and dodge objects. It was also Mashable photo editor Lili Sams' first VR experience and she found it to be the most dizzying of the demos.
VR is an isolating experience, for the most part, and Nintendo believes it won't have family appeal, but The VR Room begs to differ.
The London Heist
The second demo was called The London Heist, a Grand Theft Auto-like experience, and required using PlayStation Move motion controllers. The wand controllers with LED orbs replicated my hands in VR.
The experience was the most realistic one with rich PlayStation 3-level graphics that puts you shotgun in a getaway car as you're engaged in a shoot-out with motorcyclists. Your job, is to eliminate them with a machine gun.
You don't control the driving, but you've got full control over shooting the cyclists. Just aim a Move controller and pull the trigger to fire away. To reload your gun, you have to pick up a magazine on the dashboard with one Move controller and tap it to the other Move controller that's holding the gun.
The demo even takes strategy into account. Shoot a motorcycle's wheels and it'll spin out and crash into a ball of fire. It beats firing at the riders, who seemed to be wearing bulletproof vests or something.
Interestingly enough, Sams, who isn't a gamer, thought The London Heist was the most entertaining of the bunch.
Super Hypercube
Kokoromi's Super Hypercube made me nauseous. The game is a human Tetris-like demo where you use a DualShock 4 controller to twist and turn a geometric shape and try to slide it through a geometric window.
I enjoyed Super Hypercube's trippy graphics and simplistic gameplay, but I found it to be too fast...the constantly accelerating rainbow-colored bars on the floor only made me feel even more sick. At one point, I was leaning left and right to look around the geometric shape so much, I nearly fell down.
Demos like Super Hypercube remind me that there's still a learning curve for developers. VR content will require a lot of tweaking to get them right on the sweet spot so users won't get sick.
Headmaster
The last demo I got to try out was a soccer demo called Headmaster. The goal was to head soccer balls at targets.
Sounds simple, right? Wrong. It was damn hard.
I learned two things from Headmaster: 1) Heading a soccer ball at a specific point is not easy at all; I now have more sympathy for soccer players, and 2) I wish VR had haptic feedback. There was no way to tell when the ball made contact with my virtual head, so I always missed. It was frustrating to the point I tried to kick a ball with my foot, but of course, it didn't do anything.
Lower barrier to the living room
There's no doubt VR is happening. With the Rift and Morpheus launching next year and the HTC Vive coming out later this year, the wheels are turning.
Morpheus, unlike other VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, will not require an expensive PC with the latest specs. It will work with every PlayStation 4 console — machines that cost $399 and already have an install base of more than 23.8 million.
It's for that reason I think Morpheus has the greatest chance at making a splash with non-gamers and geeks. Sony's Morpheus will be a plug and play affair. It also helps that the headset is the most attractive and comfortable of the bunch. Sony's also got great relationships with game developers so the content will flow like the Nile River.
All Sony has to do now is price it affordably. Can we get Morpheus for $500 or less Sony?Get the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
It's important we get back to winning ways when Port Vale visit St James Park at the weekend.
A draw at Wycombe last Saturday was a decent enough result, but we were gutted to lose 4-1 at home to Luton on Tuesday night and, as you'd imagine, are intent on bouncing back at the first opportunity.
That said, we are under no illusions – it ain’t gonna be easy. Having been relegated at the end of last season, Vale lost nine of their first 12 League Two fixtures, but have improved markedly since Neil Aspin took over as manager in the middle of last month. The Potteries side won 3-1 at home to an in-form Cheltenham on Saturday and enjoyed an even more impressive 3-0 victory at Morecambe on Tuesday.
No matter, we continue to believe in our own ability and if we can be just a little bit more clinical in front of goal, and more resilient at the back, than we were against Nathan Jones’ side in midweek then we’re more than capable of getting the result we want. At the same time, there’s no denying Tuesday night was a setback and, with that in mind, it would be great if there was a good crowd in attendance to help us on our way.
(Image: Pinnacle)
While we ended up well beaten by Luton, we had been much the better team in the first half and, with just a little bit more good fortune, might have been out of sight by half-time rather than level at 1-1.
Of course, it was disappointing that after what was probably our best 45 minutes of the season we weren’t ahead, but we came out for the second half confident that if we performed anywhere near as well as we had done in the opening period we would get the result we wanted.
Unfortunately, the visitors nicked a second goal within a minute or two of the restart and, rather than regrouping as we should have done, things went from bad to worse as we allowed them to add a third and fourth very soon afterwards.
To add insult to injury, I didn’t much care for the way Luton went about things. Take it from me, they’re a cocky bunch who, rather than let their football do the talking, did everything they could to wind us up. I guess they might argue the end justified the means, but it’s not the way we like to play the game and, truth be told, I’d love to see them come unstuck!
On the positive side, it was great to be in the new changing rooms for the first time. They're a huge improvement on what we’ve been used to at the Park and it was just a shame we couldn’t christen their use with a rather better result.
(Image: Pinnacle)
Our 0-0 draw at Wycombe on Saturday was a rather more satisfying outcome. Wanderers are pretty one dimensional with everything targeted at man mountain Ade Akinfenwa up front and while it isn’t especially pretty it’s proved pretty effective of late with Gareth Ainsworth’s side going into the game on the back of four successive wins.
Our cause wasn’t helped when the excellent Hiram Boateng went off injured at half-time and we probably rode our luck a little in the second half. It was a real battle in which we put our bodies on the line and, all said and done, I thought we were good value for a hard-earned point.
(Image: Getty)
I was thrilled to see my former club Crystal Palace finally get up and running for the season with a fantastic 2-1 victory over Chelsea on Saturday, when Wilf Zaha lit up the pitch on what was his first start since the opening weekend of the season.
I was speaking to Palace legend Mark Bright just before the recent international break and he was convinced that the team just needed one result to kickstart their season and they would go on to climb well clear of the relegation zone. I do hope Brighty’s right, for while Exeter mean everything to me – and, for my sins, I’m also a big Man U fan – I’ve an affinity for all the clubs I’ve played for, but especially Palace.
I had a wonderful time in my three and a half years at Selhurst Park, where I played some of the best football of my career and enjoyed a great relationship with the supporters, and will always cherish the 20-odd Premier League appearances I made for the club after we clinched promotion in the 2013 Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley.
I started the majority of matches in the first three or four months of the following season and was optimistic I’d done enough to earn a new contract. However, Tony Pullis replaced Ian Holloway as manager at the end of November and from thereon in my opportunities were limited. I made my last appearance for Palace in a 1-0 defeat at home to Southampton in March 2014 and moved to Bolton in the summer of the same year.
I was struggling to find which channel Monday’s FA Cup first round draw was on, but, with our tie being last out of the hat, switched to BBC2 just in time to see us drawn at home to Heybridge Swifts.
A home draw was what we wanted and with Heybridge plying their trade in the eighth tier of English football we will go into the ties as strong favourites. Be that as it may, our visitors are in the first round on merit we’ll treat them with due respect. Clearly, they will be out to pull off a shock and, rest assured, we won’t be taking anything for granted, but it will be disappointing if we can’t progress.
When Heybridge’s name came out of the hat it rang a distant bell but were it not for the @OfficialECFC Twitter feed I wouldn’t have remembered I was in the Exeter side that came up against the Essex side in the first round of the FA Trophy in December 2006 – apparently we won 3-0 with goals from Billy Jones, Matt Gill and Bertie Cozic. Given how few goals my French friend scored I dare say the game will have lingered longer in his memory than mine!
Anyway, before we give too much thought to the FA Cup, our only concern right now is to bag three points against Port Vale on Saturday!Warhammer 40k is 30 years old this year.
Take that in for a minute, it’s not only old enough to vote and drink, it’s old enough to have kids. Warhammer 40k is old.
This year Games Workshop have issues one of their periodic refreshes of Warhammer 40k, which has had a huge effect on the game.
The rules have been simplified, the plot is moving on in the world, and there’s new models and game boxes available. All this means that now’s one of the best times to get involved with Warhammer 40k, and thankfully there’s a few of us here in the office who mysteriously have decided to get back into 40k at the same time!
So here I am, with my Warhammer Friends Olly and Milo, and we’re going to lead you through our advice about how to start getting back into Warhammer 40k, come join us. Come, play tiny people. It’s calling to you.
Anyway.
Step 1: Don’t Overthink It
You’re going to want an army, that’s how the game works. Without an army you’re not playing 40k, you’re just musing about 40k. But what army?
The first advice we have for you is; don’t overthink it. If you think an army is cool and you like their backstory (the fluff), then go for them. Don’t sit there wondering who’s best in a fight or thinking about what all the stats are, that can come later. Just look at the different models and if you want to, read their backstories, and then grab whatever you think is cool.
Don’t even think about stuff that might be coming out in the future. If you think something’s cool today, you’ll think it’s cool tomorrow. Get things you love and you’ll love them forever.
So go with your gut, because then you’ll have something you love, today and tomorrow.
Step 2. Overthink It.
OK Step 1 works if you’re like me, I’m wanting to play the game for narrative and social reasons, and also because the Word Bearers were right.
If you’re wanting to win and win HARD, here’s Olly with some tips before you buy:
“It’s a big decision to pick an army and the units you want, if you have the chance, you should play with other people’s armies just to see what they play like. No amount of rule-reading will teach you how the armies will play out. You may like orks thematically and visually, but if you cringe every time you lose a model on the battlefield then you don’t have the facial creases spare to lose the 40 you’re going to need to lose in order to win. Try out fast armies like Eldar, slow ones like Necrons, and find out if you really care for space marines or not. There’s a good chance you’ll get sucked into buying some space marines at some point, you should probably find out if you actually like to play them.”
So by now, you should have an idea about what you want to play. Time to move onto the game itself.
Step 3. Don’t Be Afraid To Walk Away
If you’re very lucky you’ll be playing Warhammer 40k with your friends. If you’re not so lucky you’ll need to find someone to play with, which can be difficult.
Approach your local Games Workshop if you have one, if not try to seek out a local group you can join in with. There’ll be message boards or Facebook groups, they are out there just they might take a little finding.
Then go and meet them and when you’re feeling ready, jump in for a game.
But, and this is very important. Don’t be afraid to walk away.
If you’re not enjoying yourself, if you’re feeling bad, if they’re making ‘jokes’ you’re uncomfortable with, if you’re hating the game because of them.
Walk away. You don’t have to put up with anything and Warhammer 40k has a huge amount of people playing it, especially now. There’ll always be someone else you can play with, the right group is out there so just find them!
Step 4. Don’t Be A Stickler
We’re back to Olly for some advice about rules:
“The rules are vast, and you aren’t expected to know all of them. |
crayfish much, especially the spiny stream species, which is not endangered.
“I certainly do not think spiders are of any major consequence to crayfish populations” says Loughman. “Man-made sources of imperilment, such as invasive crayfish introduction, are of far greater consequence to these endangered animals.”
Journal reference: Southeastern Naturalist, DOI: 10.1656/058.015.0317
Read more: Mysterious beautiful blue crayfish is new species from IndonesiaJohn Podesta, the campaign chairman for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, could not defend Huma Abedin’s failure to turn over all devices containing State Department emails.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Podesta told host Jake Tapper that “Huma’s been completely cooperative with the authorities and they’ve recognized that,” adding:
“She’s worked with her attorneys to turn over relevant material, but we don’t know what this is all about really.”
Tapper quickly corrected Podesta and mentioned Abedin’s failure to provide authorities with the computer that reportedly holds more emails, prompting the longtime Clinton confidant to say:
“I think it’s clear that she complied to the best of her ability to turn everything over that she had in her possession.”
Podesta also called Tapper’s claims “speculation that has been running wild in the press,” to which Tapper responded:
“I’m not speculating sir. Our reporting is that it was a laptop computer that belonged to Anthony Weiner and they found State Department emails on that laptop.”
“That’s reporting, that’s not speculation,” Tapper said.Almost a quarter of Scottish manufacturers have lost or are at risk of losing staff due to Brexit, according to a new study.
Businesses surveyed said this was due to uncertainty over post-Brexit EU workers' rights and a drop in the value of the pound.
Nearly a quarter of respondents cited Brexit concerns and uncertainty over future trading tariffs as a key barrier to growth, the Manufacturing and Engineering Report 2017/18 found.
The survey was conducted by Henderson Loggie, in conjunction with the MHA association of UK independent accountancy firms and Bank of Scotland, questioning 50 Scottish businesses as part of a survey of 460 UK wide.
READ MORE: Theresa May 'too busy' to visit Glasgow to see poverty and inequality first-hand
It found that Scottish manufacturers are optimistic about growth prospects in the coming year, with 65 per cent predicting growth in the next 12 months.
Almost half (45 per cent) of businesses expect staff numbers to increase in the next twelve months, however 72 per cent of respondents have difficulty recruiting employees with the relevant skills.
Gavin Black, manufacturing lead at Henderson Loggie, said: "Scottish manufacturers are largely positive in their outlook and prospects for growth, and the sector is certainly gritting its teeth in what has been a difficult and uncertain period.
"However, we should not be complacent and the survey has found that despite the ambitions, growth is being constrained and companies in the sector continue to be under increasing pressure to cut costs, meet the rising prices of raw materials and embrace new technologies if they are to survive.
"The sector continues to have difficulty recruiting staff with the relevant skills, the pressure on which is likely to increase as some businesses are at risk of losing staff due to Brexit.
"It is encouraging that the businesses surveyed have ambitions to grow staff numbers over the next 12 months and continue to offer apprenticeships and grow talent from grass roots to try and fill the skills gap.
"The Scottish and UK Governments need to continue to support the sector and expand skills training for the future workforce in schools and colleges."
READ MORE: Theresa May 'too busy' to visit Glasgow to see poverty and inequality first-hand
The study found that Brexit has already had an impact on production costs.
More than eight in ten respondents reported that production costs will continue to rise over the next 12 months with the key driver for this being the increasing price of raw materials and components (directly or indirectly) through currency fluctuations.
Respondents plan to improve productivity and efficiency and increase prices to deal with the rise in production costs.
Craig Pollock, area director for manufacturing at Bank of Scotland, said: "Scotland's manufacturing firms have flagged potential risks, such as the UK's negotiations to leave the EU, rising production costs and staff shortages. These will need to be closely managed."
READ MORE: Theresa May 'too busy' to visit Glasgow to see poverty and inequality first-hand
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: "These are very encouraging figures for our vital manufacturing industry. A strong manufacturing base is critical to Scotland's economic success and to creating skilled employment opportunities for the future.
"With Scotland enjoying resources few nations can match, we will continue to do all we can to support growth.
"In the last year, manufacturing output is up, in part due to the resumption of steel production at the Dalzell plant after the Scottish Government intervened to save this key strategic asset. We are also supporting expansion of the aluminium smelter at Lochaber and the development of a new Lightweight Manufacturing Centre in Renfrewshire.
"This is the first step to establishing a National Manufacturing Institute Scotland which will foster the leadership, ambition and skills to make Scotland a world-leading manufacturing location.
"However, Brexit is a major threat to jobs, investment and prosperity as a result of the UK Government's proposals to leave the single market and customs union - and this report underlines those concerns, with nearly a quarter of firms already reporting they have lost or at risk of losing staff as a result of Brexit.
"Losing membership of the world's largest single market would seriously impact Scotland's export potential. It would also restrict movement for a highly skilled workforce who contribute a huge amount to our companies and country.
"We will continue to press the UK Government to change course, and protect Scotland's interests."Today we had a chance to play with Qualcomm's latest MDP devices (tablet and phone) which pack the company's mighty Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974). The tablet is slightly larger than than last year's and features an 11.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080-pixel display, 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of built-in flash storage (with microSD expansion), USB 3.0 support and a 12 megapixel AF rear camera with flash (2MP fixed-focus in front). All of this is crammed into a slim (0.46 inches / 11.7mm) chassis that's powered by a 3,400mAh Li-ion battery and incorporates a bevvy of radios (LTE band 17, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4 LE, GPS, NFC) and sensors (including pressure and humidity).
The phone shares most of the tablet's specs but swaps the screen for a 4.3-inch panel (1,280 x 720 pixels) and the battery for a smaller (1,500mAh) pack. We put these Snapdragon 800-equipped MDPs through their paces by running our usual suite of benchmarks (plus a few more). The results? Prepare for ludicrous speed! More after the break.Sometimes circumstances are such that assertive responses or reporting harassers can’t or hasn’t worked or don’t feel like comfortable options. That’s when it’s time to brainstorm what might work. Here are 5 non-traditional responses.
1. Jessie shared this story and photo on the Hollaback website about how she dealt with harassers at a construction site.
“There was a construction site near my house for several months. I had been avoiding walking near it whenever possible, taking the longer route between my home and my bus stop. One day I had the *audacity* to just take the faster way home. I figured that if I just walked fast and pretended to be on the phone that I would be safe. Wrong. Several men, both on the ground and on the building, started to yell at me. A couple of them even approached the fence to get as close as possible, making vulgar gestures and remarks. When I got home I made this sign and posted it late at night. I used zip ties to secure it to their fence, facing the busy street in front of the construction site. They didn’t manage to get the sign down until 9am – long after all the rush hour traffic got to read my message. On the back of the sign, I included the definition of sexual harassment and a special message for the assholes that made me feel unsafe in my own neighbourhood.”
2. After surveying people about their pet-peeves on the subway system, artist jayshells created several posters, including this one about harassment. He hung 400 in stations all over NYC.
3. In the late 1980s artist Ilona Granet design several anti-harassment street signs. Her goal was to “get the word out that women usually find street harassment unpleasant, annoying to grotesque, and intolerable.” One sign says, “Curb your animal instincts” in both English and Spanish and another says, “No Cat Calls, Whistling, Kissing Sounds.” They are made of the same type of material as a stop sign and are about the same size.
Granet exhibited her signs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and various traveling shows. Most impressively, she worked with the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) to get several of her signs posted in public for about a year. She was able to do so successfully in locations near the World Trade Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Battery Park. Her signs generated a huge amount of press across the world, including radio, television, newspapers, and magazines.
4. In 2010, Lisa Robinson, her husband, and their five-year-old son were on the train, returning home from a day trip to Cardiff (Wales) where they had celebrated the son’s birthday. There were about 30 drunk Cardiff football (soccer) fans on the train with them. The men were harassing a female passenger on a train platform. When Robinson told them to stop, they began yelling seixst and obscene comments at her.
Robinson pulled the red handle to stop the train. She informed the conductor about the harassment and asked that he call the police. The conductor did nothing and started the train back up. Undeterred by the train conductor’s indifference, Robinson and her family got off the train at their stop and again asked that something be done about the rowdy men. The train conductor refused again. Robinson decided to do something more. She stood in the tracks! She would not move until the police were called. The transit police and local politicians all decried the behavior of the harassers and the conductor and applauded Robinson and the police opened an investigation.
Robinson said, “This is my community, this is my village. We’re not going to be bullied and certainly for women and families, they should be able to travel on the train in peace and quiet and go about their business without being bullied like that.”
5. The folks at The Riot created this handy form, from “The Riot’s Great Big Patriarchy-Smashing Activity Book!”I love the expressions “gender disobedience” and “gender disobedient” as alternatives to “gender non-conformity”. They are great for describing queerness and transness from the perspective of people who intentionally subvert gender norms.
This post is me google prospecting on the term “Gender disobedience” because I found no interesting results and thought the concept needed a homepage. I hope my thoughts on the subject are interesting to you, especially if you yourself happen to be gender disobedient. To read more about me and my particular gender check out About Jer and Gender.
In praise of gender non-conformity
If you are careful to do things expected of your gender, or just happen to, you are “gender conforming”. If you do things that aren’t expected of your gender, for any reason, you are “gender non-conforming”.
Gender non-conformity is an essential concept because it’s so unspecific about the reasons or details. It’s needed when you don’t know someone’s gender or gender presentation goals.
Many people identify as “GNC” as an identity or attribute, especially because it can describe both cis and trans people across all genders.
Gender non-conforming is also an important label for those who consider themselves cisgender, yet behave in ways associated with other genders.
The only thing I don’t like about “gender non-conforming”, for myself, is that it can also describe people who do it unintentionally, or naturally without any particular agency. I don’t just happen to be non-conforming, I put effort into my disobedience.
I am gender disobedient
I love “gender disobedient” as a label because it feels like the active form of non-conformity. Disobedience is something I do, not just something I am.
I reject the common gender system as it exists today, and I want to subvert it with my own style and behavior. I accept that the rules exist, but refuse to abide them.
Disobedience in other parts of life can be dangerous, and obeying is important for everyone’s safety, but when it comes to gender presentation, I think breaking the rules is safe and wholesome.
Not all rules were meant to be broken, but some of them must be.
Gender norms burden and oppress us.
DISOBEY THE CISHETEROPATRIARCHY!The North Carolina Senate race, where incumbent Kay Hagan (D) is pitted against challenger Thom Tillis (R), is one of the few that's been going well for Democrats lately. But a conservative dark money group has a plan to change that — convince pro-pot, antiwar young voters to vote for libertarian Sean Haugh instead of Hagan:
The ads are bizarre. Over peppy music, they show smiling, perky young people mouthing slogans like "Get Haugh, get high!" and "More weed, less war." They seem designed to appeal to some middle-aged political consultant's imaginary idea of a young voter — an empty-headed dope who thinks war's a total drag and just wants to get his smoke on.
The ads make their agenda clear when they go after Hagan
The young actors urge a vote for Haugh, a pizza deliveryman and perennial candidate who uses YouTube videos to promote his message. (Karen Tumulty and Reid Wilson wrote this excellent profile of him back in July.) Haugh himself had nothing to do with the ads, and hasn't disclosed raising any money. But he's currently winning about 5.7 percentage points in the HuffPostPollster average — potentially enough to swing the close election, particularly if he draws more support from one candidate than the other.
That's why he's drawn the attention of this outside group, which makes its agenda clear when the ads go after Hagan. In one, a young woman says "Stop! Don't even think about voting for Kay Hagan." Others dub her "out of touch" and "pro-war," and one says, "Kay Hagan doesn't support those values [pot and peace], but Sean Haugh does." The lack of support of GOP candidate Tillis for those values not-so-strangely goes unmentioned.
The group spending $225,000 on these ads is the American Future Fund, which was founded by GOP operative Nick Ryan and has spent tens of millions of dollars on ads backing Republicans and attacking Democrats since 2010. In 2012, the AFF was heavily associated with the Koch brothers' dark money network — according to Robert Maguire of OpenSecrets.org, 92 percent of its revenues that year came from the two main Koch money hubs, Freedom Partners and the Center to Protect Patient Rights.
A Freedom Partners spokesman told the Washington Post's Matea Gold that the group isn't funding AFF this year, and has nothing to do with the ads for Haugh. But since AFF doesn't disclose its donors, we don't know who's footing the bill for this strange strategy — and we probably never will.
Watch: We're bombarded with political ads every election. But do they even work?Watch: Ellen Page Headlines Original Series in New Viceland Channel Coming in 2016
From its modest beginnings as a magazine, to its own show on HBO, Vice continues to expand its brand into cable television. Now, Vice, in a partnership with A&E, will have its own platform to showcase its unique and youth-oriented programming, meaning a 24-hour cable channel set to continue the trend of interesting and topical subjects, taking over the cable channel H2.
Fans of HBO’s Vice will recognize some of the allure that makes Vice so engaging. Viceland, with its slew of original programming, is described by creative director Spike Jonze as programs that try “to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we’re curious about, or confused about, or that we think are funny.”
This exciting sneak peak into Viceland is no shortage of that. With comedy and unconventional personalities helming their own shows, there is a sense of exploration of the world’s darker corners and an overall sense of discovery and knowledge. Featuring attractive topics — like marijuana in “Weediquette,” music in “Noisey,” fashion in “Fashion Week International” (which takes on fashion in the Middle East in this clip) — Viceland is full of the Vice spirit and energy.
Shows like “Gaycation” feature Ellen Page and co-host Ian Daniel traveling the world to examine gay culture — in this clip Page and Daniel interview a homophobic Brazilian cop known for killing homosexuals. Other shows include “Huang’s World” with chef Eddie Huang, “Vice World of Sports” with Sal Masekela, and “Black Market” with Michael K. Williams — amongst many others.
Check out the extended sneak peek. Viceland is set to roll out in February 2016.
READ MORE: Toronto Review: Ellen Page and Julianne Moore Are Convincing Lovers, But ‘Freeheld’ Can’t Match Up
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.Sorry, Microsoft: Even the superficial return of the Start button isn’t enough to make people clamor for Windows 8. TheNextWeb takes a look at some of the latest numbers from Net Applications and finds that Windows 8′s growth has stagnated as the combined market share of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 grew by only 0.05 percentage points in November. In contrast, Windows 7′s market share grew by 0.22 percentage points, which means that users upgrading to new PCs still seem to prefer Windows 7 to Windows 8. It also seems that Windows 8.1′s growth is almost entirely driven by current Windows 8 users who are eagerly upgrading their PCs to take advantage of the latest software, as Windows 8.1′s market share grew by 0.92 percentage points and Windows 8′s market share shrank by 0.87 percentage points.
More from BGR: Why 2014 might be the beginning of the end for passwords
This article was originally published on BGR.com
Related stories
Windows convergence continues with 'Threshold' update in 2015
Europe is ground zero for Windows Phone's surge
Xbox One dominates PlayStation 4 in Black Friday console warAndroid Performance Case Study
by Romain Guy
www.curious-creature.org
Falcon Pro
I recently installed Falcon Pro, a new Twitter client, on my Nexus 4. I really enjoy using this application but I noticed a few hiccups here and there while using it and it seemed that scrolling the main timeline did not yield a perfectly stable framerate. I dug a little bit with some of the tools and techniques I use every day at work and I was able to quickly find some of the reasons why Falcon Pro does not behave as well as it can.
My goal in this article is to show you how you can track down and fix performance issues in an application, even if you don’t have its source code. All you need is a copy of the latest Android 4.2 SDK – the new ADT bundle makes setup a breeze. I would highly recommend you download the application to apply the techniques described here on your own. Falcon Pro is unfortunately – for you – a paid application and I will therefore provide links to various files you can download to follow my analysis.
A word about performance
Android 4.1 put focus on performance with Project Butter and it brought new performance analysis tools, such as systrace. Android 4.2 does not offer anything as significant as systrace but offers a couple of useful addition to your toolbox. You will discover one of these new tools later in this article.
Performance analysis is often a complex task that requires a lot of experience and a deep knowledge of one’s tools, hardware, APIs, etc. It is experience that allowed me to perform the analysis presented here in only a few minutes – you can see it happen in “real time” on my Twitter stream on December 1st. It will likely take you a few tries before you feel at ease with this kind of work.
Confirming my suspicions
One of the most important things to remember about performance work is to always use measurements to validate your actions. Even though it seemed obvious to me that Falcon Pro was suffering from framerate drops on a Nexus 4, I needed to make sure. I therefore installed the application on a Nexus 7 which, while powerful, offers a different performance profile than Nexus 4. Nexus 7 offers another interesting advantage for performance analysis that we’ll talk about later.
Installing the application on Nexus 7 did not make a difference and I could still see framerate drops. It even seemed slightly worse. To measure the problem I decided to use a Profile GPU rendering, a tool introduced in Android 4.1. You can find this tool in the Developer options section of the Settings application.
If Developer options is not available on your device running Android 4.2, go to the About phone or About tablet section and tap the Build number item at the bottom 7 times.
With this option turned on, the system will keep track of the time it took to draw the last 128 frames of every window. To use this tool you must now kill your application – a future version of Android will get rid of this requirement.
Methodology: unless specified otherwise, every measurement in this analysis is done by slowly scrolling the main timeline up and down by a few pixels at a time, revealing at most one extra list item.
After launching the application and scrolling the main timeline, I ran the following command from a terminal:
$ adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo com.jv.falcon.pro
In the resulting logs you will find a section entitled Profile data in ms. This section contains, for each window belonging to the application, a table of 3 columns. To use this data, simply copy the table in your favorite spreadsheet program and generate a stacked columns chart. The chart below is the result of my measurement (the original spreadsheet can be viewed online.)
Each column gives an estimate of how long each frame takes to render:
Draw is the time spent building display lists in Java. It indicates how much time is spent running methods such as View.onDraw(Canvas). Process is the time spent by Android’s 2D renderer to execute the display lists. The more Views in your hierarchy, the more drawing commands must be executed. Execute is the time it took to send a frame to the compositor. This part of the graph is usually small.
Reminder: to render smoothly at 60 fps, each frame must take less than 16 ms to complete.
About Execute: if Execute takes a long time, it means you are running ahead of the graphics pipeline. Android can have up to 3 buffers in flight and if you need another one the application will block until one of these bufferes is freed up. This can happen for two reasons. The first one is that your application is quick to draw on the Dalvik side but its display lists take a long time to execute on the GPU. The second reason is that your application took a long time to execute the first few frames; once the pipeline is full it will not catch up until the animation is done. This is something we'd like to improve in a future version of Android.
The chart obviously confirms my suspicions: while the application mostly performs well, it sometimes drops a frame.
Taking a closer look
Even though the data we gathered shows that the application sometimes takes too long to draw, it doesn’t tell the whole story. The framerate can also be affected by unscheduled or mischeduled frames. For instance, if an app always draws in less than 16 ms but sometimes performs long tasks between frames, it will sometimes miss a frame.
Systrace is the easiest tool to check whether Falcon Pro is suffering from this issue. This tool is a system profiler with very low overhead. Its timings are reasonably accurate and give you an overview of what the entire system is doing, including your application.
To enable systrace, go to Developer options and select Enable traces. A dialog appears, letting you choose what type of events you want to profile. We are only interested in Graphics and View.
Note: do not forget to turn off Profile GPU rendering.
To use systrace, open a terminal and from the directory tools/systrace in the Android SDK, run systrace.py:
$./systrace.py
By default, the tool will capture events for 5 seconds. I simply scrolled the main timeline up and down. The resulting trace is a stand-alone HTML document.
Tip: to navigate a systrace document, use the WASD keys to pan and zoom. W will zoom in on the mouse cursor.
A systrace document shows a lot of very interesting information. For instance, it shows you whether a process is scheduled, and on which CPU. If you zoom in on the last row, called 10440: m.jv.falcon.pro you can see what the application was doing. If you click on one of the performTraversals blocks you can see how long the application spent drawing a frame.
While most of the performTraversals are below the 16 ms threshold, some take more time, thus confirming the measurements previously obtained (zoom in at the 935 ms marker to see such a block.)
More interestingly, you can see that the application sometimes misses a frame because it doesn’t manage to schedule a draw operation. Zoom in at the 270 ms marker to find a deliverInputEvent block taking 25 ms. This blocks indicates that the application spent 25 ms processing a touch event. Since the application is using a ListView, this is likely due to a problem in the adapter but we’ll get back to this later.
Systrace was useful to not only confirm that the application is spending too much time drawing, but also to help us find another potential performance bottleneck. It is a very useful tool but it has its limitations. It only provides high level data and we must turn to other tools to understand what is truly going on.
Visualizing overdraw
Drawing performance issues can have many root causes but a common one is overdraw. Overdraw happens every time the application asks the system to draw something on top of something else. Think about the simplest application possible: a window with a white background and a single button on top of it. When the system draws the button, it draws over the existing white background. That’s overdraw.
Overdraw is inevitable but too much overdraw can be an issue. Devices have limited memory bandwidth and if overdraw causes your application to require more bandwidth than available, performance will degrade. The amount of overdraw you can reasonably afford varies from device to device.
A good rule of thumb is to aim for a maximum overdraw of 2x; this means you can draw the screen once, then draw twice again on top, painting each pixel 3 times total.
The presence of overdraw also usually indicates other problems: too many views, complex hierarchy, longer inflation times, etc.
Android offers 3 tools to help identify and fix overdraw: Hierarchy Viewer, Tracer for OpenGL and Show GPU overdraw. The first two can be found in ADT or the stand-alone monitor tool. The last tool is part of Developer options.
Show GPU overdraw paints the screen in different colors to indicate where overdraw occurs, and how much. Turn it on now and don’t forget to kill your application – a future version of Android will remove this requirement.
Before we look at Falcon Pro, let’s see what the Settings application looks like with Show GPU overdraw turned on.
It is easy to interpret the results if you remember the meaning of each color:
No color means there is no overdraw. The pixel was painted only once. In this example, you can see that the background is intact.
means there is no overdraw. The pixel was painted only once. In this example, you can see that the background is intact. Blue indicates an overdraw of 1x. The pixel was painted twice. Large blue areas are acceptable (if the entire window is blue, you can get rid of one layer.)
indicates an overdraw of 1x. The pixel was painted twice. Large blue areas are acceptable (if the entire window is blue, you can get rid of one layer.) Green indicates an overdraw of 2x. The pixel was painted three times. Medium-sized green areas are acceptable but you should try to optimize them away.
indicates an overdraw of 2x. The pixel was painted three times. Medium-sized green areas are acceptable but you should try to optimize them away. Light red indicates an overdraw of 3x. The pixel was painted four times. Small light red areas are acceptable.
indicates an overdraw of 3x. The pixel was painted four times. Small light red areas are acceptable. Dark red indicates an overdraw of 4x or more. The pixel was painted 5 times or more. This is wrong. Fix it.
Based on this information you can see that Settings is a well behaved application that does not require any extra work. There is a little bit of red in the switches but nothing worth our efforts.
Transparent pixels: look closely at the previous screenshots. Each icon is painted blue. You can see that the transparent pixels of the bitmaps count against your overdraw. Transparent pixels must be processed by the GPU and can be expensive. Android uses optimizations to avoid drawing transparent pixels in layers and 9-patches so you should only worry about bitmaps.
Overdraw and the GPU: there are two type of mobile GPU architectures. The first uses deferred rendering, for instance ImaginationTech's SGX series. This architecture allows the GPU to detect and fix overdraw in specific situations (it doesn't work if you are blending transparent or translucent pixels.) The second architecture uses immediate rendering and can be found in NVIDIA's Tegra GPUs. This architecture cannot optimize overdraw for you, which is why I like to test on Nexus 7. There are many advantages and disadvantages to both architectures but it's beyond the scope of this article. Just know that both work really well.
Let’s now take a look at Falcon Pro…
There is a lot of red in that screenshot! What is interesting however is that the list background is green. This shows there’s a 2x overdraw before the application even starts drawing its content. The problem we see here is most likely related to having several fullscreen backgrounds. It is usually trivial to fix.
Removing extraneous layers
To reduce overdraw we must first understand where it’s coming from. This is where Hierarchy Viewer and Tracer for OpenGL before useful. Hierarchy Viewer is part of ADT (or monitor) and can be used to inspect a snapshot of the View hierarchy. It is especially useful to debug layout issues but comes in handy for performance work as well.
Important: Hierarchy Viewer will only work on non-secure devices by default, such as engineering phones and tablets or the emulator. To use Hierarchy Viewer on any phone add ViewServer, an Open Source library, to your application.
Open the Hierarchy Viewer perspective in ADT (or monitor), then select the Windows tab. The window highlighted in bold is the foreground window on the device and usually the one you want to inspect. Click on it then click the Load button in the toolbar (it looks like a tree of blue squares.) Loading the tree can take a while so be patient. When the tree is ready you should see something similar to the picture below.
Now that the View hierarchy is loaded in the tool we can export it as a Photoshop document. To do so, click the second button in the toolbar – the tooltip says “Capture the window layers […]”. Adobe Photoshop itself is not required as the generated document is compatible with tools such as Pixelmator, The GIMP, etc. The PSD file I generated is available for download.
The Photoshop document shows one layer per View in the application. Each layer is marked visible or invisible, based on the return value of View.getVisibility(). Each layer is named after its View, using either the View android:id if available or its class name. I once started adding support for groups to recreate the View tree… I should really finish this feature.
By inspecting the list of layers, we can quickly identify at least one source of overdraw: multiple fullscreen backgrounds. The first one is the first layer, called DecorView. This view is generated by Android and contains the background specified in the theme. This default gradient is invisible in the application so it can be safely removed.
Scrolling up from DecorView you can see a LinearLayout containing another fullscreen gradient background. This is the same exact background as DecorView’s and it is therefore unnecessary. The only visible background that must remain belongs to the View called id/tweet_list_container.
Removing the window background: the background defined in your theme is used by the system to create preview windows when launching your application. Never set it to null unless your application is transparent. Instead, set it to the color/image you want or get rid of from onCreate() by calling getWindow().setBackgroundDrawable(null).
Further reducing overdraw
The Photoshop document is useful to understand how the application is built but it is a little bit difficult to use to get rid of smaller overdraw regions. We must now turn to Tracer for OpenGL. Open the perspective of the same name in ADT (or monitor) and click the arrow icon in the toolbar. Enter the package name of your app and the name of the main Activity, then select a destination file and click Trace.
Word of advice: OpenGL traces can be huge and really slow to capture. To make them smaller and capture faster, uncheck all the Data Collection Ooptions boxes.
Activity name: logcat will show the name of the package and Activity when you launch an application. This is how I know what to type in Tracer for OpenGL.
When the application is up and running, turn on the first two options:
Collect Framebuffer contents on eglSwapBuffers()
Collect Framebuffer contents on glDraw*()
The first option is useful to quickly find the frame you’re interested in while the second option allows us to see each frame being built drawing command by drawing command. This second option is key to solving overdraw problems.
With these two options enabled I started scrolling the main timeline. It will now take a long time to capture each frame (30 seconds is not unexpected) so I recommend you simply download the trace I captured. You can open this tracefile in Tracer for OpenGL by clicking the first button in the toolbar.
Once loaded, a trace shows you each GL command sent to the GPU for every captured frame. If you downloaded my trace file, skip to frame 21. When a frame is selected you can see what it looks like in the Frame Summary tab. In addition, you can click on drawing commands, highlighted in blue, to see the current state of the frame in the Details tab.
Organization: the GL commands are grouped by View. They recreate the same tree you can see in Hierarchy Viewer or your XML layout files. This makes it very easy to understand what View generated a specific operation.
By clicking successively on the first 3 drawing commands you can see the problem already identified in Photoshop; a fullscreen background is drawn 3 times.
We can find more to optimize by looking further down the trace. When a tweet (list item) is drawn, an ImageView is used to draw the avatar. The ImageView first draws a background then the avatar itself:
If you look closely you will notice that the background is only used as a border for the image. This means the dark part in the center of the avatar background creates overdraw. That piece of the 9-patch is entirely covered by the avatar.
A very simple fix for this problem is to make the stretchable center piece of the 9-patch transparent. Android’s 2D renderer optimizes away transparent pieces in 9-patches. This simple change will get rid of a bit of overdraw.
Interestingly, the same exact problem occurs with inline media. Avatars are small so their overdraw is not a big deal, but inline media can occupy large areas of the screen. The fix is exactly the same.
Future optimization: I would like Android's 2D rendering pipeline to be able to automatically detect and correct overdraw for you. We have a few ideas but I cannot make any promise. Just as with built-in GPU optimizations, this would only work with fully opaque primitives.
Flattening the view hierarchy
Now that overdraw is (mostly) taken care of, let’s go back to Hierarchy Viewer. By inspecting the tree we can try to identify unnecessary views. Removing views, especially ViewGroups, can not only help improve framerate but also memory consumption, startup time, etc.
A quick look at Falcon Pro’s view hierarchy is enough to identify several ViewGroups with a single child. These ViewGroups are often unnecessary and easy to remove. At least two of the nodes shown in the screenshot below should be removed.
There are numerous other views that can be removed from this tree. For instance, each tweet contains a RelativeLayout called id/listElementBottom. This layout contains the name of the author, his Twitter handle, the time elapsed since the tweet was posted and an icon. The name and the handle are two separate TextView instead of being just one with spans to use different styles. The time and the icon use a TextView and an ImageView that could be combined in a single TextView, using TextView’s compound drawables.
The slide-in menu on the left uses several groups of LinearLayout+TextView+ImageView to display labels with icons. Each one of these groups can be replaced by a single TextView.
How to flatten your UI: I explain these techniques in more detail in my 2009 Google I/O talk entitled Turbo-charge your UI.
What about input events?
Remember when we looked at systrace and found out that touch events handling was sometimes slow? It’s now time to address this issue and the best tool at our disposal to understand more about what the application is doing is traceview.
Traceview is a Dalvik profiler which measures how much time the application spends calling methods. To invoke it, open the DDMS perspective in ADT or monitor, select your application process in the Devices tab, then click the “Start method profiling” button (three arrows with a red circle.)
After enabling tracing, I scrolled the main timeline up and down and clicked the button again to finish the trace. You can also download my own trace. The result looks like the screenshot below.
Clicking on item #21, ViewRootImpl.draw(), highlights the time spent drawing. The last column of the table gives |
, 2014
2 leg byes and 1 off the bat from the No.11. 1st XI all out for 3 vs @HaslingtonCC... Bad day at the office. #3allout — Wirral Cricket Club (@Wirral_CC) April 26, 2014
Can't believe this scorecard today is going viral. @piersmorgan has even got onto it. Proud to make history pic.twitter.com/DmazaKaYob — Sam Bowman (@SamBowman_) April 26, 2014
@Tynan76 @Wirral_CC @bbc5live both leg byes down to me got the scoreboard ticking and nearly got them to make a change bowling wise! — Ronnie Gambles (@RonaldoNo73) April 26, 2014
To sum up a top day's cricket and being all out for 3 the showers at Haslington were cold #3allout — Ronnie Gambles (@RonaldoNo73) April 26, 2014
I'm now facing the prospect of having to explain to people how a side bowled out for 3 today beat @CHLadybridge last week... — Paul Weir (@Tynan76) April 26, 2014
@heatherbeattie true but I was rock solid for 12 balls #digin until I tried to take it to the opposition with an attacking shot! #3allout — Ronnie Gambles (@RonaldoNo73) April 26, 2014
@BumbleCricket Not my best day as captain. We chased down 203 last week. Wirral CC going places! It was all going so well — Peter Clewes (@pjclewes) April 26, 2014Cops Like Me Say Legalize All Drugs. Hereâs Why.
Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping? After many years of enforcing drug laws as a police officer, my experience with an addicted family member changed my attitude for good.I was a police officer for 20 years, enforcing drug laws in California and thinking I was doing my part for society. But what made me think properly about drug use for the first time was my experience with my older brother, Billy. I had watched him struggle with a lifelong problem with drugs. But I still did not understand what it meant to be Billy until my husband convinced me to open up my heart and our home to save him in 2002.It was in this intimacy of watching Billy try, during the year he lived with us, to live up to the expectations of society and those he loved that I realized that our societyâs portrayal of people with chronic drug problems was both damaging and morally flawed.By societyâs standard, my brother was a criminal. His struggles with addiction taught me many things. He had many years of sobriety, interspersed with the setbacks that addiction specialists know so often come with the condition. But because of an emphasis by the court system on abstinence-only drug programs, and an emphasis on punishment over progress, these normal and accepted setbacks in recovery were exacerbated by harsh penalties. Because of Billyâs felony convictions for drugs, he was unemployable. He lacked healthcare until we stepped in. Without us, my brother would have been on the streets. Yet despite our help, my brother passed away from an accidental overdose of psychotropic medications and alcohol.After having my eyes opened to the realities of drug use, I realized we could not arrest our way out of this problem. I joined Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of law enforcement officials opposed to the war on drugs. Some people are surprised to find that police, prosecutors, judges and others arguing for legalizing drugs, but in many ways we are the best positioned to see the injustices and ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system up close.Decriminalization laws can do many good things. They reduce law enforcement and incarceration costs, allow police to focus on more pressing matters and keep casual users out of a criminal justice system that already destroys far too many lives. However, LEAP supports full drug legalization because of what decriminalization doesnât do.Weâve seen how federal grants and civil asset forfeiture laws (whereby police can take your property and use or sell it for their own benefit, even if youâre never charged with a crime) encourage police to go after drug offenders while real criminals roam free. Weâve seen people die of overdose. Weâve seen people go to prison who had no business being there. And weâve seen that none of this has reduced drug use or addiction. In spite of more than 40 years of the war on drugsâand the trillion dollars weâve spentâAmericans now have access to drugs that are cheaper, more potent and just as readily available as when the drug war started. Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping?But that doesnât mean that everything weâve tried has failed. As we work towards a world in which drugs are legalized and regulated, we can take smaller steps toward smarter drug policies by supporting decriminalization laws and by implementing harm reduction strategies, which address drug problems using a public health model that reduces death, disease and addiction.In America we practice a different form of decriminalization than, for example, in Portugal, where you can possess up to 10 daysâ worth of any drug with only an administrative or civil penalty. Decriminalization laws vary by state but generally mean that first-time offenders will not go to prison or be burdened with a criminal record for possession of a small amount of drugs for personal consumption. But even in states that have liberalized their drug statutes, there are still many collateral consequences for something as simple as a drug convictionâincluding the potential loss of federal aid for student loans, denial of social welfare benefits such as housing and food stamps, denial of voting privileges or professional licenses, and termination of parental rights.Decriminalization laws can do many good things. They reduce law enforcement and incarceration costs, allow police to focus on more pressing matters and keep casual users out of a criminal justice system that already destroys far too many lives.However, LEAP supports full drug legalization because of what decriminalization doesnât do. It doesnât set up a system of regulated purity, so users donât know what theyâre putting in their bodies or how strong it is, increasing the risk of overdose. And if someone does overdose, their friends may be afraid to call for help for fear of being prosecuted. Decriminalization doesnât enact age restrictions on sales or stop the violence generated by upheavals and turf wars caused by law enforcement intervention. It doesnât necessarily prevent large racial disparities because of the wide discretion in charging by prosecutors. And it does nothing to impact the enormous profits being made from drugs by violent criminal gangs, or to stop the violence generated by upheavals and turf wars caused by law enforcement intervention.People working in public health understand that harm reduction strategies produce positive health outcomes. Even law enforcement is beginning to understand the necessity of thinking outside the âdrug warâ box to save lives by implementing and supporting programs that use the precepts of reducing harms to those using drugs. By supporting âGood Samaritanâ laws that allow witnesses to an overdose to save a life by calling 911 without threat of criminal prosecution, criminal justice professionals are recognizing that the threat of criminal sanctions has contributed to too many deaths.Seattle, which gives officers the ability to connect low-level, non-violent drug dealers and users with treatment and services as an alternative to jail, is an example of a law enforcement agency using harm reduction strategies to improve the lives of those struggling with addiction. The Quincy, Massachusetts Police Department is another. By mandating that its officers carry naloxone, a cheap and effective drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, they saved more than two hundred lives in just over three years. Imagine how much difference it would make if police departments across the country adopted a similar model.It is clear to me that implementing decriminalization and harm reduction models are vital steps on the way to a smarter drug policy and should be supported. But to stop there is short-sighted, as it will leave unresolved the violence associated with the illicit market, as well as the other inevitable consequences of an ineffective drug policy based on politics, rather than what we know works.Isnât it time that we demand that our government use science, best practices and compassion to design drug policy?Former Fianna Fáil minister and senator Mary O'Rourke is among those who co-signed a letter in today's Irish Times
Former Fianna Fáil minister and senator Mary O'Rourke is among those who co-signed a letter in today's Irish Times
SIX FORMER MEMBERS of the Seanad have called for reform rather than abolition of the upper house as part of an informal campaign for a public debate on the issue.
Former minister Mary O’Rourke, renowned former civil servant TK Whitaker, former SDLP leader Bríd Rodgers, former Northern Ireland Ombudsman Maurice Hayes, historian John A Murphy and former Trinity senator Mary Henry have co-signed a letter in today’s Irish Times.
The letter calls for the reform of the Seanad’s electoral law which would allow citizens to be more directly involved in who is elected to the second house of the Oireachtas.
It claims that straightforward abolition would require more than 70 separate amendments to the Constitution including deletion of some articles:
While it is true that there has been justifiable public dissatisfaction with the effects of party political dominance in the Seanad, and while it is also true that reform of the Seanad has been more spoken about than acted on, we believe that a serious reform of the Seanad done in time to take effect from the next general election would be greatly preferable to simple abolition entailing, as that would, more than 70 separate amendments to the Constitution including the deletion of entire articles.
The government has committed to holding a referendum on whether or not to abolish the Seanad but has already pushed back on a date for the referendum having initially pledged to do so before the end of 2012.
It now looks likely that a referendum will not be held until next year.
The letter from the six former senators is reported to have come at the urging of an informal group that is considering how to forge a campaign to reform the Seanad rather than abolish it.
The Irish Times reports that former justice minister Michael McDowell, former senator and ICTU president Joe O’Toole, political commentator Noel Whelan and current senators Feargal Quinn and Katherine Zappone are behind the campaign.
In their letter on page 15 of the paper today, the six former members of the Seanad write: “We believe that if the Seanad’s electoral system were reformed, it could add to the standing of democratic politics in the eyes of the people and to the effectiveness of the Oireachtas.
“We would welcome, and indeed urge, a considered, inclusive and informed public debate on the Seanad, its functions and its reform, before consideration of any constitutional proposal for its abolition.”THE weather, the rosters and the pre-match banter all point to the same thing.
The 20th Super Rugby final between the Hurricanes and Highlanders will be a spectacle worthy of a season in which attacking rugby has held sway.
Two franchises long regarded as under-performers will square off for a maiden title, with the winners to be crowned the competition’s eighth champion and the fourth from New Zealand.
No final has featured teams who have scored as many points as the Highlanders (509) and Hurricanes (487).
Both haven’t just beaten opponents in the last month, they’ve run them ragged, playing the high-octane style seemingly required in 2015.
Dane Coles of the Hurricanes celebrates after Ardie Savea found the line during their semi-final win against the Brumbies. Source: Getty Images
Conservative rugby has struggled for traction so neither team sees a reason to change in Wellington on Saturday.
What’s more, icy temperature and rain in the capital on Friday is scheduled to clear.
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd says they won’t make the mistakes of other teams who have assumed they can rein in the Highlanders’ unique style.
“They’ve got a fair old box of tricks on attack, so I’d be surprised if you don’t see something a little bit zany from them at some stage,” he said.
While Boyd’s Hurricanes packed too much power and speed for a wary Brumbies in last weekend’s 29-9 semi-final triumph, Highlanders counterpart Jamie Joseph masterminded a 35-17 heist against the NSW Waratahs in Sydney.
The Hurricanes breathed a sigh of relief when Nehe Milner-Skudder was declared fit for the final. Source: Getty Images
Having devised a kick-heavy approach to upset the rhythm of the defending champions, Joseph and assistant Tony Brown are promising more party tricks against the top-qualifiers.
“There will be a few surprises, we will try to do that. Brownie is really good at that,” a smiling Joseph said.
Two backlines bristling with match-winners will provide the fireworks.
Departing midfield backs Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith are the brains trust outside gifted playmaker Beauden Barrett while wingers Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder have beaten defenders for fun all season.
Halfback Aaron Smith is the heartbeat of the Highlanders attack but there are serious strike weapons further out in Ben Smith, Waisake Naholo and Malakai Fekitoa.
Ma’a Nonu is one of a number of players playing their final game of Super Rugby. Source: Getty Images
History favours the Hurricanes.
The home side has won the last seven finals and 16 out of 19 in total.
Their 15 wins from 17 games this season is a Super Rugby record and they are laden with All Blacks.
That contrasts with a Highlanders side who thrive on battling the underdog status.
Their most capped international is reserve halfback Fumiaki Tanaka with 44 Tests for Japan.
However, Boyd says the visitors don’t have a mortgage on togetherness, pointing to the appearance of Hurricanes players who thanked and fed hundreds of fans braving freezing weather to queue for match tickets this week.
“None of them were forced to do that,” Boyd said.
“They paid for the pizzas themselves so that tells you something. They’re keen to give back to the community that’s got in behind and supported them.”
WHAT: Super Rugby final
WHERE: Westpac Stadium, Wellington
WHEN: 5.35pm Saturday AEST
TV: Live on Fox Sports 2
HURRICANES (1-15): Reggie Goodes, Dane Coles, Ben Franks, Jeremy Thrush, James Broadhurst, Brad Shields, Ardie Savea/Callum Gibbins, Victor Vito, TJ Perenara, Beauden Barrett, Julian Savea, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith (c), Nehe Milner-Skudder, James Marshall
Reserves: Motu Matu’u, Chris Eves, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, Gibbins/Mark Abbott, Blade Thomson, Chris Smylie, Rey Lee-Lo, Matt Proctor
HIGHLANDERS (1-15): Brendon Edmonds, Liam Coltman, Josh Hohneck, Alex Ainley, Mark Reddish, Elliot Dixon, James Lentjes, Nasi Manu (co-c), Aaron Smith, Lima Sopoaga, Patrick Osborne, Richard Buckman, Malakai Fekitoa, Waisake Naholo, Ben Smith (co-c)
Reserves: Ash Dixon, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Ross Geldenhuys, Joe Wheeler, Gareth Evans, Shane Christie, Fumiaki Tanaka, Marty Banks
HEAD TO HEAD: Played 25, Hurricanes 14, Highlanders 11
IN WELLINGTON: Played 11, Hurricanes 6, Highlanders 5
LAST CLASH: Round 17, 2015 - Hurricanes 56 bt Highlanders 20 in Napier
FOX SPORTS LAB BY THE NUMBERS
— There will be a new champion this weekend (eighth overall), with neither the Hurricanes or Highlanders having lifted the trophy before.
— The New Zealand conference will now be able to boast four champions from its five teams, the most number of individual winners in a single conference (Australia has three: Brumbies, Reds and Waratahs; South Africa just has the Bulls).
— This will be the fifth all-New Zealand final, and the first since 2006. The home team has won three of the four previous all-Kiwi finals, with the Crusaders in 1999 the only visiting New Zealand team to win a final away from home (against the Highlanders).
— The will be just the second final appearance for both teams in their history (Highlanders in 1999 and Hurricanes in 2006).
Fox Sports Lab breaks down Saturday’s final. Source: FOX SPORTS
— Chris Boyd (Hurricanes) will be looking to become just the fifth coach to win the title in his rookie season. Graham Henry in 1996, Robbie Deans in 2000, Nico Serfontein in 2000, and Dave Rennie in 2012 all won the title in their first season in charge.
— It will be a tough ask for the Highlanders to win. Only two teams in Super Rugby history have won a final away from home: the Crusaders in Canberra in 2000, and the Bulls in Durban in 2007.
— The Hurricanes completed the season double against the Highlanders earlier this year with a 20-13 win at Forsyth Barr in week six and a 56-20 win in Napier in week 17. It was the fourth biggest win in their history, and the Highlanders’ second biggest loss.
— But the Highlanders have a good record in Wellington, winning the past four games against them at Westpac Stadium. The Hurricanes’ last victory in this fixture at Westpac came in 2009.After launching the Redmi Note 3 in India last year, Xiaomi has today launched its successor, the Redmi Note 4, in the country.
The Redmi Note 4 was first launched in China way back in August last year. It is powered by MediaTek Helio X20 SoC, however, due to the legal battle of Xiaomi with Ericsson in India, the Chinese company launched the Snapdragon 625 SoC powered variant in India.
Along with Snapdragon 625 SoC under the hood, the Redmi Note 4 is offered in three different variants – 2 GB RAM + 32 GB internal storage, 3 GB RAM + 32 GB internal storage and 4 GB RAM + 64 GB internal storage.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 specifications:
CPU: Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor
Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor RAM: 2/3/4 GB
2/3/4 GB GPU: Adreno 506
Adreno 506 Operating System: MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow (Android 7.0 Nougat preview to be available)
MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow (Android 7.0 Nougat preview to be available) Display: 5.5-inch Full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display with 2.5D curved glass
5.5-inch Full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display with 2.5D curved glass Rear Camera: 13 MP BSI CMOS with PDAF and dual-tone LED flash
13 MP BSI CMOS with PDAF and dual-tone LED flash Front Camera: 5 MP
5 MP Internal Storage: 32/64 GB
32/64 GB External Storage: Expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card
Expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card SIM: Dual-Hybrid SIM (Micro + Nano)
Dual-Hybrid SIM (Micro + Nano) Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Other: Fingerprint Scanner
Fingerprint Scanner Colors: Black, Gold, Dark Grey
Black, Gold, Dark Grey Battery: 4100 mAh
The 2 GB RAM variant of the Redmi Note 4 is priced at ₹9999 whereas the 3 GB RAM is priced at ₹10,999 and the 4 GB RAM variant would cost you ₹12,999. It will go on open sale from January 23 and will be available on Flipkart and Mi.com.Sony appears to be using copyright law in an attempt to remove all traces of a leaked PlayStation 4 Software Development Kit (PS4 SDK) from the Web. That effort also seems to have extended in recent days to the forced removal of the mere discussion of the leak and the posting of a separate open source, homebrew SDK designed to be used on jailbroken systems.
The story began a few weeks ago, when word first hit that version 4.5 of the PS4 SDK had been leaked online by a hacker going by the handle Kromemods. These SDKs are usually provided only to authorized PS4 developers with development kits. The SDKs contain significant documentation that, once made public, can aid hackers in figuring out how to jailbreak consoles, create and install homebrew software, and enable other activities usually prohibited by the hardware maker (as we've seen in the wake of previous leaks of PlayStation 3 SDKs).
While you can still find reference to the version 4.5 SDK leak on places like Reddit and MaxConsole, threads discussing and linking to those leaked files on sites like GBATemp and PSXhax, for example, appear to have been removed after the fact. Cached versions of those pages show links (now defunct) to download those leaked files, along with a message from KromeMods to "Please spread this as much as possible since links will be taken down... We will get nowhere if everything keeps private; money isn't everything."
KromeMods notes on Twitter that his original tweet posting a link to the leaked files was also hit with a copyright notice from Sony. "Ok time to remove all the download links to the SDK's lol," he writes. "I don't want my Twitter [account] suspended." Copies of the files hosted by Mega and Mediafire also appear to have been taken down by copyright requests, though other mirrors do seem to exist.
Blocking more than just copyrighted files
In recent days, Sony's copyright-based legal requests seem to have extended past the removal of its proprietary SDK files and the links to them. Sony has yet to provide a response to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
Earlier this week, PlayStationHax owner GregoryRasputin posted a note intended to provide "transparency" around the removal of a post about the leaked SDK. He includes copies of correspondence from his server host about a complaint from Sony Interactive Entertainment and Irdeto USA, its "authorized... non-exclusive agent for copyright infringement notification." That complaint cites "The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, as well as bilateral treaties with other countries" in asking for a PlayStationHax post about the leak to be taken down.
GregoryRasputin says he responded to this request by noting that he did not post the referenced files or even link to them in his write up. "I personally could not see where I had infringed any copyright; all I had done is post some text and a screenshot of the [SDK], I did not provide any links so that users could get the [SDK]," he writes. A cached version of the PlayStationHax post includes the note that "These files are illegal, so I will not be linking them," alongside a screenshot showing an "About the SDK" page that was part of the leak alongside a listing of folders.
Yesterday, console-hacking site Wololo posted details of a recent copyright request it also received from Sony and Irdeto. That takedown request centered on an open source, homebrew version of the PS4 SDK and not the leaked version 4.5 SDK discussed above. This unofficial SDK, created by a hacker with the handle CTurt and available on Github for years, can be run on jailbroken PS4 consoles running older, version 1.76 firmware by using a known WebKit exploit. CTurt's SDK lets users create and run homebrew applications on the system.
The Wololo takedown request cites "17 U.S.C. 512," also known as the DMCA's "safe harbor" provision in asking the site to "immediately remove or block access to the infringing material, as specified in the copyright laws, and insure the user refrains from using or sharing with others unauthorized SIEA materials in the future."
Wololo suspects its links to the unofficial homebrew SDK were caught up in "some broad keyword search" that Sony is using to "blast website owners and Internet providers with takedown notices for everything that remotely looks like it might be related to the copyrighted file." Wololo says it is ignoring Sony's takedown request for now, though it notes, "I do not have the intent to fight a long legal battle if they insist, and I might have to remove CTurt’s files from our server, even though that would be a collateral victim of some unrelated battle."
The situation as it currently stands shows the perils of letting copyright holders cast too wide of a legal net in trying to squash the leaking of confidential material. While few would begrudge Sony its effort to try to recork the bottle containing its proprietary PS4 SDK after it leaked, extending that dragnet to mere reporting on the leak, and to the posting of unrelated homebrew projects, seems like an abuse of the law's intent.
We'll let you know if and when we get a response from Sony on the matter.‘The White House Is Like A Reality Show!’ Laments Man Who Voted For Reality Star For President
PAMPA, TX—Visibly frustrated local man Peter Elliott lamented about the Trump administration to his wife Friday, comparing the drama unfolding daily in the nation’s capital to “some kind of crazy reality show,” sources reported.
“Seriously, it’s like Survivor or Hell’s Kitchen in our government these days. How did this happen? What’s going on in there?” Elliott complained, describing at the White House turnover rate and rampant treachery occurring regularly.
“You’ve got people getting fired or resigning left and right, all kinds of dirty laundry being aired out in public, expletive-laden rants from top government officials. It’s like every person in the West Wing is walking around with knives in their backs.”
The man reportedly went on to express relief that he did not work in the White House, and thus didn’t have to live in a constant state of panic about losing his job or being subject to a surprise internet flogging by the president or one of his top staff members.
“How did we ever get here?” he wondered aloud, before shaking his head and settling in to watch a few old episodes of The Apprentice.Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 to April 28, 1945), who went by the nickname “Il Duce” (“the Leader”), was an Italian dictator who created the Fascist Party in 1919 and eventually held all the power in Italy as the country’s prime minister from 1922 until 1943. An ardent socialist as a youth, Mussolini followed in his father's political footsteps but was expelled by the party for his support of World War I. As dictator during World War II, he overextended his forces and was eventually killed by his own people in Mezzegra, Italy.
Mussolini’s Death
Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were executed on April 28, 1945, in Mezzegra (near Dongo), Italy, and their bodies were hung on display in a Milan plaza. Following the liberation of Rome by Allied forces, the pair had attempted to escape to Switzerland but were captured by the Italian underground on April 27, 1945.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
The Italian masses greeted Mussolini's death without regret. Mussolini had promised his people Roman glory, but his megalomania had overcome his common sense, bringing them only war and misery.
When & Where Was Mussolini Born?
Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in Dovia di Predappio, Forlì, Italy.
Family and Early Life
Benito Mussolini’s father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith and an impassioned socialist who spent much of his time on politics and much of his money on his mistress. His mother, Rosa (Maltoni), was a devout Catholic teacher who provided the family with some stability and income.
The eldest of three children, Benito showed much intelligence as a youth but was boisterous and disobedient. His father instilled in him a passion for socialist politics and a defiance against authority. Though he was expelled from several schools for bullying and defying school authorities, he eventually obtained a teaching certificate in 1901 and, for a brief time, worked as a schoolmaster.
Socialist Party
In 1902, Benito Mussolini moved to Switzerland to promote socialism. He quickly gained a reputation for his magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents. While engaging in political demonstrations, he caught the attention of Swiss authorities and was eventually expelled from the country.
Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904 and continued promoting a socialist agenda. He was briefly imprisoned and, upon release, became editor of the organization's newspaper, Avanti (meaning "Forward"), which gave him a larger megaphone and expanded his influence.
While Mussolini initially condemned Italy's entry into World War I, he soon saw the war as an opportunity for his country to become a great power. His change in attitude broke ties with fellow socialists, and he was expelled from the organization.
In 1915, Mussolini joined the Italian army and fought on the front lines, reaching the rank of corporal before being wounded and discharged from the military.
Fascist Party Founder
On March 23, 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party, which organized several right-wing groups into a single force. The fascist movement proclaimed opposition to social class discrimination and supported nationalist sentiments. Mussolini hoped to raise Italy to levels of its great Roman past.
Mussolini’s Rise to Power
Mussolini criticized the Italian government for weakness at the Treaty of Versailles. Capitalizing on public discontent following World War I, he organized a paramilitary unit known as the "Black Shirts," who terrorized political opponents and helped increase Fascist influence.
As Italy slipped into political chaos, Mussolini declared that only he could restore order and was given the authority in 1922 as prime minister. He gradually dismantled all democratic institutions. By 1925, he had made himself dictator, taking the title "Il Duce" ("the Leader").
To his credit, Mussolini carried out an extensive public works program and reduced unemployment, making him very popular with the people.
Invasion of Ethiopia
In 1935, determined to show the strength of his regime, Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. The ill-equipped Ethiopians were no match for Italy's modern tanks and airplanes, and the capital, Addis Ababa, was quickly captured. Mussolini incorporated Ethiopia into the new Italian Empire.
World War II and Adolf Hitler
Impressed with Italy's early military successes, German dictator Adolf Hitler sought to establish a relationship with Benito Mussolini. Flattered by Hitler's overtures, Mussolini interpreted the recent diplomatic and military victories as proof of his genius. In 1939, Mussolini sent support to Fascists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, hoping to expand his influence.
That same year, Italy and Germany signed a military alliance known as the "Pact of Steel." With Italy's resources stretched to capacity, many Italians believed Mussolini’s alliance with Germany would provide time to regroup. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini instituted discrimination policies against the Jews in Italy. In 1940, Italy invaded Greece with some initial success.
Hitler's invasion of Poland and declaration of war with Britain and France forced Italy into war, however, and exposed weaknesses in its military. Greece and North Africa soon fell, and only German military intervention in early 1941 saved Mussolini from a military coup.
At the Casablanca Conference in 1942, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt devised a plan to take Italy out of the war and force Germany to move its troops to the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. Allied forces secured a beachhead in Sicily and began marching up the Italian peninsula.
With pressure mounting, Mussolini was forced to resign on July 25, 1943, and was arrested; German commandos later rescued him. Mussolini then moved his government to northern Italy, hoping to regain his influence. On June 4, 1944, Rome was liberated by Allied forces, who marched on to take control of Italy.It may seem that the big accomplishments are the ones celebrated as most significant: the big promotion, landing the big account, pulling off the global conference, exceeding shareholder expectations. Those are all important measures for an organization and big wins certainly fuel long-term success, but when it comes to managing people, the simple, consistent and intentional small acts are usually the most impactful in the long-run.
As an example, if each of us implemented these three simple practices on a consistent basis, our people would love their jobs more and produce better work. The examples given below could begin to create a better culture for our team's starting today.
1. Connect The Work To The Mission
This is the most important attribute of job satisfaction and a key indicator of effective management. My worst moments as a leader have been when I failed to connect a person’s job with the mission of the organization, and my best moments have been when this was done well. If we—as leaders—can help our people see the organizational impact of their work, it brings significant meaning to the tasks and projects they’re executing. The responsibilities of the day are no longer about passing time, but instead, each person understands her/his contribution to the whole.
We can each take a step on this one right now. Separate a sheet of paper into three vertical columns. List out all of your team members on the left column, put their role/responsibilities in the center column, and in the right column write a few bullet points about how that person/role contributes to the mission of your organization or team. Share these words with them this week, and remind them of this connection moving forward. Consistently connect the work of the team and the individual with the mission of the organization.
2. Empower Decision Making
The fatal flaw in many leaders is control. It is probably a quality that helped us get to where we are, but control can become an unhealthy structure that our teams learn to hate. Mature leaders discern the mission critical decisions that only they can and should make, and then build a sense of ownership for their employees (or volunteers, if in the not-for-profit space) by delegating the rest of the substantive decisions to others. There are hundreds of decisions made each day in whatever size team you oversee, and most of them can and should be made by other people. Will the outcome be exactly as you would do it? Nope, but that’s ok. Different is good—maybe even better.
Even today we could each rattle off 10-20 decisions that we are currently making, that could easily be delegated and serve as an important empowerment opportunity for trustworthy team members. So let’s make a list, and define who should lead the process of decision making moving forward. For some on your team, it may be best to give them the authority to make the decision, but also surround them with a team to give input before that decision is made. You know your people and how to set them up to succeed. Share the new responsibility/opportunity with them this week and offer to be available if they want input, but ultimately the decision is theirs to make.
3. Express Gratitude
This one is so important. Phrases like the ones below can have a profound impact on morale and job satisfaction.
“I appreciate you.”
“Your input was invaluable in that meeting.”
“You’re bringing great insight and energy to our team right now.”
Similarly, withholding such encouragement can make a person feel unseen and unappreciated, two qualities that quickly motivate someone to start investigating the LinkedIn jobs page. Our words of appreciation must always be honest—people see through fake platitudes in a second—and the words should also be generous. Withholding gratitude and kindness is a quick way to limit productivity and quality of work, plus it’s just unkind.
Today would be a great day to start. Each person on our teams may receive gratitude differently. Some may prefer it in a handwritten note, others are good with a kind text message, and others may receive it best if acknowledged in front of the whole team (this can be a fantastic way to celebrate a person whose work is usually behind the scenes, or someone who doesn’t get much public praise from clients, etc). Regardless of how we do it, a plan can be put in place today—preparing intentional, truthful words—to share a word of gratitude with each of our team members over the next week.
Simple, tangible steps that can make a huge difference in how our people feel about their value to us, and the organization. We can make these tools sustainable by scheduling a “3 Simple Practices” repeating reminder in our calendars every few months. Eventually the need for reminders will go away, as connecting work to the mission, empowering decision making, and expressing gratitude become habits, and the foundational attributes of our leadership.
Best,
JonMenstrual Hygiene Day serves as a neutral platform to bring together individuals, organisations, social businesses and the media to create a united and strong voice for women and girls around the world, helping to break the silence around menstrual hygiene management.
Menstrual Hygiene Day will help to address the challenges and hardships many women and girls face during their menstruation, but also to highlight the positive and innovative solutions being taken to address these challenges.
The day catalyses a growing, global movement that recognizes and supports girl’s and women’s rights and build partnerships among those partners on national and local level.
It is an opportunity to engage in policy dialogue and actively advocate for the integration of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) into global, national and local policies, programmes and projects
It creates an occasion for media work, including social media.Donald Trump is reportedly discontinuing Michelle Obama’s signature girls education initiative.
Citing an internal document, CNN reported Monday that the new administration will cease operation of Let Girls Learn, the former First Lady’s multiyear program to help 62 million adolescent girls attend and stay in school.
Partnering with the Peace Corps and the United States Agency for International Development, Let Girls Learn’s initiatives included leadership camps, mentorship programs, and school libraries.
“Moving forward, we will not continue to use the ‘Let Girls Learn’ brand or maintain a stand-alone program,” read an email sent to Peace Corps employees this week by |
261. King Borenal's mother was not, in fact, a hampster. Nor did his father smell of elderberries. Any assertions to the contrary will be met with deadly force by the Darklanterns.
262. Using the skyskiff to pick up chicks is stricktly prohibited.
263. Unless you bring back enough for everyone.
264. After the Captain orders you to clean the boat, you will not tell him to "go wax his prow" or "get the mast out of his poop deck".
264. Though you are a shifter, you do not have the "heart of a lion, wings of a bat"; no matter how much you want them.
265. We are not changing the name of the boat to Limozeen.
266. The Eldeen Reaches are not "the best place to pitch trash over the side of the ship". Do you *not* understand the concept of Druids?
267. Wroat is not short for "Deep Wroat" despite what those Changeling "escorts" told you.
268. No, you cannot have the cleric cast Remove Disease on you now. You have to suffer for a bit. We warned you about Droaam girls, but *no*, you didn't listen.
269. Besides, he has to cast Remove Disease on me first. And I'm the Captain. So there.
270. House Lyrandar does *not* speak Al Bhed, despite similar clothing styles and airship useage. "Ku clnaf ouincamv!" and "Ouin sudran ec y fruna!" are not a good conversation starters.
271. There is not a Black Mage Academy; and even if there was, you couldn't go study there.
272. Under no circumstances are you to sing the theme of "The Greatest American Hero" while you are riding a soarsled through Sharn.
273. Do not refer to the Warforged as "Man of Steel Man".
274. After casting Fireball at the Lord of Blades, calling him "LOBster Thermadore" is just adding insult to injury.
275. So feel free to do that any time the occasion arises.
276. The Seren barbarians do not speak with heavy Cockney accents. Calling them Guv'nah will just **** them off more.
277. King Kaius is not "a blatant rip off of that Angel character". Saying such things to his face is frowned upon, and my result in your quite timely death.
278. The Aurum are not to be refered to as "Ferengi".
279. The ship's cabin boy is not to be refered to as "anchor".
280. Despite having been used as such on several occasions.
281. We will not pay for a Reincarnate, Ressurection, or True Ressurection after you are smote for making innapropriate advances toward Pope Jaela.
282. I don't care if she was wearing a short skirt.
283. You will not refer to the Paladin's Wand of Cure Light Wounds as "The Magic Stick".
284. It is not okay to ask her to "hit it twice" if she has already used a charge on you.
285. "Why don't you come back to my place and exercize the demon?" is *not* anything resebling a good pick up line, and may not be used on any cleric, paladin, or priest of any religion.
286. Especially if you're a Tiefling or Half-Fiend.
287. Especially not Jaela.
288. Paladins of the Silver Flame are not to be refered to as "Flamer Crusaders".
289. Nor may you accompany that insult with a limp wristed wave.
290. Talenta Halflings do not like being called "Barney riding Kender".
291. Limericks are stricktly forbidden after the incident at the Cathedral of the Silver Flame. Let us never speak of it again.
292. Gorgons do not make good house pets.
293. Neither do cockatrices. I am not paying for another Stone to Flesh.
294. When the Paladin uses Turn Undead, it does not make her into a zombie. Telling the townsfolk such things is a bad practice.
295. You may not mock the Paladin if she fails a Turn Undead attempt by asking her if she was "Turning Japanese" by mistake.
296. Going fishing for dinosaurs while hovering over the Talenta Plains is *not* a good idea.
297. If you catch a rider along with the dinosaur, calling it a "two-fer" in their presence may make someone upset.
298. Not me, though, because that's hillarious.
299. The Captain is not to be refered to as "Cap'n Mehoff".
300. There are not 15 houses. House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and House Corrino are *not* real. You just got really drunk.
301. Don't tell that to Baron Harkonnen, though, he gets really sensative about those kinds things.
302. The Valenar are not Fremen, they will not teach you how to ride sandworms. Stop asking them.
251. When a Gatekeeper druid tells you his faction, the appropriate response is never "I am the Keymaster!"
252. When sneaking through the Keeper's lair, it's not a good idea to point at one of the Shards and say "Hey, is that Elvis?"
253. Stop asking every changeling you meet whether you can join the Dominion.
254. The state of accelerated action and awareness created by Time Stop is not to be referred to as "bullet time" or "entering the Matrix".
255. When your elemental galleon comes in to dock, with a wharf ahead and to its right, it is not appropriate to exclaim "There's klingons on the starboard bow!"
257. It's wrong to try and make warforged obey the Three Laws of Robotics.
258. The return of the Dhakaani empire will not be like the South Rising Again.
259. The Dawning of the Next Age of the Kalashatyr will not be when the Moon is in the Second house and Jupiter aligns with Mars....
260. Shadowrun is not the official future for Eberron.
261. Harry Potter does not attend Hogwarts in Aundair.
262. Despite what the rules say, tossing a bag of rats over someone while you have great cleave doesn't allow you to hit them a dozen times in a single turn.
263. Lhazaar is not pronounced "Laz E Boy"
264. It is wrong to tell warforged that the proper greeting for a stranger from a culture he hasn't visited is to punch him in the face.
265. The solution to every problem is not "Blow them all to Hell with fireballs and let god sort them out."
266. Thaliost isn't to be referred to as Belfast.
267. It is wrong to linger in King Kaius' undead harem.
268. Even if I do.
269. The Crusade against werecreatures was not motivated by furry porn and it's wrong to spread this.
270. Money acquired from corpses, treasure chests, robbed victims, and the like will be stored in banks and not buried on unfamiliar islands or placed in other dungeons with monsters hired from Droam to guard them.
271. We will not try and open this as an alternative to Mror Hold banking.
272. It's wrong to tell warforged that the Treaty of Thronehold was fake and they're their secret contact to give them orders to rise up and slaughter all the humans the day after you leave.
273. The words "RAMMING SPEED" will be ordered by the Captain and the Captain alone on this vessel.
274. It is not permissable for the wizards onboard to 'Aurala Slap' a sorcerer with his spellbook
275. Even if the Sorcerer laughs about them having to use books.
276. I will not psyche up warforged before battle by saying "You do not know pain, you do not know fear, you will taste Man Flesh!"
277. Even if they are really curious about what manflesh tastes like.
278. It's wrong to point out that Cardinal Kronzen looks exactly like Tim Curry.
279. And that he looks like Monty Burns when he taps his fingers together and says "Excellllllent."
280. And that he usually reveals his plans by just turning to the side and muttering things like "Do they suspect I intend to have the King killed?"
281. I will not refer to the Queen's champion in Thrane as D'Artangne.
282. We will not give the money we steal from the rich to the poor.
283. Even if we told the Paladin this.
284. And we operate from an Eldeen Reaches forrest..
285. Called Sherwood...
286. And we're all very Merry.
287. It is wrong to tell the warforged that "You can kiss my robot ass." is a socially acceptable response to all questions.
288. Cloud Strife and Squall Lionheart are not recruitable to our cause nor will we use our money to open up mercenary acadmies called Gardens.
289. It is wrong to liberally quote Braveheart to incite Rebellion in Northern Breland.
290. Not only is it very wrong to offer Pontiff Jaela candy to get in a coach with you...this Pirate ship in no way condones what you're thinking.
291. Clicking your heels is not a way to greet Kaius' daughter.
292. Or to take you back to Kansas.
299.Our next target is not the Ruby encrusted slippers of Aurala's sister so we can go back there.
300. The Trust are not Gnome Ninjas.
301. We will not buy a submarine to hunt warships of the Brelish crown.
302. Nor can you refer to me as Nemo.
303. Even if the Island I own is mysterious.
304. This ship is not a Democracy and you cannot vote me off as leader.
305. Or my island.
306. Dungeons and Dragons the movie is not set in Aundair. Even we recognize Aundair has more value than that.
307. It is wrong to attempt to rig the Race of Winds in Sharn....
308. So the Tortoise wins.
309. Selina Kyle is not a Shifter Rogue.
310. Clayface is not a Fat Changeling.
311. I repeat, I am not Batman.
312. You will never ask the Cult of the Dragon below worshipping the Dark Six to allow you to choose the form in which the Traveller shall come.
313. Even if the marshmellows will make us a bundle.
314. I do not know Kung fu.
315. Only the Monk Does.
316. The Monk does not know drunken boxing however...
317. The monk cannot refer to junior crew as "grasshopper"
318. Jaela cannot defeat evil by getting a team of young girl priestesses together who wear short skirts...it's wrong to tell her there's a sacred reason for it.
319. She does not have a Silver Millenium Crystal.
320. It is wrong to tell her "COSMIC FLAME POWER" is an appropriate statement for the use of high level attack spells.
321. The Knights of Thrane are not the Flaming Knights...
(special thanks above)
322. Shouting Attacks before I do them is just dumb
323. I will not breed Abberations using spells to make them cute in the hope of creating Pokemon.
324....or Chocobos.
325. The Lord of Blades does not have a whacky sidekick plotting against him called Starscream.
326. Jaela being the Chosen is meant that she will be their spiritual leader and guide. It does not mean that she will get a highly educated Brelish demonologist to follow her while she hunts demons.
327. King Boranal is not Sean Connery, I don't know why the crew keeps using Sean Connery's accent to immitate him.
328. You are not allowed to use a warforged's severed head with a light spell as an impromptu everbright lantern.
329. Even if it's dark in the sewers of Sharn and you forgot to bring yours.
330. No, the warforged fighter cannot hurl the shifter barbarian at his enemies.
331. Even with an action point.
332. *sigh* Ok, roll your Strength check.
333. The changeling cannot absorb the Talenta barbarian into herself and gain extra HP nor can she gain one use of the Rage ability.
334. The martial artists at the embassy ball are members of the Royal Eyes of Aundair, not members of the "Crazy 88".
335. The one on the left is not Gordon Liu.
336. Even if he's bald and has a mask.
337. When an agent of the Lord of Blades is defeated you shall not yell: "The Snitch! Fetch me my broom of flying, quick!" upon the appearance of a final messenger.
338. Warforged are intelligent and articulate. They do not go around saying "WARFORGED!" all the time.
339. When discovering dangerous eldritch machines in secret House Cannith research facilities, it is in bad form to yell: "We found the weapons of mass destruction!"
340. There is no such thing as a Dragonmark of Caring nor does my Bear Shifter have it on his tummy.
341. The party mage must be refraned from telling the guards "These arent the warforged youre looking for."
342. The bard must be immediately slain upon uttering the words "Anyone want to hear some Depeche Mode?"
343. Even if someone does.
344. The warforged must be discouraged from yelling "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!!" at random.
345. The Silver Flame is not lit by propane.
346. Nor is it the Olympic flame.
347. Nor is it a trash incinerator.
348. We do not 'Dump our garbage before going to lightspeed.'
349. Warforged are not Omnimechs.
350. They arent protomechs, either. So stop cutting them open to'make sure the pilot is dead.'
351. We don't do orbital bombardment.
352. Air strikes are still okay.
353. Our job is not "To kill our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women". Thats what we do on our days off.
354. Musnt use the fire elemental powering the airship to light cigars.
355. Elves dont call people "Mr. Anderson".
356. The warforged isnt named Bender.
357. He doenst run on alcohol, either.
358. Dont hum the 'Lumberjack' song around someone from the Eldeen Reaches.
359. Unless you really want to.
360) Yes, everyone DOES expect the 'Thranish Inquisition'! They've already done it twice. Stop saying otherwise.
361) Any warforged uttering the phase, "I'll be back," will under no circumstances be allowed to reboard the ship.
362) Darkvision is not 'Infravision'. You cannot hide yourself from it by setting your surroundings on fire.
363) If you are a Valanar Elf traveling with 12 demon waste barbarians, you may not refer to yourself as Ahmad Ibn Fadlan or "the thirteenth warrior."
364) Even if you are.
365) Kalashtar, or Psions in general, named Akira or Tetsuo will be immediately pitched overboard (regardless of altitude).
366) Repeat after me: "The Mournland is not the world's greatest open air dungeon."
367) Even though it is.
368) The Lord of Blades does not have any difficulty whistling "Pop goes the weasel."
369) Nor does he get his abilities from the Autobot Matrix.
370) Shouting "Victory is mine!" is a sure way to have it wrested from you at the most inopportune moment.
371) The name of this airship is the Forgotten Freedom, not the'millenium falcon', the 'bebop', or the 'titanic.'
372) Those are travelling papers, not a "multi-pass." Stop refering to them as such.
373) Any spellcaster whose somatic component for web is to fold his ring and middle finger back onto his palm while flexing his hand down at the wrist is simply begging to be stabbed in his sleep.
374) You cannot polymorph your crewmates into uninjured versions of themselves simply because no one bothered to play a cleric.
375) Whoever sold you that information regarding the location of a dragon orb ripped you off.
376) And no, it isn't worth investigating "just in case."
377) Halflings and gnomes in Eberron are not to be played simply for comic relief.
378) Otter shifters named "Mudge" will be feathered with arrows on sight, just on general principle.
379) As will "Jon-Tom," his human bard companion.
380) And any oracle pigs brought on board will be butchered for bacon & ham.
381) Refering to Cyrans as having "Gulf War Syndrome" is very uncouth, and will not be tolerated.
382) Even if you and I WERE both there.
383) You will not attempt, under any circumstances, to pay a hoard of homeless bums a few cp each to follow you around and 'overbear' any opponents you yourself cannot defeat.
384) Even though that is really funny.
385) Nor will you refer to me as "B.A." simply because I will not allow you to do any of the 384 things that come before this rule.
386. If we successfully steal a submarine, we will not paint it yellow.
387. Dreamlilly is not known as pot in other worlds.
388. We are already the most wanted group in all of Eberron. Do not attempt to place bets on who can get their bounties up higher.
389. You will not humiliate guardsmen...
390. Unless they really have it coming.
391. Wayne Brady does not have to choke a ho.
392. Nor do you.
393. It is inappropriate to ho out the Catgi...err shifter.
394. If you do then do not put her in a diamond studded collar.
395. Even if she really likes it.
396. ESPECIALLY do not attach a leash to it.
397. Aundair is the nation of Magicians, Artists, and Intrigue, not the land of "Frog's legs eating surrender monkeys."
398. Morgaive University is not to be referred to as "Miskatonic University."
399. Even if it has a copy of the Necronomicron in it's library and an abnormally high rate of doomed expeditions into the unameable reaches.
400. I will not feed warforged screws, nuts, and bolts at dinner time.
401. The warforged is not to refer to me or any other human as "meatbags"
402. Dragons will never be referred to as "Puff."
403. Nor will you offer them maidens as a sacrifice.
404. Especially not female crew members who won't put out.
405. I will not attempt to graft warforged parts onto my body and ask to use the Rules of Shadowrun for this.
406. I will not pretend Mage the Ascension rules is optional for D&D.
407. Or Exalted.
408. I am not Captain Harlock nor am I the Rubber Band character from One Piece.
409. Any attempt to test this will result in walking the plank.
410. Which is not a metaphor for homosexuality.
411. The Plank is not a diving board.
412. Nor can you have the shifter girl use a lifeboat to turn tricks...
413. Or call it "Inara's shuttle"
414. The ship's library is not to be emptied and replaced with nothing but porno and Ann Rand.
415. Even if that would change nothing.
416. When fighting the Lord of Blades you will NOT sing "You've got the Touch"
417. Dare to be stupid is appropriate.
418. As pirate, we find talking like a pirate day to be unnecessary.
419. Especially just to make conversations incomprehensible.
420. Marish the Shifter Girl is to be reminded her race is terrifying and feral, not cute and fuzzy.
420. Despite its bad attiude, the druid's Awakend Horrid Rat is NOT named Foamy.
421. If a skiff crashes in a city, we arent going after it. This aint "Air Ship Down".
422. Thou shalt NOT repel boarders with Alchemists Fire.
423. We dont make bombing runs with "Bigby's Crushing Tactical Nuke".
424. Unless we have a pool going as to who can get the closest to the target.
425. A Karnnathi Skeleton or Zombie is not a Deadite.
426. You are not allowed to send Arawai a Mother's Day card, signed "The Fury".
427. The proper way to repair a warforged does not involve an Erector set.
428. The warforged is not on this ship to sell drinks.
429. We dont know the way to San Jose.
430. Dont call the shifter to a meal by shouting "HERE KITTY, KITTY, KITTY."
431. Even if he asks you to.
432. Dont use Alter Self to get at King Kaius' harem.
433. Ever.
434. Using Prestidigation to paint some one hot pink while they sleep is tacky.
435. Funny, but tacky.
436. The Deck of Many things isnt to be used for a game of poker.
437. Or blackjack.
438. Or Baccarat.
439. Or Old Maid.
440. When given an order by the captain, the correct response is 'Yes, sir.' Not'sez you.'
441. We dont deliver pizza in 30 minutes or less.
442. In Eberron, killing them because they are goblins is not encouraged...
443. Even if the vast majority of them are still evil.
444. Flumphs do not attach themselves to people's faces and lay their eggs until they burst out of a person's chest...
445. Even if that would make them a much better creature.
446. Singing I like Darguneese to the tune of "I like Chinese" will not win you friends.
447. No you CANNOT outdrink the dwarf...
448. Do not refer to Boranal as Azoun, Arthur, or Aragorn.
449. No Erandis D'Vol is not Fistdantilius' daughter or Skeletor's sister or the girl from the Corpse bride.
450. Stop spreading rumors that Merrix D'Cannith runs a chocolate factory with a Xen'drick orange gnome race and that you can get in by finding golden tickets hidden worldwide.
451. Marish the shifter girl cat is not McDonalds, no matter how many she's served.
452. Do not refer to Henchmen crew as "Red Shirts"
453. Do not play Taps when we're exiting the ship with the Henchmen crew just recruited.
454. We have a high enough fatality rate as it is, do not PK because you're having a really bad day at work and we've got a cleric with raise dead finally.
455. Alf is not our god nor is Long John Silvers our Temple. I don't even want to know how you came up with that link.
456. On a related note, Optimus Prime is not the warforged god and it is wrong to tell them so.
457. I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts, though I may kill you today
458 through 460. NO you cannot invent Gunpowder!
461. Singing "The Bare Necessities" is not a good way to endear yourself to a subsistence living Bugbear tribe.
462. Crew members Raistlin Majere, Drizzt Do'Urden, Kenshin Himora, and any variations on these above will be forced to fight to the death in a battle royal
463. And the winner's killed.
464. You are not allowed to use a halfling to go 'Dino fishing'.
465. You are not allowed to use a Fireball to go Dino giggin'.
466. The party cleric is not "Dr. Feelgood."
467. You are not allowed to ho out the shifter girl for 5 sp per trick.
467. Its 10 gp per trick.
468. You are not dating the Daughters of Sora Kell.
469. Erandis d'Vol is not to be refered to as "Lichie Lich".
470. Or "That dried up old Lich."
471. You are not allowed to train an army of kobolds and name them "Tuckers Kobolds".
471. Even if your name IS Tucker.
472. The warforged juggernaut is NOT the ships anchor.
473. Nor is he the airships 'emergency brake'.
474. Fnord does not exist
465) Getting the bard to play the Star War's theme and begging the cleric to tell you to "use the force" while you magic missle the portholes of enemy ships is expressly forbiden.
466) Suggesting to the captain that he aquire a regiment of Karnnathi dead for use as marines and rechristen the "Forgotten Freedom" the "Black Pearl" merits being marooned with a hand cross bow and one bolt on the Ring of Syberys.
467) Bards inclined to perform Wagner's "the Ride of the Valkiries" durring strafing runs will be sent below decks forthwith
468) Questioning Khalashtar crew members as to how "Harvy" is doing, wether or not they had a "prodigal room-mate" in college, or making any references to the possibility of their entire race being a bunch of paranoid
schizophrenics is frowned upon....even though its so true.
469) Use of divinations to see what Pontif Jeala is going to look like when she hits puberty is forbiden unless the rest of the crew is invited to see a well.
470. "Cause we're pirates!" is not an excuse for any action I choose to do.
471. I do not fear a crocodile that took my hand.
472. The first mate is not to be referred to as Smee.
472. My mortal enemy is not Peter Pan.
473. We will not ask the artificer to build a laser sword with guns on it that shoots other swords.
474. If we did, I would own it.
475. Shooting a man in the face because he asked for my identification is not an acceptable response...
476. Especially when we paid for fake IDs.
477. Queen Aurala is not the villainess in the movie "Willow."
478. No referring to the Engine Room chief as "Scotty"
479. Even if he is from the part of Breland they wear kilts in.
480. Pirates cannot survive falls of a million feet because we're Pirates and thus awesome.
481. It is wrong to test this on others.
482, It is wrong to put on a hockeymask and take a machete to chase co-eds around Lakes or Universities.
483. I don't care if you were really drunk when you did it.
484. Being a shapechanged druid does not give you permission to hump people's legs.
485. Or any other part of their body.
486. There are no crocodiles in the sewers of Sharn.
487. It is wrong to add them.
488. We do not have phasers or photon torpedoes.
489. Prince Jurian will not be "hoisted by his own petard" whenever we find him.
490. The proper response for disobediance from the shifter is bread and water at meal times, not spanking.
491. Illithids do not worship "Great Cthulhu."
492. When attacking a Riedran Stronghold guarded by Beholders, Elementalists, and Martial Artists...we do not do our best to act out Big Trouble From Little China.
493. There is not only one true God whose name is Keith Baker.
494. It is wrong to tell Worshippers of the Silver Flame that they worship a bunch of dead feathered snakes.
495. Rakashasas are not to be referred to as "Tony"
496. Vengeance from the Boramar clan does not take the form of a Fish being deliverered in the coat of an enemy.
497. You are not going to convince the head of the Boramar clan that he needs you as a psychiatrist.
498. It is wrong to use suggestion to convince Prince Oargev he's gay.
499. Umbargen will not be referred to as "the shrill voiced drow wannabes."Importing huge amount of data is not something most of us have to worry about on a daily basis. But once in a while, you may be presented with tons of data that you have to put inside your application. Why? There are many reasons: maybe you’re creating some kind of a knowledge database, or you’ve just bought your direct competitor and want to merge their users’ data with your own. Pick your favorite, it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that we have a task waiting to be done. So let’s try to deal with it.
Let’s imagine we’re running Instagram-esque application with Ruby on Rails. Users can upload photos and videos there, and other Users can comment on them. Apart from commenting on Posts, Users can also leave comments on other Users’ profiles. Our database model may look like this:
While we were busy designing database, our main competitor focused on actually getting people to use their application. They have 100 000 Users, each of them having 10 Images, 10 Videos and 10 Texts. Each of those posts has been commented 10 times. Each profile has been commented 10 times as well. But their database looks like this:
Somehow we bought their application and now have to merge their data into ours (yup, we had some Users as well). To make things harder, they’re running MySQL while we’re using PostgreSQL. Since those two database schemas seem to differ quite a lot, and our database already has some data inside, we make a guess that scripts like pgloader just won’t cut it.
We might try writing a simple task for data import. While there are hundreds of ways to do this (most of them probably not too good 🤓) we will look at just two of them which are making it all run really fast.
Basic approach
To migrate data we’ll probably want to create a rake task, but to do this we must first access “foreign” data. Can we simply create classes for those models? Well, actually we can. First, we have to configure the second database in config/database.yml by doing something like this:
Then we can create some classes to use this connection:
Now, we can proceed to write a base of our rake task:
And that’s when we stumble upon the first problem. Since Comment has both User and a Post, how can we add it from within this loop? It seems like our Comment could either have a User and possibly lack Post or have a Post but not the User. This can be easily solved by keeping original IDs and offsetting them, so they don’t collide with existing records. Think about something like this:
We need to do.save(validate: false) to keep Rails from checking user_id
Warning!
To do this, we have to stop the application. Any record created while our import script is running would result in a catastrophic failure 😳
Now, when creating Comments we don’t have to actually pass User and Post there — we can just use their IDs, which either already exist or eventually will (when creating Users we must set their IDs the same way).
But this will still fail because Rails try to keep our data safe and add database constraints. We can disable it at the beginning of the script with:
Second warning!
Don’t forget to enable it once the import is over.
Now we can run our rake task and it should finish without errors. But it will take about 60 hours to complete. Stopping the application for so long doesn’t sound good, right? Let’s now fast forward a few iterations and see what we may end up with after some work.
Parallel batch inserts with eager loading and Sequel
A lot of stuff going on in this header, so how about we tackle it piece by piece? It will be best if we look at them from last to first:
Sequel
Sequel is one of available ORMs for Ruby (think ActiveRecord but with 3x less memory footprint). With ActiveRecord we’d have to allocate close to 100GB during our import process, while with Sequel we can keep it under 35GB. Less objects to build = faster processing.
Sequel is one of available ORMs for Ruby (think ActiveRecord but with 3x less memory footprint). With ActiveRecord we’d have to allocate close to 100GB during our import process, while with Sequel we can keep it under 35GB. Less objects to build = faster processing. Eager Loading
If we are not careful enough we may run into N+1 query problem. Luckily it can be easily avoided with eager loading. In ActiveRecord we do in with.includes and in Sequel we have.eager. But they both have the same result, which is reducing the number of selects we make.
If we are not careful enough we may run into N+1 query problem. Luckily it can be easily avoided with eager loading. In ActiveRecord we do in with and in Sequel we have. But they both have the same result, which is reducing the number of selects we make. Batch Insert
Since we’ve reduced the number of selects we should also try to bring down the number of inserts. The easiest way is to avoid saving every object separately, but rather saving them in bigger batches. There’s a gem for this, which is called activerecord-import. Under the hood it creates SQL queries like this one:
This behaves almost like a regular INSERT. For example, if we don’t pass any ID it will be generated
Parallel
After doing above optimisations we may look at the logfile and see that we spend some time processing data between reading and writing them to the database. We could probably run our task in a few parallel processes to make full use of our database (when one process is writing others have time to prepare data). You might have never done parallel processing in Ruby, but it’s actually quite easy (if we skip the hard parts 😅):
Process.waitall is here to pause our main thread, while we’re still processing data
We can now run our new import script and it finishes in just 3.6 hours. With only a few easy changes we’ve achieved 15x speedup. Do you think we can do it even faster?
Skipping Ruby
The previous method was really useful as it allowed us to do any kind of data processing — we could have done stuff like generating passwords for Users or extracting something from JSON before saving to the database. But if we take a closer look at what we’re doing now, we can see that the only processing we need is offsetting IDs. It sounds like something we can do with SQL alone.
So what if we could skip ActiveRecord, Sequel and all this slow stuff entirely, and try to migrate our data using SQL? For loading data into Postgres we can use COPY command, which is even faster than batch insert and allows reading data from a text file. On the other end, we have MySQL which can save select results into CSV file. What if we try to make them work together?
We actually execute two commands in Postgres. First one loads the data while the second one resets auto increment counter, which gets out of sync, because we’re setting custom IDs for resources
Now we only have to write similar queries for every resource and we’re pretty much done. It couldn’t get much easier. And the results are just amazing. Importing all data (which took us 60 hours in the beginning) finishes in just 8 minutes.
That’s 430x faster!
This is a solution we can definitely accept 👍
Wrapping up
We’ve taken a look at two possible ways of fast data import with Ruby (with some help from raw SQL queries of course).
First of them is really useful when we need to do some complex data processing before we can save it to the database. The second one only allows for very basic processing but gives an incredible speed boost.
I have yet to find any faster method of importing data, but if you happen to know one, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments below this article.
If you enjoyed this post, please hit the clap button below 👏👏👏
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.Bob Pelletier of Scarborough received a letter in the mail this week telling him that the $1,200 property tax refund he used to get each August won’t arrive this year.
“They’ve repealed the program and put in its place a basic pacifier that’s a $300 credit. It’s kind of a joke for someone on Social Security who is barely getting by,” said Pelletier, who declined to give his age. “It’s obviously going to be a huge difference for me.”
Pelletier’s letter from Maine Revenue Services indicated that instead of the refund, he may qualify for a $300 refundable tax credit starting in January.
The current biennial state budget repealed the Maine Residents Property Tax and Rent Refund Program, known as the “circuit breaker.”
It was replaced by the property tax fairness credit, which is refundable — it can be claimed in full even if it exceeds taxes owed. But to receive it, a homeowner must file a state income tax return, even if the person receives only Social Security income.
Fewer than half the estimated 200,000 eligible households in Maine had applied for the circuit breaker program in the past. In fiscal year 2012, it had about 89,000 recipients, said Michael Allen, the state’s associate commissioner for tax policy. In 2011, the average yearly refund was $479 and the maximum refund was $1,600, according to Maine Revenue Services.
A study by the AARP found a 40 percent participation rate among similar programs in other states.
Experts have speculated that people did not participate for a variety of reasons. Some didn’t know it existed or assumed they didn’t qualify. Others may have found the application form too complicated or didn’t want to deal with Maine Revenue Services.
“A lot of people in the past may not have participated for any number of reasons. It’s hard to know,” said Allen.
Under the new tax credit program, the state estimates about 125,000 people will qualify to receive credits totaling $34 million to $35 million, Allen said.
Mainers who qualify can get a refundable credit of up |
at that time. Because I was going to practice, and I knew I couldn’t serve, and I knew that there was a good chance I might not play the U.S. Open. As an athlete, that’s tough to digest. I was not fun to be around, and it was a tough position for him.”
Amid the pain, Sharapova put together a solid clay-court season, winning the title in Stuttgart, Germany, and making the final of the Madrid Open. But after beating Stephens in the third round of the Italian Open, Sharapova withdrew from the tournament, citing illness.
“I don’t know how I won that match [against Stephens]," Sharapova said. "You can even go back and watch the video and see my face is totally white, because I know something is not right.”
Sharapova pulled herself together for the French Open and returned to the final (where she lost to Serena Williams), but her shoulder held her back through the hard-court season.
“I think when you have surgery on any part of your body, it’s never going to be the same,” Sharapova said. “I think for me, it was a lot of matches, and I’m very loose-jointed, so changes come, change of weather, change of balls, I am quite sensitive to that, and I think everything just kind of piled on.”
Sharapova underwent platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to help rehabilitate her right shoulder, the same treatment Rafael Nadal has had in the past to heal his ailing knees. She says she's now back to serving with a pain-free shoulder, which required surgery in 2008.
Sharapova also spoke about her decision to blast Williams at Wimbledon after Williams was quoted in Rolling Stone taking an apparent dig at Sharapova's boyfriend, Grigor Dimitrov.
“If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship, and her boyfriend that was married, and is getting a divorce and has kids," she said during her pre-tournament interview at Wimbledon.
From The Times:[Note added 11.5.14: This piece has just been published on AVfM:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/tony-stott-calls-for-an-end-to-sexism-in-dealing-with-domestic-violence-interview-on-itv-wales/ ]
Tony Stott has long been a valued supporter of J4MB and its associated campaigns. He has a particular interest in the issue of domestic violence (‘DV’). For some time he’s been leading an initiative challenging the DV legislation which the Welsh government plans to implement shortly. The rest of this piece was written by Tony, and a link to his recent interview on ITV Wales is at the end:
“DV is about intimate relationships and can be instigated by men, women, or both. It is gender-neutral as both men and women can suffer from and be responsible for DV in broadly equal measure.
This simple humanity is supported by a huge body of international research and practical experience i.e. just two meta studies covering some 400,000 international subjects over many years demonstrate that women are as violent or more violent than men:
Prof. Fiebert http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm
Prof. Straus http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/29583?q=international+dating+violence+study%2C+2001-2006&permit[0]=AVAILABLE#accessNotes
The NSPCC revealed Childline receives 14% more calls complaining of physical abuse by mothers compared with fathers
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/news-and-views/media-centre/press-releases/2012/12-07-23-childline-urges-children-to-speak-up/childline-urges-children-to-speak-up_wdn90922.html
Erin Pizzey founded the first ever women’s refuge in Chiswick, London, in the early 1970s, and noted that some two-thirds of the first 100 women seeking refuge were as violent, or more violent, than the men from whom they were seeking refuge, and to whom they would likely return.
These findings contradict the Welsh government’s (WG’s) old-fashioned “radical” ideology that says only men use violence to exert control over women and that women only ever act in self-defence. New (but unbelievably old-fashioned!) legislation is due to be introduced to the Welsh Assembly in May 2014.
Healing Men created a petition to urge the WG to take a more modern, evidence-based, proven and humane approach to DV:
Petition https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=878
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrAjrxaxUtg&feature=youtu.be
The ITV flagship “Coronation Street” featured a male victim of DV and a journalist with ITV became aware of our petition. He asked if I would contribute to a news item on male victims of DV which was to address some very important issues and, crucially, raises a challenge to the radical policies adopted by the WG and shows our determination to oppose it.
The points raised by Simon Borja from Safer Wales/Dyn Project are good points and well made. We must make men more aware and attuned to the nature of DV and how violent women can be. However, be aware that “Safer Wales” is Radical and calls from men are “assessed” to see if that man is a victim and also an instigator. Given the inter-relational nature of DV it is unsurprising that some 47% of men are classified in this radical way and similar results may be expected from women, but women are never assessed – never have been, and probably never will be. Yet this radical bias and prejudice is being used as a key element in new legislation on DV within the WG.
The Radical Safer Wales / Dyn Project for men was set up by and operated from Welsh Women’s Aid premises in Cardiff.
The WG’s stated position is “masculinity is associated with violence in many cultures and Wales is no exception… all interventions must address men’s violent behaviour” (original emphasis). This incendiary position has led to considerable outrage and opposition from psychotherapists, academics, practitioners and charities involved in the sector. The position as well as the new title of the bill is clearly sexist, discriminatory, abusive, and lays the WG open to legal challenge. A solicitor and human rights barrister as well as two leading charities have pledged to support a man or men disadvantaged by this new legislation.
We also need to consider the effect of this government policy on how boys, as men in waiting, view men and masculinity – and their emerging place in Welsh society – when their government openly holds and expresses such views about men and masculinity. Suicide is the leading cause of death of young men across the UK.
The Minister responsible, Leslie Griffiths AM, asserts the new legislation based on the above position and entitled “Ending Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Bill” is not sexist. The Minister’s use of language is curious.
Coming to a Legislature near YOU! This position and legislation are to be used as a trail-blazer for similar policies in the English, Scottish, Northern Irish and European legislatures as well as elsewhere.
This is a very grave issue for men’s and boys’ human rights.
Tony Stott
www.healing-men.net ”
Share this: Share
Facebook
TwitterTravel guru Rick Steves has been flying higher than we might have thought all these years. He's gone public his use of marijuana and support for legalizating the drug. And he makes his case, in part, as a faithful Lutheran who finds activism more "Christlike" than conforming.
Amy Frykholm recently interviewed Steves, prolific guidebook author and Public Television travel show host, about his book, Travel as a Political Act, and his faith for Christian Century. But she saved the dope news for one of blogs that CC hosts, Theolog.
Steves tells her that people should take a "courageous" stand against drug laws that don't work. In the blog, Steves says,
For me, marijuana is not a harmful substance. I consider using it to be a civil liberty and have used it responsibly as an adult for creative purposes. I used to write a popular monthly column in World Concern Magazine, (a great Christian relief organization here in Seattle) and just for fun, I would write the article high. It helped me see things differently.
Steves says he's not pro-drugs he says, or overlooking to the problems drugs cause for kids or the dangers of driving, not just typing, while high.
I am saying that drug abuse is a painful and expensive problem in our society, and we are tackling it the wrong way. There are 80,000 people in jail for marijuana possession... They get caught in that whole destructive and criminalized world. There are constructive and creative ways to help people, without locking people up, driving up the street value and enriching organized crime...
My pastor knows about my activism, and while he may not agree with me, he respects me for it. The church council supports some de-criminalization activities in Seattle. It is not at all incongruous to being a Christian or a Lutheran. It is a little odd, because most Christians are mindless conformists when it comes to these issues. I don't think mindless conformity is very Christlike.
I was mighty surprised by all this. I traveled in France with Steves himself and interviewed him often during my time as USA TODAY travel writer. I found him to be thoughtful, intellectually astute, culturally sensitive and fun. High? Not as I could tell but, having never smoked, (I may have been the original "designated driver" in the '60s) I probably wouldn't have known.
Still, his judgmental line on Christians who do follow the drug laws, even if they might vote to change them, doesn't seem so very Christlike to me.
Does reading these quotes make you less interested in Steves' advice, on travel or politics or marijuana -- or more interested? What does your religion tell you about smoking marijuana?Three men were stabbed in San Francisco between Friday and Saturday, police said.
The first stabbing was reported Friday in the Tenderloin, where an 18-year-old man was punctured in the back by a knife, police said. The teenager was fighting with someone at Turk and Jones street when he was stabbed.
Police arrived and arrested 32-year-old Ace Cabrera on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon at the intersection around 9:37 a.m., Officer Grace Gatpandan said. Cabrera is a San Francisco resident and was also booked on a probation violation.
On Saturday, a 27-year-old man was with a friend at a park in the Castro when a fist fight broke out between the friends and another man.
After the fight at 18th and Castro streets around 5:18 am, the man realized he had been stabbed by the man in his 40’s.
Later Saturday, a man was on a Muni bus in South of Market around 4:15 p.m. when someone stabbed him in the neck with an unknown sharp weapon, police said.
The 55-year-old man was uncooperative with officers but police said he was attacked on Mission Street near 8th Street.
All three men were taken to San Francisco General Hospital and are expected to survive.
Click here or scroll down to comment"Naturalism is true": A self-contradictory statement
by Albrecht Moritz
(2010, revised 2017)
Naturalism is the view that nothing exists beyond the natural world and that only physical laws operate in our world, i.e. that also humans are purely physical beings. Let us suppose the naturalist wants to defend the position that naturalism is true.
Yet under naturalism every thought, just like everything else, is physically determined. Some propose that freedom of thought might be a result of 'emerging complexity', but this is based on a misunderstanding of the concept. While emergence results in phenomena that would not have been predicted from the basic components of the system on their own, it never violates the physical laws by which these basic components operate. Such a violation would have to occur if free thought could be the result of purely physical processes, which are either deterministic or, at the quantum level, random on a probabilistic basis (yet significant quantum level influence on thought is not feasible under naturalism, since it would just produce random thoughts).
The physical determination of thought under naturalism of course includes the thought "Naturalism is true". Therefore, when making the claim, naturalists have no free choice but are at the mercy of the circuits in their brain to judge on the question.
These circuits were shaped by evolution – yet evolution is of no help to reliably arrive at the claim that naturalism is true. Already Darwin recognized the problem that natural selection may not suffice to explain the human mind's capacity for recognition of truth and objective thought – evolution selects only for physical adaptation and behavior, not for correctness of beliefs *). When evolutionary scientists claim that religion was selected for its behavioral survival advantage, they in fact concede, if they adhere to a naturalistic worldview, that evolution can indirectly select for an allegedly false belief. So there is no use in saying that, in terms of frameworks of beliefs, evolution probably has endowed us with a reliable ability to see that naturalism – an abstract concept far beyond everyday sensory experiences – is true, and therefore we ‘ought’ to see the truth of naturalism even under determinism.
*) Let me be clear from the onset towards those who believe this turns into yet another anti-evolution argument: I fully subscribe to the science of evolution and reject the idea of biological so-called Intelligent Design. I even have written a review article on the origin of life by natural causes for the evolution website Talkorigins.org. Yet evolution is a physical, material process, and the question that this article addresses is whether rationality and recognition of truth are possible as a purely physical phenomenon, or if the human mind requires an immaterial component, operating in connection with the brain, that allows it to transcend physical determinism.
Certainly the naturalist might still claim that evolution has endowed the human brain with basic and universal logical circuitry, shaped by its survival value, that reliably can decide "if we just give the issues some thought". However, even if evolution could accomplish the creation of reliable logical circuitry (which is debatable), an informed decision for or against naturalism is not solely a matter of simple and straightforward logic based on premises that should be self-evident to everyone, independent of the angle from which they are looked at. Rather, when the issues are thoroughly studied and well thought through, it is a matter of careful weighing of (giving weight to) and interpreting abstract and rather complex evidence and arguments pro and con, and this goes far beyond basic circuitry that might have been induced by evolution for its survival value. So there cannot be an evolutionary ‘ought’ on this issue after all.
Thus, given all the above, it cannot rationally be claimed that evolution has shaped our brain circuits in such a way that they are bound to reliably settle the particular question at hand, "when engaged properly". This, however, would be the only way to guarantee the right outcome under naturalistic determinism. (For theists there is no problem here; they usually view the brain as an integral part of the mind, on which the mind fully depends for its functioning, but they do not view it as identical to the mind – evolution then does not fulfill as ultimate a role in shaping the functioning of the mind as it does for the naturalist.)
How then can naturalists nonetheless assert that naturalism is true and its acceptance rational? They will reply that they considered the evidence. Yet under naturalism the brain determines how to interpret the evidence – you have no say in that (or rather, under naturalism you are your brain, in terms of reasoning). So the brain of the naturalist determined that naturalism is true, and mine determined, considering the evidence as well, that naturalism is not true. Now, which brain is right? If you accept naturalism, yet this acceptance is solely dependent on firing of neurons over which you have no control (under determinism), then it is not possible for you to know if your brain is right and naturalism is true. Thus under naturalism the claim that naturalism is true becomes incoherent and self-contradictory. Naturalism defeats itself.
A more modest position might be taken. The naturalist can simply hold that naturalism is a useful 'working hypothesis', with no truth claim attached. However, given the issues discussed above, how can naturalists even know that this working hypothesis makes sense and is rational? Or if they do not claim to know if it is useful and valid, then how can they at least be rationally convinced that it is? The problem persists. Also as a mere working hypothesis, naturalism defeats itself.
***
These considerations lead us to a related issue: In general you can only rationally believe that something is true if in fact, not just as an illusion, you can claim intellectual responsibility for your thoughts and if you can take ownership of the judgment of what is rational and your choice in favor of it. In other words, if you are not solely dependent on a firing of the neurons in your brain over which you have no control, and for which you cannot assume responsibility. Such freedom is not possible under determinism, which is entailed by naturalism (again, a significant quantum level influence on thought is not feasible under naturalism, since it would just produce random thoughts). Yet we know that we are a rational species and that this leads to reliable results – in fact, the entire human enterprise of science and technology is built on the foundation of rationality – and from this knowledge it follows that naturalism is necessarily false.
Certainly, the essential connection between rationality and genuine freedom in rational judgment, which is not possible under determinism, may be objected to on several grounds. Let us examine them.
Some may claim that our brain, shaped by evolution, judges what is rational just fine even without our choice and we are just aware of the result of that judgment. But then the question arises: how could we judge that judgment to be right under determinism? That follow-up judgment would be just another decision made by our brain which we could not judge ourselves. If we could not do that, we could not know that our brain made a rational judgment, and without that knowledge we could not be rational.
This might be countered with the following: our brain knows from experience that this or that kind of rational judgment will yield good practical results, and this experience is a sufficient judge for our brain to know that a related thought process is rational, even if we ourselves do not perform the judgment freely, but our brain does so in a deterministic way. Yet this argument is inadequate: also in areas where we do not have any prior experience we can know that, given the premises we work with, certain rational judgments are true even before we see verifiable results from them – since this also holds for complex and abstract thought processes, an explanation by basic circuitry induced by evolution for its survival value falls flat. While we are aware of this phenomenon from our own thought processes, it is exemplified in a particularly impressive manner in Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity. When Einstein published it, he knew that it had to be right if his premises were right, even though it was counterintuitive, unrelated to prior human experience, and would radically change our views of the physical world. Obviously, we also know that observation confirmed the theory.
In this context, Stephen Barr superbly argues that the recognition of abstract, complex and absolute mathematical truth simply cannot be explained from an evolutionary perspective (number counting etc.), in the section "What is Man?" of his book Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.
There may also be those who hold that individual judgment plays a limited role for the greater goal of the rational enterprise. For example, the claim may be made that rationality in science is based on consensus. Yet precisely the opposite is true, as I also can attest from my own experience as a scientist. As Thomas Nagel writes in his excellent book The Last Word *), a convincing defense of objectivity of rational thought: "In most cases we will then conclude that reason and objectivity are not grounded in consensus, but on the contrary, that where consensus is available, it arises from the convergence among different individuals, all reasoning to get at the truth." Again, Einstein’s example makes this perfectly clear – he alone developed the theory, and consensus arose among the scientific community after considering the concept and the subsequent evidence as it became available.
*) In his book, this brilliant atheist philosopher concedes that the explanation of human rationality poses a grave challenge to naturalism. He also admits that an evolutionary explanation of rationality and abstract thinking is, quote, "laughably inadequate" (The Last Word, p.75).
The weight of individual rational judgment is also not substantially diminished by the objection that progress in science is a result of endless trial and error. Yes, that is how science usually works, but mainly because observation and experiment show that certain, often previously unknown, parameters were not taken into account, or that some of our ideas about how the world works were fundamentally flawed (e.g., at a time where quantum mechanics was not yet known). Trial and error in science are much less often the result of flaws in the rational process itself.
Finally, referring to computers as an example of deterministic matter capable of exhibiting ‘rational thought’ is not a valid counterargument either. The functioning of computers is dependent on human rationality – even if they are induced to 'learn' and in the process to create output 'on their own' – since they are programmed by humans according to the rules of logic and reason that these apply. Instead of being programmed to calculate 9 x 7 = 63, a computer could just as easily be programmed to calculate 9 x 7 = 126, also obeying the laws of physics. It would not know the difference.
This also points to another distinction between us and computers: we can verify our rational processes, a computer cannot. This ability to check and control our thought processes and cognitive biases in a self-reflective manner further indicates that our rational judgment is a genuinely free choice, at some level of independence from a physically deterministic firing of neurons in our brain that we could not control. Certainly, a computer can be programmed to monitor the technical functioning of its circuitry, but this is a different issue: it cannot monitor if its functioning gives correct results in the first place. This is up to the human designers and programmers. More generally, a computer does not understand what it is doing, only its human designers and programmers do, and the usefulness and interpretation of its output is wholly dependent on its human users.
In conclusion, none of the arguments against the essential connection between rationality and genuine freedom in rational judgment are valid. The human mind must have a component that is not subject to physical determinism, i.e. it must have an immaterial component. This indicates that the philosophical and religious notion of a 'rational soul' is correct.
That rational thinking must be free, independent of physical determinism, is also supported by the consideration that ground and consequent in thinking are different from, and must stand outside the pattern of, [physical] cause and effect (again, that they coincide in the working of computers is not a valid counterargument, see above).
There is an excellent article by C.S. Lewis about this topic, "The Cardinal Difficulty of Naturalism". Here is an excerpt:
"But unfortunately the two systems [ground and consequent, cause and effect] are wholly distinct. To be caused is not to be proved. Wishful thinkings, prejudices, and the delusions of madness, are all caused, but they are ungrounded. Indeed to be caused is so different from being proved that we behave in disputation as if they were mutually exclusive. The mere existence of causes for a belief is popularly treated as raising a presumption that it is groundless, and the most popular way of discrediting a person's opinions is to explain them causally – 'You say that because (Cause and Effect) you are a capitalist, or a hypochondriac, or a mere man, or only a woman'. The implication is that if causes fully account for a belief, then, since causes work inevitably, the belief would have had to arise whether it had grounds or not. We need not, it is felt, consider grounds for something which can be fully explained without them."
The remainder of the article is just as hard-hitting, yet also rich in subtlety of argumentation. It may take some time to fully understand it all in detail (it certainly took me a while before it all sank in), and I have seen attempts at rebuttal of it on the web that did not at all understand what they aimed to refute, and completely missed the point. – Lewis's ponderings of quantum mechanics at the beginning of his article can be safely ignored, he does not use them in his argument anyway.
A good, concise summary of Lewis’s points (yet not a substitute for reading his article) is given by Robert Koons. It also touches on some points discussed here.
***
Yet many will say: how can one believe that the mind is more than just the brain, given the findings of neuroscience that mental activity precisely and in detail correlates with brain activity? However, correlation does not automatically imply causation. Furthermore, and importantly, this correlation was fully predicted and expected by classical Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy, since immaterial conceptual thoughts always need to be accompanied by mental images, which are material and provided by the brain. For this, see Edward Feser, Against Neurobabble (link), Modern biology and original sin, Part I, subheading What is man? (link) and the last few paragraphs of a follow-up article on the latter, Monkey in your soul? (link). These articles also provide an additional, essential argument for the immateriality of thinking.It’s not every day that I get to publish news about Tesla, Nvidia, the Model X and Jen-Hsun Huang in the same piece (well, actually, never). Today however, is that odd day, because Nvidia’s CEO has posted a picture of himself receiving his shiny new Model X P90D from Tesla Motors – probably as a congratulatory gift on a job well done. It’s worth noting that Nvidia is an important supplier for Tesla Motors and the on-board digital cockpit system is powered completely by Tegra chips.
The CEO of Nvidia Corporation poses with a blue Model X. @Unknown
Nvidia’s CEO poses with a Tesla Model X P90D
The picture shown below first appeared on Weibo and was eventually tweeted on Nvidia’s official page as well. It shows Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang posing with a new Tesla Model X and a car stable showcasing two white Model Ss and what appears to be multiple Ferraris – but ofcourse, they are covered up, since this is pretty much a Tesla party. It does look like Mr Jen has a car for every day of the week – which comes with being the CEO of such a big company.
Nvidia has been supplying their Tegra chips and powering the on-board instrument cluster and the 17 inch screen. There is reason to believe that it has a substantial role in the ADAS system as well – but that has yet to be confirmed. What we do know for sure is that with the introduction of the Drive PX and Drive CX chips by Nvidia, it could become a much more significant player in future Tesla products as the company moves towards a future of fully autonomous cars. Green will be an absolutely critical ingredient in the perfect autonomous mix because they will be the ones providing the graphical horsepower to process all the information from the various sensors.
So it’s no wonder that Jen-Hsun Huang now has this awesome car in his possession from Tesla. Infact, this is probably a Signature model, if not a Founder Series model, considering that the delivery for reservation holders of the Signature Model X haven’t started yet. Elon Musk has been an active participant in Nvidia presentations involving ADAS and DNNs so it isn’t really surprising to see Tesla this happy with Nvidia. Since we are on the topic, the Tesla Autopilot has caused quite a stir (in a very positive manner) in the Industry and might actually have jump started the transition to fully autonomous vehicles. And if there is one thing we can say for sure, it is that the transition will be powered with things that are small and green.
Love my new rocket! Congrats, Elon and the @TeslaMotors and NVIDIA teams. – Jen-Hsun Huang pic.twitter.com/KXdkuSMr3j — NVIDIA (@nvidia) October 27, 2015A man who said he voted for President Trump in 2016 said on Monday that if Jesus Christ told him Trump colluded with Russia, he would still have to check with the president to see if it was true.
“If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him, 'Hold on a second. I need to check with the president if it's true,’” said Mark Lee, one of six Trump voters to appear on a CNN panel Monday morning.
Lee said he believes in the president and his mission of “draining the swamp.”
“Trump is there for the small guy; he’s there for people like myself,” Lee said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lee described the “swamp” as “the mainstream, the elites that look down on a guy like me.”
Ruben Estrada, another panelist, also spoke about the importance of draining the swamp of political elites, referring specifically to the House and Senate.
“You make it more accountable to the people,” Estrada said.
Lee said that he doesn’t believe having multimillionaires in Trump’s Cabinet is counterproductive to Trump’s “drain the swamp” message.
“I love that,” he said. “They’re not politicians.”Guatemala: Protests for Assassinated Lawyer Streamed Live from Laptops in the Streets
Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.
Quick background: The slain attorney, Rodrigo Rosenberg, represented a man who refused to take an assigment by Guatemala's president to serve on the board of a bank widely known as a money laundering hub and a shelter for narcotrafficking spoils. This whistleblower client of Rosenberg, Khalil Musa, was assassinated in March. On Sunday, after reportedly refusing to participate in the corruption and the coverup, Rosenberg himself was assassinated.
Protesters are at the presidential palace today. Libertópolis is streaming the action on Ustream.tv, as I type, though the stream is going on and off as armed military police swarm in.
Twitter users are marking conversations about today's protests, and about the case in general, with the hashtag #escandalogt. To take this sort of public action in Guatemala is not something one does lightly, and the young people at the center of these protests are placing their lives at risk.
I'm seeing some Guatemalan Twitterers spreading word that "chicken bus" drivers will gather tomorrow in the capital for another round of protests. Why? These same transportistas have long been the target of ever-escalating assasinations and extortion from narco gangs. The same corruption Rosenberg and Musa attempted to expose fuels this cycle of violence.
I don't have factual confirmation, but Guatemalan BB readers and Twitterers are saying that coverage of this story on the Guatemalan television networks is actively censored by the state (and that the recently declared "swine flu emergency" in a country with only 3 confirmed H1N1 cases was little more than a thinly disguised attempt by the state to exert more control). Claims of censorship there have historic precedent, and it makes the existence of these online "citizen TV" transmissions all the more significant. (via deztyped and many others)
Previously: Guatemala - In YouTube Video Shot Before His Death, Attorney Blames President for His Assasination
Update, 3pm PT, May 12 :
CNN now has an item on the story.Tokyo, Japan The 8 best countries to be an atheist In many places around the world, this is an unprecedented era of freedom and social acceptance for non-believers
A lot of non-believer writers and activists focus, rightly, on the continuing lack of acceptance in many societies and nations of those who profess no belief in religion. Keeping an eye on what’s not working is the first step toward making improvements. Still, in many places around the world, this is an unprecedented era for non-believers of freedom and social acceptance. In the spirit of celebrating the amount of progress secularism has made around the world, here’s a list of eight of the best countries in which to be a non-believer.
1) Czech Republic. Many former communist nations saw their populations eagerly run back to the forbidden religions as soon as they were free to do so, demonstrating that the least effective way to spread atheism around is by mandate. The Czech Republic hasn’t seen any such return to religion, however; only 21% of its citizens consider religion an important part of their daily lives. They seem to be hanging on to secularism for roughly the same reason that they do pretty well in international sports competitions. Unlike most Eastern European nations, the Czech Republic rates high on the United Nation’s Human Development Report. It hasn't been riddled by the corruption and authoritarian attitudes that dominate other former communist nations, such as Russia. A mountain of evidence demonstrates that stable, egalitarian economies correlate strongly with higher rates of atheism. It seems that the government’s demonstration of faith in its people and commitment to their well-being has gone a long way towards keeping the citizens from rekindling religious faith, whereas in places like Russia, where citizens are more desperate, looking to God for answers perhaps becomes more appealing.
Advertisement:
2) Sweden & 3) Denmark. It might not seem immediately obvious why high numbers of non-believers in a country would make life better for atheists, but the examples of Sweden and Denmark show why this is true. When non-belief or even outright atheism is widespread, atheists can go about their lives free from the fear that their lack of belief will cause people to mistrust, hate, or even discriminate against them. These two countries, in which only 17% and 18%, respectively, of the population consider religion important, have become icons of secularist values to the rest of the world. Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist from Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., spent a little more than a year talking to citizens to find out why. He discovered that your average Danish or Swedish citizen simply doesn’t think much about religion; in these two cultures, religion has largely been relegated to a ceremonial role. For the typical atheist who likes to have a Christmas tree without the burden of having to believe in the Virgin Birth, the Danish and Swedish attitude towards religion should fit like a cozy sweater.
4) Austria. In an effort to satirize Austria’s allowance of religious headgear in driver’s license photos, Niko Alm applied for the right to be photographed with a pasta strainer on his head, which he claimed was the official headgear of the Pastafarian faith. The “faith” in question is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was established by pranksters in 2005 in order to demonstrate the pulled-out-of-their-asses aspects of some religious dogma. Alm claims the government hassled him about the license, but police insist that they issued it promptly and he simply failed to collect it. Regardless of the real story, it seems the government now wants it to be clear it gives no special treatment to a faith because it judges one kind of believer more authentic or sincere than another. While this incident might seem like small potatoes, it demonstrates a kind of absolute secularism that takes no opinion on faith whatsoever is the gold standard that secularists should strive for.
5) France. Even though France still has a heavy layer of Catholic tradition to its culture that puts the names of saints on street signs and venerates churches as some of its most important landmarks, secularism has become a strong national value in France. As with the United States, erecting a separation between church and state was a central value to the revolution that created the modern democratic state in France. In 1905, France passed a strong law mandating a strict separation of church and state, and since then, secularism has been a strong central French value. Almost too strong, in fact, as French politicians have been too successful in appealing to these secular values in order to pass oppressive laws banning the use of face veils in public. Outside of this exploitation of secularism in service of Islamophobia, by and large the French commitment to secular values seems sincere. Only 25% of French citizens consider religion an important part of their daily life, and the government has laws to prevent proselytizing in schools.
6) Norway. There’s a strong correlation between the happiest countries in the world and the least religious countries in the world, and along with Sweden and Denmark, Norway rates at the top of both lists. The two measurements have a complex relationship with each other. People likely look to religion less when they want for less, for one thing, but it also may be that atheism flourishes in nations where people demonstrate high levels of commitment towards a socially just government and shared economic benefits. If you have faith in your nation and your fellow citizens, putting faith in religion as well might just seem rather pointless. Norway cemented its relationship with secular values just this year, eliminating the Lutheran church as the official state church, aligning the law with the culture. No one in parliament resisted the change, and the church itself supported it, in an excellent show of atheists and Christians working together to create a secular society for the benefit of all.
7) Australia. For politicians, the belief that the electorate won’t support an atheist is an article of faith stronger than their faith in any God. In Australia, at least, that wisdom has fallen by the wayside with the 2010 election of Prime Minister Julia Gillarda, an atheist. Gillard not only makes it clear that she doesn’t believe in God, but she also calls out the pressure on politicians to make a show of having faith in order to attract voters, saying, “For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to engage in some pretense about mine.” She also doesn’t hide the fact that her atheism is a result of thinking over the issue, as she grew up Christian and even won prizes for catechism. The voters in Australia looked at a woman who not only doesn’t believe in God, but came to that conclusion by actively rejecting religion for herself. Seems like a pretty safe country to be an atheist. Secularists even have their own political party, the Secular Party, which is dedicated to maintaining and strengthening the separation between church and state in Australia.
8) Japan. Like many countries in East Asia |
’t know me as a person, so his argument here is invalid. Number two: His only criticisms of my game are that I’m a “pussy” and a “floater.” If you actually bring up how strategic I was, he reverts to his pedestrian arguments that are nothing but superficial fluff, as we all know that if he’s as BRILLIANT at Big Brother as he constantly boasts about, then he completely understands what a complex game I played. If not, then maybe he isn’t the Big Brother supernova he claims to be. The only other reason I can think of for Dick hating me so much is that I’m very, very close with his estranged daughter, Daniele, who is a kind, funny, rational person (a RARITY in the Big Brother world). I love Daniele, and his rants against her only make him look terrible and her look better for cutting him out of her life. I could go way deeper into this, but I love Daniele and I respect her privacy, so I won’t. Long story short: I think I hurt his feelings by casually talking about his game, and now he HATES me. Like…HAAAATES. He banned me from a charity event earlier this month after I raised lots of money for it last year. I just wish he would grow up, but the truth is that he is a lost cause; he will always be Evel Dick, the man who will start fights and revert to cruelty to stay relevant. I feel bad for him. Ragan Fox – I’ve already covered this one. He’s a sad man who never gave me a chance, even though I loved him on the show and was nothing but kind to him afterward. I feel bad for him in the same way that I feel bad for Dick. My beef with him could have been settled by a rational phone conversation, but he chose to be angry and bitter, and there is nothing I can do about that. He’s another person who thinks he knows everything about my personal life (I’m sad, pathetic, and obsessed with Big Brother) when in actuality he knows nothing. Yeah, I LOVE Big Brother, but I ALWAYS HAVE. Danielle Murphree – I tweeted a joke about her and she unfollowed me. Plain and simple. Another Big Brother player who can’t laugh at herself, which is a shame. I don’t have any ill will towards her, though. She has always been sweet when I’ve been around her in person.
There ya have it. I bet I’ll get criticism for sharing this, as people will certainly think I’m doing it to “stay relevant,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m doing it because I am asked about it constantly, and I think many of the reasons why I’m blocked are ludicrous. Evel Dick will probably go on a horrifying rant against me, and I won’t respond, as that is precisely what he wants (I guess I probably shouldn’t have even given him attention on here, but whatever…it needed to be said).
To the Big Brother players who are rational and lovely and can find humor in the whole experience: THANK YOU. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Your company is an absolute pleasure to keep.
When it comes to Big Brother 17: WIN THE WHOLE THING, BECKY.
AdvertisementsBEIJING, June 20 -- China's central bank on Monday pumped more money into the market to provide liquidity.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted seven-day reverse repurchase agreements (repo) worth 170 billion yuan (around 25 billion U.S. dollars), a process by which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to resell them in the future.
The reverse repos were priced to yield 2.25 percent, unchanged from Friday's injection of 40 billion yuan, according to a PBOC statement.
Reverse repos worth 110 billion yuan matured on Monday, so the central bank has effectively injected 60 billion yuan into the market.
In Monday's interbank market, the benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one another, rose by 0.5 basis points to 2.01 percent.The war in Syria and the role of world powers in the conflict was addressed during the second debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Sunday night.
Here is what the two US presidential candidates had to say on the raging Middle East war that has claimed more than 400,000 lives over the past five-and-a-half years.
Moderator: If you were president, what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo?
Hillary Clinton: Well, the situation in Syria is catastrophic. And every day that goes by, we see the results of the regime by [Syrian President Bashar] Assad in partnership with the Iranians on the ground, the Russians in the air, bombarding places, in particular Aleppo, where there are hundreds of thousands of people, probably about 250,000 still left. And there is a determined effort by the Russian air force to destroy Aleppo in order to eliminate the last of the Syrian rebels who are really holding out against the Assad regime.
Russia hasn't paid any attention to ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - ISIL]. They're interested in keeping Assad in power. So I, when I was secretary of state, advocated and I advocate today a no-fly zone and safe zones. We need some leverage with the Russians, because they are not going to come to the negotiating table for a diplomatic resolution, unless there is some leverage over them. And we have to work more closely with our partners and allies on the ground.
Trump: 'We should get on to much more important things'
But I want to emphasise that what is at stake here is the ambitions and the aggressiveness of Russia. Russia has decided that it's all in, in Syria. And they've also decided who they want to see become president of the United States, too, and it's not me. I've stood up to Russia. I've taken on [President Vladimir] Putin and others, and I would do that as president.
I think wherever we can cooperate with Russia, that's fine. And I did as secretary of state. That's how we got a treaty reducing nuclear weapons. It's how we got the sanctions on Iran that put a lid on the Iranian nuclear programme without firing a single shot. So I would go to the negotiating table with more leverage than we have now. But I do support the effort to investigate for crimes, war crimes committed by the Syrians and the Russians and try to hold them accountable.
Donald Trump: She talks tough against Russia but our nuclear programme has fallen way behind, and they've gone wild with their nuclear programme. Not good. Our government shouldn't have allowed that to happen. Russia is new in terms of nuclear. We are old. We're tired. We're exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very bad thing.
Now, she talks really tough against Putin and against Assad. She talks in favour of the rebels. She doesn't even know who the rebels are. You know, every time we take rebels, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else, we're arming people. And you know what happens? They end up being worse than the people.
Look at what she did in Libya with [late leader Muammar] Gaddafi. Gaddafi's out. It's a mess. And, by the way, ISIS has a good chunk of their oil. I'm sure you probably have heard that. It was a disaster. Because the fact is, almost everything she's done in foreign policy has been a mistake and it's been a disaster.
But if you look at Russia, just take a look at Russia, and look at what they did this week, where I agree, she wasn't there, but possibly she's consulted. We sign a peace treaty. Everyone's all excited. Well, what Russia did with Assad and, by the way, with Iran, who you made very powerful with the dumbest deal perhaps I've ever seen in the history of deal-making, the Iran deal, with the $150bn, with the $1.7bn in cash, which is enough to fill up this room.
Iran warns enduring sanctions threatening nuclear deal
But look at that deal. Iran now and Russia are now against us. So she wants to fight. She wants to fight for rebels. There's only one problem. You don't even know who the rebels are. So what's the purpose?
I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up because of our weak foreign policy.
I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS. We have people that want to fight both at the same time. But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and its Iran, who she made strong and [Secretary of State John] Kerry and [President Barack] Obama made into a very powerful nation and a very rich nation, very, very quickly, very, very quickly.
I believe we have to get ISIS. We have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved. She had a chance to do something with Syria. They had a chance. And that was the line. And she didn't.
I think Aleppo is a disaster, humanitarian-wise.
Moderator: What do you think will happen if it falls?
Trump: I think that it basically has fallen. OK? It basically has fallen. Let me tell you something. You take a look at Mosul. The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, we have Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul. So we have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out of Iraq, we will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks.
Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can't they do it quietly? Why can't they do the attack, make it a sneak attack, and after the attack is made, inform the American public that we've knocked out the leaders, we've had a tremendous success? People leave. Why do they have to say we're going to be attacking Mosul within the next four to six weeks, which is what they're saying? How stupid is our country?
'Massive crisis' as 1.5m expected to flee Iraq's Mosul
Look, I have 200 generals and admirals who endorsed me. I have 21 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients who endorsed me. We talk about it all the time. They understand, why can't they do something secretively, where they go in and they knock out the leadership?
I've been reading now for weeks about Mosul, that it's the harbour of where, you know, between Raqqa and Mosul, this is where they think the ISIS leaders are. Why would they be saying - they're not staying there any more. They're gone. Because everybody's talking about how Iraq, which is us with our leadership, goes in to fight Mosul.
Now, with these 200 admirals and generals, they can't believe it. All I say is this. General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur are spinning in their grave at the stupidity of what we're doing in the Middle East.
Moderator: Secretary Clinton, you want Assad to go. You advocated arming rebels, but it looks like that may be too late for Aleppo. You talk about diplomatic efforts. Those have failed. Ceasefires have failed. Would you introduce the threat of US military force beyond a no-fly zone against the Assad regime to back up diplomacy?
Clinton: I would not use American ground forces in Syria. I think that would be a very serious mistake. I don't think American troops should be holding territory, which is what they would have to do as an occupying force. I don't think that is a smart strategy.
I do think the use of special forces, which we're using, the use of enablers and trainers in Iraq, which has had some positive effects, are very much in our interests, and so I do support what is happening, but let me just …
I hope by the time I am president that we will have pushed ISIS out of Iraq. I do think that there is a good chance that we can take Mosul. And, you know, Donald says he knows more about ISIS than the generals. No, he doesn't.
There is a lot of very important planning going on, and some of it is to signal to the Sunnis in the area, as well as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, that we all need to be in this. And that takes a lot of planning and preparation.
OPINION: Trump and Baghdadi
I would go after [ISIL leader Abu Bakr] Baghdadi. I would specifically target Baghdadi, because I think our targeting of al-Qaeda leaders - and I was involved in a lot of those operations, highly classified ones - made a difference. So I think that could help.
I would also consider arming the Kurds. The Kurds have been our best partners in Syria, as well as Iraq. And I know there's a lot of concern about that in some circles, but I think they should have the equipment they need so that Kurdish and Arab fighters on the ground are the principal way that we take Raqqa after pushing ISIS out of Iraq.Not so, says Januszczak. It “successfully evokes the sensation of standing under a cascade of diarrhoea.” Savage attack: art critic Waldemar Januszczak. Credit:Michael Lallo Olsen, meanwhile, has dismissed the review as ‘‘extremely foolish’’ and ‘‘an attempt to put Colonials in their place’’. He says his artwork was inspired by NASA photos of the sun that showed immense globules of energy emanating from the source. ‘‘It's not just a simplistic idea. You can call it diarrhoea or energy. It just depends on what you ate last night. ‘‘What is demonstrated [by the exhibition] is that Australians have their own way of looking at things," Olsen says.
‘‘We don't give a damn about what they say we are. Such a review is endeavouring to put the colonials in their place. Ha-bloody-ha. I'd say it was extremely foolish.’’ John Olsen's Sydney Sun: like "a cascade of diarrhoea". Credit:Graham Tidy The RA show has raided the country's major galleries to present a survey of Australia's most-admired painters and paintings - a 'best of' Australian art, from before white settlement to the very latest contemporary works, around the theme of 'landscape'. It has garnered mixed reviews, with some complaining such survey shows are old hat. However The Times gave it four stars, calling it long overdue and “powerfully atmospheric”. Fred Williams' desert landscape: “thick cowpats of minimalism”. Credit:Getty Images
But the Sunday Times disagreed with its sister paper. Of the show as a whole, Januszczak says “every now and then something interesting comes along, but as an overall national achievement, the contents of this display feel lightweight and provincial … I ended up musing (in Australia) the wrong people became artists.” He complained that the indigenous element of the survey was tokenistic, preferring original ancient rock art to the “dull canvas approximations knocked out in reduced dimensions by a host of repetitive Aborigine artists making a buck.” Recent indigenous art, he says, “amounts to a market in decorative rugs”. Only Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Albert Namatjira impressed on the indigenous side. And he seemed to like the power of Sidney Nolan (“strewth cobber, but he wasn't sensitive!”) and enjoyed some contemporary artists.
Januszczak is a former Guardian critic who has twice won the Critic of the Year award, and also makes television arts documentaries. Olsen, however, described his criticism of Williams as ‘‘utterly ridiculous’’. ‘‘[Williams] was looking at an untidy Australian landscape. I sometimes describe it as a dog's hind legs. The untidiness is really the essence of what it is. So to expect an Australian landscape to correspond to a European landscape is a very limited view indeed.’’ Olsen, who saw a preview of the show in Canberra before it left for London, conceded that some artists, like Ian Fairweather, we're not well served by having only one example of their work on display, but added that the Aboriginal art is ‘‘very, very good’’. ‘‘As an overall national achievement, the contents of this display feel lightweight and provincial,’’ Januszcza wrote.
Loading But provincialism was also a strength, Olsen responded. "Rather than pretending you’re international, which can often mean everyone should speak Esperanto’’. Additional reporting by Andrew TaylorCreate the perfect menu, train your staff and establish a welcoming ambiance for your costumers to get a 5-star restaurant.
Run your own restaurant
In this game pack you’ll be giving the opportunity to run and manage your own restaurant.
In this game pack you’ll be giving the opportunity to run and manage your own restaurant. Create the perfect menu
Try out different dishes to put on your menu. For example you can run a sushibar, a vegetarian restaurant, a burger bar and many more!
Try out different dishes to put on your menu. For example you can run a sushibar, a vegetarian restaurant, a burger bar and many more! Customize everything
You can build a restaurant with many different styles, dress up your employees and add a dress code for your costumers.
Release date: June 7, 2016
Average price: $19.99 / €19.99
Run a 5-star restaurant
In The Sims 4 Dine Out game pack you can make it your goal to own and run a 5-star restaurant. Costumers who come to your restaurant can give you a rating. The rating is based on service, ambiance and food serving. You can affect this rating by hiring better staff or educate waiters and chef’s, prepare the most delicious meals to serve your customers and decorate your restaurant venue with decorative objects. Always be prepared for food critics!
Get creative with the new customizable sign set in The Sims 4 Dine Out. Place a blank sign and add colors, letters, symbols to create a sign that is unique to your restaurant.
Build your restaurant around a specific theme
If you get this game pack you can build any kind of restaurant you like. For example you can create your own modern sushibar and decorate it with Asian themed objects that come with this game pack. Change the menu so Sims can choose between different seafood and sushi dishes. Don’t forget the dessert!
Another theme you can try is a vegetarian restaurant (there is an option to filter these items when you are creating your menu). If you have Spa Day you can also add Sugar Free Carob Coconut Cake or the Superfood Salad to your menu.
Be creative! Build burger bars, salad bars, Italian restaurants, fast food joints, bar and grills and much more!
Eat beautiful Experimental food
This pack contains more than objects, clothing and restaurants. It also comes with a lot of new experimental (animated) dishes for your Sims to enjoy. Things like a Volcano Pasta, Bacon Love Petals or a Jungle Moss Egg with Lavender Wisps aren’t weird when you find them in your restaurants menu. Some dishes will put Sims in a specific moodlet. This will come in handy when you go on a date with your Sims’ crush.
With beautiful food comes creative mind. You can now photograph your dinner and place the pictures on your wall or Simstagram!
Varied Dining Experience
Restaurants are the perfect place to bring a date or celebrate a birthday. There are new activities for kids for example; They start coloring while waiting for their food. When you’re on a date there will be specific table interactions, you can feed your date, isn’t that romantic?
If you have The Sims 4 Get Together you can take your club to the restaurant. This is the perfect place for a group of foodies!
Watch the official trailer from The Sims 4 Dine Out
Create A Sim items
ObjectsSprint customers experiencing outages after electrical fire at exchange facility One person was taken in critical condition Tuesday morning after an electrical fire, according to officials. Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Hide Transcript Show Transcript
WEBVTT 11 CALLS. >> MICHELLE I AT LEG WORTH LIVE. >> THEY FOUND A PERSON SHOCKED AND BURNED AT THE BASEMENT OF FIVE AND LEG WORTH. ABOUT 5:00 O'CLOCK THIS MORNING. WHILE WE LEARNED TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED, SPRINT CUSTOMERS WON'T UP WITH LIMITED OR NO SERVICE AT ALL. THE MAIN ELECTRICAL BREAKER IN THIS BUILDING IS WHERE OMAHA FIREFIGHTERS FOUND THE FIRE AND THE VICTIM. THEY QUICKLY PUT IT OUT WITH DRY CHEMICALS BUT NOT BEFORE SOMEONE GOT CHITLY SHOCKED AND BURNED. AT SPRINT STORES ACROS THING TOWN PEOPLE DO THINGS THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY. THEY SHOW UP. SPRINT POSTED THIS SIGN ON THE DOOR. IT IS FIRE AT THE SWITCHING FACILITY KNOCKED OUT 36 TOWERS NOT ALLOWING YOUR PHONES TO ROME. >> ON BUSINESS I'LL NEED TO TAKE PHONES CALLS FROM MY CLIENT. THAT WILL BE AN ISSUE. >> NO ONE FROM SPRINT WOULD TALKING TO US. INSTEAD THEY SENT THIS STATEMENT. SOME PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING PROBLEMS FROM A RESULTING FIRE. OUR TEAM IS WORKING QUICKLY TO RESOLVE AND WE APOLOGIZE TO CUSTOMERS. >> IT'S JUST FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE. >> MY JOB REQUIRES ME TO HAVE IT. I'M OFF THE NEXT TWO DAYS. IF I DON'T WORK TODAY I'LL BE SKEWED. >> I HAVE SPRINT ON MY PERSONAL CELL PHONE IN THE LAST HALF HOUR OR SO I WAS ABLE TO RECEIVE PHONE CALLS AND MAKING PHONE CALLS OUT. OTHER SPRINT CUSTOMERS HAVE NOT BEEN GETTING ANY OF THOSE PHONE CALLS. WE HAVE NO OFFICIAL WORD FROM SPRINT. YOU CANNOT CALL 911. WE HAVE AN ALTERNATE 911 FOR EMERGENCIES. THAT'S (402)444-5842 THE OTHER PART OF THE STORY WE'RE TRYING TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT THE VICTIM IN CRITICAL CONDITIONHere at Stami Studios we create the cutest acrylic jewellery and lapel pins! Everything is exclusively designed by Sammy Stami for Stami Studios.
We are currently using Kickstarter to fund some of our pin designs, this allows us to see what you guys want from us!
We have our latest pin design, Zelda Rupees!
Soft enamel gives that sunken effect to the colour, epoxy gives a smooth finish. Metallic colours can only be made using soft enamel and glitter will not flake off with the epoxy over top.
The lapel pins will be:
Soft enamel + Epoxy
Either Glitter or Metallic (see image)
Black plating, Gold plating and Silver plating (see image)
25mm tall
The backing cards will be designed with a Breath of the Wild theme.
To fund these pins the reward tiers are packs of 2, 4 and 6!
The glitter rupees are one pack, the metallic rupees are one pack or you can get all 6 together.
Early Bird rewards for our early backers are available!It's that time of year again. The heat of summer has sparked the rumors of continued conference expansion. With the dog days of summer fully upon us and the appetites for college football becoming nearly insatiable, fans and analysts have turned on their crystal balls to bridge the gap between now and the start of the season. Among the schools being evaluated as a possible candidate is Colorado State.
For Colorado State to be in this position is quite remarkable considering where the school's athletic programs were merely seven years ago. Rewind to 2008 and you will find a much different Colorado State. All-time great Sonny Lubick had just concluded his final season as head coach for the Rams with a disappointing 3-9 record.
Tim Miles struggled to lead a depleted basketball team to a seven win season with no wins against a conference opponent. The women's basketball team fared even worse matching the men's conference tally (of zero) with only five total victories on the season. Even Tom Hilbert's consistently elite Volleyball squad had struggles, losing to Utah in the conference tournament and failing to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tourney.
Not counted in the win column were Colorado State's aging facilities that were far inferior to many college programs. When you take a look at the athletic department as a whole in 2008, it is rather astounding to envision a program that would go on to win 91 games between those four sports seven years later.
Colorado State was left out of conference expansion the last time it came around, but the Rams made sure they would be in the conversation the next time it happened. People are beginning to bring up Colorado State in expansion talks, but how realistic is it the Rams will actually be named the newest member of a Power 5 conference? Let's look at some of the many factors that will determine the next expansion member and how CSU stacks up to other candidates.
Colorado State's Resume
Football: B (compared to other expansion candidates)
Certainly the biggest 'on-the-field' factor for any Big XII candidate is a school's football program. It is still easily the largest revenue generator for college athletic departments even with the advent of college hoops. The Rams had a breakout year in 2014 racking up the first 10 win season since 2002 with record breaking performances by Garrett Grayson and All-American Rashard Higgins. The Rams reached their second straight bowl game, but fell to Utah.
There are many questions around the program with Mike Bobo about to begin his first year as coach and the loss of Garrett Grayson to the NFL. Bobo will not only need to match predecessor Jim McElwain's accomplishments, but establish consistent double-digit win seasons if Colorado State wants to prove it is ready for Power 5 football.
Comparison: Even with the recent success, Colorado State still lags behind other candidates like Boise State, Cincinnati, and UCF. There is no doubt the Rams can compete in the Mountain West, but they need to prove they can beat the upper echelon of Power 5 teams.
Men's Basketball: B+
Larry Eustachy picked up where former coach Tim Miles left off and has the Rams playing their best basketball in history. The Rams won a game in the 2013 NCAA Tourney and looked to be a shoo-in for the 2015 Tourney before being surprisingly snubbed.
Eustachy has proven his squad can play against Power 5 opponents with victories against Colorado, Missouri, and Washington over the past several years. Colorado State has yet to rule the Mountain West, but would be competitive in a Power 5 conference schedule.
Comparison: Similar to football, Colorado State still trails consistent NCAA Tourney schools like Memphis and Cincinnati in basketball despite recent success. Both schools play in a similarly tough American Athletic Conference and have won Tourney games in the past several seasons. UCF has been exceptionally average over the years and would not provide much to the Big XII.
Women's Basketball: B-
Not to be outdone by the men, coach Ryun Williams has built a perennial conference champ in just a few short years on the job. By creating 'Little Scandinavia' in Fort Collins, Williams has attracted top European players and added the right transfer pieces to make a Mountain West contender. The Rams have won the past two regular season conference championships, but have fallen short in the conference tourney both seasons.
Colorado State being able to win in the Mountain West is one thing, but winning in a Power 5 conference is another. The Mountain West is not a strong women's basketball conference and the Rams have not sufficiently proven they can beat Power 5 talent.
Comparison: Colorado State has a far better record over the past several years compared to Memphis, Cincinnati, and UCF, but does not have to play in the same conference as national champion UCONN. Disparity between the Power 5 and Group of 5 is even more accentuated in Women's Basketball. Although the American Athletic Conference is home to UCONN and South Florida, the rest of the conference is fairly weak and the Mountain West is even weaker. None of the teams rumored for conference expansion will be competitive right away, but Colorado State does have one of the best young coaches in the sport.
Volleyball: A+
Perhaps Colorado State's biggest chip up its sleeve is the Volleyball program under long-time coach Tom Hilbert. Hilbert is in his 18th season at CSU and has built a dynasty in the Rocky Mountains. The Rams have gone to 20 straight NCAA Tournaments which is the seventh longest streak in the nation. Fans fill Moby Arena to watch a team that is a virtual lock for the Top 25 every year and frequents the Top 10.
The addition of Hilbert's squad to any conference would be an immediate upgrade.
Comparison: UCF is the only candidate that comes close to Colorado State's success, ranking 35th in the NCAA's RPI. Memphis and Cincinnati are far behind in 93 and 159, respectively. Also worth noting is BYU who nearly won the 2014 NCAA Tournament after going on an amazing run as an unseeded team. Colorado State is the best option for expansion from a volleyball perspective.
Facilities: B
The hottest topic in any Athletic Department is the state of the facilities. Colorado State is no different. The Rams have played in scenic Hughes Stadium for nearly 50 years, and the wear can be seen. Hughes Stadium is not only too small for a Power 5 venue, it has nowhere close to the amenities necessary to satisfy the needs of 21st century fans. But this will only be a problem for a couple more years.
If you live anywhere near Fort Collins, you can probably hear the uproar caused by Colorado State's in progress $220 million On-Campus Stadium. Announced several years ago, the school just began utility work on what will be Colorado State's shining gift to Power 5 conferences. The stadium, which is scheduled to be ready for Kickoff 2017, will feature state-of-the-art amenities making it a nice addition to any conference's travel list. With a capacity of 41,000, the stadium is a bit undersized for a Power 5 stadium, but can be easily upgraded if needed.
Moby Arena is a modest basketball venue. At just under 9,000 seats, it can hold a good sized crowd and shows well on TV. There are no luxury boxes, but there is talk of those being added in the near future. Moby is also home to Colorado State's brand-new Athletic Training facility which rivals that of some Power 5 schools and an above average quality weight room open to all sports.
Colorado State has an Indoor Practice Facility that includes indoor practice courts for volleyball and basketball and a 70 yard turf field for the football team. This facility lacks in comparison to other peers and will likely not be ugraded due to congested campus space.
Comparison: Even with the addition of a new football stadium, Colorado State still lags slightly behind other candidate's facilities. UCF's brand-new football stadium is the centerpiece of the school's 'Athletics Village' which features several new or recently renovated facilities. Similar to UCF, Cincinnati has a 'Varsity Village' anchored by a newly renovated stadium. Memphis shares the glistening FedEx Forum with the Memphis Grizzlies, but play in a 1965 relic for football. There is no doubt Colorado State's new stadium will be one of the premier football venues in the country, but its auxiliary facilities still lag behind other candidates.
TV Market: B
Achievements on the field only go so far if you do not have the TV's to watch. Denver provides the 18th largest TV market in the country which is only behind Houston in terms of possible Big XII schools. The Big XII has a significant number of alumni in Denver Metro which makes it a lucrative prospect for them. The University of Houston is in a bigger TV market but it can be argued Houston is already controlled by Big XII schools. The only problem some have cited is that Colorado State does not fully capture the Denver market.
Comparison:
School TV Market Houston 10 Denver 18 Orlando 19 Memphis 34 Cincinnati 48
Demographics: A
Colorado State is a large public school with about 31,000 students currently enrolled. President Tony Frank has a goal to reach 35,000 in the coming years. Fort Collins is a city of 150,000, but is only 60 miles from Denver Metro which boasts a population of 2.7 million.
According to the Alumni Network website, there are CSU graduates across all 50 states with a heavy concentration in the western states. There are over 120,000 alumni in Colorado with many of those in Denver. Texas is the third largest home to alumni with nearly 7,000 alumni and three alumni centers in the state. Kansas and Oklahoma combine for another 2,500.
Big XII Alumni in Expansion States
Geographic: A
Fort Collins, CO provides a good geographic fit for the Big XII, who used to have the University of Colorado as a member. Fort Collins is an easy trip for most members of the conference and Colorado is often a destination for many Texans' vacations. If the Big XII is willing to go to West Virginia to add a team, it certainly would not have a problem returning to Colorado.
Comparison: Memphis, Cincinnati, and UCF provide the Big XII with strong markets on the East Coast if the conference wants to continue moving eastward, and many argue it is needed to provide West Virginia with a travel partner. In the modern day of conference expansion, geography does not play as strong a role.
Academics: A
A factor often overlooked by speculators is a school's academic standing. This variable might be more scrutinized by the Pac 12 or Big 10, but it will still play a role in the next school invited to join the Big XII. Colorado State compares very favorably across several metrics when viewed next to expansion schools. Cincinnati's Medical Program helps top Colorado State significantly in endowment size with over a billion dollars. BYU also brings in a billion dollar endowment with fairly low research spending. Colorado State only trails BYU in school rankings and is well within the Big XII range finishing in front of West Virginia by 47 spots in the US News Ranking. If academics were the only factor, it would be hard to see Memphis or UCF getting invites to the conference.
School US News Rank Forbes Rank 2014 Endowment Size 2012 Research Spending University Hospital BYU 62 79 $1B $34M No Cincinnati 129 391 $1.2B $434M Yes Colorado State 121 310 $284M $376M No Houston 189 389 $790M $116M No Memphis 200+ 609 $201M $51M No Texas 53 76 $25B $622M No UCF 173 405 $155M $122M No West Virginia 168 443 $534M $164M Yes
Overall: B+
Colorado State finished the 2014-2015 season among the top 5 teams in the country in total wins between Football, Volleyball, and Men's/Women's Basketball. This kind of success across multiple sports means Colorado State can provide value outside of just football. Colorado State doesn't blow you away in any particular category, but its overall resume provides Big XII officials a reason to consider a return back to Colorado for a new conference member.Is your daughter’s Halloween costume "appropriate"?
Unless you’re Polynesian, dressing up your child as Disney’s Moana is racist, according to an activist parenting blogger.
Little girls dressing up as Elsa from Frozen should just let it go —because her character promotes “white beauty,” Sachi Feris writes in her blog, Raising Race Conscious Children, in a post that went viral and was picked up by Cosmopolitan.
But that's all child's play compared to the continued policing of costumes on college campuses.
The mere possibility of someone dressing up in what could be viewed as an "offensive" costume is causing several colleges to proactively warn students — using guides, checklists, workshops, threats of probes and investigations. Even offering 24/7 counseling.
Recently, schools cracked down on non-politically correct outfits, from creepy clowns to Caitlyn Jenner, and just about everything in between.
“The scariest thing about your costume isn’t what you think,” according to a “Halloween and Cultural Appropriation Tabling” event at Goucher College in Maryland.
The University of St. Thomas in Minnesota put up “Costume or Culture Appropriation” fliers listing “unacceptable” costumes and clothing as including Native American headdresses, a Mexican sombrero, a geisha outfit or any form of blackface.
“Cultural appropriation is defined as ‘the act of taking intellectual and cultural expressions from a culture that is not your own, without showing that you understand or respect the culture’,” the flier read.
Offensive costumes incorporate “a long history of prejudice, hate, discrimination, colonialism and slavery” as well as turning “an important and/or sacred element into fashion.”
And just in case you don't get easily offended by costumes, several universities are ready to help.
The University of California, Santa Barbara recently held a Social Justice Workshop to teach students how to spot Halloween costume abuse and appropriation.
Similarly, Washington State University’s Social Justice Peer Educators Group held an event entitled “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” to teach people about “harmful” Halloween costumes, according to Acculturated.
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst put up “Simple Costume Racism Evaluation and Assessment Meter” (SCREAM) posters around campus, assigning threat levels based on how much a costume differs from the student’s own race.
Ohio State University’s student magazine had a similar flow chart this year that supports costumes that “make fun of Donald Trump,” but warns white students not to dress as Prince or wear “traditional head wear from other cultures.”
A Notre Dame Residence hall rector sent out a memo to her students before a Disney-themed dance not to dress up as Moana, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan or The Princess and the Frog.
At the University of Utah, a newsletter put out by the Student Affairs Diversity Council, tells students to avoid Halloween costumes if it is labeled “tribal” or “traditional,” or if it includes dreads, locs, afros, cornrows or a headdress.
Northern Arizona University’s Housing and Residence Life warned against African-inspired costumes, Pocahontas, Asian rice hats and more, according to The College Fix.
At Princeton University, the Center for Equality held a “dialogue about the impact of cultural appropriation, Halloween, and why culture is not a costume.”
To ensure students don't make the wrong choice, The University of Southern Indiana hosted a workshop for students to make their own “culturally appropriate” costumes, as reported by The |
10% and up means price + 10%, which shows how much users should get from you. MicroDApp.comSmart Contract developers. Lets build a decentralized future!If you thought The Mentalist 2.0 was done with the introductions, think again. EW has learned that the second half of the season, which kicks off Jan. 5, will see the introduction of a new boyfriend for Lisbon (Robin Tunney)!
“In order for her to fulfill herself — even if she eventually fulfills herself with Jane, which she may or may not do — she has to find other relationships, other perspectives, other people who love her, just to feel fully who she is,” executive producer Bruno Heller says. “It’s very important for her to be able to step away from Jane and see herself for herself.”
Lisbon’s new beau, who is not currently cast, is set to appear in episode 15 or 16.
The news surely comes to the sadness of some fans who are eager to see Lisbon and Jane (Simon Baker) take their friendship to more, um, official levels. But Heller says they’re far from done exploring those two characters as a pair. In fact, the episode “Golden Hammer,” tentatively set to air Jan. 12, will show “a new side of the relationship between Jane and Lisbon.”
“That’s an arc that we’re going to be watching develop through the back end of this season. Now that Red John is gone, both Jane and Lisbon are sort of psychically free to wake up and look around and what they see when they wake up from that nightmare is each other,” he says. “And how that relationship develops and how they sort of start working out who they are to each other is a big part of how the rest of this season unfolds.”
On Sunday, The Mentalist aired its final new episode of 2013, a year that saw the conclusion of the series’ Red John arc and the addition of series regulars Emily Swallow and Rockmond Dunbar. “The response has been great, as far as I can tell,” Heller said of reaction to what’s been called a new era of the show. “I think what I’m excited about is that we’ve got the whole rest of the run to stretch out in this new way, and it’s been such fun for everyone involved in doing it. … It’s much lighter and even joyful, perhaps.”
As part of the campaign around the post-Red John era of The Mentalist, in October, Warner Bros. began releasing a series of posters to promote the rebirth. An exclusive GIF of those is presented below:Image copyright Family handout Image caption Evha Jannath fell out of a circular boat on the Splash Canyon attraction
An 11-year-old girl who was killed in a fall from a water ride has been named.
Evha Jannath fell out of a circular boat on the Splash Canyon attraction during a school trip to Drayton Manor Theme Park in Staffordshire on Tuesday.
The pupil, from Leicester, was rescued from the water and taken to hospital but pronounced dead a short time later.
A statement released by Evha's family said their "world was torn apart" following her death.
For the latest on this and other Staffordshire stories
They described her as "a beautiful little girl who was full of love and always smiling".
"Words cannot describe the pain and loss we feel, we are devastated that we will not see our beautiful little girl again."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Drayton Manor: Latest aerial footage shows empty rides
Police said it was an "extremely difficult time" for Evha's relatives and the force was providing support.
The theme park remained closed for the day as "a mark of respect". The girl's school, Jameah Girls Academy in Leicester, was also closed.
In a statement, the Islamic day school asked that the Year 6 pupil's family and school community be given "time to grieve".
Head teacher Erfana Bora said Evha was a "lovely, sweet-natured girl [who] was loved by everyone at the school".
"We are trying to make sense of this terrible tragedy. Our thoughts and our prayers are with Evha's family," she added.
Image caption Drayton Manor Theme Park was closed for the day as a "mark of respect"
Image copyright ThemeParks.ie Image caption Splash Canyon opened in 1993 and features up to 21 boats
Prayers have been said for the girl at the Jameah Mosque in Leicester.
Staffordshire Police said a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation had begun.
The ride, which opened in 1993 and features up to 21 boats each with a capacity of six people, closed following the incident at the park near Tamworth.
It offers a "a wild ride" with "fast-flowing rapids" and riders must be at least 0.9m (3ft) tall to board, although those under 1.1m must be accompanied by an adult.
On Tuesday, park company director George Bryan, whose grandfather opened the site in the 1950s, said he was "truly shocked and devastated" by the death.
'Really dangerous'
West Midlands Ambulance Service said it sent paramedics by land and air to the site.
Image caption Tributes have been left at Drayton Manor Park in memory of Evha Jannath
A spokesman said crews discovered a girl "with serious injuries who had been rescued from the water by park staff".
She was flown to Birmingham Children's Hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ride death girl was'sweet-natured'
Zainab Mohammad said her 16-year-old sister, who was on the same school trip, was devastated.
"She came home, she spoke to mum and dad and she just went upstairs.
"She was devastated. She didn't want to talk about it. The school is not very big, everybody knows each other.
"We don't know what the cause is but what we really want is for the family to be able to grieve.
"A family member has been ripped from their family and it's a big loss. Everybody is in utter shock, there are no words."
Image caption The girl's school was also shut for the day
Image caption Prayers have been said for Evha at the Jameah Mosque in Leicester
Vikki Treacy told BBC 5 live her son fell in the water on the same ride in 2013.
She said Patrick, who was 10 at the time, "sort of stood up" for a photo and toppled from the boat.
The mother, from Rugby, said: "When you are queuing up, the loudspeakers are telling you the safety instructions, like please stay seated.
"[But] they're getting excited and giddy, they're not listening to a tannoy are they?
"[After he fell] I panicked and a woman... in the spectators' bit, hopped over a fence at the side and dragged him out.
"My son was in an area where the public could get to him. It's a dangerous ride. It really is.
"I'll never go back to the park. No way. Their aftercare was shocking."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Drayton Manor: Mum watched son fall head-first into water
Drayton Manor said it could not comment on the claims while the Splash Canyon investigation was ongoing.
A spokesman added: "The health and safety of our visitors is of paramount importance and we'd ask Vikki contacts us direct so that we can address her concerns."
Theme park enthusiast Ian Bell, who owns rollercoaster fan group Coasterforce, said rapids rides like Splash Canyon tended not to have seatbelts in case they capsized.
"They are fairly buoyant; they rarely capsize. They are very safe," he added.
Rides similar to Splash Canyon have been closed at other theme parks. Thorpe Park's Rumba Rapids was closed on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Alton Towers said it would be closing its Congo River Rapids ride as a "precautionary" measure.
In a statement the park said: "We are aware of the tragic events at Drayton Manor and our thoughts are with the family and all of those affected.
"Safety is our number one priority and, as a precautionary measure, the Congo River Rapids will be closed tomorrow and until such time as more details of the incident become available."
Image copyright Vikki Treacy Image caption Vikki Treacy (right) said son Patrick (left) fell in the water on the same ride in 2013
Health and safety lawyer Chris Green told BBC Radio 5 live he had been on the ride with his daughters and had never thought it could be dangerous.
He said the HSE would need to establish if the accident was work-related.
"They'd be firstly trying to understand from witnesses precisely how this has happened and that will determine whether it's them in conjunction with police, whether that's a report for the coroner or for other proceedings as well."
The death at Drayton Manor is thought to be the first at a UK theme park since 2004, when a 16-year-old girl fell from the Hydro ride at Oakwood theme park near Tenby, west Wales.
In June 2015, five people were seriously injured in a collision on the Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers, also in Staffordshire.
Mr Green said: "The Alton Towers scenario looked more perhaps as if something inevitably looked like it hadn't worked on the day. This one [at Drayton Manor] may be rather different."
In October 2016, four people died on a rapids ride at Australia's Dreamworld, on Queensland's Gold Coast.Sign up for Olympics Headlines. Get the Boston Globe's most recent Olympics Headlines delivered direct to your inbox every morning.
If the NHL doesn’t send its players to the 2018 Winter Olympics, the hockey tournament in Pyeongchang will look familiar.
It will look a lot like the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, Albertville in 1992 and Calgary in 1988.
Maybe even a little like 1980 in Lake Placid, site of the “Miracle On Ice.”
With a year before the opening ceremony, the league, players union, International Ice Hockey Federation and International Olympic Committee still don’t have an agreement to send NHL players to their sixth consecutive Olympics. There is still time — an agreement last time around came in July before the 2014 Games in Sochi — but everyone is forming a Plan B just in case.
Advertisement
Russia might have Alex Ovechkin if he makes good on his intention to go no matter what. But the United States, Canada and other countries are preparing for life without the best players in the world.
If the likes of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Quick, Jack Eichel and Ryan Suter aren’t available, USA Hockey will look mostly to the college ranks. If Hockey Canada can’t take Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Drew Doughty or Carey Price, it will try to defend the gold medal with a mix of European-based professionals, North American minor leaguers and players from the Canadian junior leagues and NCAA.
“It’s a big world, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to go,” Hockey Canada president Tom Renney said. “Should the NHL choose not to go, we’ll make sure we’re ready, willing and able a year from now.”
The U.S. has a fresh set of heroes after shootout star Troy Terry, defenseman Charlie McAvoy and goaltender Tyler Parsons won world junior gold last month. Mix them with top college players like Notre Dame’s Anders Bjork and Wisconsin’s Trent Frederic and ex-NHLers Keith Aucoin and Nathan Gerbe who are playing in Europe, and the Americans will have plenty of youth and experience.
Advertisement
Dave Starman, a former coach in the minors and now an analyst for CBS Sports, said USA Hockey’s priority should be scoring, scoring and more scoring.
“You can’t win unless you can score,” Starman said. “It’s got to have a ton of speed, it’s got to have a really high skill level, it’s got to have defensemen who can get in the play. You need a little bit of dog on bone in your lineup, but I don’t think you can sacrifice skill guys for toughness.”
No problem there for Canada, which has plenty of big, tough skill players and hasn’t waited for the IIHF to set any 2018 parameters as it prepares its contingency plan. Canada’s team for the December Spengler Cup in Switzerland could serve as a blueprint: minor leaguers Cory Conacher and Zach Fucale and European recent NHL players Daniel Paille and Nick Spaling.
Buy Tickets
While IIHF President Rene Fasel would like a final decision sooner than later to plan for South Korea, Renney said Hockey Canada could put a team together quickly. Like USA Hockey, Canada can pull from its national junior team but has more veteran talent in Europe and the American Hockey League to choose from. Former NHL goaltender Ben Scrivens in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey league is an option, for example, as is journeyman Michael Leighton, who is in the Carolina Hurricanes’ system.
Though Leighton firmly believes NHL players will go, the 35-year-old said he would “train as hard as I possibly can to get that job” if they don’t. AHL president and CEO David Andrews expects his league to be open to allowing players to go to the Olympics as long as NHL teams give individual minor leaguers permission.
“I think it’ll be an interesting question, though, for a lot of general managers because the player that is going to be asked for is going to be probably their No. 1 player outside the NHL club,” Andrews said. “They kind of face that question of, ‘Do we want our No. 1 call-up to be in South Korea for two or three weeks?'”
Advertisement
Some NHL owners might even give their elite players permission to go, and Ted Leonsis of the Washington Capitals has said repeatedly he’d let Ovechkin, Swede Nicklas Backstrom and Canadian Braden Holtby represent their countries, though Holtby said he would never leave the Capitals midseason. The IIHF might set roster parameters to prevent NHL players from participating, too.
“We want to have that opportunity,” two-time U.S. Olympian Justin Faulk said. “If that’s taken from us and we don’t have that right anymore, at least it gives other guys an opportunity.”
Hall of Fame defenseman Mark Howe would be fine with that. After winning a silver medal playing for the U.S. in 1972, he supports amateurs because he feels the 1980 “Miracle On Ice” victory over the Soviet Union had a greater impact on the sport than professionals playing in the Olympics.
“Probably the greatest victory I think I’ve ever seen in hockey was when the 1980 team beat the Russians,” Howe said. “There was some guys on that team that never had a chance to play in the NHL or impact the NHL. That was their two weeks of fame. A guy like Mike Eruzione, Jimmy Craig — they’re phenomenal stories.”
True, but 1998 and 2002 U.S. Olympian John LeClair is worried about a talent discrepancy next winter if Russia put Ovechkin and dominant KHL players Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk against American college kids.
“You get different variations of who’s playing and who’s not,” LeClair said. “You’re getting back to what it used to be where Russia had all their pros. You want everybody on an even (playing) field.”
___
AP Hockey Writer Larry Lage and freelancer Denis Gorman contributed.
___
Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno.AUSTRALIAN renters are living in fear.
Fear of being kicked out, having their rent put up, or being black-listed from getting a lease in the future, according to the country’s first national survey of renters, which has revealed many are too scared to even request basic property maintenance.
“[My] friend has been yelled at over the phone when requesting maintenance for the downstairs area of the last place we were in — it was the raw sewage,” one respondent told the survey, jointly produced by Choice, National Shelter and the National Association of Tenant Organisations.
The study, which interviewed more than 1005 renters nationally, found widespread feelings of insecurity among the country’s rapidly growing rental population, many of whom may find themselves priced out of home ownership indefinitely.
“I would buy my own place right now if I could afford it,” one respondent said. “I would have done it many years ago, if I could have. I am currently studying in an attempt to increase my earning capacity, so that maybe one day, I can have a tiny little place of my own that a stranger won’t insist on snooping through every three months.”
Another explained that she had “to live somewhere”. “Kids have to have a roof over their heads,” she said. “I cannot buy a house or apartment close to work with current prices. We can afford a house in a remote area (struggle street, subject to flooding — yes, it is Queensland) but it would be way too much stress and effort, plus problematic school, drugs, crime etc.”
Another told how they “live from week to week and constantly struggle” because they don’t earn enough to save a deposit for a house.
“We have previously rented cheaper houses but they aren’t comfortable to live in and we still can’t save much so we have decided to pay a little extra each week for a better house so we can enjoy the house we live in,” he said.
Every second person surveyed for the report said they experienced discrimination when applying for a rental, usually over their age or the fact that they received government payments, or because they had young children, pets or were a single parent.
The number of Australians renting has increased from 25.7 per cent in 1994-95 to 31 per cent in 2013-14, and the vast majority of rental housing is provided by small investors. Social housing makes up less than 4 per cent of the rental market, down from 5 per cent 15 years ago.
Nearly half (48 per cent) of renters have a personal income of less than $35,000 a year, 37 per cent are under the age of 35, and 43 per cent of renters have rented for more than a decade.
The majority (53 per cent) of renters pay between $201 and $400 per week, 30 per cent pay $200 or less, and 16 per cent pay more than $400.
Cost was cited as the biggest factor for renting, with more than half saying they rent because they couldn’t afford to buy their own property.
One in 10 said they rented to live in their preferred location, 8 per cent because it was cheaper, and seven per cent cited flexibility.
“Affordability is extremely important to renters but it can’t be addressed without also looking at the quality and security of housing,” National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski said.
The report blames “generous tax concessions” such as negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for distorting the housing market, inflating prices and unfairly advantaging investors over owner-occupiers.
Eighty-three per cent of renters have no fixed-term or are on a lease of 12 months or less, and one in five are on a “rolling” month-by-month lease. Just six per cent have a lease than runs for two years.
Half of all renters (51 per cent) have moved homes three times or more, and just under one in 10 have moved homes 11 times or more.
The survey found eight per cent of renters are currently living in properties they regard as needing “urgent repairs”, 30 per cent report requiring non-urgent repairs, and only a quarter report not having experienced any problem with their current property.
The biggest problems cited by renters were pests (27 per cent), door or windows that don’t close properly (24 per cent), peeling paint or loose tiles (22 per cent), leaks or flooding (21 per cent), mould (20 per cent) and lack of fly screens on windows (19 per cent).
Fear of retribution was widespread, with 50 per cent of renters concerned about being “black-listed” and 14 per cent saying they had not made a complaint or requested a repair for fear of adverse consequences.
“People are reluctant to complain to agents or landlords because they’re worried about rent increases or eviction,” a National Association of Tenants Organisations’ spokesman told AAP. “It’s hard to imagine a product or service this poor in any other sector.”
Almost a quarter waited more than a week to hear back about an urgent repair request and 11 per cent copped a rent hike after asking.
The biggest reason was concern the rent would be put up (42 per cent), followed by fear of eviction (23 per cent), fear of a bad reference or black-listing (14 per cent) and fear of not getting the lease renewed (14 per cent).
“I was once told when I signed a lease that the landlord was leaving the house as it is otherwise the rent would be put up,” one respondent said.
Another said they “did not ask to get fridge or dryer replaced as that may result in eviction”, while another said they were “scared of bad reference for next rental application or agent getting spiteful and black-listing me”.
“Constantly worried that if I make a complaint we won’t be offered to rent again, we would not be able to afford to move let alone afford new rent,” one person said.
Another said they feared “being kicked out later on down the track, and not working full time I don’t have enough money to get another place or anywhere to go so would be homeless”.
“I was given a notice to leave after landlord had two minor costs for maintenance. Said he would rather have no tenants,” another said.
HOW DO YOU COMPARE TO OTHER RENTERS?
• 83 per cent have no fixed-term lease or it’s less a than 12-months long
• 53 per cent of renters pay between $201 and $400/wk
• Almost half of renters in metro areas pay more than $301/wk
• The median rent price is Sydney and Melbourne is $480/wk
• 21 per cent wait at least a week to hear back about urgent repairs
• 11 per cent had a rent hike after asking for repairs
• 14 per cent are too scared to complain about something or ask for repairs
• Half feel they’re discriminated against in rental applications
(Source: Unsettled: Life in Australia’s Private Rental Market)
frank.chung@news.com.au
— with AAPAUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A Texas company is closer to forcing Lance Armstrong to return about $12 million in bonuses he was paid for winning the Tour de France while secretly using performance-enhancing drugs.
In a key ruling against Armstrong, a Texas arbitration panel said Wednesday it would consider Dallas-based SCA Promotions' appeal to recover its money. The company tried to prove Armstrong used steroids and other drugs and doping methods back in 2005, but ultimately agreed to pay him in a 2006 settlement.
Armstrong's attorneys have argued the settlement is irreversible. But the same three-person arbitration panel that presided over the original dispute ruled 2-1 that the settlement gave the panel jurisdiction to decide all future disagreements.
Scroll to continue with content Ad
SCA spokesman Jeff Dorough said the ruling effectively rejects Armstrong's claim that the settlement bars the company from recovering its money. But Armstrong attorney Tim Herman noted the ruling determined only whether the panel would hear the case, not whether Armstrong should be forced to pay.
Herman said he remains confident the original settlement - which stated that ''no party may challenge, appeal or attempt to set aside'' the payment and was ''fully and forever binding'' - favors Armstrong.
''Nothing has changed on the merits of this case,'' Herman said.
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and given a lifetime ban from sports in 2012. SCA sued in February 2013, saying Armstrong, his agent and the team management company conspired to cheat SCA out of millions. The lawsuit noted that Armstrong repeatedly testified under oath in the original dispute that he did not use steroids, other drugs or blood doping methods to win, all of which he now admits to doing.
Story continues
SCA argued the case could be reopened because Armstrong's repeated lies under oath prevented it from proving he doped.
The SCA case is just one of several pending against Armstrong. The federal government has sued him to recover about $40 million in sponsorship money paid to Armstrong and his team by the U.S. Postal Service. Penalties in that case could top $100 million.
Nebraska-based Acceptance Insurance Holdings also had a bonus contract with Armstrong and has sued him to recover about $3 million.COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the newly formed Precourt Sports Ventures LLC and managing partner Anthony Precourt first visited Columbus Crew Stadium, they were greeted by the stadium’s scoreboard bursting into flames. Three months later, Precourt was announced as the new chairman and investor-operator of the club after the group purchased the entirety of the Crew from the Hunt Sports Group.
“This is a really special moment for me and my family,” Precourt said at a press conference introducing the new ownership Tuesday. “As a passionate sports fan and a member of a multi-generational soccer household and energy investor, I’ve long admired the contributions the Hunt family has made to both business and sports, including their commitment to Major League Soccer and the Crew.
"With this honor, we will respectfully and diligently try to uphold Lamar’s vision for the Columbus Crew. Further, we will honor his fan-first mentality which started with the Crew playing in the first soccer-specific stadium in the league.”
Precourt declined to specify the cost of the deal for personal reasons, but confirmed that the group will own 100 percent of the team, and does not expect to seek minority owners for some time.
Clark Hunt, chairman of the Hunt Sports Group, said that the team had been exploring minority ownership options for the team until Precourt made a bold move.
“Anthony came to us and during the summer said, ‘I’m not just interested in being a minority owner of the Crew. I want to own the whole team and run and operate it,’” Hunt said. “We were initially very taken aback by his interest, but after we got to know Anthony, we concluded that he was the right guy to lead the Columbus Crew, that he would be a great fit for the city of Columbus, that he would be somebody that would push the team to be successful and ultimately be a great partner for the other investors in Major League Soccer.”
Though Precourt said that he currently resides in Northern California and has ties to Texas, Connecticut and Florida, the corporate finance veteran emphasized that he is completely committed to keeping the team in Columbus, and that the city played a role in his choice to purchase the team instead of other options that he had looked into.
“The city feels right,” he said. “I see so much opportunity here in Columbus... we have all the resources we need to make the Crew increasingly relevant locally and nationally, stronger financially and more competitive on the field.”
Precourt said that changes will not come immediately, but that the top concern is that the team “needs to win.”
“We’re going to be thoughtful and thorough in the decisions that we make,” he said. “We’re not going to make knee-jerk reactions. Our intent is to come in and have it be status quo here for a while, learn and ask a lot of questions, and by season’s end we’ll start to build our business plan for the following year and we’ll be probably be making some changes.”
In the meantime, Precourt said that ticket sales, naming rights and making the brand “a little more exciting” are the priorities. Referencing the recent Sporting Kansas City rebrand, Precourt assessed the team’s branding with a smile.
“We’re going to leave no stone unturned," he said. "I love the name. I love the colors. The badge... we might have to take a look at the badge.”A correspondent from the UK recently wrote:
I am still very fearful and very programmed…to the extent that I still cannot stomach supporting outfits like the British National Party (I’m English). I’m not saying this to you as a criticism of the BNP, but as a psychological point in that, I am totally committed to a lifetime of fighting for our cause. I see it. I’ve seen it all. But so intensive has the propaganda been in my own country about parties acting there, that I am still, sort of, compartmentalized….in that if my mind turns to the BNP I start feeling shame and fear. Shame for thinking ‘fascist’ thoughts, and fear for being found out.
Fear and shame. Fear because of the very real threat that people who publicly support organizations like the BNP or ideas linked with them will be victimized by losing their jobs, their families, their friends, and their place in the world. And shame–the emotion that wells up because so many of us have internalized attitudes of guilt about having a racial identity or pursuing (entirely legitimate) racial/ethnic interests. It’s a problem that seems especially acute for White people: We tend to create moral/ideological communities where the ingroup is defined in moral terms. To violate these norms is to remove oneself from one’s social moorings–evolutionary death in the environments we evolved in.
My impression from corresponding with nationalists from Nordic countries is that the same emotions of fear and shame predominate in the aftermath of the Breivik massacre. There is a concerted effort in the media to inculcate shame for being associated with his ideas. There is also fear because the media is hounding people associated with nationalist parties in an effort to link them or their ideas with Breivik–a public punishment quite like being put in the stocks in Puritan Massachusetts: on display for all to see. And for the nationalists there is a special emotion of grief for lost co-ethnics–an emotion not likely to be found among their opponents; as people who love their own people, they are deeply distressed because they see many of the victims as brothers with different political beliefs.
The following video illustrates the media tactic of associating Breivik with the “far right” and with Nazism in the context of a discussion of the annual Waffen SS reunion in Estonia (~2:30). The idea is that Breivik’s slaughter “shows just how dangerous these ideas remain”–a clear attempt to link the increasingly powerful “far right” with Nazism and with Breivik.
httpv://youtu.be/jvG3ReSVxCs
The links among Breivik, contemporary European nationalist political parties, and Nazism are pretty much entirely a creation of the media. These parties have uniformly condemned Breivik and National Socialism; they have eschewed racialist rhetoric in favor of cultural arguments, and many have done their best to be seen as philo-Semitic. But it remains a very effective tactic–effective even among people who have “spent a lifetime fighting for the cause.” The media remains a very powerful source for defining the boundaries of the moral ingroup. It’s very difficult to escape its influence–even when rationally aware that what one is advocating is entirely morally and intellectually defensible.
Get rich. Buy media.Product description
CONNECT WITH FRIENDS. PLAY WITH WORDS. Get a game of SCRABBLE going with just about anyone – or play solo against the computer! Plus, now you can play SCRABBLE in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, or Brazilian Portuguese.
WHO WILL YOU PLAY?
• Challenge friends via Facebook and more
• Find an instant opponent with a single touch
• Play solo against the computer to improve your skills
• Get numerous games going at once – more than any word game on the App Store
SHOW OFF YOUR SKILLS
Connect to Facebook and share your best scores. You can even talk a good game with enhanced chat and notification features.
IMPROVE YOUR SCORES WITH THE TEACHER
Become a SCRABBLE master with the exclusive “Teacher” feature - see what your best word could have been after every turn.
LOSS FOR WORDS?
Use the in-game word list, built-in official SCRABBLE dictionary, or the exclusive Best Word feature to see your highest scoring choices.
THINK FAST
Want to recreate the feeling of a real-time in-person game? Try the new Speed Play mode where you and your opponent agree to 2 or 5 minute turns. If words aren't played in time, nudge and forfeit options are unlocked.
LOOK SHARP!
View every detail on the board with HD-quality graphics made to maximize the Retina display.
Ready for the first and last word in word games? Don’t accept imitations. Just say, “LET’S PLAY SCRABBLE!"
You must be 13+ to play this game.Book Giveaway 5: Thanks Be to the Book November 20th, 2012 by Sharkchild
Comment on this post before 9:00PM PST on Sunday, November 25th to be entered in a chance to win one of the following:
1st Prizes (2): H.P. LOVECRAFT: THE COMPLETE FICTION
2nd Prize (1): BOOKS OF BLOOD, VOLUMES 1-3 by Clive Barker
3rd Prize (1): IN THE LAND OF TIME AND OTHER FANTASY TALES by Lord Dunsany
Bonus Prizes (1 for every 75 comments/entries): THE DARK VERSE, VOL. 1: FROM THE PASSAGES OF REVENANTS by Sharkchild (me) – 1 being given so far)
Winners will be chosen at random (at random.org) from the entrants after the cutoff at 90:00PM PST on Sunday, November 25th and will be contacted by Sharkchild via email.
The winners can be anywhere in the world! The winners must be at least 13 years of age.
WINNERS
1st Prizes: David Flint (181) and Jeff Hinkle (38)
2nd Prize: Glen Sandifer (51)
3rd Prize: Ben (28)
Bonus Prizes: Josh R (27) and Omnioto (12)Call came from passenger on cargo ship believed to be carrying between 400 and 600 migrants in Ionian Sea
Greece is sending a navy frigate and a helicopter to locate a cargo ship believed to be carrying hundreds of migrants in the northern Ionian Sea after authorities received a distress call from someone on board.
The ship, the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M, was sailing in poor weather near the tiny island of Othonoi, north-west of Corfu. A merchant marine ministry official said the distress call came from one of the passengers on board the ship, which is believed to be carrying between 400 and 600 migrants.
The incident comes two days after a passenger ferry, the Norman Atlantic, with more than 400 people on board, caught fire in the same area, leading to a huge rescue operation by Italian and Greek coastguard and military officials. At least 10 people died in that incident, and the search is continuing for others feared missing.
The Greek frigate Navarino, which is heading to locate the cargo ship, was in the area assisting in the rescue operation for the Norman Atlantic.In Touch magazine has exclusively learned that Tontitown, Arkansas, cops recently took off-duty paid jobs guarding the Duggars while the department has an open investigation into the family.
Emails obtained exclusively by In Touch through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the interim police chief of Tontitown OKed the off-duty work.
Kate Gosselin’s longtime bodyguard Steve Neild — who’s now working for the Duggars — paid off-duty officers from the local force in Tontitown, Arkansas, $25 an hour to provide security at the Duggar family home on May 21, 2015, and Josh’s new home on May 20 and 21 when Josh returned home from Washington, D.C., after In Touch broke the story about his sexual molestation scandal and he resigned from the Family Research Council.
The new information raises the troubling prospect of a conflict of interest, as the Tontitown police and the Department of Human Services have an open investigation into the Duggars.
Dr. Paul Kroutter, head of the criminal justice department at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and, retired police captain of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, told In Touch: “I would be hesitant to provide security service for a family that my agency’s been doing investigations on. I would want to avoid the appearance of any improprieties.”
RELATED: Jill and Derick Dillard Are Moving Abroad!
In Touch broke the news weeks ago that the Duggars are currently under investigation by the Tontitown police and the DHS after obtaining a 911 call on May 27 when a DHS employee was refused entry to the Duggar home while attempting to check on the welfare of a minor.
In Touch then obtained a Tontitown PD document that reveals the investigation is ongoing. While Washington County gave In Touch its dispatch log, Tontitown did not, and instead redacted the document and listed the reason as, “This is a current active investigation.”
The Duggars were investigated by police in 2006 for Josh’s acts of molestation committed in 2002 and 2003. DHS then investigated the family in 2007, as In Touch first reported.
For all the details of the Duggar scandal, pick up the latest issue of In Touch, on newsstands tomorrow!Though the crocodile’s ancestry dates back 200 million years, the crocodile, as we know it today, first evolved about 80 million years ago. According to the fossil record, their body plan has changed little since, enabling them to outlive the dinosaurs and become the most advanced of all reptiles and the most successful freshwater predator.
There is no single secret to the crocodile’s success. With few natural predators, a permanent armor of bony plates covering most of its body and strong jaw muscles capable of crushing anything from bones to cast iron, the croc is an extremely tough and robust creature. A croc can survive even after serious injuries such as a torn off limbs or tail and has a powerful immune system that helps it survive for decades.
But its adaptations go beyond being hardy. One of the keys to its survival is something one might think of as primitive: cold-bloodedness. Like all reptiles, crocs are ectotherms, which means they must gather heat from their environment. Crocodiles have developed behaviors to control their body thermostat: they bask in the sun when cool and seek shade or water when hot. Ectotherms like crocs don’t need to eat regularly to warm their bodies, and so they save an enormous amount of energy that can be put to other use or stored for later. A croc’s metabolism is so evolved that its body uses and stores nearly the entirety of the food it consumes. This is one reason why larger cro |
, and we have reason to believe, that it will work," says Rieger.
Still, none of the researchers currently studying ketogenic diets, including Rieger, expects it to deliver anything close to a universal treatment for cancer. And none of them wants to create exaggerated hopes for a miracle cure in seriously ill patients, who may never benefit from the approach. But the recent findings are difficult to ignore. Robert Weinberg, a biology professor at MIT's Whitehead Institute who discovered the first human oncogene, has long been critical of therapeutic approaches based on the Warburg effect, and has certainly dismissed it as a primary cause of cancer. Nevertheless, he conceded, in an email, for tumors that have been affected by the ketogenic diet in animal models, "there might be some reason to go ahead with a Phase I clinical trial, especially for patients who have no other realistic therapeutic options."
Richard Friebe is executive editor of the German science magazine SZ WissenJetta Mk2 GTI
In 2011 you can still buy a Volkswagen Jetta Mk2 in China. That’s almost 30 years after the first Mk2 Jetta has been sold in Europe 1984. Modernized with all the current VW styling cues, the latest facelift has transformed the Jetta Mk2 into a handsome car. Quite nice, isn’t it? Yes, you might say, but definitely lacking power. Well, the standard engine has been replaced with the 2.o liter engine of the Mk6 Golf GTI. In order to make the car more attractive and sportier looking, I added a redesigned front bumper, side skirts and rear bumper. The car has been lowered and a set of MTM alloy wheels have been installed. Do you also think the crowds at the 2012 Wörthersee festival would love it? Write a comment and let us know.A migrant from Algeria who threatened to torch his two daughters and ex-girlfriend cannot be thrown out of Britain - because of his 'right to a family life'.
The Algerian national, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ruled a danger to his daughters, now five and seven, by social workers.
A Child Protection Plan even forbids him from living with them in the West Midlands.
The 42-year-old was imprisoned for 15 months in 2012 after Wolverhampton Crown Court heard he vowed to burn down his house with his children and their Angolan mother inside.
A case at the immigration and asylum Upper Tribunal chamber (pictured) heard that the Algerian migrant should be allowed to remain in the UK - despite threatening to kill his former girlfriend and children
But despite that, the migrant has won the right to remain in the UK.
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said he was disgusted by the decision.
He told the Sun on Sunday: 'This is exactly why the Human Rights Act should be scrapped.
'Any foreign national convicted of a crime should be deported and banned from ever returning.
Conservative MP for Kettering Philip Hollobone said it was farcical to let the Algerian, 42, remain in the UK
The immigrant arrived in the UK in December 2003 when he paid smugglers to get him in. He claimed asylum the next day giving a false name and date of birth.
His claim was refused in February 2004, but his two separate appeals were both dismissed.
He remained in the UK, however, and six years later he was convicted at Brent Magistrates' Court of drink driving.
Then two years later, he was jailed for 15 months and Home Secretary Theresa May signed a deportation order to send him back to his native country when he was freed.
An immigration tribunal was even told deporting him would not have a detrimental effect on his children.
The father-of-two was given a deportation order after he was jailed for 15 months in 2012 at Wolverhampton Crown Court (pictured) - but he has now been granted the right to remain in the UK
However, Judge Conway allowed him to remain in the country.
He said: 'You have been punished enough and I do not think further supervision is going to help you.
'What will help you is trying to get on the rails with your family and your children and I know that you are determined to do that.
You made a very serious mistake but you are not a danger to the public and you are not a fire raiser.'
A spokesman for the Home Office told MailOnline: 'Foreign criminals have abused human rights for far too long and claimed that their right to a family life in Britain outweighs the impact of their crimes on their victims.
'The new Immigration Act will make it even harder for foreign criminals to launch spurious appeals to stay in country by cutting the number of appeal rights from 17 to four.
'It will also allow a deport first, appeal later approach for some foreign criminals making Article 8 claims.Maxwell on heat stroke and Australia's pad-less prep
An examination of the lower-order contributions of the world’s 10 Test-playing nations has revealed a glaring concern for Australia.
Steve Smith’s men are ranked eighth out of 10 when it comes to runs scored from batsmen 8-11 in the past two years, sitting ahead of only Bangladesh, who’ll they face in the first of two Tests on Sunday, and Zimbabwe.
Australia have managed 1,070 runs at an average of 13.71 per wicket from 22 Tests in that period, well behind table-topping England’s 2,129 runs from 27 matches.
Those numbers are in direct contrast to the performance of Australia's top-order batsmen (1-7), who sit third behind England and India with 10,484 runs at 45.58, the second-highest average and only fractionally behind India’s 45.70, while Australia’s 34 centuries is the most by any nation.
England’s main lower-order contributors have been quicks Chris Woakes (458 runs) and Stuart Broad (360) and allrounder Moeen Ali (305). But for Australia, only one tailender has produced more than 200 runs.
Mitchell Starc’s 477 runs puts him fourth on the list of heaviest individual lower-order scorers, after Ravindra Jadeja (625), Rangana Herath (579) and Jason Holder (487), and the left-hander is responsible for scoring all four half-centuries by Australians since this time two years ago.
Quick Single: Khawaja to prove doubters wrong, says Starc
While the runs column looks a little empty, scoring is not the sole Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that Australia’s lower order batsmen are measured on, according to Starc.
"One of the KPIs that we did use in the Indian (Test) series was for two guys in the last four to face at least 60 balls," Starc told The Unplayable Podcast.
"If you’re spending some time in the middle you’re contributing to the score, you’re keeping the other team out there as well and for some of it you’re probably batting with another batsman.
"That was a KPI we had in the Indian series but if the bottom order can contribute, ideally you’re scoring 150 in the last four blokes. And if your top order is scoring runs, you’re making totals of 500-plus, which is always a positive and you’re leaving yourself in a good state for the rest of the game.
"We definitely can all bat, (we) take a lot of pride in it and give each other a bit of stick along the way as well."
Starc swings hard to take India bowlers the distance
Starc (three times), Stephen O'Keefe, Pat Cummins (twice) and Josh Hazlewood ticked off that tailender KPI of facing 30 balls an innings in the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Starc’s 61 from 63 balls in the first innings in Pune, in concert with Hazlewood’s 31-ball single, propelled Australia from 9-205 to a match-winning total of 260.
The vital knock underlined the 27-year-old’s improving ability with the bat, an area of his game that he wants to continue to refine.
"The main one is just contributing with the bat and being more consistent," Starc said.
"I don’t really care about being talked about as an allrounder. I’m still a bowler who can contribute with the bat, I just want to do that more consistently.
"I’ve been able to score nine (Test) fifties now – I want to do that more consistently and put the team in a better position with the bat if we’re in trouble early or scoring some quick runs late.
"All I’m worried about is doing that more consistently and contributing more often than not."
Starc breaks Symonds’ MCG sixes record
A feature of Starc’s batting career has been his willingness to take on the opposition bowlers and clear the pickets.
In 36 Tests, Starc has clocked 29 sixes, the third most by an Australian lower-order batsman, and he will almost certainly leapfrog Mitchell Johnson (31 sixes) and Shane Warne (36) in the near future.
Starc smashed seven sixes in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan last year, the most ever by any player at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but says hitting maximums isn’t solely on his mind when he’s out in the middle with willow in hand.
"If I see a ball there I’m going to swing hard and I’ve got long levers," Starc said.
"I’ve been working on my golf game so it’s moving into my cricket game and clearing the rope a little bit.
"Boof (Australia coach Darren Lehmann) is good like that. He’s very pro ‘if you see it, hit it’ and ‘if it’s spinning into you, swing harder’.
"I like to think I can take the game on at different times, depending on who I’m batting with and at different stages of the game.
"It was nice to hit a few sixes last summer."
Australia in Bangladesh 2017
Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade.
Bangladesh squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mominul Haque.
22-23 August Tour match, TBC
27-31 August First Test, Dhaka
4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong"Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity always." —Henry David Thoreau
SHORTHAND
Cook gutted, skewered squirrel 12-18" over a bed of coals, rotating every two minutes. Remove when joints in back legs separate easily, about 20 minutes
TOTAL TIME
Approximately 35 minutes, plus time to start the fire and find your skewers
GEAR
Kindling; Coleman fire-starting paste (optional); knife; one-two sticks for skewering; two-four forked sticks
OPTIONAL MUSIC PAIRING
"Animal Rap Instrumental" by Jedi Mind Tricks
Perhaps you think that squirrels are cute, mute little creatures.
This Book Will Change Your Life Expert advice on happiness, meaning, and secrets to success Get Tim Ferriss's latest book →
Not so. They produce a chirp-squeal akin to a Jack Russell digging through a chalkboard. I know this because the little devils woke me throughout college from a branch outside my window at 6 a.m. or earlier. In Princeton, New Jersey, rumor has it, squirrels were once part of a breeding experiment at the university. The result? Thousands of racket-making rodents with odd coloration straight out of Pimp My Squirrel—dots, zebra patterns, racing stripes, and so on.
Just before Steve Rinella and I rendezvoused in South Carolina, where I could order a hunting license online instead of spending weeks on paperwork (in California), he sent me the itinerary via email:
"OK, we'll shoot rifles on Friday. Saturday morning we'll go for deer. We'll hunt pigeons during the day with shotguns. Then we'll do deer again if we want that evening. Sunday we can hunt deer or squirrels in the morning or else concentrate on our meat packaging and preparations."
Reading this, I felt like Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. Did he say... squirrels?
COOKING SQUIRRELS
Steve once lived on a beach in Mexico (literally on the beach) for a month with his brother. The routine consisted of catch-and-release fishing for bonefish, and catch-and-kill fishing for barracuda and snapper, which they cooked on spits. They drank water from coconuts, and dried coconut husks served as fuel for the cooking fire.
Under more luxurious circumstances (i.e., having a decent backpack), he would have packed a multifuel stove like the Whisperlite or Optimus, sometimes referred to as "slut" stoves sine they take anything: diesel, unleaded, propane, kitten farts, etc.
We'll explain spit cooking (a la vara in Spanish) with squirrel. The explanations under each step are Steve's.
00: GET THE FIRE STARTED
"I carry Coghlan's fire-starting paste. It's a great product for starting fires quickly in wet conditions. Good, dry kindling can be found beneath the canopy of pines and evergreens. Use the small, dry limbs, and start with match-size pieces. If it's very wet, use your knife to whittle toothpick-size pieces from the core of larger dry sticks. If the ground is soaked, you can also create a platform out of green branches, which you then build your fire upon." (The MacGwyer replacement for fire paste is cotton balls rubbed in Vaseline and carried in a film canister.)
01: IN THE MEANTIME, GET YOUR STICKS FOR THE SKEWER
"Make sure your skewers are green, taken from a live tree. The ideal size is 2ft (60cm) long, and 3/8" (9mm) to 1/2" (13mm) in diameter. Willow is a traditional skewer material, but almost any wood will work. Generally, hardwoods are better, as they are more durable and less prone to burning to nothing. We used maple."
02: OPTIONAL: CUT OFF THE FEET AND TAIL
"I did this for aesthetic reasons, as a long, singed tail is a nasty sight and there isn't any meat there. Ditto with feet. However, this does not affect the process. It's a matter of personal preference."
03: ONCE THE FIRE IS READY, BURN OFF THE HAIR
"The fire is ready when you have a bed of coals the size of a dinner plate and a couple of inches deep. They should glow brightly. Now, toss the squirrel on the bed of coals, but where you can still reach the animal with a stick without getting burnt to hell. Keep it rolling and moving around, so that you burn off the hair without burning through the hide. Imagine toasting a marshmallow without catching it on fire. You wanna keep it moving."
04: SLICE OPEN THE BELLY AND GUT
"It's important to save the gutting procedure until after burning the hair, as a gutting incision will allow the introduction of ash and debris. Start the incision at the squirrel's brisket, or sternum, and work toward the belly. Be careful to keep your knife just beneath the muscle and abdominal lining. Do not cut or nick any of the internal organs, especially the stomach. Run the incision all the way down to the pelvis bone, but do not split the pelvis in two. Next, grab the squirrel's heart and pull the whole package of innards downward. The lower intestine should pull out and disconnect from near the squirrel's anus. At this point, the squirrel is gutted."
05: SKEWER THE SQUIRREL AND PLACE IT OVER EMBERS
"When doing a single squirrel (or rabbit), it's best to run a skewer through the pelvis bone, up the abdominal cavity, and then into the throat and out the mouth. It is very secure this way, and can be supported on just two forked sticks. When doing multiple animals, you can use two skewers. Run one through the rear legs and another through the front shoulders, so that the animals are positioned in a parallel fashion: two skewers require four forked sticks."
"Position the squirrel over a bed of coals, not over the open flame. Cooking height depends on intensity of heat. Try to keep it where you can only hold your hand for a count of two or three. Could be anywhere from 12-18" (30-46cm), typically. Rotate frequently, every couple of minutes. The entire process could take upwards of 20 minutes. Remove when the meat is cooked so well that the ball joints of the rear legs begin to separate with a light twist, like how the leg of a well-cooked chicken can be removed with minimal effort."
06: THE PAYOFF: EAT YOUR LITTLE MORSEL, WHICH WILL TASTE LIKE, YOU GUESSED IT, CHICKEN
"Most of your meat is on the back hams, followed by the loins [along the spine]. Front legs are certainly worth the effort. In a pinch, cook and eat the heart, liver, and lungs."
TAKE IT SLOW
The key to fire cooking is to not speed-cook. Charring steak directly over a raging fire might seem manly, but it's also the route to burned on the outside and rare on the inside. This might be tasty (to some) as a blood-rare steak, but blood-rare tree rat won't win any Diners' Choice Awards.
Excerpted from The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life (New Harvest). Copyright © 2012 by Timothy Ferriss. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved.MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday told troops he would answer for the ramifications of the martial law he declared in Mindanao, while commenting in jest that this includes cases of rape.
Speaking before officers and soldiers belonging to the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Iligan City, Duterte told soldiers to just do their job because he would take full responsibility for the army rule in Mindanao.
“For this martial law, and the consequences of martial law, and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible," he said.
"Trabaho lang kayo. Ako na bahala. Ako na magpakulong sa inyo. Pag naka-rape ka ng tatlo, aminin ko na akin 'yun. 'Pag nag-asawa ka ng pang-apat, ah t*** i** bugbugin ka ng… (Just work, I'll take care of it. I will be the one to imprison you. If you have committed rape three times, I'll take responsibility for it. If you marry four, son of a bitch, you'll get beaten up by...)," the president said, apparently in jest.
Duterte said that with military rule in effect in Mindanao the soldiers could arrest anyone and search any house, comparing it with arrest, search and seizure order in effect during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos’ martial law regime was marred by severe cases of human rights violations, killings and disappearances.
“During martial law, your commanders, you can arrest any person, search any house, wala ng warrant. Kagaya noon ASO lang. It could be signed by Gen. Año,” the president said, referring to Eduardo Año, the military chief and the main implementer of the army rule.
This is not the first time that Duterte had made lurid, and oftentimes offensive, remarks.
When he was still campaigning for the presidency last year, Duterte was condemned for joking that he should “have been” first on an Australian lay minister rape victim, whom he compared with a beautiful American actress.
'I'll give you everything you need'
The president assured security forces fighting Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters in Marawi City that he was “scrapping the bottom of the barrel” to look for money to support the military’s operations.
“Kung maglaban sila wala tayo magagawa. Go for it. May full support kayo sa akin. (If they fight back, we can't do anything, fight back. You have my full support) I’m scrapping the bottom of the barrel to look for money to see you through. Basta lahat ng kailangan ninyo ibigay ko. Lahat (I'll give everything you need, everything),” Duterte said.
The president told the troops to just wait some more as he had already talked with Russia to procure weapons and armaments through a soft loan.
He also ordered troops to kill individuals bearing guns and weapons unauthorized by the government, saying that they would just come back another day if they would not do so.
“Ang utos ko naman sa tropa lahat ng tao na hindi authorized ng gobyerno na magdala ng baril, patayin niyo, ubusin na lang ninyo. Kasi ganun rin ang labas e. (My order to troops is to shoot, kill those who are not authorized to carry firearms) He will come back to fight another day,” said the chief executive, adding that he was open to talk peace if the bandits wanted to.
The president also rallied the troops as they imposed martial law on the Philippines’ second largest island that has a population of around 22 million.
The president told soldiers and military officers: We will overcome, and we will win.”
If he were younger, he would have joined the troops in fighting the Maute and Abu Sayyaf members, according to the president.
He joked that he had not had action in bed because his illnesses had come out.
“In the meantime fight for the country. Ako kung ako lang kung pwede lang akong makisali sa inyo sasali ako. Kaya lang ang isang kilometro sa akin wala na. Limang araw ng walang chukchak yan kasi wala na inutil. Naglabasan ang rayuma pati arthritis. Kung bata lang ako ng presidente sasali ako sa inyo,” Duterte said.
Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao Tuesday following a failed attempt by security forces to arrest Abu Sayyaf subleader Isnilon Hapilon and several Maute leaders.
As of the latest information from the military, the firefight between the military and bandit fighters has resulted in the death of 31 terrorists, 11 soldiers and two policemen.
The siege of Marawi City has forced the president to cut short his visit to Moscow, Russia where senior government security officials accompanied the chief executive.FILE - In this March 2, 2017, file photo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks during a swearing in ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Perry, whose agency oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal, is inserting himself into an unusually small political dispute: an election for student body president at Texas A&M. In an op-ed submitted to the Houston Chronicle, the former Texas governor suggested that his alma mater’s first openly gay president may have stolen the outcome. Perry wrote that the campus election “at best made a mockery of due process and transparency” and at worst “allowed an election to be stolen outright.” (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose agency oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal, is inserting himself into an unusually small political dispute: an election for student body president at Texas A&M.
In an op-ed submitted to the Houston Chronicle, the former Texas governor suggested that his alma mater’s first openly gay president may have stolen the outcome. Perry wrote that the campus election “at best made a mockery of due process and transparency” and at worst “allowed an election to be stolen outright.”
“It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned,” he wrote. “Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?”
Those who know Perry best said they’re not surprised that he would take the unusual step of weighing in on a parochial issue at his alma mater — even though he’s now a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
“There are three institutions that are most important to Rick Perry, his wife and family, the U.S. military and Texas A&M. It depended on the day, or the weekend, which one had the top priority,” said Ray Sullivan, a former Perry chief of staff and veteran of the ex-governor’s unsuccessful presidential runs in 2012 and 2016.
The campus election ended with junior economics major Bobby Brooks winning about 4,200 votes. Another candidate, Robert McIntosh, son of Dallas-based GOP fundraiser Alison McIntosh, got nearly 5,000 but was disqualified amid complaints he intimidated voters and failed to provide receipts for glow sticks used in an online campaign video.
McIntosh appealed to a student court, which dismissed charges of voter fraud but upheld those of incomplete financial disclosure, awarding the election to Brooks this week.
Brooks takes office next month but has declined to comment since the publication of Perry’s op-ed. He posted on Facebook after being declared election winner, though: “To those of you who spoke poorly about me based upon my sexual orientation or personal religion (and talk gets around, my friends), I forgive you. I really do.”
Perry is following in the footsteps of his new boss, though on a far smaller scale. Trump spent months claiming without any evidence, that his presidential election against Democrat Hilary Clinton would be rigged against him — until he won it.
A Texas A&M spokeswoman did not return messages seeking comment Thursday. Energy Department Spokesman Bob Haus said Perry “did this is in his personal capacity and DOE has no official comment on this op-ed.”
A 1972 A&M graduate with a degree in animal sciences, Perry was twice elected yell leader, a coveted role akin to a male cheerleader. He was Texas’ longest-serving governor from 2000 until 2015, then moved to a home he built in rural Round Top, Texas, near his alma mater’s campus in College Station.
Perry took an active role in A&M policy as governor, pushing the school to implement a plan devised by a conservative Texas think tank seeking greater scrutiny on faculty productivity that university officials charged put ideology ahead of academics. He also helped place close allies in key school positions — including one who brandished a pocket knife as the university discussed his firing. Current A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp was once Perry’s roommate.
Perry also has previously been outspoken about what he branded political correctness run wild when it came to another institution near and dear to his heart, the Boy Scouts of America. An Eagle Scout, Perry wrote the 2008 book “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.” In it, he questioned whether sexual preference is determined at birth or is a matter of personal choice, while noting he doesn’t believe in “condemning homosexuals that I know personally.”
As recently as four years ago, Perry said he hoped the organization wouldn’t change its then-longstanding policy prohibiting gay membership, saying the Scouts continue “to be under attack from the forces of secularism” and that “to have popular culture impact 100 years of their standards is inappropriate.”
The organization has since reversed course, allowing openly gay members and lifting a ban on openly gay Scout leaders. In January, it announced it would allow transgender boys to join. Perry remained silent about the latest change, though he was at the time facing Senate confirmation to become Trump’s energy secretary.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the gay rights group GLAAD, responded to Perry’s accusations via Twitter saying, “Some advice for @SecretaryPerry: Kids like Bobby Brooks are the future, and should be encouraged, not harassed.”
But Sullivan said Perry’s op-ed may actually raise the energy secretary’s standing with Trump given the president’s criticism of too much political correctness on university campuses.
“I’m sure it will pique interest in Washington,” Sullivan said. “But given the curious circumstances of the election and general concern about the state of free speech and political correctness on American campuses, it is not outside the bounds of normal political and public policy discussion.”Bill Dunne (US)
Bill Dunne #10916-086
USP POLLOCK
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 2099
POLLOCK, LA 71467
Anti-authoritarian combatant sentenced to 90 years for the liberation of an anarchist prisoner, Artie Ray Darfur, in 1979. He attempted to escape prison in 1983, for which 15 years was added to his sentence.
Marie Mason (US)
Marie Mason #04672-061
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
Sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for carrying out 14 actions of property destruction claimed by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). She was sold out by her former partner, Frank Ambrose, who became an FBI informant.
Eric McDavid (US)
Eric McDavid 16209-097
FCI Victorville, Medium II
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 5300
Adelanto, CA 92301
Sentenced to 20 years in a conspiracy to destroy a large dam with explosives and carry out several other explosive attacks, none of which were done. His conviction was the result of the work of a federal informant known as “Anna” whose actual identity is unknown.
Grant Barnes (US)
Grant Barnes #137563
Arrowhead Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 300
Cañon City, CO, 81215-3000
Sentenced in 2007 to 12 years in prison for several arson attacks on SUVs in a wealthy neighborhood of Denver claimed under the ELF.
Justin Solondz (US)
Justin
#98291-011
FDC SEATAC
FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 13900
SEATTLE, WA 98198
Accused prisoner in the Operation Backfire case against the Earth Liberation Front, Justin has recently been extradited from China after years on the run and now awaits trial in federal court in Tacoma, WA on charges of conspiracy, arson, making an unregistered destructive device and using a destructive device during a violent crime, a charge that could result in a life sentence.
Miguel Balderos (US)
Miguel Balderos, S# 126145
Santa Cruz Main Jail
259 Water Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Sentenced to 10 years and 8 months for setting fire to the Santa Cruz city prosecutor’s office.
Walter Bond (US)
Davis County Jail
Walter Bond 2011-03339
PO Box 130
Farmington UT 84025-0130
Sentenced to 5 years for the arson of the Sheepskin Factory in Denver in April 2010, Walter is also awaiting further charges for two arsons in Utah.
Michael Sykes (US)
Michael Sykes 696693
10274 Boyer Road
P.O. Box 5000
Carson City, MI 48811
Sentenced to 4-10 years in prison for the arson of several under-construction homes and other targets in order to combat the destruction of the forest caused by suburban development around his childhood home in Michigan.
Daniel McGowan (US)
Daniel McGowan
#63794-053
FCI Terre Haute - CMU
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808
Sentenced in 2007 to 7 years in prison on charges of participation in 14 ELF arson attacks. Daniel is being held in one of the US state’s two Communications Management Units, which were built after 9/11/2001 to house terrorists and cut off their communication with the outside world.
Joyanna “Sadie” Zacher (US)
Joyanna Zacher #36360-086
FCI Dublin
5701 8th St – Camp Parks- Unit E,
Dublin, CA United States 94568
Sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of participation in 14 ELF arson attacks.
Nathan “Exile” Block (US)
Nathan Block
#36359-086
FCI Lompoc
3600 Guard Road,
Lompoc, CA United States 93436
Sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of participation in 14 ELF arson attacks.
Roger Clement (CAN)
Joseph Roger Clement (FPS-666866F)
Pittsburgh Institution Highway 15, No. 3766
PO Box 4510
Kingston, Ontario K7L 5E5 J18
Sentenced in 2010 to 3.5 years for the firebombing of a RBC bank in Ottawa.
Casey Brezik (US)
Casey Brezik
Jackson County Detention Center
1300 S. Cherry St.
Kansas City, MO 64106
Accused anarchist assassin from Kansas City area who is charged with slashing the throat of the Dean of Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley in an alleged plot to attack the Governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon during a talk at the college. He is currently being held while awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action.Erik Karlsson stood in front of reporters on Monday afternoon wearing a pair of sandals that gave everyone a clear view of his surgically repaired left foot.
The Senators captain admitted he's currently forced to wear the open-toed footwear because the scar on his foot keeps opening up when he wears shoes. That means Karlsson isn't anywhere close to putting on a pair of skates and hitting the ice with his teammates when training camp opens later this week.
While Karlsson left the hockey world in awe when he returned months ahead of schedule from a serious Achilles injury in 2013, he says this time around he's going to take a more cautious approach with his rehabilitation. The perennial Norris Trophy candidate admitted he might have to miss the first month of the season to make sure he's fully healthy.
“I'm going to make sure this is something that is not going to affect me moving forward in my career,” Karlsson said. “Whenever I'm 100 per cent I'm going to come back and play – whether that is in October or November. For me, it's not going to make a difference. When I do decide to come back it's going to be 100 per cent and it's not going to be an injury I'm going to have to battle with for the next two or three years.”
If Karlsson does not return until early November, there is a chance he could miss close to 15 regular-season games. The Senators play 12 games in October and then have a long break in early November leading into a home-and-home series against the Colorado Avalanche in Stockholm. Those two contests represent the club's 15th and 16th games of the campaign and because they are being staged in his home country, they would clearly be a target for Karlsson's return.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion had a phone conversation with Karlsson on Monday morning and the captain informed him that he likely wouldn't be ready to skate for another two or three weeks.
"That obviously puts the start of the season in jeopardy for him," admitted Dorion. But we all know Erik is special. We have the assets on the back end – and no one can replace Erik – but if he's out for a week or two or three, we'll be fine."
Karlsson underwent surgery to repair torn tendons in his left foot on June 14 in Charlotte. He required crutches to move around following the procedure and was told to stay away from most activities for a period of three months to allow his new tendon to settle.
Because of the surgeon's original prognosis ¬– that Karlsson would be able to return to physical activities by mid-September – the star defenceman isn’t too concerned that he could miss the first few weeks of the season.
"It's progressing. Overall I'm not too worried with where I'm at or how it's looking right now," said Karlsson. "Everything is going as expected."
Karlsson said that once he starts skating – ideally later this month – it will still take him some time to get adjusted to the sensation of having an artificial tendon in his foot.
"It's a weird feeling. It's never going to feel like it did before. That's going to be my new normal," said Karlsson.
Karlsson later joked, "I can safely say my basketball career is over."
Senators’ fans, of course, are more interested in Karlsson resuming his hockey career and picking up where he left off last spring as he led the Senators to the Eastern Conference Final. Karlsson's individual performance was so impressive that he garnered a vote for the Conn Smythe trophy – even though the Senators didn't reach the Stanley Cup Final.
The fear for most Senators fans is that Karlsson will be a watered-down version of himself when he returns to game action this fall. Following the Achilles injury in 2013, it took a good 18 months for Karlsson to really find his old skating stride and his Norris Trophy form.
But the 27-year-old cautions against making any comparisons to his previous catastrophic injury.
"It probably took me a few years to feel really good from the Achilles injury and this is something completely different,” he said. “It doesn't really have any comparisons.Oh, Cool!
Two things that come to my mind.
A: the video about fan noise is hard to comprehend. One would need a reference point to realise how loud it is. Maybe you talking a few words before, or an smartphone with a dbA measurement App.
B: couldn't you simply solder the two wires together instead of using a 4pin connector? xD you still plug it with USB connector so its not totally fix.
But great work! Now just gotta find a way to get it ^^
Edit:
Design Question!
Why is the fan on top of the surface?
Wouldn't it be possible to put it on the back of the surface and let the air do a 180° turn? Shouldn't reduce the performance by that much, would it?
Click to expand...CROWLEY, La. (AP) - Police say |
75 percent of that total never resulted in criminal charges, and 80 percent ended up in the federal forfeiture fund through administrative procedures — meaning that the owners never got a day in court.
There’s no uniform standard for what constitutes a connection to drug activity. Cash can be seized if narcotics officers think it was earned from the sale of drugs or will be used to buy drugs. At airports, bus terminals and train stations, agents have seized cash from travelers coming from or going to a city known to be a hub for drug trafficking, for buying a one-way ticket or for acting “suspiciously.” From the report:
We found that different task force officers made different decisions in similar situations when deciding whether to seize all of the cash discovered. These differences demonstrate how seizure decisions can appear arbitrary, which should be a concern for the Department, both because of potentially improper conduct and because even the appearance of arbitrary decision-making in asset seizure can fuel public perception that law enforcement is not using this authority legitimately, thereby undermining public confidence in law enforcement.
In a review of 100 seizures, the report found that 85 occurred while property or the owner of the seized property was in transit (at an airport, during a traffic stop, at a shipping center, etc.), and that 79 of those were initiated based solely on a DEA agent or cooperating drug officer’s suspicions, not on preexisting intelligence.
While civil asset forfeiture is justified on the premise that it prevents criminals from ill-gotten gains, the DEA can’t say what percentage of its seizures resulted in broader investigations, or what percentage of those investigations resulted in criminal charges — because it doesn’t keep track. Given the building momentum against these seizures, one would think that if there were a clear connection between seizures of cash and investigations that nab drug dealers or result in large seizures of illicit substances, the DEA would want to track and promote those figures to tout its success. That they don’t even bother suggests that the connection between seizures and actual criminal activity is minimal.
That lack of data is why the IG’s office selected 100 cases to review itself. Its conclusion? “This review of sampled seizures provided evidence that many of the DEA’s interdiction seizures may not advance or relate to criminal investigations.”
In other words, they’re just stealing from people, albeit under the color of law. The report also found that state and local officers on federal anti-drug task forces aren’t required to get any formal training on forfeiture laws and procedures, which again results in rather arbitrary and inconsistent standards, policies and procedures.
Defenders of forfeiture often argue that the policy is generally only used against major kingpins and drug dealers. But the figures suggest otherwise. In 2012, the average DEA forfeiture was around $47,000. Last year, it was a little more than $71,000. But at the federal level, those averages are skewed by the few cases in which they really did bring down a major dealer. For example, a 2015 report found that 40 percent of forfeitures in New York City involved amounts of less than $250. Unfortunately, this latest IG report doesn’t offer a mean forfeiture amount, or break forfeitures down in a way that would indicate how much money is involved in each one. What does seem clear is that the typical forfeiture isn’t a byproduct of any broader criminal investigation. Instead, it has become its own kind of investigation, one that usually begins and ends when the drug cops take someone’s money.Police were investigating a double shooting in South Miami on Thursday evening. It happened around 7:30 p.m. near Murray Park in the 5800 block of Southwest 67th Street.
Two victims were airlifted to the hospital and were listed in stable condition.
Family members of the victims told NBC 6 that Eljay Reed and Marcus Evans, both 19, were hanging out outside when suddenly they were ambushed with bullets.
Police said the suspects, who were riding bikes, rolled up onto a group of people, started firing and then rode off. Witnesses said the same thing.
"He came running in the house, the one who got shot, and I asked what happened and he said two boys rolled up on bikes and start shooting," a witness said.
"I was walking to the park and I heard the gunshots," another witness added.
Police taped off the scene and scoured the area for clues, although the victims may know the guys who shot them, according to investigators.
If you know anything about this case, you're urged to call Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.The Dallas Mavericks have done a masterful job at injecting youth into their roster over the last 12 months. But although they’ve added a lot of young, talented players with room to grow, not all of them project as future starters. At the moment, the Mavs’ starting lineup for next season figures to be Dennis Smith, Jr. (19), Wesley Matthews (30), Harrison Barnes (25), Dirk Nowitzki (39) and Nerlens Noel (23).
Assuming Matthews won’t be signed back at the end of his current contract in 2019, Dallas should be considering the many other possibilities for starting shooting guard.
Now, there’s a strong case to be made for Seth Curry taking Matthews’ place as a starter eventually, especially after his success in a starting role towards the end of last season. However, Curry will turn 27 in August, and if the Mavs do decide that they wanted to opt for a little more youth and potential at that position, perhaps they’d give Ben McLemore a hard look.
The basics
McLemore was the seventh overall pick by the Sacramento Kings in the 2013 NBA Draft. Standing at 6’5”, weighing 195 pounds and possessing great athleticism, McLemore figured to be a lot better than has been during his four years with the Kings. Over those four years, he has averaged 9.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in a little over 25 minutes per game. His highest scoring output came in his second year, when he averaged 12.1 points in nearly 33 minutes of play per game.
Strengths
One of McLemore’s biggest strengths is something that can't be taught, and that’s his size and athleticism. Not only are his height and weight optimal for an NBA shooting guard, he also has a 6’8” wingspan, which helps him defend the perimeter capably.
On the other end of the court, although McLemore shot just 43 percent from the field last season, he shot a respectable 38-percent from beyond the arc.
At 24 years old, McLemore has yet to hit his prime and still has room to grow on both ends of the floor, and you’d have to think that putting him in a more stable environment like Dallas could work wonders for him going forward. Back in April, he gave Dallas an up-close glimpse of that potential:
Weaknesses
McLemore has struggled both to create on offense and to defend consistently. Averaging only 1.2 assists per game for his career so far, he could definitely work on adding a little more to that area of his game. Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t have to go out there and average a triple double, but raising that assist average to three or four per night would be huge. Playing in Rick Carlisle’s flow offense would likely help.
McLemore has all the tools to be a great defender, he just hasn’t been consistent enough on that end of the floor to reach that level. With all the dysfunction in Sacramento the last few years, can you really blame the guy for not being focused? I’m positive that between Carlisle and Matthews, McLemore would be one of the better defenders at his position in a few years.
Fit with the Mavericks
Considering the Mavs’ recent desire to get younger and more athletic, I feel like McLemore would be a good fit going forward. He's six years younger than Matthews and three years younger than Seth Curry, so if potential is something Dallas values going forward, McLemore leads the other two shooting guards in that category.
Another factor is the money. The Mavs would need to determine if there’s more value in signing the younger McLemore now or waiting to sign Curry to a new, more expensive deal next summer, because they can’t have both guys unless Wes is traded.
Likelihood
It was recently reported that the Kings will likely decline to extend a qualifying offer to McLemore this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent:
Sacramento Kings to decline extending qualifying offer to Ben McLemore and he'll become unrestricted free agent, league sources tell ESPN. — Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 28, 2017
Obviously, this would make it a lot easier for the Mavs to sign McLemore. Still, I think the likelihood of this move happening is quite low, since Dallas has two capable shooting guards and Devin Harris, who spends a lot of time at that position. But, you never really know what the front office is thinking, so anything is possible.I want you to think about something.
You know October, right? In this case, October 7: the Flames’ home opener. There will be a lot of pomp and circumstance. There always is.
This year, there’s a fortunate little quirk to the opener: as the playing lineup skates out on the ice to be introduced, Mark Giordano will be the first one out there. It’ll be the first time since he became the Flames’ captain – since he rose to prominence, since he identified himself as one of the NHL’s best defencemen – that he’ll have the lowest number on the Flames’ roster. It’ll be dark, there’ll be a single spotlight, and Number 5 will skate out, introduced to the cheers of the Saddledome.
His former partner, Number 7, a homegrown talent, will follow. After him will come Number 10: a local guy who found his love for the game again in Calgary; someone who most certainly took a discount because he wanted to stay in Calgary that badly. Then will come Number 11, another homegrown talent who finally, after years of clawing his way upwards, proved his worth.
We’re four players in to the introduction of 20.
And then the spotlight focuses back on the entrance, the camera goes to another figure skating out, and he’s wearing the number 12. Only 11 players have ever worn Number 12. Only one will ever wear it again, and he’s coming out of the tunnel.
Just think about being in the crowd for the home opener when that happens.
Jarome Iginla, 40 years young, is a free agent. Jarome Iginla, a right winger, wants to continue playing. Jarome Iginla, who will forever be associated with the Calgary Flames, still needs a team to sign him.
The Calgary Flames, in turn, may just have a spot available. Their forward lineup is far from solidified. At least two spots – maybe more, depending on how things shake out – are open. Right wing can be one of them. And maybe these spots are being left open for prospects. They probably should be, unless there’s a slam dunk player they can acquire, and those days are behind Iginla now.
But we don’t care about logic in this moment. It’s irrelevant.
Think back on when Iginla returned to Calgary as a member of the Boston Bruins. The crowd refused to stop standing and cheering for him. Early in the game, he had a shot on net. The crowd was ready to cheer if he scored. After the game, he was encouraged to go for an extended lap around the ice, saluting the fans. Nobody wanted to have him stop, or let him leave.
That is unspeakably rare. Not every franchise can lay claim to a face like Iginla’s. Calgary can, and we’re talking years after his departure. You may step aside and think, “Well, it’s been years; it really doesn’t matter anymore. We’re all over it. We’re ready to move on.”
In Iginla’s last trip to the Saddledome, he scored a goal. He picked up an assist. He fought Deryk Engelland. He was named the first star of the game, and justifiably so. He took the lap. He got a standing ovation.
It has been four years. The Flames have crumbled since his departure. They have built themselves back up, in part thanks to his departure. No real thanks to the return he brought back, but his mere leaving was a seismic shift in the makeup that is the Calgary Flames, a signal that it was time to drop the past and look to the future. And for four years, the Flames have done that. They made the playoffs again, twice. They won a round. They have new names, new talent. The old guard doesn’t show up as much on the backs of jerseys anymore.
… Except for when it does.
It has been four years, and this city has still refused to let go. And that means a lot. And that has to be cherished, because what even is the point of professional sports without figures like Iginla?
Iginla skates out on the ice, Beasley’s voice roaring his name out. The power of his microphone keeps his voice from being drowned out by the sellout crowd. Ticket prices have probably gone up for this, an anticipated home opener in a number of ways, one in which Number 12 contributes. They probably have to pause for a moment before Number 13 – incredibly popular in his own right – skates out. It’s probably loud. It’s probably nowhere near as loud, though.
Signing a contract is one thing. Skating in preseason games is another thing. Playing in the season opener up in Edmonton is something. Stepping back onto Calgary ice wearing red is something entirely different, and the air is palpable with it.
He probably starts the game.
Maybe he has an impact – it’s a smaller sample size, to be sure, but the nine points in 19 games played for the Los Angeles Kings hints he has enough left in the tank for another go at it. Maybe he doesn’t. But the mere act of being here means things are different. They just are.
Iginla has added another 100 goals to his collection since departing Calgary. Number 525 was a special one. It was the game-winner in a meaningless regular season game; it was also one that saw him charge up the ice, muscle out the defender, and tuck the puck in behind the goalie. When it happened, you knew that was it. He ended up playing another game – the Flames were shut out – but even before then, you knew that was the last time, and it was as good a way as any to go out. Against the team he scored his 1,000th career point against. Older, but still a power forward. Nearing the end, but still giving it his all with that one final burst.
Maybe it’s the powerplay. Maybe he’s at the top of the circle. Maybe he’s fed a perfect pass. Maybe he winds up. And then 525 isn’t the last anymore, and it. Is. Deafening.
The season is long. It is never all sunshines and roses. But this edition of the Flames is aiming to make it as much as it can possibly be – maybe as much as it has been in a very, very long time.
The Flames have decided it is time to compete, right now. While their core is intact and mostly young. While they can afford to fight to lay claim to one of the top defensive groups in the NHL. While they have an elite shutdown line, while they have top scoring young talent, while they have four functional lines that they could never seem to have before.
While they have, uh, more centres than they know what to do with, a very foreign concept before Sean Monahan was drafted.
But you look at the Flames’ roster. You look at the Pacific Division. More teams seem to be on the decline than they are on any meaningful rise. Calgary has just committed to going all in, and has made the moves that should allow them to do so. You figure, they’re very, very likely to make the playoffs.
Iginla has not played in the playoffs since 2014. He has not played with the Flames in the playoffs since 2009.
The Flames, in all likelihood, clinch. Iginla is there for it. This has not happened in years. He is there for it. He is going to play in the postseason. For Calgary. On a team that isn’t scrambling to recreate 14-year-old magic. On a team that has made a meaningful attempt to contend, not just bank on the sudden prowess of a 26-year-old franchise player and a former third string goalie who came out of nowhere. Maybe they’re a higher seed. Maybe they actually deserve it. They probably get a couple of games in between clinching and the season’s end to bask in the upcoming glow of the postseason. And he gets that chance again.
Iginla has played for four teams since departing Calgary. This could very well be the end of the line. And – you recall The Shift from years back. A younger player did that. A younger man did that. But it’s still the same guy, and you have to think, if this could very well be it for him – if this is the very last go at it… is the tank not going to be emptied here and now, in this moment? Every last drop of hockey, squeezed out in desperation of trying to reclaim that prize from 14 years ago, every last breath left out on the ice reaching out for the item that over a decade has been spent chasing since it was one single goal away?
Maybe they put in a valiant effort, but don’t get that far.
Maybe they put in a valiant effort with an upgraded roster, and they do.
Someone other than Martin Gelinas scores a series-winning goal.
And again.
And again.
And…
And now, back to your regularly scheduled reality.
But just think about it.The Dallas Stars appear primed to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after an offseason when they added three players who've won the Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Stars got off to a slow start last season -- they were 9-10-5 through November -- and finished seven points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
It was a disappointing step back for Dallas, which made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons in 2014.
"We need to make the playoffs," general manager Jim Nill said. "We need to be a consistent team. The idea is to make the playoffs every year, so that's our goal."
Here are four reasons for the Stars to be optimistic:
Former Blackhawks bring experience: Before acquiring goalie Antti Niemi and forward Patrick Sharp in separate trades, and signing free agent defenseman Johnny Oduya, the Stars had two players on their roster who have won the Stanley Cup: Tyler Seguin (Boston Bruins, 2011) and Alex Goligoski (Pittsburgh Penguins, 2009).
Sharp won the Cup three times playing for the Blackhawks, including twice with Oduya (2013, 2015) and once with Niemi (2010). They've played 280 NHL postseason games; that experience will be important to the Stars, who have 10 players who have played in fewer than 10.
"I think the biggest thing is [Sharp and Oduya] know how to win," captain Jamie Benn told The Dallas Morning News in early August. "They have lived it, and that's something not a lot of us have done yet."
Power play should be better: The Stars are going to score. They were second in the NHL last season (3.13 goals per game), but their power play was mediocre, finishing tied for 11th in the League (19.0 percent).
That should change with the arrival of Sharp, who Dallas plans to use on the point with the man advantage.
"He can really shoot a puck," Nill said. "If you get him out there with a [John] Klingberg or Goligoski, someone like that, we think it gives us another weapon back there. So we're excited about it."
Sharp has scored 66 of his 249 NHL goals on the power play.
Goaltending depth (and competition): With the addition of Niemi, the Stars won't have to ride incumbent No. 1 goalie Kari Lehtonen, who played in 65 games each of the past two seasons and looked worse for the wear in 2014-15, when he had the second-worst save percentage (.903) of his NHL career.
Niemi was 31-23-7 with a 2.59 goals-against average, a.914 save percentage and five shutouts in 61 games with the San Jose Sharks last season.
"They're both very competitive guys, so they're going to push each other, which I think is the best thing," Nill said.
More commitment to defense: The Stars were not good defensively last season, finishing tied for 26th in the League in goals allowed (3.13 per game). They were particularly bad in October and November, when they allowed an average of 3.46 goals over 24 games.
"We didn't early on buy in to you've got to play the game both ways," Nill said. "And a little bit of that is inexperience with a young group of guys. We learned our lesson. By about December we figured that out; the trouble was we had already dug a hole for ourselves."
Oduya will provide a more stabilizing presence in the defensive zone than Trevor Daley, who went to the Blackhawks in the Sharp trade. Oduya was plus-28 the past three seasons with Chicago.
Benn said the Stars probably paid too much attention to the preseason hype about their offensive prowess. Their poor start made them realize they needed to commit to defense, he said.
"There were a lot of expectations that we would be a great offensive team, and sometimes I think that can shoot you in the foot," Benn said. "I know I messed up a few pucks early last season by trying to be too fancy, and I learned from it.
"You just need to play a simple team game and then when the opportunity comes, you can let your skill take over."Leaders Hope to Bring Attention to Extreme Inequality
Calling Michigan "the Mississippi of the civil rights movement when it comes to gay equality," the head of a Detroit-area LGBT center will begin a 100-day hunger strike on Monday that will include numerous state activists.
David Garcia, executive director of Affirmations in Ferndale, will go without food for 24 hours on Monday, as part of the "Hunger for Equality" campaign. His goal is to bring attention to the paucity of rights for LGBT Michigan residents. Over the following 99 days, other leaders of Michigan LGBT centers, as well as politicians, will take part in the hunger strike.
"We're trying to educate our straight allies about the extreme anti-equality environment in this state," Garcia told local media.
Michigan has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage; it also has no statewide protections for LGBT people in employment or housing. There are also no statewide protections for LGBT people against violence and same-sex couples in the state are banned from adopting children. Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Snyder eliminated health insurance benefits for domestic partners of municipal employees last year.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a sometimes tense private meeting last week with five “Black Lives Matter” activists, urging them to find a way to change policies because “I don’t believe you change hearts.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada August 18, 2015. REUTERS/David Becker
In a video of the meeting released by the group, Clinton acknowledged the crime and incarceration laws pursued under her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had not always succeeded.
But she said the only way to relieve the effects of deep-seated racism in the United States was to change government policies.
"Look, I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way the systems operate," Clinton told the group during an approximately 15-minute meeting after an Aug. 11 campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire. (bit.ly/1NiuzuU)
“You’re going to have to come together as a movement and say, ‘Here’s what we want done about it,’” Clinton said. “Because you can get lip service from as many white people as you can pack into Yankee Stadium.”
The Democratic front-runner rejected an accusation that she and her husband were “politically and personally” responsible during the Clinton administration for policies that were disastrous to minority communities.
“I do think there was a different set of concerns back in the 1980s and early 1990s, and now I believe that we have to look at the world as it is today and try to figure out what will work now,” she said.
At one point, one of the activists told Clinton, “I say this as respectfully as I can, but you don’t tell black people what we need to do.”
The Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Florida shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin, has become an active presence at some campaign events.
Protesters interrupted an Aug. 8 campaign stop in Seattle by Clinton’s Democratic presidential rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The activists attended Clinton’s campaign event as well, but it was full when they arrived and they watched from an overflow room. Clinton met privately with the group after the event.
“This discussion was one of many that the campaign will continue to have with a wide array of stakeholders in order to build on Hillary Clinton’s policy proposals to help reform our criminal justice system and achieve racial justice,” her campaign said in a statement.While culpability is still uncertain, Russian cyber-security company Kaspersky is reporting a massive series of cyberattacks against major Russian banks, with at least five of the country’s largest financial institutions hit in the offensive.
The attack was a major series of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), with Kaspersky reporting that the botnets involved in the attack included hijacked devices from 30 countries, but seemed to be dominated by US-based devices.
This inevitably raises questions about whether these attacks are part of the US “retaliation” that the Obama Administration has publicly promised to launch against Russian targets. The administration has continued to accuse Russia of hacking US targets after the election, though most of the claims centering on a plot Russia was trying to “hack” the election.
The Russian banks saw attacks which in some cases have lasted over 12 hours, continuing into the night, and interrupting their websites and other online services. The largest Russian bank, Sberbank, was targeted as well, but reported it had managed to weather the attack without any interruption of its operations.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzOn a sunny morning during my junior year of high school I was taking the SAT, when I got to a question that left me stumped. It basically asked, "What race are you?" I scanned the boxes listed on the page. African American? No. Pacific Islander? No.
Sponsor
Hispanic? Well, kinda. White? Sort of. My mind raced. I checked Hispanic, but I felt like a fraud. Over nine million Americans identify as multiracial. It took a standardized test for me to question if I was one of those nine million and sit down with my parents to talk about race. My mom, Kim Chapman, is white, and my dad, Rick Gasca, is Mexican-American. My parents got divorced when I was three, and after that, my brother and I were raised by my mom and my grandma. When we would go visit my dad’s side of the family, everything was foreign to me. I felt like there was this entire side of myself that was foreign to me.
Sponsor
That’s why during the SAT, I hesitated to check the Hispanic box. I never expected my mom to teach me about my Hispanic heritage, but I did blame my dad for this lost feeling inside of me. I decided to talk to him when he came up to visit. I turned on my tape recorder. "What box do you think I should check? And why?" I asked him. "I mean to me there’s no question that you should check Hispanic," he said. "I guess because I don’t see you as any different from me when I grew up.” He didn’t see me as any different from him? How could he say that? We were raised in two completely different cultures. He told me that he has always identified as Mexican American or Hispanic because he "ate tortillas, and beans and rice and liked it." I, on the other hand, hated beans and rice as a kid. It was always a staple at Gasca family parties, so I was starving, but I also had no idea what anyone was talking about.
Sponsor
My dad could relate to that part, because he didn’t speak Spanish either. I had always assumed that he didn’t want to learn Spanish when he was growing up, and just wanted to assimilate. I was wrong. The truth is rooted in the reality of an immigrant family's experience. “My dad would get up at 3 o’clock in the morning to start his job," my dad said. "When he came home at 3 in the afternoon, he would take a nap, and then get up, and if my mom was working a swing shift, which a lot of years she did, he would feed us and then it was football, basketball or baseball practice. And then we would come home, and then it was time for bed.” There wasn't any time to learn Spanish, and my dad didn't learn to speak the language until recently. At this point in the conversation with my dad, I was feeling pretty defeated. He was telling me that I could check the Hispanic box, but the more he talked to me, the less I felt like I could. Talking to my dad made me realize how different we really are. We were in the living room, and at that point my mom came in. I asked her to join us.
Sponsor
"I want to talk to you about when you and dad got married,” I said. My mom and my dad don’t talk much about the time before they were married. I know that for my mom’s family, her marrying someone who wasn’t white was a bit of a scandal. I wanted to know, did she ever think about having this conversation with her future children? “I never thought about race," she told me. "I never thought about the fact that you guys would be biracial, that was not part of my consciousness. The first time that conversation came up with you, it was kind of a shock to me." She started to choke up. "I felt like I had somehow failed you, because you didn’t feel like you fit in both places." A big reason why I never felt like I fit in both places is because I know I look different from my mom and my dad. My ethnicity has always been a sort of guessing game for my classmates, my teachers and random people at the grocery store.
SponsorFor the first time in this election campaign, New Democrat Leader Jack Layton says his party can defeat Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
Layton made the remarks while speaking to the overflow crowd gathered outside his Kingston, Ont., campaign office during a rally on Sunday.
"I want you to create lineups at the polls, my friends, because we can defeat Stephen Harper," Layton told the crowd.
The comment underscores the NDP leader's increasingly confident tone as Monday's vote approaches.
Harper was taking his campaign across the country as he pushes for momentum ahead of Monday's election.
Harper kicked off the day with a rally in Stratford, P.E.I., where he touted his economic plan and blasted the surging NDP, saying their platform would lead to "billions and billions of dollars in job-killing tax hikes."
By day's end, he will have made stops in three time zones as he tries to build enough support to secure his first majority.
NDP touts 'winds of change'
The NDP leader, took his "winds of change" message to supporters in Montreal and Kingston.
Election night on CBC No matter where you are, you can get full election night results and analysis from CBC journalists — online and on your mobile device or iPad, and on CBC Television, CBC News Network and CBC Radio One. See the full election night lineup for all CBC platforms
Layton told a crowd of supporters in Montreal that the NDP was experiencing a "historic opportunity" that began in Quebec.
He urged supporters to make sure friends, family members and neighbours get to the polls on Monday.
"If we’re going to make these winds of change really happen, then we’ve got a lot of work to do," Layton said Sunday.
After the Montreal event, he headed to Kingston, where large crowds lined the street waiting for his arrival. He was slated to stop in Oshawa, Toronto and Scarborough later in the day.
Harper targets Liberal voters
Harper also repeated his pitch for support from traditional Liberal voters, saying the best Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff can hope for is to be a "backseat passenger" in the NDP government.
Harper said the choice in the election is "increasingly stark" as voters prepare to head to the polls.
"You can have an NDP government or a Conservative government."
"Nothing is decided yet," Harper told the cheering crowd in P.E.I. "Every effort is going to matter, every riding here, everywhere else, is in play. Every vote counts."
After his stop in P.E.I., Harper was scheduled to fly to London, Ont., for another event, before ending up in Abbotsford, B.C.
Ignatieff was ending his campaign with a trek through the Greater Toronto Area, with stops in Ajax, Markham, Toronto, Thornhill and Maple.
He hit back against Harper's appeal to Liberal supporters, accusing the Conservative leader of trying to destroy him and the party, emphasized the difference between the Liberals and the NDP.
"We've worked together often on things where we have shared values, but hey — we know how to balance a budget, we know how to get a deficit under control, we know how to make promises and keep them," he said.
Ignatieff pointed to Liberal experience, saying Layton and the NDP have never formed a federal government.
"We've been there, we've done it," he said. "Every Liberal knows in their heart of hearts we're two different families, two different traditions."
Ignatieff told reporters he believes many Canadians are still undecided, and he urged voters to make up their own mind before casting their ballot.
He said again he believes a strong Liberal base will turn out and vote, saying the party has spent a "tremendous amount of time" working on a modern "get-out-the-vote operation."
Duceppe rallies voters in home riding
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe was back in his Montreal riding Sunday for an event at his campaign office. There were fewer than 60 people there to see the man who's led the party through six elections and sat in the House of Commons for 21 years.
Duceppe says he's counting on Bloc supporters, focusing his comments on the party's love for Quebec and desire for the province to become its own country. But he wouldn't talk about how this campaign has been different from the other ones he's led, as polls suggest NDP support has overtaken support for the Bloc.
Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, right, speaks to the media as his wife Yolande Brunelle looks on during a campaign stop in Montreal on Sunday. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
"I'm always concerned about results as long as they're not known. Otherwise it's a kind of contempt towards the electorate," Duceppe said when asked about his own seat.
"I've had very different campaigns during all those years. I commented on them after they were over. Each time. So I won't change this time," he said.
Duceppe also took a shot at an NDP candidate who is running in a mostly Francophone area of Quebec but doesn't speak French.
"We've recognized the Quebec nation. That nation has a language. That language is French," Duceppe said. "That's not trivial... we have candidates who don't speak a word of French running in ridings in Quebec where it's not even one per cent Anglo."
Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois joined Duceppe on the campaign trail Saturday. The Bloc leader had another prominent supporter at one of his events Saturday — Muguette Paillé, a 53-year-old unemployed woman from Sainte-Angèle-de-Prémont in Quebec's Mauricie region, who generated buzz earlier in the campaign when she asked the leaders about job creation during the French-language debate.
Paillé, who still hasn't found a full-time job, said she will support the Bloc because she feels it's the best choice to defend Quebec's interests.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May will be in B.C., where she is trying to win a seat in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.The federal government is promising $10 million for military upgrades and training programs, including $5.9 million in infrastructure spending, Canada's defence minister announced Saturday.
"We have aging infrastructure in the Canadian forces right across the country," said MacKay, speaking at the Edmonton Garrison.
"It’s part of our on-going effort to modernize Canadian forces facilities across the country."
The bulk of the money is earmarked for infrastructure programs in northern Alberta.
Edmonton-based contractor Sprague-Rosser is receiving a $4.6 million to upgrade sewer systems at the Edmonton Garrison, as well as the installation of a new storm water sewer.
An additional $1.28 million is pledged to test and maintain fire protection systems and equipment at bases across the province, including Cold Lake and Suffield.
"We are going to continue to prepare our regular force for … whatever challenges may come."
A final $3.7 million is earmarked for the University of Alberta for a training program relating the aerospace industry. MacKay says that money is coming from Lockheed-Martin, part of the a federal program to make companies receiving defence grants re-invest in Canada.IRELAND'S car wash business may have gotten an unexpected boon thanks to'red dust' landing from the Sahara Desert.
IRELAND'S car wash business may have gotten an unexpected boon thanks to'red dust' landing from the Sahara Desert.
Motorists awoke to find a fine layer of reddish-brown dust coating the paintwork of vehicles yesterday that was believed to have come all the way from North Africa.
But drivers are advised not to rush for the suds just yet. The winds blowing from the south and south-east are expected to bring more dust in coming days.
Dust storms in North Africa are believed to be responsible for pushing large amounts of fine particles into the atmosphere.
|
several questions to the Hillary Clinton campaign before CNN events. The latest? Another incriminating exemplar in a just-released round of emails pertaining to Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. It was sent on March 12 by Brazile under the banner “From time to time I get the questions in advance”:
Those tips washed up in the email of Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director. They supplement an already scandalous amount of question-sharing. Last month, in the first chapter of this story, WikiLeaks released an email in which Brazile shared a death-penalty question for a March 13 town-hall event in Ohio. Then came another WikiLeaks trove that showed Brazile sharing a (rather obvious) question about the water supply in advance of a CNN-hosted debate in Flint, Mich., also in March. Just a few weeks ago, after Brazile’s sharing of the death-penalty question hit the newsstream, Brazile resigned from her contributorship at CNN — a role that had been under suspension since she took over as head of the Democratic National Committee over the summer. However, we media reporters didn’t learn about that resignation until after the second round of revelations — the water thing — surfaced a week ago.
At a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of getting debate questions ahead of time from then-CNN contributor and DNC official Donna Brazile and demanded to know why Clinton didn't report it. (The Washington Post)
Throughout this saga, CNN has sought to defend the integrity of its so-called cone of silence, the practice of tightly guarding the questions for debates and town hall events. The protocol calls for limited personnel with access to the questions and precautions to keep them from getting emailed around. For the town hall event, email traffic suggests that the breach of the death-penalty question was the work of Roland Martin, the TV One host who partnered on the debate with CNN. The network is pointing its finger in that direction over this latest, third episode, involving the union and income-inequality questions. Here’s the network’s statement:
Our investigation turned up a number of questions that Roland sent to CNN – and these two are included, verbatim, with all the same punctuation and capitalization. As we have said all along, Donna was never given anything by CNN. It is clear that these, like the others, were also sent from Roland to Donna.
Oh right, the “investigation.” Last week, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker referred to this probe when asked about the matter in an internal CNN discussion. Upon hearing about this investigation, the Erik Wemple Blog asked CNN about it and requested interviews with CNN executives. CNN referred this blog to an earlier statement and confirmed that an internal review had happened. And that was the extent of it.
Thanks, CNN! Though CNN didn’t want to open up about its internal investigation, WikiLeaks apparently had other plans. Should it have to craft any further statements on this sequence of events, CNN may want to reconsider its approach and orientation. Because right now its strategy boils down to blaming some guy named Roland Martin of TV One for its decision to place a political hack in close-enough proximity to its town hall and debate-preparation proceedings to corrupt the process. This is CNN’s scandal, not Roland Martin’s scandal.home decor, wicker furniture, ceramic, lampshade, budget interiorContrary to what most people believe, one doesn’t necessarily have to splurge to decorate a home. You can efficiently decorate your space even if you’re on a tight budget. Take a look at the interesting range of low-cost home decor ideas below.
Use wicker
Why spend on costly wooden or cast metal furniture when you can add a touch of luxury with inexpensive wicker? From sofas to side tables, coffee tables to storage spaces and more – wicker is perfect to bring a rustic, exotic feel to your home.
Display art on ceramics
Ceramic art doesn’t have to be expensive at all. Paint on old and unused ceramic cups, plates, vases and tiles and use them creatively as wall mounts, wall décor, and curios – simple and beautiful.
Repaint the old lampshade
Reuse old lampshades with a fresh coat of paint. Metallic shades complement neutral furnishing pieces while single-toned lampshades go well with wood and wicker furniture. Painting old lampshades is a great way to liven up your home without spending a bomb.
Add plants
Another way to upscale the interiors is to bring potted plants into the living space. They are ideal to place in bare corners of the house. Small bonsai plants that need less water and sunlight can be placed on side or coffee tables while bigger plants are great to add character to the nooks of the house.
Decorate with mirrors
Mirrors not only create an illusion of space but also add drama by reflecting light. Easily available and relatively inexpensive, you can incorporate mirrored panels on doors or large wall mirrors with simple frames to amplify any area of your house.21/10/2014 UPDATE: This post was updated ( see the new examples for arrow functions and template strings ). Thanks for the comments and the Reddit discussion.
For years, JavaScript was considered as a toy language. It was used for creating interactive web pages and could run only in the browser. But, things changed; JavaScript is used in both, the server and the browser these days. The simplicity of the language made it so popular that developers started using it for large and complex projects.
However, new developers felt JavaScript was fancy at times. This was because of some of the known drawbacks in the language itself — and the workarounds put in place for fixing them. For example, a developer from a “C” language background is more familiar to block level scoping, but will have difficulties understanding function scoping in JavaScript. Along with lexical scoping, variable hoisting and closures might seem fancy or difficult to understand as well.
ES6, the future version, is going to give a vast makeover to JavaScript. The TC39 committee (responsible for ES6 standardization) have taken care of most of the concerns about JavaScript, and now ES6 is getting a lot of new features added, and existing bad parts fixed. If you want to know about the JavaScript good vs bad parts, check out Douglas Crockford’s book JavaScript, the Good Parts.
This post is not about the complete ES6 feature-set. Here, we will see some of the areas of JavaScript that look fancy, and how they are getting improved in ES6.
ES6, all good parts?
Again, I am not saying ES6 has only good parts. To be honest, I don’t know. ES6 is not completely ready for live applications. Design patterns will automatically evolve once the language is used extensively. Design patterns can distinguish between the good and bad parts.
As of now, most ES6 features are not supported by browsers (as they’re in draft). We use transpiler tools to compile ES6 code to ES5. While there are many tools available, Google’s traceur seems to be the most popular among them.
8 fancy things fixed in ES6
Here are some interesting improvements done in ES6:
Object.is for better comparison
New developers who learn JavaScript often stumble on the usage of == and ===. The === is a strict comparison operator where it checks the type of the operands also. For example, in this code:
“0” == 0 // true but “0” === 0 // false
It is always recommended to use the === operator. However, there is an excepton to this; we cannot compare NaN using any of these operators. We need to use the global function isNaN to check if any variable has a NaN value or not.
NaN == NaN // false NaN === NaN // false var result = isNan(NaN) // true
Object.is is an attempt to have a better comparison method. It is the same as the === operator, except it can compare NaN also.
Object.is(0,”0”) // false Object.is(0,0) // true Object.is(NaN, NaN) // true
Let for block scoping.
As opposed to languages like “C”, JavaScript doesn’t have block scoping. All variables inside a block are hoisted to its containing function (if any) or will be part of the global scope.
if(true){ var a = 10; console.log(a); // 10 } // outside the if block console.log(a); // a is accessible here also and prints 10
Following is a popular example of this:
Assume that we have 10 anchor tags in an html page. We need to alert the index of each anchor tag whenever it’s clicked. Now, look at the code below:
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName(“a”); for(var i=0,len=anchors.length; i<len; i++){ anchors[i].onclick = function(){ alert(i); }; }
If we think the above code works, we are wrong. It is the last value of i that is alerted. Here we will see 10 getting alerted.
We use a closure to fix this problem. Using closure, we can bind the right value of i to the onClick handler. See the code below:
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName(“a”); for(var i=0,len=anchors.length; i<len; i++){ anchors[i].onclick = (function(i){ return function(){ alert(i); }; })(i); }
Having a closure in the above code makes it unreadable and totally fancy to a new developer. Now we know why the word “fancy” is here.
ES6 introduces block scoping in JavaScript using the keyword let. If we write our first example, using let :
if(true){ let a = 10; console.log(a); // 10 } // outside the if block console.log(a) // Reference error: a is not defined
let also binds the scope of the variable to the current block. In our second example, we can use let to solve the scoping problem:
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName(“a”); for(let i=0,len=anchors.length; i<len; i++){ anchors[i].onclick = function(){ alert(i); } }
Now the above code should work as expected.
Multi-line strings and string interpolations
Writing multiline strings is not so straightforward. The
( for newline ) has to be added where ever a line break is needed.
var myString = 'Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipisicing
elit.';
ES6 introduces template strings for creating multiline strings. In ES6, we can write the above example like this:
var myString = `Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.`;
So, here, we can use “`” (backtick) to create the strings.
Another interesting usecase of the template strings is variable interpolation. There is no native variable interpolation in ES5, but can be achieved by regular expressions or by manually appending the variable to the string. For example:
// Using + operator var name = 'Tony'; var age = 20; var greeting = 'Hi, I am '+name+' and my age is '+age; console.log(greeting); // This prints 'Hi I am Tony and my age is 20' // Using regular expressions var greeting = 'Hi, I am %name% and my age is %age%'.replace(/%name%/g,name).replace(/%age%/g,age); console.log(greeting); // This prints 'Hi I am Tony and my age is 20'
In ES6, the above code is really simplified, and can be written like this:
var name = 'Tony'; var age = 20; var greeting = `Hi, I am ${name} and my age is ${age}`; console.log(greeting); // This prints 'Hi I am Tony and my age is 20'
Fat Arrow functions for binding scope
Most new developers struggle to understand the this keyword in JavaScript. this is nothing but the execution context for a function, and for methods, this points to the object holding it. If the function is executed not as a method of an object, this will point to the global object (usually the window object).
this can be confusing many times. Look at the below example:
var name = 'Tom'; var obj = { name: 'Jerry', sayName: function(){ console.log(this.name); }, greet: function(){ setTimeout(function(){ console.log('Hi,' + this.name ); },100); } }; obj.sayName(); // logs Jerry obj.greet(); // logs Hi, Tom
When the sayName is executed as an object method, this was pointing to object itself, so this.name will output “Jerry”. Inside the greet function, a setTimeout is used for delaying the function execution. setTimeout will invoke the function in global context, hence this will point to the global object.
We usually use Function.bind or Function.call or Function.apply to fix these kinds of problems.
var name = 'Tom'; var obj = { name: 'Jerry', sayName: function(){ console.log(this.name); }, greet: function(){ setTimeout(function(){ console.log('Hi,' + this.name ); }.bind(this),100); } }; obj.sayName(); // logs Jerry obj.greet(); // logs Hi, Jerry
ES6 added arrow functions to get rid of scoping issues. An arrow function will always lexically bind the this value to its surrounding environment. So the above code can be written in ES6 like this:
var name = 'Tom'; var obj = { name: 'Jerry', sayName: function(){ console.log(this.name); }, greet: function(){ setTimeout( ()=> { console.log('Hi,' + this.name ); },100); } }; obj.sayName(); // logs Jerry obj.greet(); // logs Hi, Jerry
Here, inside the arrow function, this always points to the parent scope this value.
Note: Since the arrow function is already bound to its execution context, we cannot apply.bind(),.call() or.apply() methods on it again.
Destructuring
Destructuring is the process of assigning the property values of an object to a local variable. For example, in JavaScript, we can do this:
var myGlobalConfig = { apiUrl: 'www.google.com/api', data1:'some value', data2: 'another value', methodType: 'POST' //... etc }; // and in one of our functions function makeAjaxRequest(config){ var url = config.url; var method = config.methodType; var data = config.data2; $.ajax(url, method, data ); } // call makeAjaxRequest makeAjaxRequest( myGlobalConfig );
In the above code, whenever a function requires arguments as multiple parameters, we need to extract values from our config object and pass them as parameters. This is a problem when we have a large number of values that need to be extracted.
ES6 allows direct destructing assignments. So we can write the above example in a simple way, like this:
var myGlobalConfig = { apiUrl: 'www.google.com/api', data1:'some value', data2: 'another value', methodType: 'POST' //... etc }; // and in one of our function function makeAjaxRequest(config){ var { url, methodType, data2 } = config; $.ajax(url, methodType, data2 ); } // call makeAjaxRequest makeAjaxRequest( myGlobalConfig );
Default Argument Values for Functions
One of the best features in ES6 is default arguments. As of now, we use the || to have default values for the function parameters. See the below code:
var myFunction = function(a, b, c){ a = a || 10; b = b || 5; c = c || 8; return a*b*c; };
Here is the same code written in ES6:
var myFunction = function(a=10, b=5, c=8){ return a*b*c; };
Object method shorthands
Look at the below object creation pattern. In this, all the public method/property of an object will have their own private counterparts. For example:
var myObject = (function(){ var sayName = function(){ console.log('this is sayname function'); }; var greet = 'This is a greeting'; return { greet: greet, sayName: sayName } })();
The above pattern is called Revealing module pattern. In ES6, it is much simplified by eliminating the column part. Thus, we can write the above code like this:
var myObject = (function(){ var sayName = function(){ console.log('this is sayname function'); }; var greet = 'This is a greeting'; return { greet, sayName } })();
The super keyword for invoking super class methods
JavaScript supports object oriented programming. But, implementing inheritance is tricky in JavaScript, as it is not supported natively. JavaScript even has the super keyword, however, it is not functional.
Most of the JavaScript frameworks those implement inheritance have a pattern like this:
var myBaseObj = { sayName: function(){ //.. do something }; }; var mySubObj = Framework.extend(myBaseObj, { sayName: function(){ this._super.apply(this,arguments); //.. do something else } })
These frameworks use _super (or sometimes uber ) to invoke the parent method. This is because, super was a reserved keyword (for the future) in JavaScript, and is not allowed for use as an identifier or method.
Now, the “future” has come. JavaScript’s super keyword has been implemented in ES6. Now let’s see how inheritance can be done:
var myBaseObj = { sayName: function(){ //.. do something }; }; var mySubObj = { __proto__: myBaseObj, sayName: function(){ super.sayName(); //.. do something else } })
Again, all these are just a small part of the ES6 feature-set. There are so many interesting features like Promises, Classes, Generator, Iterators, etc.
Summary
ES6 is the most promising version of JavaScript. It has so many features; features we were waiting for for years. ES6 will definitely help writing more modular and less quirky code in JavaScript.
Here in this article, we have seen the problems with the current version of JavaScript, and how ES6 fixes the problems and the workarounds. Now, the entire ES6 feature-set is beyond the scope of this post, for that you can check out these awesome resources.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Southern wants drivers, rather than conductors, to operate carriage doors at certain times
Nearly all conductors have signed up for a controversial new on-board supervisor role on Southern trains from January, the rail company has said.
The conductors had until last Friday to respond to Southern's deadline, and 215 - 96% of those required - have done so.
The change to the role has caused a bitter dispute with the unions and has led to a series of walkouts.
Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said nothing had changed, members remained "rock solid" and the "fight goes on".
The latest 48-hour strike ended at midnight on Saturday and further stoppages are planned.
Angie Doll, Southern's passenger services director, said: "We've now got over 200 conductors signed up... disproving the union's claims that support is rock solid."
RMT general secretary Mick cash responded: "Nothing has changed in terms of the core issues at the heart of this dispute. It's about basic rail safety and access to transport services for all members of our community.
"That ground has not shifted an inch thanks to the sheer pig-headed attitude of Southern Rail and their government pay masters.
"Our members remain rock solid... and will not be bribed, bullied or beaten. That fight goes on."
'Spiteful act'
The new on-board supervisor roles will focus on "customer service" and move the operation of closing doors to the driver.
A further 222 people will remain in their existing roles as conductors on certain services, Southern said.
It is also planning to recruit a further 100 on-board supervisors to work across Southern and Gatwick Express services.
Southern said the union leadership had "stooped to a new low" by calling a strike over Christmas, calling it a "selfish, shameful and spiteful act".
GTR, Southern's parent company, said its offer to the RMT to settle the dispute had now been formally withdrawn.
Meanwhile, Aslef, the UK's biggest rail union, has suspended a strike ballot among its Southern members, because of "technical difficulties".
The RMT union is also balloting its driver members for strikes, with voting closing on 18 November.
RMT strike dates:When it comes to indie games in development, some are more well known than others.
On the one hand, you have stuff like Shovel Knight, Shantae and the various Kickstarter disasters that have been released in the last year or two. These games are heavily promoted, have lots of articles written about them and usually end up with a decent amount of information about them online. They have hype behind them.
Paper Soul Theatre is not like this. Instead, some may almost consider it the exact opposite. Why? Because despite it being announced a while back and advertised on Paper Mario fan forums, almost no one knows much about the game itself. The game is like some sort of strange enigma. A phantom game we know exists, but know nothing about.
Until now. Because thanks to a bit of careful persuation, we’ve now managed to get a full interivew about the title courtesy of the folks at Otyugra Games. This includes real concept art, details on the story and mechanics and a ton more besides!
So if you’re interested in the game and wish to know exactly what it is, keep reading. Because this is one hell of an interesting game…
Let’s start with the personal stuff first, just to get it out the way. Who are you? Who is on the team at Otyugra Games?
My name is Matthew Kordon –thank you for interviewing me. Game development has been a hobby of mine for about seven years, and is now transitioning into an occupation. I became interested in game design as a kid when I discovered Super Mario Flash, a browser level editor that had a big community around it in its heyday.
Since then, I’ve worked to become a writer and music composer. I’ve also been drawing my whole life, and as a college student, I’m majoring in computer science.
Okay, sounds good. Anyone else working on the game? Because your site mentions a team…
Otyugra Games as a group of people has changed in size aggressively and repeatedly since the start, but momentarily, the people who help on the team are all what I would call Directors of Game Design who are mostly game writers secondarily.
Including me, there are 4 members.
Right then. Moving on a bit now, how did you first get interested in video games?
My first experience with video games was a 2003 leapfrog edutainment handheld system when I was about 7-years-old. I immediately fell in love with gaming and soon after, I began to play early 2000s kid-friendly computer games and got a Game Boy Advance. My first interaction with the Paper Mario series was in 2007 when Super Paper Mario came out, which was also my second experience with RPGs, the Pokémon series being the first.
Ed: Huh, that’s pretty interesting. Didn’t expect your first Paper Mario game to be Super Paper Mario…
Oddly enough, Super Paper Mario was the game that made me appreciate what videogames are capable of, but it wasn’t until I played TTYD a few years later that I wanted to make a game inspired by the original trilogy. Yeah, for a Nintendo game, Super Paper Mario had an arguably-surreal and very complex story with mature moments, which was a cut above the kind of stories I was used to at the time.
Yeah, it certainly had a unique story for a Nintendo game. Quick question on game development now though. Did you make any games before Paper Soul Theatre?
You betcha. I’m head Game Director, so naturally I’ve had practice. One of my early games is an unfinished point-and-click sci-fi game that was going to deal with the ethics of business on a galactic scale. What’s cool about that game, Everlasting Night, is that it was the inspiration for the 3 RPG classes that you choose between at the start of Paper Soul Theater. As stated before, the class you choose helps determine Aponi’s personality and dialogue options.
Additionally, I made a game called Meat Quest, which is like a tiny, comedic, postmodern version of Myst. Of all my games, I think that one had the most striking art. I made it for a competition and it did really well. I’ve also made a little puzzle platformer, and a strategy game that is basically a Chess-Fire Emblem hybrid.
However, what exactly is the main gameplay setup in Paper Soul Theatre? Because the description on your site doesn’t say much about the game is actually played…
Paper Soul Theater is a subversive 3D turn-based RPG/platformer/survival horror video game, modelled after “Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door,” about a girl in a surreal fantasy world, and the allies she gains, who use peaceful communication, violence, spiritual help, and the power of ancient totems to stop crusaders from beginning a devastating war with her weak confederacy.
And the newer description isn’t really a whole lot clearer in that sense:
Paper Soul Theater: …is a 3D role-playing/ economics/ action-adventure videogame, modelled after “Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door,” about a troubled girl and her nomadic allies, who use peaceful communication; violence; powerful ancient artifacts; and spiritual help to return home, all while discovering the true history of her world
Okay then. That’s something. Can you explain it in a slightly clearer way? Like, a way the average Joe on Reddit or NeoGAF can understand?
I think the clearest way to describe how Paper Soul Theater will play is by building off of Thousand Year Door’s gameplay description. Just like in TTYD, you move around “in the fields” to go from town to town, or from town to important location. Along the way, your party battles the corrupted “half-souls” who are cursed to walk the planet. Combat relies on weapon type advantages and Action Commands (interactions required of the player to land an attack or defend, often more complex than simply pressing buttons at the right timing).
Because the setting is a cross between medieval-fantasy, and indigenous-tribalism, melee weapons and magic are used to settle turn-based battles. However, there is a major twist. There are two win conditions in most (if not all) battles; all characters in a fight have both a health total and a Willpower total. If a foe’s Willpower reaches zero, they end their aggression often by running away (if they are unintelligent) or by surrendering (if they can talk).
Aponi Oru is the playable character, who you start the game with one of three RPG classes (defense expert, illusionist, and divine dancer). As Aponi, you can choose to fight physically, or use your RPG class abilities to make your opponent back down. The RPG class you choose at the start unlocks new content and changes Aponi’s personality, and it also doubles as a difficulty setting.
Like in TTYD, and Paper Mario 64, you acquire partners on your journey who help you “in the field” and in battle. The player gets to choose Aponi’s dialogue and actions during slow moments and is capable of buying and selling with not just shop owners, but nearly half the people you meet. Trading goods (whether items useful in battle, food ingredients, or valuables) is a larger focus in our game than it was in TTYD. Just like TTYD, the world is broken up into a bunch of tiny sections as a way to curb our ambition. Lastly, our game features a textlog, which allows the player to see how Aponi’s thoughts and feelings. In battle it records information, like how much damage an attack did. Our game is expected to have systems nearly identical to TTYD leveling up, badges, and Flower Points.
Ah, that makes a bit more sense now. The willpower mechanic sounds like a really unique mechanic.
However, does it let you play the game as a pacifist, like Undertale?
That’s an excellent question. The team and I have pretty diverse and intense feelings towards both Undertale and pacifism. Believe it or not, the original concept for Paper Soul Theater back in mid-late 2015 was very similar to what Undertale turned out to be.
At the time, that was only a demo and a recently successful Kickstarter, so I and everyone I told about my concept had never even heard of Undertale at the time. Both games coincidentally star young girls in fantasy interactive-turn-based RPGS in which you can, as that character, choose to be nonviolent or violent to get your way. When Undertale was first released, I was extremely bitter but eventually I looked closer and started deeply appreciating what was new and excellent about it.
Regarding pacifism, I would say Paper Soul Theatre is a response to Undertale, rather than an echo. I’m going to leave it at that as to not spoil anything.
Onto another question now. Can you tell us a bit more about the game’s cast? Who does the game focus on?
Paper Soul Theater centers around Aponi, a troubled 14-year-old girl, and three friends that she makes on her journey back home. At the start of the game, she already found a friend in a nonhuman named Tuari. He follows Aponi at first because he’s deeply concerned about her safety, and the two of them are about the same age. Aponi’s land is governed by a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, as well as the souls of the not-currently living, known to humans as paper souls. Two of these paper souls play a significant role in the story, but how is a spoiler. There are many species (races) living on Aponi’s planet who live desegregated. Any of these people can choose obedience to one of the many gods, and in that way, the gods play a significant indirect role.
One thing we haven’t seen much of with Paper Soul Theatre is the art style. What kind of style are you going for here? Is it cel shaded? Paper Mario style sprites in a 3D environment? Something else?
It’s true that much of the art we’ve shown is of different styles, since we’ve been more loose about how we make concept art. Our game has two art styles. Environmental graphics (like the ground and sky), and stationary things (like trees and houses) all have a watercolor, soft, detailed art style, while everything else (like people and animals) have an art style similar to The Thousand Year Door, but with flat colors.
So it’s basically a bit like Skyward Sword’s backgrounds meet Paper Mario’s characters?
That’s a good comparison. We’re aiming for a mixure of Paper Mario’s cute simplicity, and a bit of realism/ detail.
And what interesting looking locations are you going to have in this game? Because one of the biggest things people like about Paper Mario is how each chapter has a unique style to it. Like Twilight Town or the Boggly Woods in the Thousand Year Door…
The imaginative places of TTYD are undoubtedly memorable, so I doubt Paper Soul Theatre will be able to match such an incredible accomplishment, but our plan is to maintain that each place is atmospherically distinct, and filled with interesting sights.
There is one point in which your party ventures through a forest beneath the surface of the planet filled with glowing life, strange stalagmites and albino creatures. I got that idea both from Iroquois Mythology and also the indie RPG Space Funeral.
The locales of TTYD have left a huge impression on all of us, but unlike for that game, the locations in ours will need to look as though they could exist near each other; Thousand Year Door was more of a story anthology than a single narrative.
At one point, PST was going have the entire art style change depending on where you are, but that was immediately scrapped.
Nice to see there’s a unique artistic direction for each location then. However, it also seems a bit more than just a Paper Mario clone in terms of ideas. Are you trying to differentiate your game from the Paper Mario titles a bit more?
Definitely. Our goal is to make a game in the same vein as TTYD, but not to the point of retreading it to a tee. That said, this is a game being made with Paper Mario fans in mind; albeit not so much Sticker Star and Color Splash fans. I’ve seen games and movies before that borrowed too much from their inspiration, and that leaves something to be desired in my opinion.
Either way, you mention something about souls here. What’s the big deal with these? Do they act like the end of chapter collectables? How do they tie into the half soul enemies you mentioned?
I’m glad you asked.
The answer to that lies within the creation myth of our game.
One of the benefits of spending a year making a game too ambitious meant that when we downsized the game, we still had lore to hint at. The depth of the world Aponi lives in is deeper than the actual plot of the game, and that might cause the player to feel as though a part of something much bigger than themselves.
I’m going to abridge that if that’s fine…
In the days before creation, the Maker God was without any friends among the other Gods and Goddesses. Under their orders he had crafted animals and plants, but they weren’t capable of love, so he cut the souls of intelligent life from papyrus. In short, the other Gods were mad because of that, so they cursed the souls to be halved. The Maker God considered it cruel to punish them rather than him, so he made even more souls in stubborn retaliation.
This time, the gods kicked him out of heaven and spared the new life. The gods then tried to wipe the new life of their knowledge of the Maker. One settlement of people managed to keep their memory, and that’s when the game begins.
Ed: So it’s a tad like the Greek myth of Prometheus with fire, except with souls themselves. Interesting
I’m guessing there’s a bit more here though. Why are you looking for these souls?
The Paper Souls are characters in our game, rather than collectables. Unlike in TTYD, the player isn’t collecting a bunch of something to get somewhere, but instead is doing what it takes to figure out a way back home, after running away. That sounds simple, but is isn’t when your home is surrounded by concealing magic.
Okay, so what kinds of enemies and bosses are in this game? Any recurring mooks that act like Mario’s Goombas? Any notable bosses you’d like to mention?
That’s a good question, but I’m going to sidestep it a little. One thing I adore about Paper Mario games is that there are variations of the same mooks, like cave goombas for example. I plan for our game to have that too, where many enemies return in different variations. Halfsouls encompass the vast majority of enemies and can be found natively to different places. It is possible that our game will have fewer bosses per game length than TTYD, but then maybe not.
So what consoles do you plan to publish this on anyway?
Our game is going to be exclusively on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Even if we crowdfunded, we won’t expand onto consoles unfortunately. We are planning on making a sequel one day, and if we do, it will be a much more ambitious project that will almost certainly release on consoles..and possibly handhelds.
Oh, so there are plans for a sequel?
Yep, this game is actually a prequel to a much bigger story.
Either way, it’s a pretty ambitious game. Do you ever worry about that? That your plans for the game are a bit too ambitious overall?
Oh all the time. Just a few weeks ago, I made the executive decision to cut a lot of corners, and it was ugly. Actually, many times now, we’ve had to reduce the game in pretty much every way imaginable. I’ve had members quit before because of how drastically we would cut back, but it was the right move. Paper Soul Theater is going to be as long as three TTYD chapters at most. They say to cut mechanics, not content, and I think we’ll also need to crack down on one or two Paper Mario mechanics sometime to keep our game afloat. An example of this is that our game is 3D, but when Aponi and the gang enter a town, we might shift the perspective to 2D.
I think it would be unrealistic for us to try to completely be on the same level as TTYD and to also try to improve upon it in some ways. I guess we can’t have our cake and eat it too.
Design through subtraction isn’t ways bad; just look at Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.
What about marketing? How do you plan to market the game, to get the word out there a bit more?
To tell the truth, this is our first major game, so no one on our team had any solid experience with marketing/ public relations. I decided a long time ago to take up those roles. My strategy so for has been to start drumming up awareness for our game ridiculously far ahead of time so that when its crunch time, we’ll already have a few loyal fans and I’ll be more experienced. I’ve mostly been using social media to attract people to us rather than the other way around. On Reddit, for example, I’ve became a genuine “regular” on the PaperMario subreddit, but on twitter, I try to be personal and also supportive of other indie games that catch my eye.
I’ve come to realize that this isn’t going to be enough, given that our follower count on Twitter has flat lined, basically.
I think people are getting bored of written information and miscellaneous concept art, which means starting the hype train early kinda backfired on us. My future plan is to get more attention from gaming journalism (kind people like yourself), as well as give keys to YouTubers/Streamers. It’s a win-win, almost every YouTuber who asks us for a key in advance will get a copy for free, and it acts as voluntary word of mouth. I’m stumped as to how I might advertise in the real world, and there is also the problem of how insanely fractured the Paper Mario fanbase is across so many sites.
The problem is, I’m currently still a college student, so I don’t have the time to go to stuff like PAX, E3, or Cons, so whenever I see other developers who are even more amateur than us do it, I get jealous, lol.
And talking of marketing, how come you didn’t start a Kickstarter for this game? That seems to be the way a lot of indie games are funded nowadays…
Surprisingly, that is one of the most common questions we get. I wish I could say the reason is because we have too much integrity to ask for money |
the measures take effect. In our view, this is the most profoundly retrograde step and will deeply damage public service media.”
The same concerns were expressed by the Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, CoE Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, representatives of European Parliament and worldwide media organisations.
“The introduction of a system whereby a government minister can appoint and dismiss at its own discretion the supervisory and management boards, goes against basic principles and established standards of public service media governance throughout Europe,” wrote representatives from European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Association of European Journalists (AEJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Referring to this criticism, the ruling right-wing party Law and Justice [PiS] argued that the new regulations had to be introduced to make Polish public service media “impartial and objective”. The PiS argued this was necessary after the country’s previous ruling coalition had taken ‘full and exaggerated control’ over it.
The government plans to ‘transform’ public service media
The current amendments are treated by the Law and Justice party as a temporary solution. A full reform of the public service media sector is planned for mid-2016. According to statements from Piotr Glinski, minister of culture and national heritage, the new media bill will transform public service media, and the Polish Press Agency, from commercial enterprises into “national cultural institutions”, which will ensure “stable financing and development opportunities”.
According to ruling party officials, the main goals of the new reforms will be:
Creation of the National Media Council, a new institution that will control Poland’s public media (TVP – Polish Television and PR – Polish Radio). Its members will be appointed in the same way as the members of the current National Broadcasting Council (NBC): two nominated by the president; two by the Sejm (the lower chamber of Parliament) and one by the Senat (upper chamber of Parliament). A new funding model for public service media, (the licence fee would be replaced by a so-called “audiovisual fee”, although it is not yet confirmed how it will be gathered) and maybe additional funds coming from private broadcasters. Changes to the way the current National Broadcasting Council operates: the NBC will have no regulatory power over media but will be responsible for the protection of freedom of speech.
The details of these proposals are still unknown as the new media law has not yet been subject to public consultation. What is certain is that this new institutional and legal framework will significantly limit the role and the influence of the National Broadcasting Council and parliamentary control over the media, replacing old mechanisms and practices with direct government control.
All these public media-related changes seem insufficient for the control-hungry government. In its next move, PiS probably would also like to “re-Polonise” (as the party officials call it) the private media in the country, especially in terms of ownership. Ruling party leaders have, on several occasions, declared that Polish media should be “more Polish”. However, these changes are much less probable, as such significant change in the ownership structure wouldn’t be possible without violating important EU rules.
The government has also announced plans to change surveillance laws to allow it greater access to digital data, and to increase police powers to monitor telecommunications and the internet. These proposals were met by more public demonstrations in Polish cities this weekend (January 23rd).
Last week, (19th of January), the European Parliament debated the government’s recent legal amendments, in particular those concerning the media and the Constitutional Tribunal. Although the final outcome of these changes is still unknown and there is little agreement between different European Parliament factions, it is the first time that the EU Parliament has initiated a procedure of EU commission supervision.
It is the first time the EU’s Rules of Law Mechanism has been used, since it was introduced by the European Commission in March 2014. It will investigate whether the new Polish laws concerning the Constitutional Tribunal and the Radio and TV bill/amendments break EU democracy rules.
It is hardly possible that any severe consequences against Polish government will be introduced, however, the leading party should consider this hearing as a first and strong warning.
picture credit: Flickr CC, Grzegorz ZukowskiRoosters hooker Jake Friend, Sharks playmaker James Maloney and Penrith skipper Matt Moylan are the new players named in Mal Meninga’s Four Nations Kangaroos squad behind senior incumbents.
There are also a few bolters in the shape of Raiders prop Shannon Boyd, Sharks winger Valentine Holmes and Cowboys centre Justin O’Neill while some familiar names such as Paul Gallen, Corey Parker and James Tamou have been overlooked. Controversial Sharks prop Andrew Fifita and Eels winger Semi Radradra have also not been selected due to ongoing investigations into off-field issues.
The spine is the accustomed Cameron Smith (captain), Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston and Darius Boyd but the new names add depth in every key position.
O’Neill is the bolter in the outside backs with the likes of Will Chambers and Raiders pair Jarrod Croker and Joey Leilua overlooked.
Panthers lock Trent Merrin has been rewarded for his consistent season despite being overlooked for Origin duties with NSW this year while Tyson Frizell’s breakout year has seen him rewarded with a Test call-up.
Despite inconsistent seasons, Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson have been retained as a likely right-side pairing.
Australian Kangaroos Squad:
Cam Smith (c)
Darius Boyd
Shannon Boyd
Boyd Cordner
Cooper Cronk
Josh Dugan
Blake Ferguson
Jake Friend
Tyson Frizell
Matt Gillett
Valentine Holmes
Greg Inglis
David Klemmer
James Maloney
Josh Mansour
Trent Merrin
Michael Morgan
Matt Moylan
Justin O’Neil
Josh Papalii
Matt Scott
Sam Thaiday
Johnathan Thurston
Aaron WoodsAs stories about the building's frequent problems with power and water usage came out, the choice seemed even weirder and more arbitrary. Why put the infinite archive of state surveillance in a place so vulnerable to drought? What was the appeal? I kept these questions in mind as I went on my own reluctant pilgrimage to the Salt Lake region's other prominent temple to a controversial faith with a questionable origin story.
* * *
I drove to Bluffdale from Wendover, a town on the Utah-Nevada border that is home to, among other things, the first transcontinental telephone call and an airplane hangar that once housed the Enola Gay. This particular stretch of route 80 in northern Utah is a landscape narrated by Werner Herzog—vast expanses of crystallized white salt against hazy white skies, most of it home to unseen Department of Defense operations. The Hill Air Force Base, the Utah Test and Training Range, the Dugway Proving Ground, and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility all call this stretch of wasteland home, in part because there is enough empty space to do things like chemical weapons testing and drone-pilot training.
These many DoD outposts aren’t why the Economic Development Corporation of Utah says the state’s a great place for data centers. Instead, they mention that it's generally untouched by natural disasters, and it’s a pretty secure region given that it’s very isolated and spacious. It’s also in proximity to a lot of Internet backbone, and the state “has a long and distinguished history in the high-tech industry,” which presumably makes it easier to find skilled IT workers.
That long and distinguished history really kicked off around 1969, when the University of Utah was made one of the four original nodes of ARPANET. Its presence in that initial constellation (the only non-California node in the network) was largely due to the efforts of David C. Evans, a Utah native who had been teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, when ARPA was just getting started. The U of U lured him back to Salt Lake to create and chair their new computer-science program. He brought his DoD connections with him, and an ARPA contract named “Graphical Man/Machine Communications” that funded a lot of the department's early activities.
Evans's reports to the DoD and papers published under the contract are available online via the university library. They’re pretty amazing documents of Internet and computer-graphics history—one features an abstract of Alan Kay’s dissertation. Other U of U computer-science alumnae have been involved in the formation of companies like Silicon Graphics, Pixar, and Adobe.
Today, the University of Utah's computer-science program continues to have interesting DoD ties. When the NSA Data Center was initially being built, the agency worked with the university to develop a data-center-engineering certificate program, essentially building a pipeline for students to continue to support Utah's data-center industry, with one data center in particular presumably needing a lot of support (U of U also has a Big Data certificate program; weirdly, neither of these programs currently require any ethics coursework).CL-UNICODE - A portable Unicode library for Common Lisp
Abstract CL-UNICODE is a library which provides Common Lisp implementations with knowledge about Unicode characters including their name, their general category, the scripts and blocks they belong to, their numerical value, and several other properties. It also provides the ability to replace the standard syntax for reading Lisp characters with one that is Unicode-aware and is used to enhance CL-PPCRE with Unicode properties. CL-UNICODE is based on Unicode 5.1. The code comes with a BSD-style license so you can basically do with it whatever you want. Download shortcut: http://weitz.de/files/cl-unicode.tar.gz.
The library comes with a system definition for ASDF and you compile and load it in the usual way. It depends on CL-PPCRE.
CL-UNICODE builds parts of its source code automatically the first time it is compiled. This is done by parsing several Unicode data files which are included with the distribution and might take some time. This happens only once. FLEXI-STREAMS is needed for this process, but it is not used anymore once CL-UNICODE has been built.
You can run a test suite which tests most aspects of the library with
(asdf:oos 'asdf:test-op :cl-unicode)
CHAR-CODE-LIMIT
[Generic function]
general-category c => name, symbol
Returns the general category of a character as a string. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. The second return value is the property symbol of the category. CL-USER 1 > (general-category #\A) "Lu" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::LU CL-USER 2 > (general-category #\-) "Pd" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::PD CL-USER 3 > (general-category #\8) "Nd" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::ND See also GENERAL-CATEGORIES.
[Generic function]
script c => name, symbol
Returns the script of a character as a string or NIL if there is no script for that particular character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. The second return value (if there is one) is the property symbol of the script. CL-USER 1 > (script #\B) "Latin" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::LATIN CL-USER 2 > (script (code-char #x5d0)) "Hebrew" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::HEBREW See also SCRIPTS.
[Generic function]
code-block c => name, symbol
Returns the block of a character as a string or NIL if there is no block for that particular character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. The second return value (if there is one) is the property symbol of the block. CL-USER 1 > (code-block #\a) "Basic Latin" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::BASICLATIN CL-USER 2 > (code-block #\ä) "Latin-1 Supplement" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::LATIN1SUPPLEMENT See also CODE-BLOCKS.
[Generic function]
has-binary-property c property => generalized-boolean
Checks whether a character has the binary property property. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. property can be a string naming the property or the corresponding property symbol. If a true value is returned, it is the property symbol. CL-USER 1 > (has-binary-property #\Space "White_Space") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::WHITESPACE CL-USER 2 > (has-binary-property #\F "ASCII_Hex_Digit") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::ASCIIHEXDIGIT CL-USER 3 > (has-binary-property #\- "Dash") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::DASH CL-USER 4 > (has-binary-property #\= "Dash") NIL See also BINARY-PROPERTIES.
[Generic function]
numeric-type c => name, symbol
Returns the numeric type of a character (one of "Decimal", "Digit", or "Numeric" ) as a string or NIL if that particular character has no numeric type. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. The second return value (if there is one) is the property symbol of the numeric type. CL-USER 1 > (numeric-type #\3) "Decimal" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::DECIMAL CL-USER 2 > (numeric-type (character-named "VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS")) "Numeric" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::NUMERIC CL-USER 3 > (numeric-type #\z) NIL NIL
[Generic function]
numeric-value c => number-or-nil
Returns the numeric value of a character as a Lisp rational or NIL (for NaN). c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. CL-USER 1 > (numeric-value #\3) 3 CL-USER 2 > (numeric-value (character-named "VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS")) 3/4 CL-USER 3 > (numeric-value #\z) NIL
[Generic function]
bidi-class c => name, symbol
Returns the bidirectional (Bidi) class of a character as a string or NIL if there is no bidirectional class for that particular character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. The second return value (if there is one) is the property symbol of the class. CL-USER 1 > (bidi-class #\Space) "WS" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::WS CL-USER 2 > (bidi-class #\A) "L" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::L CL-USER 3 > (bidi-class (character-named "HEBREW LETTER ALEF")) "R" CL-UNICODE-NAMES::R See also BIDI-CLASSES.
[Function]
bidi-mirroring-glyph c &key want-code-point-p => char-or-code-point
Returns the Bidi mirroring glyph for a character if the character has the BidiMirrored property and an appropriate mirroring glyph is defined. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. Returns the code point instead of the character if want-code-point-p is true. This can be especially useful for Lisp implementations where CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+. CL-USER 1 > (bidi-mirroring-glyph #\[) #\] CL-USER 2 > (bidi-mirroring-glyph #\]) #\[ CL-USER 3 > (bidi-mirroring-glyph #\|) NIL
[Function]
lowercase-mapping c &key want-code-point-p => char-or-code-point
Returns the simple lowercase mapping of a character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. Returns the character itself if no such mapping is explicitly defined. Note that case mapping only makes sense for characters with the LC property. Returns the code point instead of the character if want-code-point-p is true. This can be especially useful for Lisp implementations where CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+. CL-USER 1 > (lowercase-mapping #\Ä) #\ä CL-USER 2 > (unicode-name (lowercase-mapping (character-named "GEORGIAN CAPITAL LETTER AN"))) "GEORGIAN SMALL LETTER AN" CL-USER 3 > (lowercase-mapping (character-named "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S")) #\ß
[Function]
uppercase-mapping c &key want-code-point-p => char-or-code-point
Returns the simple uppercase mapping of a character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. Returns the character itself if no such mapping is explicitly defined. Note that case mapping only makes sense for characters with the LC property. Returns the code point instead of the character if want-code-point-p is true. This can be especially useful for Lisp implementations where CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+. CL-USER 1 > (uppercase-mapping #\s) #\S CL-USER 2 > (unicode-name (uppercase-mapping (character-named "GLAGOLITIC SMALL LETTER AZU"))) "GLAGOLITIC CAPITAL LETTER AZU"
[Function]
titlecase-mapping c &key want-code-point-p => char-or-code-point
Returns the simple titlecase mapping of a character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. Returns the character itself if no such mapping is explicitly defined. Note that case mapping only makes sense for characters with the LC property. Returns the code point instead of the character if want-code-point-p is true. This can be especially useful for Lisp implementations where CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+. CL-USER 1 > (unicode-name (titlecase-mapping (char-code (character-named "LATIN SMALL LETTER DZ WITH CARON")))) "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON" CL-USER 2 > (unicode-name (uppercase-mapping (char-code (character-named "LATIN SMALL LETTER DZ WITH CARON")))) "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER DZ WITH CARON"
[Generic function]
combining-class c => class
Returns the combining class of a character as a non-negative integer. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. CL-USER 1 > (combining-class #\~) 0 CL-USER 2 > (combining-class (character-named "COMBINING TILDE OVERLAY")) 1 CL-USER 3 > (combining-class (character-named "NON-SPACING DOUBLE OVERSCORE")) 230
[Generic function]
age c => age
Returns the age of a character or NIL if there is no age entry for that particular character. The age of a character is a list of two integers denoting the major and minor number of the Unicode version where the character first appeared. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. CL-USER 1 > (age #\K) (1 1) CL-USER 2 > (age (character-named "HANGUL SYLLABLE PWILH")) (2 0) CL-USER 3 > (age (character-named "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S")) (5 1)
[Function]
general-categories => list
Returns a sorted list of all general categories known to CL-UNICODE. These are the possible return values of GENERAL-CATEGORY. CL-USER 1 > (general-categories) ("Cc" "Cf" "Cn" "Co" "CS" "Ll" "Lm" "Lo" "Lt" "Lu" "Mc" "Me" "Mn" "Nd" "Nl" "No" "Pc" "Pd" "Pe" "Pf" "Pi" "Po" "Ps" "Sc" "Sk" "Sm" "So" "Zl" "Zp" "Zs")
[Function]
scripts => list
Returns a sorted list of all scripts known to CL-UNICODE. These are the possible return values of SCRIPT.
[Function]
code-blocks => list
Returns a sorted list of all blocks known to CL-UNICODE. These are the possible return values of CODE-BLOCK.
[Function]
binary-properties => list
Returns a sorted list of all binary properties known to CL-UNICODE. These are the allowed second arguments (modulo canonicalization) to HAS-BINARY-PROPERTY. CL-USER 1 > (binary-properties) ("ASCII_Hex_Digit" "BidiMirrored" "Bidi_Control" "Dash" "Deprecated" "Diacritic" "Extender" "Hex_Digit" "Hyphen" "Ideographic" "IDS_Binary_Operator" "IDS_Trinary_Operator" "Join_Control" "Logical_Order_Exception" "Other_Alphabetic" "Other_Default_Ignorable_Code_Point" "Other_Grapheme_Extend" "Other_ID_Continue" "Other_ID_Start" "Other_Lowercase" "Other_Math" "Other_Uppercase" "Pattern_Syntax" "Pattern_White_Space" "Quotation_Mark" "Radical" "Soft_Dotted" "STerm" "Terminal_Punctuation" "Unified_Ideograph" "Variation_Selector" "White_Space")
[Function]
bidi-classes => list
Returns a sorted list of all Bidi classes known to CL-UNICODE. These are the possible return values of BIDI-CLASS. CL-USER 1 > (bidi-classes) ("AL" "AN" "B" "BN" "CS" "EN" "ES" "ET" "L" "LRE" "LRO" "NSM" "ON" "PDF" "R" "RLE" "RLO" "S" "WS")
[Function]
has-property c property => generalized-boolean
Checks whether a character has the named property property. property can be a string naming a property (which will be used for look-up after canonicalization) or it can be a property symbol (see PROPERTY-SYMBOL ). c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. Properties in the sense of CL-UNICODE can be names of general categories, scripts, blocks, binary properties, or Bidi classes, amongst other things. If there are a block and a script with the same name (like, say, "Cyrillic" ), the bare name denotes the script. Prepend "Block:" to the name to refer to the block. (You can also prepend "Script:" to refer to the script unambiguously.) Names of Bidi classes must be prepended with "BidiClass:" if there's a potential for ambiguity. This function also recognizes several aliases for properties (like "Symbol" for "S" ) and you can, as in Perl, prepend block names with "In" instead of "Block:" and most other properties with "Is". See RECOGNIZED-PROPERTIES. Signals an error if no property named property was found. CL-USER 1 > (has-property #\A "L") T CL-USER 2 > (has-property #\A "Letter") T CL-USER 3 > (has-property #\A "LC") T CL-USER 4 > (has-property #\A "CasedLetter") T CL-USER 5 > (has-property #\A "Lu") T CL-USER 6 > (has-property #\A "UppercaseLetter") T CL-USER 7 > (has-property #\A "IsUppercaseLetter") T CL-USER 8 > (has-property #\A "LowercaseLetter") NIL CL-USER 9 > (has-property #\A "Latin") T CL-USER 10 > (has-property #\A "Script:Latin") T CL-USER 11 > (has-property #\A "Script:Hebrew") NIL CL-USER 12 > (has-property #\A "Basic Latin") T CL-USER 13 > (has-property #\A "Block:BasicLatin") T CL-USER 14 > (has-property #\A "InBasicLatin") T CL-USER 15 > (has-property #\A "Block:Arabic") NIL CL-USER 16 > (has-property #\A "WhiteSpace") NIL CL-USER 17 > (has-property #\A "HexDigit") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::HEXDIGIT CL-USER 18 > (has-property #\A "BidiClass:L") T CL-USER 19 > (has-property #\A "BidiClass:Left-to-Right") T CL-USER 20 > (has-property #\A "LeftToRight") T CL-USER 21 > (has-property #\A "Any") T CL-USER 22 > (has-property #\A "Assigned") T CL-USER 23 > (has-property #\A "Unassigned") NIL CL-USER 24 > (has-property #\A "ASCII") T See also PROPERTY-TEST.
[Generic function]
property-test property &key errorp => function
Returns a unary function which can test code points or Lisp characters for the named property property. property is interpreted as in HAS-PROPERTY and PROPERTY-TEST is actually used internally by HAS-PROPERTY but might come in handy if you need a faster way to test for property (as you're saving the time to look up the property). Returns NIL if no property named property was found or signals an error if errorp is true. CL-USER 1 > (let ((ascii-tester (property-test "ASCII_Hex_Digit"))) (count-if 'identity (map 'list ascii-tester "ALEF"))) 3 See also CL-PPCRE's CREATE-OPTIMIZED-TEST-FUNCTION.
[Function]
list-all-characters property &key want-code-point-p => list
Lists all character (ordered by code point) which have the property property where property is interpreted as in HAS-PROPERTY. If want-code-point-p is true, a list of code points instead of a list of characters is returned. (If CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+ in your Lisp implementation, the list of code points can actually be longer than the list of characters.). CL-USER 1 > (mapcar 'unicode-name (list-all-characters "Grapheme_Link" :want-code-point-p t)) ("DEVANAGARI SIGN VIRAMA" "BENGALI SIGN VIRAMA" "GURMUKHI SIGN VIRAMA" "GUJARATI SIGN VIRAMA" "ORIYA SIGN VIRAMA" "TAMIL SIGN VIRAMA" "TELUGU SIGN VIRAMA" "KANNADA SIGN VIRAMA" "MALAYALAM SIGN VIRAMA" "SINHALA SIGN AL-LAKUNA" "THAI CHARACTER PHINTHU" "TIBETAN MARK HALANTA" "MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA" "MYANMAR SIGN ASAT" "TAGALOG SIGN VIRAMA" "HANUNOO SIGN PAMUDPOD" "KHMER SIGN COENG" "BALINESE ADEG ADEG" "SUNDANESE SIGN PAMAAEH" "SYLOTI NAGRI SIGN HASANTA" "SAURASHTRA SIGN VIRAMA" "REJANG VIRAMA" "KHAROSHTHI VIRAMA")
[Function]
recognized-properties &optional all => list
Returns a list of all property names known to CL-UNICODE. These are the allowed second arguments (modulo canonicalization) to HAS-PROPERTY. If all is true, known aliases (like Letter for L) are also included. CL-USER 1 > (length (recognized-properties t)) 996
[Function]
property-symbol name => symbol, name
Returns a symbol in the CL-UNICODE-NAMES package (which is only used for this purpose) which can stand in for the string name in look-ups. The symbol's name is the result of canonicalizing and then upcasing name. A symbol returned by this function is only really useful and only actually a property symbol if the second return value is true. All exported functions of CL-UNICODE which return strings which are property names return the corresponding property symbol as their second return value. All exported functions of CL-UNICODE which accept property names as arguments will also accept property symbols. CL-USER 1 > (property-symbol "XID_Start") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::XIDSTART "XIDStart" CL-USER 2 > (property-symbol "Foo") CL-UNICODE-NAMES::FOO NIL See also PROPERTY-NAME.
[Function]
property-name symbol => name-or-nil
Returns a name (not the name) for a property symbol symbol if it is known to CL-UNICODE. Note that (STRING= (PROPERTY-NAME (PROPERTY-SYMBOL <string>)) <string>) is not necessarily true even if the property name is not NIL while (EQ (PROPERTY-SYMBOL (PROPERTY-NAME <symbol>)) <symbol>) always holds if there is a property name for <symbol>. CL-USER 1 > (property-name 'cl-unicode-names::asciihexdigit) "ASCII_Hex_Digit" See also PROPERTY-SYMBOL.
[Function]
canonicalize-name name => name'
Converts the string name into a canonicalized name which can be used for unambiguous look-ups by removing all whitespace, hyphens, and underline characters. Tries not to remove hyphens preceded by spaces or underlines if this could lead to ambiguities as described in http://unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/#Name_Properties. All CL-UNICODE functions which accept string names for characters or properties will canonicalize the name first using this function and will then look up the name case-insensitively. CL-USER 1 > (canonicalize-name "Left-to-Right") "LefttoRight" CL-USER 2 > (canonicalize-name "Left_To_Right") "LeftToRight" CL-USER 3 > (string-equal * **) T CL-USER 4 > (canonicalize-name "TIBETAN LETTER A") "TIBETANLETTERA" CL-USER 5 > (canonicalize-name "TIBETAN LETTER -A") "TIBETANLETTER -A" CL-USER 6 > (canonicalize-name (canonicalize-name "TIBETAN LETTER A")) "TIBETANLETTERA" CL-USER 7 > (canonicalize-name (canonicalize-name "TIBETAN LETTER -A")) "TIBETANLETTER -A" CL-USER 8 > (canonicalize-name "Tibetan_Letter_-A") "TibetanLetter -A" Note that the preceding chracter is relevant in the ambiguous cases (but there are only three of them): CL-USER 8 > (char= (character-named "TibetanLetter A") (character-named "TibetanLetter -A")) NIL CL-USER 9 > (char= (character-named "TibetanLetterA") (character-named "TibetanLetter-A")) T
[Generic function]
unicode-name c => name-or-nil
Returns the Unicode name of a character as a string or NIL if there is no name for that particular character. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. CL-USER 1 > (unicode-name #\ß) "LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S" CL-USER 2 > (unicode-name #\ü) "LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS" CL-USER 3 > (unicode-name #xd4db) "HANGUL SYLLABLE PWILH"
[Generic function]
unicode1-name c => name-or-nil
Returns the Unicode 1.0 name of a character as a string or NIL if there is no name for that particular character. This name is only non- NIL if it is significantly different from the Unicode name (see UNICODE-NAME ). For control characters, sometimes the ISO 6429 name is returned instead. c can be the character's code point (a positive integer) or a (Lisp) character assuming its character code is also its Unicode code point. CL-USER 1 > (unicode-name (code-char 1)) NIL CL-USER 2 > (unicode1-name (code-char 1)) "START OF HEADING" CL-USER 3 > (unicode-name (code-char #x67e)) "ARABIC LETTER PEH" CL-USER 4 > (unicode1-name (code-char #x67e)) "ARABIC LETTER TAA WITH THREE DOTS BELOW"
[Function]
character-named name &key want-code-point-p try-unicode1-names-p try-abbreviations-p scripts-to-try try-hex-notation-p try-lisp-names-p => char-or-code-point
Returns the character which has the name name (a string) by looking up the Unicode name (see UNICODE-NAME ). If try-unicode1-names is true, the Unicode 1.0 name (see UNICODE1-NAME ) will be used as a fallback. If try-abbreviations-p is true, name is treated as an abbreviation as follows: If name contains a colon, it is interpreted as "<script>:<short-name>" and the function tries to look up, in turn, the characters named "<script> <size> LETTER <short-name>", "<script> LETTER <short-name>", and "<script> <short-name>" where <size> is "SMALL" if none of the characters in <short-name> is uppercase, "CAPITAL" otherwise. If name does not contain a colon, the same algorithm as above is tried with name instead of <short-name> and each element of the list of strings scripts-to-try as <string>. ( scripts-to-try can also be a single string which is interpreted as a one-element list.) If try-hex-notation-p is true, name can be of the form "U+<x>" where <x> is a hexadecimal number with four to six digits with the obvious meaning. If try-lisp-names-p is true, the function returns the character with the character name name (if there is one) or, if name is exactly one character, it returns this character. All the keyword-governed alternatives are tried in the order they're described above. See also *TRY-UNICODE1-NAMES-P*, *TRY-ABBREVIATIONS-P*, *SCRIPTS-TO-TRY*, *TRY-HEX-NOTATION-P*, and *TRY-LISP-NAMES-P*. Returns the code point instead of the character if want-code-point-p is true. This can be especially useful for Lisp implementations where CHAR-CODE-LIMIT is smaller than +CODE-POINT-LIMIT+. CL-USER 1 > (character-named "LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S") #\ß CL-USER 2 > (character-named "latin small letter sharp s") #\ß CL-USER 3 > (character-named "LatinSmallLetterSharpS") #\ß CL-USER 4 > (character-named "Latin:sharps" :try-abbreviations-p t) #\ß CL-USER 5 > (character-named "sharps" :try-abbreviations-p t :scripts-to-try "Latin") #\ß CL-USER 6 > (character-named "Backspace") #\Backspace CL-USER 7 > (character-named "Backspace" :try-unicode1-names-p nil) NIL CL-USER 8 > (character-named "Newline") NIL CL-USER 9 > (character-named "Newline" :try-lisp-names-p t) #\Newline CL-USER 10 > (character-named "U+0020" :try-hex-notation-p t) #\Space
[Special variable]
*try-unicode1-names-p*
This is the default value for the try-unicode1-names-p keyword argument to CHARACTER-NAMED. Its initial value is T.
[Special variable]
*try-abbreviations-p*
This is the default value for the try-abbreviations-p keyword argument to CHARACTER-NAMED. Its initial value is NIL.
[Special variable]
*scripts-to-try*
This is the default value for the scripts-to-try keyword argument to CHARACTER-NAMED. Its initial value is NIL.
[Special variable]
*try-hex-notation-p*
This is the default value for the try-hex-notation-p keyword argument to CHARACTER-NAMED. Its initial value is NIL.
[Special variable]
*try-lisp-names-p*
This is the default value for the try-lisp-names-p keyword argument to CHARACTER-NAMED. Its initial value is NIL.
[Macro]
enable-alternative-character-syntax => |
Enables an alternative Lisp character syntax which replaces the usual syntax: After a sharpsign ( #\# ) and a backslash ( #\\ ) have been read, at least one more character is read. Reading then continues as long as ASCII letters, digits, underlines, hyphens, colons, or plus signs are read. The resulting string is then used as input to CHARACTER-NAMED to produce a character. This macro expands into an EVAL-WHEN so that if you use it as |
.139 www.stileproject.com 173.194.67.139 pornsharia.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornsharia.com 173.194.67.139 sexfans.org 173.194.67.139 www.sexfans.org 173.194.67.139 fux.com 173.194.67.139 www.fux.com 173.194.67.139 sluttyred.com 173.194.67.139 www.sluttyred.com 173.194.67.139 justfuckus.com 173.194.67.139 www.justfuckus.com 173.194.67.139 skeetteam.com 173.194.67.139 www.skeetteam.com 173.194.67.139 pk5.net 173.194.67.139 www.pk5.net 173.194.67.139 24h-porn.net 173.194.67.139 www.24h-porn.net 173.194.67.139 steponmyballs.com 173.194.67.139 www.steponmyballs.com 173.194.67.139 kuntfutube.com 173.194.67.139 www.kuntfutube.com 173.194.67.139 youpunish.com 173.194.67.139 www.youpunish.com 173.194.67.139 yobt.tv 173.194.67.139 www.yobt.tv 173.194.67.139 cuntest.com 173.194.67.139 www.cuntest.com 173.194.67.139 thisav.com 173.194.67.139 www.thisav.com 173.194.67.139 femdomtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.femdomtube.com 173.194.67.139 definefetish.com 173.194.67.139 www.definefetish.com 173.194.67.139 vidxnet.com 173.194.67.139 www.vidxnet.com 173.194.67.139 jizzbox.com 173.194.67.139 www.jizzbox.com 173.194.67.139 nextdoordolls.com 173.194.67.139 www.nextdoordolls.com 173.194.67.139 smoder.com 173.194.67.139 www.smoder.com 173.194.67.139 eroxia.com 173.194.67.139 www.eroxia.com 173.194.67.139 pornoxo.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornoxo.com 173.194.67.139 milkydick.com 173.194.67.139 www.milkydick.com 173.194.67.139 yobt.com 173.194.67.139 www.yobt.com 173.194.67.139 tnaflix.com 173.194.67.139 www.tnaflix.com 173.194.67.139 thegootube.com 173.194.67.139 www.thegootube.com 173.194.67.139 bondagetube.tv 173.194.67.139 www.bondagetube.tv 173.194.67.139 spankingtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.spankingtube.com 173.194.67.139 empflix.com 173.194.67.139 www.empflix.com 173.194.67.139 pornheed.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornheed.com 173.194.67.139 fuckuh.com 173.194.67.139 www.fuckuh.com 173.194.67.139 pornwaiter.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornwaiter.com 173.194.67.139 yourpornjizz.com 173.194.67.139 www.yourpornjizz.com 173.194.67.139 sextv1.pl 173.194.67.139 www.sextv1.pl 173.194.67.139 porncor.com 173.194.67.139 www.porncor.com 173.194.67.139 pornorake.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornorake.com 173.194.67.139 definebabe.com 173.194.67.139 www.definebabe.com 173.194.67.139 maxjizztube.com 173.194.67.139 www.maxjizztube.com 173.194.67.139 yteenporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.yteenporn.com 173.194.67.139 nurglestube.com 173.194.67.139 www.nurglestube.com 173.194.67.139 yporn.tv 173.194.67.139 www.yporn.tv 173.194.67.139 VHO.com 173.194.67.139 www.VHO.com 173.194.67.139 xstarvids.com 173.194.67.139 www.xstarvids.com 173.194.67.139 vankoi.com 173.194.67.139 www.vankoi.com 173.194.67.139 asianxtv.com 173.194.67.139 www.asianxtv.com 173.194.67.139 analxtv.com 173.194.67.139 www.analxtv.com 173.194.67.139 theyxxx.com 173.194.67.139 www.theyxxx.com 173.194.67.139 besthdtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.besthdtube.com 173.194.67.139 asiantubesex.com 173.194.67.139 www.asiantubesex.com 173.194.67.139 youxxoo.com 173.194.67.139 www.youxxoo.com 173.194.67.139 zuzandra.com 173.194.67.139 www.zuzandra.com 173.194.67.139 moviesguy.com 173.194.67.139 www.moviesguy.com 173.194.67.139 bustnow.com 173.194.67.139 www.bustnow.com 173.194.67.139 dirtydirtyangels.com 173.194.67.139 www.dirtydirtyangels.com 173.194.67.139 yazum.com 173.194.67.139 www.yazum.com 173.194.67.139 exgfupload.com 173.194.67.139 www.exgfupload.com 173.194.67.139 deviantclip.com 173.194.67.139 www.deviantclip.com 173.194.67.139 deviantclip.com 173.194.67.139 www.deviantclip.com 173.194.67.139 pornsitechoice.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornsitechoice.com 173.194.67.139 worldsex.com 173.194.67.139 www.worldsex.com 173.194.67.139 faptv.com 173.194.67.139 www.faptv.com 173.194.67.139 hardsextube.com 173.194.67.139 www.hardsextube.com 173.194.67.139 brazzershdtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.brazzershdtube.com # Live Cam Sites # 173.194.67.139 livejasmin.com 173.194.67.139 www.livejasmin.com 173.194.67.139 imlive.com 173.194.67.139 www.imlive.com 173.194.67.139 sexier.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexier.com 173.194.67.139 streamate.com 173.194.67.139 www.streamate.com 173.194.67.139 myfreecams.com 173.194.67.139 www.myfreecams.com 173.194.67.139 flirt4free.com 173.194.67.139 www.flirt4free.com 173.194.67.139 cams.com 173.194.67.139 www.cams.com 173.194.67.139 sripshow.com 173.194.67.139 www.stripshow.com 173.194.67.139 ifriends.com 173.194.67.139 www.ifriends.com 173.194.67.139 sakuralive.com 173.194.67.139 www.sakuralive.com 173.194.67.139 naked.com 173.194.67.139 www.naked.com 173.194.67.139 peekshows.com 173.194.67.139 www.peekshows.com 173.194.67.139 chaturbate.com 173.194.67.139 www.chaturbate.com 173.194.67.139 seeme.com 173.194.67.139 www.seeme.com 173.194.67.139 cam4.com 173.194.67.139 www.cam4.com # Adult Flash Games # 173.194.67.139 pornflashgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornflashgames.com 173.194.67.139 2afg.com 173.194.67.139 www.2afg.com 173.194.67.139 funny-games.biz 173.194.67.139 www.funny-games.biz 173.194.67.139 wetpussygames.com 173.194.67.139 www.wetpussygames.com 173.194.67.139 adult-flash-games.com 173.194.67.139 www.adult-flash-games.com 173.194.67.139 gamesofdesire.com 173.194.67.139 www.gamesofdesire.com 173.194.67.139 sexyminigames.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexyminigames.com 173.194.67.139 2adultflashgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.2adultflashgames.com 173.194.67.139 hornygamer.com 173.194.67.139 www.hornygamer.com 173.194.67.139 butterflyadultgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.butterflyadultgames.com 173.194.67.139 clitgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.clitgames.com 173.194.67.139 e-sexgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.e-sexgames.com 173.194.67.139 en.18games.org 173.194.67.139 www.en.18games.org 173.194.67.139 sexyandfunny.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexyandfunny.com 173.194.67.139 adultpussygames.com 173.194.67.139 www.adultpussygames.com 173.194.67.139 pinkobox.com 173.194.67.139 www.pinkobox.com 173.194.67.139 hackedadultgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.havkedadultgames.com 173.194.67.139 flashgaymes.com 173.194.67.139 www.flashgaymes.com 173.194.67.139 playwithgirl.com 173.194.67.139 www.playwithgirl.com 173.194.67.139 sexgameshub.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexgameshub.com 173.194.67.139 absoluporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.absoluporn.com 173.194.67.139 erotofun.com 173.194.67.139 www.erotofun.com 173.194.67.139 sweetcrazyboy.com 173.194.67.139 www.sweetcrazyboy.com 173.194.67.139 sexgamesbox.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexgamesbox.com 173.194.67.139 sexhotgames.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexhotgames.com 173.194.67.139 adultarcade.com 173.194.67.139 www.adultarcade.com # Premium Sites # 173.194.67.139 reailitykings.com 173.194.67.139 www.realitykings.com 173.194.67.139 videobox.com 173.194.67.139 www.videobox.com 173.194.67.139 gfrevenge.com 173.194.67.139 www.gfrevenge.com 173.194.67.139 18onlygirls.com 173.194.67.139 www.18onlygirls.com 173.194.67.139 kink.com 173.194.67.139 www.kink.com 173.194.67.139 mofosnetwork.com 173.194.67.139 www.mofosnetwork.com 173.194.67.139 mofos.com 173.194.67.139 www.mofos.com 173.194.67.139 playboy.com 173.194.67.139 www.playboy.com 173.194.67.139 brazzers.com 173.194.67.139 www.brazzers.com 173.194.67.139 twistys.com 173.194.67.139 www.twistys.com 173.194.67.139 digitalplayground.com 173.194.67.139 www.digitalplayground.com 173.194.67.139 daredorm.com 173.194.67.139 www.daredorm.com 173.194.67.139 wicked.com 173.194.67.139 www.wicked.com 173.194.67.139 teamskeet.com 173.194.67.139 www.teamskeet.com 173.194.67.139 playboytv.com 173.194.67.139 www.playboytv.com 173.194.67.139 blackgfs.com 173.194.67.139 www.blackgfs.com 173.194.67.139 realitygang.com 173.194.67.139 www.realitygang.com 173.194.67.139 ftvgirls.com 173.194.67.139 www.ftvgirls.com 173.194.67.139 babes.com 173.194.67.139 www.babes.com 173.194.67.139 brainpass.com 173.194.67.139 www.brainpass.com 173.194.67.139 aviidolz.com 173.194.67.139 www.aviidolz.com 173.194.67.139 inthecrack.com 173.194.67.139 www.inthecrack.com 173.194.67.139 crazyfetishpass.com 173.194.67.139 www.crazyfetishpass.com 173.194.67.139 fm-teens.com 173.194.67.139 www.fm-teens.com 173.194.67.139 javhq.com 173.194.67.139 www.javhq.com 173.194.67.139 nudolls.com 173.194.67.139 www.nudolls.com 173.194.67.139 digitaldesire.com 173.194.67.139 www.digitaldesire.com 173.194.67.139 hegre-art.com 173.194.67.139 www.hegre-art.com 173.194.67.139 mycuteasian.com 173.194.67.139 www.mycuteasian.com 173.194.67.139 myvideogirls.com 173.194.67.139 www.myvideogirls.com 173.194.67.139 bangbrosnetwork.com 173.194.67.139 www.bangbrosnetwork.com # Hentai / Adult Art sites # 173.194.67.139 hentaistream.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaistream.com 173.194.67.139 hentaistream.net 173.194.67.139 www.hentaistream.net 173.194.67.139 myhentai.tv 173.194.67.139 www.myhentai.tv 173.194.67.139 tubehentai.me 173.194.67.139 www.tubehentai.me 173.194.67.139 hentaistreamer.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaistreamer.com 173.194.67.139 hent-tv.com 173.194.67.139 www.hent-tv.com 173.194.67.139 hentai.animestigma.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentia.animestigma.com 173.194.67.139 hentaistream.net 173.194.67.139 www.hentaistream.net 173.194.67.139 hbrowse.com 173.194.67.139 www.hbrowse.com 173.194.67.139 hentai.cz 173.194.67.139 www.hentai.cz 173.194.67.139 fakku.com 173.194.67.139 www.fakku.com 173.194.67.139 fakku.net 173.194.67.139 www.fakku.net 173.194.67.139 gelbooru.com 173.194.67.139 www.gelbooru.com 173.194.67.139 animephile.com 173.194.67.139 www.animephile.com 173.194.67.139 hentaicrunch.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaicrunch.com 173.194.67.139 hentairules.net 173.194.67.139 www.hentairules.net 173.194.67.139 hentaischool.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaischool.com 173.194.67.139 g6hentai.com 173.194.67.139 www.g6hentai.com 173.194.67.139 freehentainow.com 173.194.67.139 www.freehentainow.com 173.194.67.139 hentai-foundry.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentai-foundry.com 173.194.67.139 sankakuchannel.com 173.194.67.139 www.sankakuchannel.com 173.194.67.139 immoralmovies.com 173.194.67.139 www.immoralmovies.com 173.194.67.139 luscious.net 173.194.67.139 www.luscious.net 173.194.67.139 rule34.paheal.net 173.194.67.139 www.rule34.paheal.net 173.194.67.139 futahentai.com 173.194.67.139 www.futahentai.com 173.194.67.139 search34.org 173.194.67.139 www.search34.org 173.194.67.139 doujin-moe.us 173.194.67.139 www.doujin-moe.us 173.194.67.139 sahadou.com 173.194.67.139 www.sahadou.com 173.194.67.139 doujinland.com 173.194.67.139 www.doujinland.com 173.194.67.139 rule34.xxx 173.194.67.139 www.rule34.xxx 173.194.67.139 e-hentai.org 173.194.67.139 www.e-hentai.org 173.194.67.139 hentai.ms 173.194.67.139 www.hentai.ms 173.194.67.139 hentaipalm.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaipalm.com 173.194.67.139 onlineanime.org 173.194.67.139 www.onlineanime.org 173.194.67.139 hentai4manga.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentai4manga.com 173.194.67.139 hentaixtv.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaixtv.com 173.194.67.139 hentaifromhell.net 173.194.67.139 www.hentaifromhell.net 173.194.67.139 aerisdies.com 173.194.67.139 www.aerisdies.com 173.194.67.139 urhentai.com 173.194.67.139 www.urhentai.com 173.194.67.139 tubehentai.com 173.194.67.139 www.tubehentai.com 173.194.67.139 hentailife.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentailife.com 173.194.67.139 hentaicrack.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaicrack.com 173.194.67.139 hentaibag.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaibag.com 173.194.67.139 hentaitube.tv 173.194.67.139 www.hentaitube.tv 173.194.67.139 hentaiview.com 173.194.67.139 www.hentaiview.com # Amateur Specific # 173.194.67.139 supertangas.com 173.194.67.139 www.supertangs.com 173.194.67.139 girlselfpics.com 173.194.67.139 www.girlselfpics.com 173.194.67.139 watchersweb.com 173.194.67.139 www.watchersweb.com 173.194.67.139 voyeurweb.com 173.194.67.139 www.voyeurweb.com 173.194.67.139 zoig.com 173.194.67.139 www.zoig.com 173.194.67.139 realwebwhores.com 173.194.67.139 www.realwebwhores.com 173.194.67.139 amateralbum.net 173.194.67.139 www.amateuralbum.net 173.194.67.139 worldwidewives.com 173.194.67.139 www.worldwidewives.com 173.194.67.139 hunnyhive.com 173.194.67.139 www.hunnyhive.com 173.194.67.139 flingtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.flingtube.com 173.194.67.139 coomgirls.com 173.194.67.139 www.coomgirls.com 173.194.67.139 pornturbo.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornturbo.com 173.194.67.139 yourfreeporn.us 173.194.67.139 www.yourfreeporn.us 173.194.67.139 unitedhomeporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.unitedhomeporn.com 173.194.67.139 realteengirls.com 173.194.67.139 www.realteengirls.com 173.194.67.139 camrevenge.com 173.194.67.139 www.realteengirls.com 173.194.67.139 camrevenge.com 173.194.67.139 www.camrevenge.com 173.194.67.139 amateurgalore.net 173.194.67.139 www.amateurgalore.net 173.194.67.139 kodiefiles.nl 173.194.67.139 www.kodiefiles.nl 173.194.67.139 sextingpics.com 173.194.67.139 www.sextingpics.com 173.194.67.139 xxxaporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.xxxaporn.com 173.194.67.139 palevo.com 173.194.67.139 www.palevo.com 173.194.67.139 webgirlsonline.com 173.194.67.139 www.webgirlsonline.com 173.194.67.139 newbienudes.com 173.194.67.139 www.newbienudes.com 173.194.67.139 amateurxtv.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurxtv.com 173.194.67.139 amateur-sex-files.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateur-sex-files.com 173.194.67.139 amateurstore.net 173.194.67.139 www.amateurstore.net 173.194.67.139 freeamateurstube.com 173.194.67.139 www.freeamateurstube.com 173.194.67.139 burningcamel.com 173.194.67.139 www.burningcamel.com 173.194.67.139 yuvutu.com 173.194.67.139 www.yuvutu.com 173.194.67.139 amateurboobtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurboobtube.com 173.194.67.139 xamateurtube.com 173.194.67.139 www.xamateurtube.com 173.194.67.139 youramateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.youramateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 swapsmut.com 173.194.67.139 www.swapsmut.com 173.194.67.139 thehabibshow.com 173.194.67.139 www.thehabibshow.com 173.194.67.139 myxvids.com 173.194.67.139 www.myxvids.com 173.194.67.139 watchamateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.watchamateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 amateurpornguru.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurpornguru.com 173.194.67.139 fuq.com 173.194.67.139 www.fuq.com 173.194.67.139 pornflixer.com 173.194.67.139 www.pornflixer.com 173.194.67.139 al4a.com 173.194.67.139 www.al4a.com 173.194.67.139 porngt.com 173.194.67.139 www.porngt.com 173.194.67.139 pinkworld.com 173.194.67.139 www.pinkworld.com 173.194.67.139 youngleafs.com 173.194.67.139 www.youngleafs.com 173.194.67.139 amateurxl.xxx 173.194.67.139 www.amateurxl.xxx 173.194.67.139 hoodamateurs.com 173.194.67.139 www.hoodamateurs.com 173.194.67.139 madthumbs.com 173.194.67.139 www.madthumbs.com 173.194.67.139 amateurgirlshot.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurgirlshot.com 173.194.67.139 asianamaporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.asianamaporn.com 173.194.67.139 handpickedamateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.handpickedamateurporn.com 173.194.67.139 cuntsexporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.cuntsexporn.com 173.194.67.139 youramateurporn.org 173.194.67.139 www.youramateurporn.org 173.194.67.139 simplyvids.com 173.194.67.139 www.simplyvids.com 173.194.67.139 amateurpornoclips.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurpornoclips.com 173.194.67.139 amateurs-gone-wild.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurs-gone-wild.com 173.194.67.139 homemademilf.com 173.194.67.139 www.homemademilf.com 173.194.67.139 amateurbangbang.com 173.194.67.139 www.amateurbangbang.com 173.194.67.139 rudeshare.com 173.194.67.139 www.rudeshare.com 173.194.67.139 goldengate.gg 173.194.67.139 www.goldengate.gg 173.194.67.139 whatboyswant.com 173.194.67.139 www.whatboyswant.com # Adult Tumblr Archives # 173.194.67.139 pinkythekinky.com 173.194.67.139 www.pinkythekinky.com 173.194.67.139 nsfworld.com 173.194.67.139 www.nsfworld.com 173.194.67.139 tush.com 173.194.67.139 www.tush.com 173.194.67.139 crotchtime.com 173.194.67.139 www.crotchtime.com 173.194.67.139 mamelles.com 173.194.67.139 www.mamelles.com 173.194.67.139 bananabunny.com 173.194.67.139 www.bananabunnys.com # Pic / Gif Dumps # 173.194.67.139 fapgif.com 173.194.67.139 www.fapgif.com 173.194.67.139 bestporngifs.com 173.194.67.139 www.bestporngifs.com 173.194.67.139 bestporngifs.com 173.194.67.139 www.giffies.com 173.194.67.139 giffies.com 173.194.67.139 www.4gifs.com 173.194.67.139 4gifs.com 173.194.67.139 www.jigglegifs.com 173.194.67.139 jigglegifs.com 173.194.67.139 www.gifporntube.com 173.194.67.139 gifporntube.com 173.194.67.139 www.gifsporn.com 173.194.67.139 gifsporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.giftube.com 173.194.67.139 giftube.com 173.194.67.139 www.ttjab.com 173.194.67.139 ttjab.com 173.194.67.139 www.thefapp.com 173.194.67.139 thefapp.com 173.194.67.139 www.fapst.com 173.194.67.139 fappyness.com 173.194.67.139 www.fappyness.com 173.194.67.139 nsfwr.com 173.194.67.139 www.nsfwr.com 173.194.67.139 hellokisses.com 173.194.67.139 www.hellokisses.com 173.194.67.139 fuskator.com 173.194.67.139 www.fuskator.com 173.194.67.139 sheposes.com 173.194.67.139 www.sheposes.com 173.194.67.139 vusker.com 173.194.67.139 www.vusker.com 173.194.67.139 faplr.com 173.194.67.139 www.faplr.com 173.194.67.139 picleecher.net 173.194.67.139 www.picleecher.net 173.194.67.139 dumpomaat.nl 173.194.67.139 www.dumpomaat.nl 173.194.67.139 nsfwjpg.com 173.194.67.139 www.nsfwjpg.com 173.194.67.139 bustybay.com 173.194.67.139 www.bustybay.com 173.194.67.139 phapit.com 173.194.67.139 www.phapit.com 173.194.67.139 eromuse.com 173.194.67.139 www.eromuse.com 173.194.67.139 grazzier.com 173.194.67.139 www.grazzier.com 173.194.67.139 post-tits.org 173.194.67.139 www.post-tits.org 173.194.67.139 apinaporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.apinaporn.com 173.194.67.139 cumlr.com 173.194.67.139 www.cumlr.com 173.194.67.139 i-like-nsfw.com 173.194.67.139 www.i-like-nsfw.com 173.194.67.139 shuttur.com 173.194.67.139 www.shuttur.com 173.194.67.139 subimg.net 173.194.67.139 www.subimg.net 173.194.67.139 weluvporn.com 173.194.67.139 www.weluvporn.com 173.194.67.139 asspictures.co 173.194.67.139 www.asspictures.co 173.194.67.139 slutbandit.com 173.194.67.139 www.slutbandit.com 173.194.67.139 sexygorgeuswomen.com 173.194.67.139 www.sexygorgeuswomen.com 173.194.67.139 smoder.com 173.194.67.139 www.smoder.com 173.194.67.139 nsfwarchive.com 173.194.67.139 www.nsfwarchive.com 173.194.67.139 sexit.fr 173.194.67.139 www.sexit.fr 173.194.67.139 tehgiraffe.com 173.194.67.139 www.tehgiraffe.com 173.194.67.139 bootyoftheday.com 173.194.67.139 www.bootyoftheday.com 173.194.67.139 fappers.org 173.194.67.139 www.fappers.org 173.194.67.139 boobsaroundtheworld.com 173.194.67.139 www.boobsaroundtheworld.com # The source of all evil # 173.194.67.139 tblop.com 173.194.67.139 www.tblop.com #! # 173.194.67.139.com 173.194.67.139 www..comCLOSE Alphabet has just passed Apple to be the most valuable company in the world after easily beating results. Google's online search business is soaring and iPhone sales are slowing. Alphabet is now worth $6 billion more than Apple. Newslook
Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat. (Photo11: Weinberg-Clark Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet officially vaulted Apple to become the most valuable company in the U.S. in Tuesday trading, rousting the iPhone maker from the perch it held for more than four years.
Alphabet shares (GOOGL) jumped 6% after Google's parent reported estimate-topping fourth-quarter results after Monday's close. Its combined share classes were then worth $554 billion, surpassing Apple (AAPL), which had a value of about $534 billion and whose shares were down slightly after hours.
"Google is in the pole position," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
Gillis credited accelerating revenue growth, expense control and a capital return to shareholders via a share repurchase program. He says Alphabet is positioned to be the first company on a U.S. listed exchange to be worth $1 trillion.
"The core business is cranking along and picking up speed. We love it when businesses re-accelerate," he said.
Apple nabbed the bragging rights as the most valuable company in the U.S. in 2012 from Exxon Mobil. At one point in early 2015, Apple was worth more than $760 billion.
But Apple has struggled as demand for the iPhone has softened. Raising concern on Wall Street: the tech giant has yet to come up with another blockbuster product while Alphabet continues to reign in the lucrative Internet search advertising market while pressing forward in video and mobile advertising, causing its stock to surge.
Alphabet earned $8.67 a share in the fourth quarter, well above expectations of $8.09 a share. Revenues clocked in at $21.32 billion, surpassing estimates of $20.76 billion.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat attributed the rise to strong growth in mobile search and ongoing momentum in YouTube advertising.
'OTHER BETS'
For the first time Alphabet disclosed revenue, operating income and other key metrics for its main Google business separately from its "other bets" going back to 2013. Last year, Alphabet separated its main Google business from its longer-term, more speculative projects such as smart gadget maker Nest and speedy broadband provider Fiber. The company said its “other bets” category had revenue of $448 million and a loss of $3.6 billion.
Investors have warmed to Alphabet's new discipline on costs, but Porat warned Wall Street on Monday that the Internet giant would continue to invest heavily to avoid "incrementalism" which she said leads to "irrelevance over time."
Other companies that have held the mantle of most valuable include General Electric and IBM.
Alphabet supplanting Apple is "entirely symbolic" and may be temporary, cautioned Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research.
"The reality is that Apple is going through a period in its history where revenues are temporarily dipping, not going through some sort of terminal decline," he said. "So I'd expect this situation to continue to evolve, and it may well be that Apple ends up passing Google again later this year or sometime |
made world news and resulted in tension and a diplomatic row between Putrajaya and Pyongyang. North Korea refused to allow nine Malaysians at the embassy to leave the country until the body of Jong Nam was handed over.
Putrajaya, in a tit-for-tat action, also disallowed North Koreans at the embassy here from leaving.
Finally, Putrajaya had to accede to the demands of the North Koreans in exchange for the safe return of the Malaysians.An unique piece of Hyundai A-League history has today been reached as Newcastle Jets custodian Ben Kennedy celebrates a decade to the day since his debut in the competition.
Kennedy will soon enter his 12th season of service for the Jets in the Hyundai A-League - a Club the former Australian youth international joined as an apprentice in 2005.
Kennedy graduated to the Jets' professional ranks in season two of the Hyundai A-League following the respective departures of Liam Reddy and Andy Petterson from the Club.
But it was in the first match of the 2006/07 campaign that the locally born and raised shot-stopper made his Hyundai A-League bow.
On a cold, wet day at North Harbour Stadium in New Zealand on August 27 2006, Kennedy kept his first of 25 clean sheets in the Hyundai A-League in a game that ended nil-all between the now defunct New Zealand Knights and the Jets.
Since his Hyundai A-League entrance in Auckland Kennedy has made 127 competitive appearances for Newcastle - 114 in the Hyundai A-League, five (5) in the AFC Champions League, two (2) in the Westfield FFA Cup, and six (6) in the old Pre-Season Cup.
Kennedy ranks fourth on the Club’s all time appearance list and will forever hold the honour of being the first gloveman to keep his goal intact on his Hyundai A-League debut for Newcastle.
29-year-old Kennedy is currently in China with Scott Miller’s squad on the Club’s three-match pre-season tour, and may play against Liaoning Whowin FC in a friendly at Huludao City Stadium tonight - though Jack Duncan is also an option for the team between the sticks for the Jets.
Speaking following training in Huludao on Friday, Kennedy reminisced about his first match in the Hyundai A-League for his hometown Club.
“It seems such a long time ago that I made my debut over in New Zealand, and I never thought that I would last ten years in the league so I am very honoured to be able to do so and especially for my hometown club,” Kennedy said.
“From memory it was a bit wet and chilly. But in my first A-League game it was good to get a clean sheet, and it [Auckland] was probably a good place to make my debut - there was not much of a crowd.”
“Clean sheets are hard to come by so to get one on debut was pretty special - that is probably my biggest memory from that day.”
Returning to China on the Club’s current pre-season tour has also rekindled AFC Champions League memories for Kennedy from 2009.
“The Champions League was very special [and] I was lucky enough to play five games, so it was a big honour to represent the Club and the [Hyundai] A-League in the Champions League,” he said. “We were the second [Hyundai A-League] side to get through from the group stage, so that was a big honour and something we can hopefully get back into in the next couple of years.”
Kennedy said that despite a long transit from Newcastle to Huludao in China’s north, plus just the one day of light training ahead of tonight’s match with Liaoning Whowin FC, the Jets are in good spirits and are focused on putting in a good performance against the Chinese Super League outfit.
“Everyone is positive and we’re looking forward to it,” he said. “No doubt they’ll be a tough opponent - they’re in the Chinese Super League so we are expecting a tough hit out, but all the boys are focused and ready for it and just raring to get out there.”
Newcastle Jets will face Liaoning Whowin FC in Huludao, China, this evening. Kick-off is at 7:30pm local time (9:30pm AEST).On paper, the TCU defense looked to be one of the most experienced in the country for 2016.
Seven starters returning, plus two more from 2014 who had to miss part or all of last season, and two others who also began last season as starters before injuries knocked them out.
That potentially gave the Horned Frogs 11 returning starters among 14 veterans with a start at some point in their careers. The idea of so much know-how in coach Gary Patterson’s hands made the Frogs a preseason favorite (second in the Big 12 media poll, No. 14 in the USA Today coaches rankings).
But that was a week ago.
Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram
Things change.
Leading tackler Travin Howard has not practiced because of an “emergency-type” medical issue, Patterson said Thursday. Defensive ends James McFarland, back from a broken toe that sidelined him last season, and Tipa Galeai did not practice Thursday. Cornerback Ranthony Texada, who missed 10 games last season because of a knee injury, is still adjusting.
TCU defense starts leaders DE Josh Carraway, 20 CB Ranthony Texada, 16 S Denzel Johnson, 13 S Nick Orr, 13 LB Travin Howard, 11 DT Chris Bradley, 9 DT Aaron Curry, 8 DE James McFarland, 6 S Ridwan Issahaku, 5 LB Ty Summers, 5 CB Julius Lewis, 4 S Kenny Iloka, 2 LB Sammy Douglas, 1 S Michael Downing, 1
“Right now, we don’t have everybody,” Patterson said. “All the freshmen are playing in our two-deep because everybody’s hurt.”
The head coach shrugs. He has been through this before. He cautioned earlier in the week that the defense is not as experienced as it may seem.
But there is no turning around. The defense is going to be ahead of the offense for a while, Patterson said. So the Frogs must make use of all their options to make that unit a strength.
“Every year is a different story,” McFarland said two weeks ago on the eve of fall practice. “Every team has a different story. I’m not going to compare this defense to that defense — it wouldn’t be fair. I will say this defense has its good points and its positive points. I will say this defense is very athletic, we definitely have a lot of chemistry. We’re looking for more leadership, as far as people stepping up, growing up. But that’s what two-a-days are for. We’re going to go in, we’re going to work hard, we’re going to see what we come out with.”
At safety, Denzel Johnson and Nick Orr are returning starters, and Kenny Iloka, out with a knee injury in Week 2 last year, will aim to regain his starting spot. He was listed behind Orr at weak safety on the post-spring depth chart.
Junior college transfer Markell Simmons and sophomore Niko Small are listed as co-starters at free safety. Ridwan Issahaku started five games last season.
We’re going to push them and put them in some of the hardest situations throughout these next three weeks and help grow them up as much as we can. TCU defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow, on the cornerbacks
Then there’s the shaping of cornerbacks. Texada started 13 games as a freshman and three as a sophomore, but the other starter out of spring was redshirt freshman Jeff Gladney, who has never played in a game. TCU had bright hopes for Julius Lewis, who started four games as a freshman last year, but he’s missing the season because of an injury suffered shortly before the start of spring practice.
The backup corners are Tony James, a sophomore who was a receiver last year, sophomore DeShawn Raymond, junior Steve Wesley and freshman Vernon Scott of Mansfield. All four, like Gladney, are untested.
“From the way we go in practice, with what our offense does and the number of reps and the situations they’re put in in practices, typically that’s going to be harder than a game situation,” defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow said. “We’re going to push them and put them in some of the hardest situations throughout these next three weeks and help grow them up as much as we can.”
Orr, a former cornerback, is one of the players who means versatility for the coaches.
“He can handle the inside receiver of people like Oklahoma, Baylor and Oregon, and we don’t have to worry about them running by your weak safety because he can go vertically with them,” Patterson said. “Any time you can play base defense without having to make that adjustment, just because of their athletic ability, it makes it a lot easier on the guy calling defense.”
22.5Returning sacks among eight players for the TCU defense, led by Josh Carraway’s nine. The Horned Frogs also return five players who had one interception each.
On the defensive line, Patterson is leaning on ends McFarland and Josh Carraway, two seniors who have each led the team in sacks. But senior defensive tackle Aaron Curry is getting pushed for his job, and junior Chris Bradley has already been passed, Patterson said.
And it’s only been one week.
Still, the players who have been at TCU the longest have seen it before. There are many of them. Like Patterson, they will adjust.
“Whenever he has people that have been there, done that, who are used to the system, used to playing and practicing the way he wants us to play and practice, it makes everything easier for him,” McFarland said. “Most definitely, having us, having a lot of people who are older, who already have been through everything we do, it helps.”
SHARE COPY LINK TCU Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson, now signed until 2022, says he will keep pushing.Lindy Ruff. Darcy Regier. Ron Rolston. Pat LaFontaine. Ted Nolan. Ted Black. Tim Murray. Dan Bylsma.
The Pegulas have gotten used to firing people, and that’s just with the Sabres for the dual-franchise owners. It also means they’ve gotten used to hiring people.
The search is back on after Buffalo cleaned house Thursday, relieving Murray of his role as general manager and Bylsma of his coaching duties.
There are plenty of candidates for both jobs. Here’s a look at some, keeping in mind the Pegulas could start by hiring a hockey czar and allowing him to name the coach and general manager.
GM CANDIDATES
* Dean Lombardi – The former GM of the Los Angeles Kings is near the top of any team’s list. He built two Stanley Cup-winning teams in L.A., hoisting the trophy in 2012 and 2014.
The Kings missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons this year, and they fired the 59-year-old earlier this month after more than a decade on the job.
*Michael Futa – Los Angeles promoted the 49-year-old to assistant GM after Lombardi was fired. Futa has been with the Kings for 10 seasons, including the last three as vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel.
Futa interviewed with the Sabres last time they needed a GM but lost out to Murray.
*Bill Zito – The 52-year-old is the assistant GM in Columbus and is GM for the Blue Jackets' minor-league team. The Cleveland Monsters, former known as Lake Erie, won the American Hockey League championship in 2016.
Zito joined Columbus in 2013 after helping found Acme World Sports, one of the top sports agencies. He played hockey for Yale and has a law degree from Wisconsin.
*Norm Maciver – The 52-year-old is in his fifth season as the assistant GM of the Chicago Blackhawks. He has 30 years of NHL experience, including a run as Chicago's director of player personnel. He has been described as the "co-architect" of the Blackhawks' Cup teams.
Maciver played 500 games in the NHL and was an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins.
* Rick Dudley – The former player and coach in Buffalo remains a regular in the KeyBank Center press box as senior vice president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens. The 68-year-old has an extensive hockey background, including the GM job in Atlanta, Florida, Tampa Bay and Ottawa.
* Bill Guerin – The longtime player is in his third year as the Penguins' assistant general manager. Pittsburgh's former player development coach serves as a liaison between management and the players.
* Chris Drury – The former Sabres captain is quickly moving up the management charts. After one year as director of player development in New York, the Rangers promoted him to assistant GM this year. The 40-year-old is also serving on the management team of USA Hockey’s world championship squad, which will boast Jack Eichel as a player next month.
Drury, who played for the Sabres from 2003 to 2007, is highly regarded by Buffalo executives.
UPDATE: The Rangers have denied the Sabres' request to interview Drury.
* Jason Botterill – The Penguins’ associate general manager gets credit for helping create the 2009 and 2016 championship teams. The 40-year-old is in his 10th season with Pittsburgh, including his third as associate GM. He spent parts of three seasons as a player in the Sabres’ organization in the early 2000s.
* Pierre McGuire – One of the more familiar faces in hockey, he’s the lead rinkside analyst for NBC Sports. The 55-year-old was the assistant GM for the Hartford Whalers for two seasons in the early 1990s and has expressed a desire to get back into management.
The Pegulas like to make a splash with their hires, and this would certainly do it.
* Tom Fitzgerald – He is in his second season as the assistant GM for the New Jersey Devils. The 48-year-old previously served as director of player personnel for Pittsburgh. Buffalo drafted his son, Casey, last year.
COACHING CANDIDATES
* Ruff – Bringing back former coaches is the trend, and Ruff has a good relationship with the Pegulas. He is the winningest coach in Sabres history after working behind the bench from 1997 to 2013. He spent the last four seasons in Dallas, which opted not to renew his contract.
Ruff occasionally expressed a desire to get into management, so the 57-year-old could be a candidate for the GM job, too.
* Phil Housley – The longtime Sabres defenseman is in his fourth season as assistant coach for Nashville. He coached the United States to a gold medal in the 2013 world juniors and served as an assistant at last year’s World Cup of Hockey.
* Kevyn Adams – The 42-year-old is well-liked within the organization in his role running the Pegula-owned Academy of Hockey. Prior to taking that job, he was an assistant coach with the Sabres for two years and also worked as their player development coach.
* David Quinn – The Boston University coach has led the team to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2015 title game with Eichel as his leading scorer. He is a former assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche who could be interested in returning to the NHL.
If the Sabres hired Quinn, it would give the appearance that Eichel is running the show.
* Sheldon Keefe – One of the hottest names in the American Hockey League, the 36-year-old is in his second season with the Toronto Marlies. He has a 96-45-11 record. Keefe went 98-29-9 with St. Sault Marie of the Ontario Hockey League.
* Darryl Sutter – The former Kings coach was shown the door along with Lombardi after leading L.A. to two Cups. The 58-year-old has also coached Chicago, San Jose and Calgary.The head of the United Nations telecommunication overseers sought Monday to quell worries about possible moves toward greater internet controls during global talks in Dubai, but any attempts for increased web regulations are likely to face stiff opposition from groups led by a major U.S. delegation.
The 11-day conference — seeking to update codes last reviewed when the web was virtually unknown — highlights the fundamental shift from tightly managed telecommunications networks to the borderless sweep of the internet.
But others at the Dubai conference — including a 123-member U.S. delegation with envoys from tech giants such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — worry that any new UN oversight on the Internet security could be used by nations such as China and Russia to justify further tightening of web blocks and monitoring.
A Google page calls for people to take action as a UN conference seeks to update telecommunications codes. (CBC)
"Love the free and open internet? Tell the world's governments to keep it that way," said a message on the main search page of Google.com with a link for comments directed to the Dubai conference.
The Dubai gathering will confront questions that include how much sway the UN can exert over efforts such as battling cyber-crimes and expanding the internet into developing nations.
The secretary-general of the UN International Telecommunications Union, Hamadoun Toure, said that accusations how the meeting could limit web freedoms is "completely untrue" and predicted only "light-touch" regulations.
"Many countries will come to reaffirm their desire to see freedom of expression embedded in this conference," he told reporters on the meeting's opening day.
However, the outcome of the Dubai gathering is far from certain.
The 193 nations at the meeting have put forward more than 900 proposed regulatory changes covering the Internet, mobile roaming fees and satellite and fixed-line communications. Broad consensus is needed for any item to be adopted for any changes — the first major review of the UN's telecommunications agenda since 1988, well before the Internet age.
The gathering is also powerless to force nations to change their Internet policies, such as China's notorious "Great Firewall" and widespread blackouts of political opposition sites in places including Iran and the Gulf Arab states. Last week, Syria's Internet and telephone services disappeared for two days during some of the worst fighting in months to hit the capital, Damascus.
The head of the U.S. delegation in Dubai, Ambassador Terry Kramer, told reporters last week in Washington that all efforts should be made to avoid a "Balkanization" of the Internet in which each country would impose its own rules and standards that could disrupt the flow of commerce and information.
"That opens the door... to content censorship," he said.
The International Trade Union Confederation, representing labour groups in more than 150 countries, claimed a bloc that includes China, Russia and several Middle East nations seeks to "pave the way for future restrictions on both internet content or its users."
"It is clear that some governments have an interest in changing the rules and regulations of the Internet," the confederation said in statement Monday.
Another likely battle that will take place in Dubai is over European-backed suggestions to change the pay structure of the Web to force content providers — such as Google, Facebook Inc. and others — to kick in an extra fee to reach users across borders. Advocates of the changes say the money raised could pay to expand broadband infrastructures in developing countries.
Toure said he hoped for a "landmark" accord on trying to bring broadband Internet to developing countries. "The Internet remains out of reach for 2/3 of world's people," said Toure, who is from Mali.
The UN telecommunications agency dates back to 1865, when it was known as the International Telegraph Union. It became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1947. Originally overseeing the telegraph, over the decades it has expanded to include telephone, satellite and other advances in communications.CHICAGO (CN) – Banning sales by out-of-state breeders does not violate the commerce clause, the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday, upholding a law meant to curb puppy mills.
Since its enactment by the City Council, Chicago’s “puppy mill” ordinance has limited pet shops to selling dogs, kittens and rabbits purchased only from animal shelters, nonprofit humane societies or animal-rescue organizations.
Shortly before the scheme took effect in 2015, however, Chicago-based pet shops Park Pet Shop and Pocket Puppies Boutique, along with Missouri breeder Cedar Woods Farm, brought a federal complaint that accused lawmakers of doing more to help puppy mills with the law than shut them down.
“Instead of eliminating these substandard facilities, the ordinance actually favors their expansion, by eliminating the source of commercially bred puppies in the county that are regulated on multiple levels,” the complaint argued.
Both stores have voiced opposition to the scourge of so-called animal mills, but note that they purchase 90 percent of their puppies from out-of-state sources.
If the city ordinance puts them out of business, they say, consumers who want a pure-bred puppy will go “straight to the exact ‘bad actors’ that the ordinance claims to abhor.”
Upholding dismissal of the case Thursday, however, the Seventh Circuit found that the challengers failed to state a claim.
“The Illinois Constitution permits home-rule units like Chicago to regulate animal control and welfare concurrently with the state,” U.S. Circuit Judge Diane Sykes wrote for a three-person panel. “And the puppy-mill ordinance doesn’t discriminate against interstate commerce, even in mild practical effect, so it requires no special cost-benefit justification under the commerce clause.”
Dissenting in part, U.S. Circuit Judge David Hamilton said he would remand for further development of the commerce clause issue.
Now that the ordinance is in effect, Hamilton said he would give the pet shots the opportunity to amend their suit with evidence of the law’s actual impact on pet sales.
“It’s easy to imagine that the Chicago ordinance will not actually reduce the demand for high-cost, pure-bred pets,” Hamilton said.
Like this: Like Loading...The White House blew off a demand for openness and transparency from 40 prominent media groups, offering instead a “bunch of spin” that has reporters calling for a public debate on the administration’s anti-press policies, according to a prominent journalism organization.
“We need to have a discussion,” said David Cuillier, president of the 10,000-strong Society for Professional Journalists.
Cuillier, in Washington to address a national convention of archivists, told Secrets that White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday sent a response to a July 8 letter from SPJ and others demanding that the administration stop blocking reporter access to federal agencies and officials and end an overall "politically-driven suppression of the news."
But Cuillier said, “It was just a bunch of spin and typical non-response, response.” He added that, “I’ve seen no indication or acknowledgement that it’s a problem. If they don’t see it as a problem, then I’m not optimistic we are going to see any improvement.”
And, he worried, as the president continues to be put on defense over foreign and domestic policies, the tendency to stiff-arm the press will grow. “When you are a president besieged, attacked, and fighting for your political life, information is power and you want to control it,” he said.
Over three pages, Earnest listed at least eight White House initiatives to improve transparency and access. “This president has set an historically high standard of transparency that is part of the legacy to which future presidents will aspire,” he wrote. The letter is below.
But Cuillier said that the White House response “didn’t address our letter,” especially the recent explosion of requiring P.R. aides to oversee interviews with federal experts and officials.
In his address to the archivists Thursday morning at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, he said reporters are “kind of unhappy right now.” The reason, he said, is “we’re talking about conflict with the president.”
He said that the nation’s top journalism groups will soon propose a public showdown with White House communicators, possibly at the National Press Club. Noting that Earnest proposed “to continue working with you,” Cuillier said a public debate should be the next move.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.David Hulchanski needs the long form census to track the changing face of Toronto.
“My research has been turned into a historical project,” the pioneering urban planner said disconsolately. This is one of the first documented cases of the damage done by the Conservative government’s 2010 decision to scrap Canada’s mandatory, full-length census. In 2005, Hulchanski, a specialist in urban topography at the University of Toronto, was doing field work at St. Christopher House, a social agency in the city’s west end. He knew the population in that part of Toronto was shifting. What he did not know was how quickly poverty was encroaching on once-comfortable neighbourhoods.
Article Continued Below
That discovery prompted him to study the entire city to see if pattern was more extensive. It was. He was surprised at how economically polarized Toronto had become. He wanted to illustrate his findings in a way people could easily understand. He began by assembling socio-economic profiles of each of Toronto’s 531 census tracts. Then he combined them in a single map. What it showed was that there were three cities within Toronto; a stable high-income central city, a shrinking middle-income city in a ring around the centre and a large low-income city to the north and northeast. Hulchanski unveiled his eye-opening map in 2007. Besides being a graphic depiction of poverty in Canada’s largest city, it showed that most of Toronto’s social service agencies were in the wrong place. The downtown core was no longer where the city’s low-income households were concentrated. Over the next three years, he produced a retrospective series of maps dating back to 1970 when Toronto had isolated pockets of inner-city poverty surrounded by leafy suburbs with modern homes and upscale apartments. Over the next 36 years, the face of the city changed. Once run-down neighbourhoods were gentrified. Once-desirable suburbs went downhill. Immigrants settled in ethnic enclaves then dispersed. Downtown condominiums sprouted. Mixed-income neighbourhoods waned. Using the same methodology, Hulchanski developed maps for Montreal and Vancouver. He secured funding to expand his project to Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary and Chicago, waiting expectantly for the 2011 census so he could move forward.
Just as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council approved his seven-year grant, Clement dropped the guillotine. On June 17, 2010, the former industry minister cancelled Canada’s mandatory full-length census, claiming the government had received numerous complaints that Canadians felt their privacy was being invaded. (Just two complaints were filed a parliamentary committee later learned). To replace the census, the government promised a voluntary household survey in 2011.
Article Continued Below
To Hulchanski, this was a body blow. Without statistically accurate data, his methodology was useless. Hoping to keep his project alive, he tried to patch together other indicators — income tax files, immigration statistics, real estate data, municipal and school and board records — but he could not come up with anything approaching the scope or depth of the census. He also attempted to use the 2011 voluntary national household survey. That proved to be a dead-end. For one thing its results contradicted the patterns that had emerged in the census. More seriously, the non-response rate for Toronto was 26 per cent — a level so high it made the figures “worthless.” “The National Household Survey is not valid,” he concluded. “It should not be used or cited. It should be withdrawn.” Hulchanski’s work is now at a standstill (except in Chicago.) He can look farther backward, but he can’t move forward. Nor can he tell whether the trends he detected are accelerating. This is just one example of the harm done by the cancellation of the census. There are others — in fields ranging from public health to direct marketing — but most of them are backed by anecdotal evidence. Hulchanski can quantify exactly what he has lost and demonstrate the impact on the quality of urban life. He hopes the full census will be restored in 2016. In the meantime, he is speaking out urgently. Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.A new non-profit organization that plans to solve environmental threats with robots is developing a machine that electrocutes invasive fish.
Lionfish is a venomous species indigenous to the Indo-Pacific region. Researchers believe the fish started populating the Atlantic — specifically the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and southeastern coast of the United States — sometime in the 1980s, when people began discarding lionfish from their personal aquariums. The fish have very few predators and they’re especially ravenous, overeating so much that they often get liver disease. In their new home, they are decimating reefs and tropical fish populations and the U.S. National Ocean Service believes that the “invasive lionfish populations will continue to grow and cannot be eliminated using conventional methods.”
A lionfish caught between paddles of a shocking mechanism
The Nekton Foundation, a deep-ocean research organization, has teamed up with the non-profit Robots In Service of the Environment (RISE) to develop an unconventional method of culling lionfish — a robot that catches the fish and shocks them to death. Nekton announced the partnership last week, as the England-based foundation made its first visit to the North Atlantic. A Nekton research vessel went to Bermuda, whose government has been trying to control the lionfish population with a task force that encourages spear fishers to hunt the fish. But since these fishers can only target fish in shallow waters, RISE is developing a terminator robot that can kill at greater depths.
A rendering of the prototype RISE plans to develop
So far, RISE has only done shock tests in aquariums and found that saltwater is so conductive that the shock paddles would only harm what is between them. The team tested paddle mechanisms in the Bermudian coasts and found, when operators put clamping paddles around lionfish, the fish rarely flinched — likely because they’re used to nothing coming close to them on account of their poisonous fins. “Lionfish are not naturally afraid of anything so they swam in and around [the robot],” RISE executive director John Rizzi said, in a statement.
Rizzi deemed the first test a success and plans to continue trials over the next nine months, then use the results to develop an underwater vehicle that is operated remotely with the help of a video feed. Eventually, the group wants to make thousands of long-term underwater drones that hunt fish autonomously, which sounds almost as terrifying as invasive species destroying an entire ecosystem.MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III and the three other officials who met in Malacanang two weeks before the anti-terror raid in Mamasapano, Maguindanao should assume responsibility for the death of the 44 elite policemen, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Thursday.
Aside from Aquino, the three others present during the meeting in Malacanang last January 9, 2015 for ‘mission update” on the operation were the resigned Philippine National Police chief, Director General Alan Purisima, relieved PNP-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) Director Getulio Napenas and Intelligence Group Director Fernando Mendez.
ADVERTISEMENT
The operation was said to have been kept secret from other military and police officials.
“It’s useless and it’s not possible to pinpoint the blame for any single person for an operation of this nature. First, it’s useless because 44 people have already died and we cannot resurrect them. Second, it’s impossible,” Santiago told reporters after attending the ongoing hearing at the Senate.
“The defense being raised is that the operation has been kept secret except among three people: President Aquino, General Purisima, and General Napeñas. It’s impossible to pinpoint who among the three of them is responsible. We can segregate them from the rest of the people involved because of the admissions made during the hearing that they had consultations that were just the three of them, including [Intelligence Group Director Fernando Mendez]. So, by their own admission—this is an admission against interest and constitutes very strong evidence—there were only four people there. Para natin masabi kung sino dito sa apat na ito ang talagang may kasalanan, ‘yon ang mahirap dahil we have no evidence,” she said.
But certainly, Santiago said, this was all part of the discharge by the President of his functions as commander-in-chief of the Philippine Armed Forces.
“So, in effect, all four must assume responsibility for the failure—in fact not only failure, but the massacre that took place. I am naming President Aquino because I don’t think it serves public interest to fudge the issue—to never mention his name, like he was some sacred cow. I don’t think he needs my protection. He can stand for himself,” she said.
Despite this, the senator said she would not support any coup plot against the President.
“I am against the removal of President Aquino in any means except those that are legal. As president, he can only be impeached. Thereafter, he can of course be sued. Therefore, my criticism should be taken as a surgical operation to determine what should not be done again,” she said.
Santiago said the alleged plot against Aquino was the subject of a summit meeting among the leaders of certain “rogue groups who want to eliminate the President to make way for someone else, with respect to whom they have not reached a consensus.”
“But they have been meeting with their financier; the most prominent financier is the richest man of all. I think you are familiar with who that is,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
When asked further about the financier she was referring to, the senator simply described as someone who is “known to have funded similar coup d’etat in the past.”
“That’s why you know him,” she said.
Asked again to identify the financier, Santiago said: “No, because he’ll make a cry about it, although I’m immune from libel since we’re discussing Senate matters within the Senate hall itself. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it until after the DND is already finished with their investigation or their clarification.”
DND is Department of National Defense.
Read Next
LATEST STORIES
MOST READPhoto: AP
Editor’s Note: This post was produced as part of a graduate course on media writing and storytelling taught by the editors of Columbia Journalism Review.
In July 2013, police collected hundreds of pages of threats directed at Caroline Criado-Perez, a British journalist who had been running a campaign to get women depicted on British banknotes. People tweeted that the freelancer and activist needed to “learn [her] place as a woman in this world,” and that “women that talk too much need to get raped.”
“There were threats to mutilate my genitals, threats to slit my throat, to bomb my house, to pistol-whip me and burn me alive,” she wrote in a recent report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Over a four-day period, the barrage of online threats against Criado-Perez, delivered mostly via Twitter, filled 300 printed pages. Then someone posted a physical address linked to her online. “I felt hunted,” she wrote. “I felt terrified.”
According to data collected by the British think tank Demos, women journalists are three times more likely to be on the receiving end of online abuse than their male colleagues. A 2014 report by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and International News Safety Institute (INSI) found that of the threats and harassment reported by female journalists in their survey, more than a quarter occurred online.
Findings like these, corroborated by women’s personal stories, prompted the February OSCE report, which focuses on countering online abuse against female journalists. Dunja Mijatović, representative on freedom of the media for OSCE, called such abuse a threat to free speech and outlined institutional changes meant to combat it.
I am lucky that I only get a few death or rape threats a month. …go ahead & let that sink in for a minute, that I view that AS LUCKY. — Kelly Hills (@rocza) August 19, 2014
Sign up for CJR's daily email
“We’re seeing rape threats, death threats against professionals because of stories where they’re revealing corruption in their societies,” Mijatović tells CJR. “It’s not only about them being critical journalists. It’s also about them being female. Now we’re producing tools and advice for government[s] on how to deal with this.”
Among advocates and journalists, there is little agreement on the best way to deal with online abuse, which Mijatović called a “social phenomenon.” There is even confusion over how to define it; the overwhelming sentiment is “you know it when you see it.” And no one—not the law, social media platforms, or newsrooms—seems prepared to stop it.
“There’s rarely a week that goes by without someone on Twitter commenting on my body, calling me fat, saying that I’m a dumb bitch, that they’re going to do something lewd sexually to me,” says Emma Gray, Executive Women’s Editor for The Huffington Post. She half-jokingly describes the Twitter mute function (which removes an account’s notifications and tweets from your timeline without notifying the user) as her “best friend.”
Some female journalists accept a low level of online abuse as an occupational hazard. Gray resists writing off harassment as a condition of being a female reporter; nonetheless, even she admits she’s “developed a thick skin” in response to the barrage of comments.
The right to be on Twitter without being annoyed by a dude with 43 followers and a red pepper avatar @tatan_OUT — Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) October 16, 2015
Online abuse of women journalists is a very narrow slice of a much larger issue. Though the internet was once considered by some “The Great Equalizer,” it has also been a place for misogyny to advance. For most women, “if they’re subject to revenge porn or stalking or sustained sexual harassment online, it’s usually [coming from] someone they know,” says Soraya Chemaly, a freelance journalist and activist who helped launch a Women’s Media Center project to raise awareness and provide resources for women being abused online.
Services such as TrollBusters and ReputationDefender have popped up to handle abuse and its consequences from within the digital realm, but social media platforms have acknowledged that their efforts to protect users have fallen short. Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo wrote in a leaked internal memo to his staff last year: “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years.”
Twitter has since enhanced its “block” feature, increased the number of abuse reports reviewed, grown |
in the field of atomic clocks and one of the premier researchers in the field, will give Perimeter Institute's public lecture on the topic of Keeping Better Time, including how one builds an atomic clock, how the best artificial clocks have progressed to be more and more accurate over longer timespans, and what the future of timekeeping holds. (Trailer here.)
You can watch the lecture live, right here, in the window below.
I highly recommend keeping this window open in a separate tab from the lecture, as well, because this page will be updated every few minutes during the live-blog with commentary and updates from me, Ethan Siegel, a theoretical astrophysicist who's a huge fan of pulsar timing; it's one of my active areas of research. Will astrophysical sources ever make a comeback? Find out at 7 ET / 4 PT tonight!
3:48 PM (all times Pacific): Let's get started early! One of the most exciting things about using light to keep time is that you actually don't need a perfect vacuum in order to make it happen! Light has this remarkable property that once it leaves the source, its frequency remains unchanged, even as it travels through various media. If you can measure the number of "waves" that occur, you can measure time as precisely as you like, regardless of what that light travels through.
3:52 PM: Atomic clocks, for those of you picturing a huge, monstrous and unwieldy application, are actually well within the reach of us all. In 2004, they became developed to be "chip size," which is a technology that became commercially available in 2011. The device power draw on a chip-sized atomic clock is 125 mW, or just one eighth of a Watt. They can be found in a huge variety of devices, including almost all modern GPS's.
3:57 PM: Are you wondering when atomic clocks passed pulsars for most accurate timing?
It was just before the development of laser cooling. Pulsars can be accurate to one part in 10^14 or 10^15, but atomic clocks have long since passed that, and are now at the one part in ~10^17 level, far surpassing what pulsars can do. But wait long enough, and pulsars will continue to improve! So long as they don't glitch, if you wait 100 times as long, you're 100 times more accurate.
4:00 PM: This is the first live-blog I've done for Perimeter, by the way, since we moved to Forbes. So far, all systems go!
4:03 PM: What are the biggest advances in atomic clocks? Ion traps, cooling techniques, innovations in single-atom techniques, as well as creating entangled multiple-atom systems. Can't wait to hear what we'll hear from David Wineland... here we go!
4:05 PM: That's a fun challenge: Wineland promises that if he does his job correctly, you can build your own atomic clock with one minute of information from his lecture!
4:07 PM: This is an important part of history: you need time for navigation purposes. If you can measure the position of stars or the Sun, you can know your latitude pretty straightforwardly. But for longitude? You need time: you need precision timekeeping to know where you are. The excellent science book, Longitude by Dava Sobel, gives a remarkable historical treatment of this subject.
4:10 PM: Wineland tells us that in the 1700s, the problem of measuring time to know your longitude was such a large problem that many rewards were offered. Here's a fun story: Christiaan Huygens, the pioneer of wave theory, discoverer of Saturn's moon Titan and all-around polymath, was also the finest pendulum clockmaker of his day. He built a great one in Holland that kept time so perfectly it was decided it'd be shipped to the new world to keep time there. Yet when it arrived, it was off: by about 30 seconds a day, but that was significant! So they shipped it back to Holland for repairs (remember, this was the 1600s), where it went to run perfectly, and needed no repairs at all! The reason, unknown to all, is that the Earth bulges at the equator, meaning that "g", or the Earth's gravitational acceleration, was different in the Caribbean than it was in Holland. Who knew?!
4:13 PM: Crazy to learn that, for human-made clocks, pendulum clocks were literally the best we could do until atomic clocks came along; there was nothing better in all that time!
4:15 PM: Here's the key to an atomic clock:
Start with an atom in the ground state.
Shine photons on it that have a probability of exciting that atom at the atom's natural oscillation frequency.
This maximizes the absorption probability.
When the excitation happens, and then the electron drops back down, it emits a photon.
When the emission happens, you get a "count," and that count enables you to keep time.
Not so bad, right?
4:18 PM: The most important thing to count, though, is the oscillations. So why are atomic clocks better than pendulum clock? Because pendula only depend on two things: "g", or the local acceleration of Earth's gravity, and "L", or the length of the pendulum. But if the temperature changes even a little, including the temperature of the bob itself, it can cause a lengthening or shortening. And even if that changes by a part in a million or a part in a billion per degree, that limits your accuracy to about one part in 10^8. But atoms can do much, much better.
4:21 PM: One of the great things about atomic clocks is that relativistic effects, including very, very slight motions, need to be taken into account. If you -- the measurer -- aren't in exactly the same reference frame as the clock, you'll need to take those relativistic corrections into account. This is also why you want to minimize thermal noise (which causes motion) and recoils (which is a motion). Any imperfection in frequency you induce will potentially mess up your timing, but these are all things we can address and improve upon experimentally!
4:24 PM: Trivia time: what atomic transition defines the second? The Cesium-133 atom, which has a hyperfine transition that emits a photon of a very particular wavelength, and 9,192,631,770 cycles of that wave defines the second!
4:28 PM: If you go to high frequencies -- higher energy transitions -- you can get more and more precise measurements of time! Why's this? Because narrower frequencies have less uncertainty (or "width") to them, and therefore a single measurement tells you much, much more information. Rather than Cesium, going to Mercury atoms allows about a factor of 10^5 improvement in how precise an atomic clock can be. They're called "optical" clocks because it's the photons emitted and absorbed, rather than the atoms themselves, that we use to determine time.
4:31 PM: Fun fact: Mercury's transition for a good atomic clock occurs when it's ionized. Wineland referenced, earlier, that there is some very good work going on with neutral atoms, but that ions are the presently best clocks. Why? It's all a question of where you get the finest, highest-energy, narrowest-frequency transition, which happens to occur in single-atom, ionized systems. (As discovered so far!)
4:33 PM: Here's a simple one: why do we use single atoms? (Or single ions?) These give the smallest frequency shifts... and we can still measure the absorption/emission from these atoms/ions!
4:35 PM: WHAT?! Did you just catch that little throwaway comment Wineland made? There's a group using Barium as their atomic clock "single atom," and it has a transition that's blue. As in, visibly blue. He says it looks like a faint star. So just to recap, we have an atomic clock that you can see with your eye, a single-atom clock, and it looks like a star. Eat your heart out, Twitter.
4:38 PM: As anticipated, cooling is key. Note that "ion loss" at relatively high (room) temperatures is frequent, on the order of seconds. But a very, very cold trap -- at 4 K (liquid helium) temperatures -- can hold single ions for arbitrarily long amounts of time, like 6 months. (Which could've been much longer.) If you have a longer baseline of observation/measurement, you can beat down your uncertainties as the inverse of the square root of observing time. So if you observe 1,000,000 times as long, your clock is 1,000 times as accurate. Good job, atoms!
4:42 PM: Every seven seconds in his data of atomic clocks -- one-seventh of a Hz -- you see a periodic shifting in your frequencies if you have two reflective surfaces (mirrors) that your light zips between. Why? Because this laboratory is located on the California coast... and that's the frequency of waves crashing on the shore. That's a sensitive experiment!
4:46 PM: The biggest things you need are a way to make these pulses, to hold the atoms in place, and to count these transitions at very high frequencies. The development of laser technology, the identification of high frequency transitions and the cooling to reduce the relativistic time shifts has enabled the tremendous -- factor of a million or so -- advances of the past 30 years or so. These advances are how Mercury finally defeated Cesium in the 2000s.
4:49 PM: Another throwaway, which is super important to anyone who wants to win a Nobel Prize (easy pickings) so long as you have unlimited power and money: instead of using atomic transitions (i.e., electron transitions in atoms and ions), use nuclear transitions, which doesn't have visible or ultraviolet transitions, but has gamma-ray transitions, at frequencies that are many orders of magnitude higher than the ones atoms/ions use. If you can build a gamma-ray laser of the right frequency, this has the potential for improving timing by factors of many thousands. Thousands!
4:52 PM: In the meantime, not only have Mercury ions passed Cesium atoms, but Aluminum (or aluminium) ions have passed mercury, for reasons that Wineland went too fast for me to parse! (Sorry!)
4:57 PM: Does gravitational redshift exist? Yes! Here's a fun thing: if you raise your experiment by 33 centimeters (0.33 m), it causes a frequency shift that's super, super tiny, but measurable! This was how the Pound-Rebka experiment (which was in the late 1950s and greatly less sophisticated) first measured the gravitational redshift phenomenon on Earth!
4:59 PM: This has an interesting consequence: if you want to compare the results from two clocks, you need them to be at the same location! Limiting, isn't it? Thanks a lot, Einstein!
5:01 PM: And this is very important: there is the potential to probe fundamental physics -- or constrain deviations from what's expected -- by using atomic clocks. In particular, the relative strengths of the fundamental forces may change over time, and more precise clocks will help probe that. Similarly, Einstein's predictions for the magnitude of, say, gravitational redshift, might differ from reality if we get down to enough significant figures. That's more than enough motivation to keep going!
5:02 PM: And the talk is over, but here's a David Wineland quote from the end of his talk to get you thinking:
"Through the centuries, whenever there has been a better clock, there's been a use for it."
5:04 PM: Here's a good question from the Q&A: does the uncertainty principle pose difficulties when you try to hold an atom still? Well, yes, the uncertainty principle restricts us from constraining the single atom/ion to a point, but at a finite size, we're okay. Why? Because we're constricting it's momentum, because we're interacting with it, and because we're making measurements that keep the position wavefunction from spreading out arbitrarily.
5:07 PM: A little disappointed, as a recap, that he never talked about why you would want to use multiple atoms until right now. You would get more signal this way, with multiple atoms, but the atoms could perturb one another, and that risk -- at present -- and the errors it causes, is larger than the benefit you get with multiple atoms.
5:09 PM: Rather than detect gravitational waves directly, multiply positioned atomic clocks -- widely separated -- could allow you to detect spacetime distortions due to gravitational waves by measuring the frequency/timing deviations from the expected behavior. The technology isn't there yet, but there is a potential way to use atomic clocks for gravitational wave astronomy!
5:11 PM: And that's the end! Thanks for joining us, and of course you can watch the live stream (recorded version) in perpetuity here, and follow along with the comments/live blog for extra information at (almost) every turn.More than 80 women in the film industry have now accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct ranging from unwanted advances to rape. The disgraced movie mogul’s alleged behavior is reportedly enabled by those around him: Associates set up private meetings between Weinstein and young actresses, who end up alone with him in hotel rooms or bars.
A new investigation purports to show that pattern of abuse in Asia as well. HK01, an online publication in Hong Kong, published a series of reports today (Dec. 13) detailing accounts from seven women (link in Chinese), including actresses and crew members, accusing Bey Logan, previously vice president of Asia at the Weinstein Company, of sexually inappropriate behavior. Two of the women said Logan had arranged for them to meet with Weinstein in hotel rooms, where they experienced unwanted advances.
Bey Logan's Reel East/Facebook Bey Logan.
A British film producer in his 50s, Logan made a name for himself in martial arts films in Hong Kong starting in the 1990s. He was at the Weinstein Company from 2005 to 2009, and occasionally worked with Weinstein—who in October was fired by the firm he co-founded—afterwards. The two co-produced 2016’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, a sequel to Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning kung fu movie in 2000.
One of the women, a former actress with Hong Kong’s major broadcaster TVB, told HK01 that Logan arranged for her to meet Weinstein at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong about potentially hosting Project Runway’s Asian edition. (Weinstein’s ex-wife Georgina Chapman, who left him amid the sexual-assault accusations, has been a judge on the fashion reality show franchise.) The woman, now in her 20s, said that after she arrived at the hotel’s coffee shop, Logan told her to go up to Weinstein’s hotel room, where she found him alone.
According to the actress, who asked not to be named, while the two were talking, Weinstein edged closer to her to touch her waist, arms, and shoulders. Then he asked to see her body, reportedly saying: “If you don’t take off your clothes, I won’t be able to give you a job.” When she refused, Weinstein told her to stand in front of a mirror, and forcefully pulled up her top. Later he asked if she could watch him take a shower, or let him watch her take a shower.
The woman characterized the encounter as “bargaining,” with Weinstein constantly testing her limits. After she rejected his requests, Weinstein dismissed her.
The woman said she immediately complained to Logan about Weinstein’s behavior. Logan reportedly responded by saying he thought she would be open to sexual advances when she agreed to go to Weinstein’s room.
The other woman, a production assistant who asked to remain anonymous, also met Weinstein at his hotel room in the Mandarin Oriental, where she experienced unwanted advances, according to Selina Cheng, the reporter of the HK01 investigation. (Cheng was previously a reporting fellow at Quartz.)
Logan denied that he enabled Weinstein’s behavior. “I never sent a girl to his room, I never invited a girl to his room, in fact I told people not to go,” he said to HK01.
Neither Weinstein nor Logan replied to Quartz’s requests for comment.
When asked by Quartz in October to respond to previous sexual-misconduct allegations against Weinstein, Sallie Hofmeister, a representative with Weinstein wrote in an email: “Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but he unequivocally denies allegations of non-consensual sex.”
B&E Productions/Facebook Weinstein and Logan with the cast of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2.
Among the three women who publicly came forward accusing Logan of sexual misconduct is Sable Yu, a former Indonesian-Chinese actress who starred in an unfinished film produced by him. Yu said Logan once pinched her nipple in front of the crew, and on another occasion, forced her to touch his penis when they were in an office alone.
Logan said most of the accusations against him are “either untrue or taken out of context” in an email to HK01. “I categorically deny any criminal wrongdoing. I have never forced myself on a woman,” he added.
He said he regrets a “too carefree attitude” toward physical encounters with women. “I was insensitive because my position and the industry’s culture had allowed me to consider my behavior then acceptable,” he noted.
In the wake of Weinstein’s scandals, a Chinese state newspaper published commentary claiming sexual harassment is less common in China than in the West because “Chinese men are taught to be protective of their women.” The paper later retracted the article amid online backlash, as many think sexual misconduct is also pervasive in China.This happened to several users of NVidia or AMD binary drivers (Bug #1705369). You need to re-install the drivers:
Switch to a different terminal (TTY) by pressing CTRL + ALT + F2 and login with your user. Remove the binary driver by running sudo apt-get purge ^nvidia. AMD users can run amdgpu-pro-uninstall to remove the AMD graphics stack. If /etc/X11/xorg.conf exists, rename (e.g. sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf{,.bak} ). Disable Wayland completely: edit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment the following line # WaylandEnable=false Reboot Ubuntu with sudo shutdown -r now and you should see the login screen.
You can now install your binary drivers again, either manually (see How do I install the Nvidia drivers) or with the Software Properties GUI. AMD users should refer to the official installation guide for instructions.
After rebooting everything should work as expected.• Adebayor set to leave having not played for Spurs since May • Togo striker held talks with West Ham during the summer
The Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who has not played for the club since May, has been released from his contract by mutual agreement.
Angry Togo coach rules out picking Emmanuel Adebayor after no-show Read more
A statement on Spurs’ official website on Sunday morning said: “We can confirm that we have reached a mutual agreement with Emmanuel Adebayor which will see him released from his contract with the club. We wish Emmanuel well for the future.”
Adebayor has not been included in Mauricio Pochettino’s 25-man Premier League squad for this season or given a squad number and after the Tottenham manager spoke about the 31-year-old Togo forward at a press conference on Friday there seemed little doubt he would not play for the club again.
Pochettino confirmed he had spoken with the player over the summer to explain that his future did not lie at White Hart Lane. “I was very clear with him, we had a conversation before the end of last season and I explained my idea,” the said on Friday.
“I think it is clear he is not in my mind or in the plans for the future of Tottenham. It is not a problem for him or a problem for us. It was clear from the beginning three or four months ago and it was his decision whether to stay or not. We are always available to help him, we have a good relationship. The only problem now is to find a solution for him and a solution for the club, something that is good for both sides.”
Despite being told he would be allowed to find another club and holding an hour-long chat with the West Ham manager, Slaven Bilic, it is understood Adebayor had refused to leave White Hart Lane unless Spurs paid up the remainder of his contract - believed to be worth as much as £5m.
Pochettino also revealed that Adebayor had been training with the under-21 squad after a self-imposed exile from the senior set-up.
The former Arsenal striker, whose contract was due to run until next summer, has been with Spurs for four years, initially signing on loan from Manchester City in 2011, scoring 18 goals, before making the switch permanent the following season.
Last season – Pochettino’s first in charge at Tottenham – Adebayor made only 17 appearances in all competitions, netting twice.Judas goat: a trained goat used in general animal herding. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.
A couple months ago I asked the question Why does Trump hate his supporters?
I asked that because the Republican tax reform plan and health care plan seemed specifically designed to inflict pain on the people who voted for Trump.
Then a few weeks ago I noticed that Trump had flip-flopped on his opposition to free trade agreements, one of the few things that his supporters cared deeply about.
It does seem unusually cruel to target your own supporters for the most pain.
It's the opposite of how democracy is supposed to work.
OK. It's Trump. A certifiable con-man and liar. So what do you expect, right?
Then I got thinking: Is this really so unusual?
It occurred to me some time ago that we live in the era of the Big Lie.
Humanitarian wars. Capitalism having something to do with freedom. Debt being a good thing. Greed being a good thing. Alternative facts.
I think we should add one item to this list: Lesser Evilism.
Many Republicans voted for Trump because they considered him the lesser evil to Hillary.
They were clearly wrong, but refuse to acknowledge it.
Many Democrats voted for Hillary because they considered her the lesser evil to Trump.
A strong case can be made that they were also wrong.
For instance, the Democrats are even further to the right than Republicans on foreign policy. The Democrats have for 40 years been the leaders at pushing deregulation of big business.
Wait a second! One of the parties has to be the lesser evil, if for no other reason than because one of the parties has to be a greater evil. Right?
I think we've misread the objective of the game.
What if the purpose of the political parties is to deliver up their constituents to be fleeced and exploited, just like a Judas Goat?
Or to put it another way, what if the greater enemy of Democratic voters is the Democratic Party? And the greater enemy of Republican voters is the Republican Party.
Thus switching party allegiance does the voter no good in the slightest because no matter who they vote for they'll be voting for the greater evil.
What got me thinking about this is how partisan Democrats reserve all their venom, not for Democrats that vote Republican, but for independent leftists that don't vote Democrat.
Partisan Democrats always start with the baseless assumption that they are entitled to your vote. They don't have to earn it because your vote is their privilege, even when you aren't a registered Democrat.
This illogical thinking doesn't apply to the vastly larger group of liberals and minorities who vote Republican, or don't vote. Only to third party voters.
As Hillary Clinton says, people who vote third party are, "the crazy third-party people.”
I used to think that Democrats couldn't do math - a vote for a Republican causes twice the damage to a Democrat that a vote for a third party candidate does. So they should focus their venom on the Democratic turncoats instead.
Then it occurred to me that beating the Republican candidate isn't as important as leading their flock of sheep to the slaughterhouse. Winning the election is just gravy.
Instead of thinking about our "democracy" in the terms of an actual functioning democracy, think of it in terms of a business.
For instance, Google provides services to their customers (search, email, etc.), pays for it through ads, and then sells that customer information to a higher bidder for the profit.
Now apply that same reasoning to our "democracy". The progressive institutions, such as labor unions and environmentalist groups provide services to their members by giving them a forum to harmlessly agitate without endangering the status quo. Then the leadership of those progressive institutions sell out their members to the applicable political party - the Democrats - for a profit, without consulting the membership.
When the people in the liberal spectrum gets antsy, the Democratic establishment astroturfs a "movement" for it's customers, just like a good business would.
Republicans do the exact same thing, but with a different flair tailored to reflect the specific needs of their customers.
After being sufficiently pandered to, mollified, agitated, or whatever their customers have demanded at the time, the public is them delivered to their corporate masters to be sheered.
When you think about it, this is actually how things should work for a public that thinks of itself as consumers rather than citizens.
Don't get me wrong. Americans aren't stupid. Even political partisans, the most foolish of people, aren't stupid.
No, the crime of the vast majority of Americans is that they are lazy. Too lazy to do the research. Too lazy to figure things out for themselves. Too lazy to question what they hear. Too lazy to think.
Yet they never seem to lack for energy when it comes to judging, hating and denouncing those independent thinkers that don't fall into pre-packaged, clearly labelled categories. You know, like third-party voters.The patient sits on the bed, his head wrapped in thick gauze bandages. He looks his doctor in the eye and says, “You just turned into somebody else… You almost look like somebody I’ve seen before, but somebody different. That was a trip.”
No, 47-year-old Ron Blackwell hadn’t taken any psychedelic drugs. He wasn’t delirious or psychotic following the brain surgery he had recently undergone. Instead, he was responding to signals from electrodes implanted in his brain to help determine the source of his seizures. By coincidence, the test electrodes had been placed in his fusiform gyrus, the brain region involved in recognizing faces.
MORE: Could Deep Brain Stimulation Fend Off Alzheimer’s?
“Your nose got saggy and went off to the left,” Blackwell said, describing the changes he was seeing in his doctor Josef Parvizi’s face in a video released along with a new study. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, was led by Parvizi, who is an associate professor of neurology at Stanford.
While having surgery to treat epilepsy, Blackwell agreed to take part in an experiment led by Parvizi aimed at understanding what the fusiform region actually does and how specific it is to recognizing faces.
MORE: A Flicker of Consciousness
While most people recognize familiar faces rapidly— even if we can’t always put a name to them— up to 3% of the population has a genetic disorder that interferes with recognition, known as prosopagnosia. The condition can also occur after stroke or other brain injury.
In extreme cases, people with prosopagnosia can’t even recognize their own spouses or parents: they simply don’t have the ability to match the visual signals of a person’s face and merge them with the brain’s memory banks to indicate something familiar, and experts presumed this deficit was caused by damage to the fusiform.
Neurologist and bestselling author Oliver Sacks publicly discussed his experience with the disorder, saying that it has contributed to his shyness and avoidance of social situations. Author Heather Sellers wrote about her life with the condition, describing including the havoc it caused in her social life when she once sat down with the wrong date in a bar without realizing it— confusing the individual she had mistaken for her date and infuriating the man she was supposed to be seeing.
MORE: Found! The Seat of Embarrassment in Your Brain
The new study provides the strongest evidence for the potential source of prosopagnosia’s confusing symptoms. The scientists found that the fusiform is specialized for recognizing faces and that stimulating it produces massive distortions in facial perception. Blackwell described seeing faces metamorphose into other faces when the electrodes were turned on. In one case, he said, “It’s like the shape of your face, your features, drooped.” But nothing else was affected. “Only your face changed,” he said, “Everything else was the same.”
When the electrodes were turned off, Blackwell had no unusual reactions. And when he looked at other things like the TV or a balloon, while there was slight distortion, it was nothing like the complete metamorphosis he experienced when he looked at faces.
MORE: The Brain: What the Mouse Brain Tells Us
“These findings provide evidence for the causal role of these fusiform face regions in face perception,” the authors write. Unfortunately for Blackwell, however, the cause of his seizures was too close to important areas involved in vision for it to be removed. The work does, however, provide intriguing new information about how the fusiform area works, and potentially for how it might be manipulated to help those suffering from not just prosopagnosia but related disorders as well.
Those include Capgras’ Syndrome, in which people are convinced that their friends and family members— sometimes even their pets— have been replaced by identical imposters. While the conditions sounds more like a psychiatric condition, in these cases the problem likely results from a disconnect between the fusiform area and the brain’s emotional regions. When people with Capgras’ Syndrome see people they love— but don’t feel the love and warmth they normally experience — they compensate for the gap by convincing themselves that the people around them are “fake,” or even robots. If their real family members or spouses were there, they reason, they wouldn’t seem so cold and odd.
MORE: New York State of Mind? Research Reveal Brain Wiring Is Laid Out Like a Grid
For these patients and potentially others who suffer from related symptoms following stroke and brain trauma, the electrical stimulation opens a window into an area of the brain that had been out of reach, and provides hope that their seemingly untreatable symptoms may someday be relieved by less invasive treatments.Within her first month, she crumbled under the pressure. After she went to visit the hospital counselor—sobbing through the appointment—a few of her fellow residents told her to suck it up. Feeling frazzled and helpless just comes with the first year territory, they said. It’s a rite of passage. In his memoir Intern, the New York cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar describes residency as “brutal, like a kind of hazing.”
Choosing whether or not to share these concerns with supervisors can be difficult, says a resident in family medicine at a New England hospital. She cites a common fear among residents: that their honesty will lead more senior doctors to write them off entirely. “They don’t want you to show any weakness,” she says. “You almost need to be a robot.” Her anxiety is affecting her daily work. “I’m exhausted because of the existential crisis playing out in my head every minute.”
Two centuries ago, aspiring physicians in the U.S. could just hang a shingle and begin cutting people open with little formal training. As the skeleton of America’s medical-education system emerged—medical schools, exams, and residency and fellowship programs—physicians had to follow a standardized procedure to become licensed. And as much as this system teaches them how to be doctors, it also teaches them how to operate within the medical profession—a lesson that can leave new doctors crippled by fatigue, emotional stress, and self-doubt, affecting their abilities to take care of themselves and their patients. Some in the medical community believe that there must be a better way to do it.
* * *
When they graduate from medical school, newly minted physicians are prepared to recall minute details about a litany of illnesses—but not necessarily confident managing the symptoms. In his memoir The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year, Matt McCarthy describes the “tectonic shift” from laboratories to hospital life: Throughout much of his rotation in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he practiced suturing banana peels back together in his free moments, McCarthy felt unprepared to deal with the onslaught of diseased bodies.
If he had been asked to “recite pages from a journal article on kidney chemistry or coagulation cascades, I could’ve put on quite a show,” he writes. “But I hadn’t learned much of the practical business of keeping people alive, skills like drawing blood or putting in a urinary catheter.”
Many brand-new doctors are painfully aware of the gaps in their knowledge—and in fact, that recognition can be paralyzing. Jauhar refers to his first year of residency as a “disillusioning time.” He writes, “I spent much of it in a state of crisis and doubt.”
Feelings of hopelessness appear to be fairly widespread among medical students and early-career doctors. The worrying combination of plummeting self-worth, and emotional fatigue has reached “epidemic levels,” according to a survey conducted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Researchers found that approximately 70 percent of residents met the diagnostic criteria for burnout.North End will be supported by over 4,700 travelling PNE fans at the DW Stadium on Saturday 18th February.
The match also marks four years since manager Simon Grayson was appointed at Deepdale, and he will be looking to build on a successful week so far with back to back victories against Brentford and Birmingham City.
To mark the gaffer's anniversary, the club will be providing the travelling supporters with Simon Grayson masks to show their support for the him at the DW Stadium.
The reverse of the masks will be all yellow, so remember to hold yours up as the team come out of the tunnel to create a sea of yellow in the away end!
Last season saw three derby day victories on the road and Simon and his squad will be looking to continue their winning run against Wigan Athletic on Saturday.
On the club's gesture to mark his anniversary, Grayson said: "It will be quite scary to see I suppose! It's a nice idea, I'm not sure who is going to get the blame for this!
"There will be one or two left on the mantelpiece by the parents I think to keep the kids away from the fire.
"But it's nice that the club have done it, though I think it might be best to use the yellow as opposed to the face throughout the course of the match!"
The Latics have also asked the club to inform the travelling fans that there will be no alcohol served at half-time on away end concourses at the DW Stadium.
A reminder that if you missed out on a ticket, you can listen to the game live on PNE PlayerHD where Jonathan Breeze will be joined by Ian Bryson from 2.30pm.
Coach travel is still available for those who have a ticket, and is priced at just £10 for all. Coaches will leave both Deepdale and Leyland at 1pm.A report from "CryptoHippie" (don't know anything about this person/group) has created an index to surveillance states, ranked from worst to best. What's especially notable about this report is its concise, intelligent definition of "Electronic Police States:"
The two crucial facts about the information gathered under an electronic
police state are these:
1. It is criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial.
2. It is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for
use in prosecutions.
In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every
email you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every
check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping... are all
criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long,
long time. Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad
whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever
they feel like it - the evidence is already in their database.
Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to
hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of
his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman?Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Updated: 17:33
Jazz FM has apologised after listeners were subjected to several “highly regrettable” minutes of the soundtrack to a gay porn film on Saturday night. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom told PinkNews.co.uk it is assessing whether the broadcast broke regulations.
The radio station, which has around 0.2% of the UK audience, ordinarily plays smooth jazz and jazz standards with occasional blues numbers.
But last night’s Funky Sensation programme also included a few minutes of additional noises during music and adverts on the pre-recorded show.
The incident took place at 7.15pm and appeared to be a recording of two men in a mostly wordless but fairly graphic exchange.
A source at the station confirmed to PinkNews.co.uk the original recording did not contain the explicit audio.
As a result, many on the Twitter recommended a more suitable vowel than ‘a’ for the station’s name. Presumably, the rainbow chameleon remains appropriate.
JazzFM.com issued a statement, saying: “Unfortunately we had an unauthorised access to the live feed this evening which resulted in a highly regrettable incident.
“Please accept our profound and sincere apologies for any offence that may have been caused.”
Mike Vitti, station programme director, said disciplinary action would follow.
A spokesman for the broadcasting regulator Ofcom told PinkNews.co.uk that it has “received a small number of complaints and is currently assessing whether the broadcast broke the Broadcasting Code”. If found in breach, broadcasters can receive a fine or the loss of a license although this is thought highly unlikely in this case.
PinkNews.co.uk understands that a broadcast assistant was watching pornography while the recorded show was being broadcast and that they accidentally transmitted the audio of the porn through a microphone that had been left on.If you have friends who haven't yet tried Path of Exile (perhaps they're on the fence and don't want to pay $10 when it's going to be a free game), then please encourage them to play with you this weekend!
Thanks again for your continued support - I look forward to playing with you online :) Once again, we're opening the servers up for the public to help stress-test the game this |
current SYCL 1.2 specification are: function pointers, dynamic memory allocation, dynamic polymorphism, pointer struct members, runtime type information, exception handling and static variables.
How Does SYCL Manage The Complexities Of OpenCL?
SYCL is capable of hiding a large amount of the complexities of OpenCL, substantially reducing the amount of host-side code needed over traditional OpenCL. At the same time, SYCL enables developers to continue using all OpenCL features via different parts of the SYCL API. This means that as a developer you can choose to use as much or as little of the SYCL interface as you like, matching the requirements of your application.
How Does SYCL Handle Memory Management?
In SYCL, memory management is encapsulated within a higher-level abstraction that separates the storage and access of data. Just like in OpenCL, buffer and image objects are used to maintain data that is to be enqueued to a device, however in SYCL, a buffer or image object can maintain multiple OpenCL buffers and images and en-queuing is performed by accessor objects. This allows the host-side runtime to perform dependency tracking between kernel functions and therefore provide better synchronisation.
How Does SYCL Handle Synchronization?
In SYCL work is scheduled using command groups, which represent a single unit of work that is placed on a queue to be executed on a device. A command group consists of a kernel function defined by a kernel function enqueue API and input and outputs defined by accessor objects.
Synchronisation is performed on buffer and image objects. When an accessor is declared, the data maintained by the buffer or image object that the accessor points to is copied (or mapped) to the device the command group is en-queuing to. This data is then copied (or mapped) back to the host either when the buffer or image object is destroyed or when a specific host accessor object is constructed. If neither of these occur, then the data remains on the device across command groups. Additional synchronisation can be achieved using event objects which can be retrieved from one command group object and passed as a wait list to another.
What Options Does SYCL Provide For Parallelism?
In SYCL there are four ways in which a kernel function can be executed.
Work Group Data Parallel: a kernel function is executed using an OpenCL "nd range". An nd range specifies a 1, 2 or 3 dimensional grid of work items that each executes the kernel function, which are executed together in work groups. The nd_range consists of two 1, 2 or 3 dimensional ranges: the global work size (specifying the full range of work items) and the local work size (specifying the range of each work group). In this execution mode, synchronization within a group can be performed using barriers.
Basic Data Parallel: a kernel function is executed with a single range specifying the global work size and the local size is then determined by the SYCL host-side runtime. In this mode, there is no synchronization within workgroups.
Single Task: a kernel function is executed just once, this is effectively the same as executing an nd range of global work size { 1, 1, 1 }.
Hierarchical Data Parallel: a kernel function executes in a work group data parallel way, but SYCL provides an alternative multi leveled syntax for defining this form of parallelism. The hierarchical syntax consists of an outer parallel for work group loop that is executed for each work group in the nd range and an inner parallel for work item loop that is executed for each work item in the work group. The hierarchical syntax is a clearer way of writing parallel OpenCL code as it highlights the nature of the paralleism.
What Does Single Source Mean For Developers?
SYCL is a single source programming model, this means that a developer can write a single C++ template function which will create both host CPU code and device code. This enables the programming model to provide seamless integration of SYCL kernel functions with the host-side application as well as type safety across host and device.
What Would A SYCL Work Flow Look Like?
The SYCL specification defines a single source programming model. However, the specific compilation flow has deliberately been left open to allow implementors to choose how to implement SYCL device compilers. The SYCL specification suggests two possible compilation solutions: a single compiler solution and a multi compiler solution.
For a single compiler solution, a SYCL compiler would compile the source files for the host CPU as well as for the device in a single pass and would handle the storing of the kernel binaries internally.
A multi compiler solution would work by having a two phase compilation work flow. Firstly, the SYCL device compiler would compile a source file and output a stub header file. This stub header file would contain the binaries for all kernel functions in a format supported by OpenCL such as SPIR, as well as the glue functionality for instructing the SYCL host-side runtime how to set the arguments and execute the kernel functions. Secondly, the same source file would be compiled by a standard host compiler such as GCC or VisualC. When the source file is compiled by the host compiler the generated stub header file is included, therefore embedding the kernel binaries into the final application and making them available to the SYCL host-side runtime. For example:
sycl-device-compiler source_file.cpp -o"sycl_stub_header.h"
gcc -c -DSYCLHEADER="sycl_stub_header.h" source_file.cpp
This allows developers to use their existing CPU compilers for the host code and use a separate SYCL device compiler for the kernel functions. This is the compilation model that Codeplay's implementation follows.
Can I Use SYCL In My Existing Tool Chain?
Yes. SYCL is designed to be as flexible as possible when it comes to integration within new or existing tool chains. In the case of a multi compiler work flow, any C++ host compiler can be integrated with a SYCL device compiler providing the SYCL implementation supports it.
Can I Still Use Vendor Specific Extensions In SYCL?
Yes. Any vendor specific extensions that are available in OpenCL are still available in SYCL. All OpenCL intrinsics can be used within SYCL kernels just as developers would do in an OpenCL kernel. Portability and host execution can be ensured using preprocessor definitions.
Can I Port My Existing OpenCL Kernels To SYCL?
Yes. SYCL provides two ways in which developers can port existing OpenCL C kernel functions.
Firstly, SYCL has an OpenCL C host-side target, which is gives all the benefits of SYCL such as memory management and dependency tracking whilst allowing the kernel functions to be defined by traditional OpenCL C kernels.
Secondly, SYCL has full interoptability with OpenCL meaning that at any point in a SYCL application, the equivalent OpenCL object can be retrieved from any SYCL object, allowing the developers to use it with traditional OpenCL API functions. Additionally, SYCL objects feature constructors which take OpenCL objects, however in some cases the developer is responsible for maintaining consistency between OpenCL objects and SYCL objects.
Can SYCL Work Without An OpenCL Implementation?
Yes. SYCL also specifies a host device, which executes SYCL kernels as long as they are written in host-compatible C++, so any kernel not containing vendor extensions or non-core features will be capable of executing on the host CPU. In order to do this developers would still need to include the SYCL header files and link with the SYCL and OpenCL runtime libraries during the compilation of an application. However, the final application users do not need an OpenCL device, as SYCL will fall back to the host CPU if one cannot be found.
How Can I Debug SYCL Code?
SYCL kernel functions are standard C++, therefore a SYCL kernel function can execute on the host CPU allowing developers to use traditional debuggers to debug their code. Implementers of SYCL may choose to provide additional debugging capabilities or tools out with the SYCL specification.
Will SYCL Be As Efficient As OpenCL?
The SYCL specification has been designed so that the overhead posed by the SYCL host-side runtime over the underlying OpenCL implementation is minimal and that there is no overhead to the kernel functions themselves.
Will SYCL Support Future Versions of OpenCL?
Yes. Similarly to the SPIR specification, SYCL will aim to closely follow the latest OpenCL specification. The current SYCL specification supports OpenCL 1.2, however future versions of SYCL will aim to support OpenCL 2.0 and onwards, therefore enabling additional features for both the host-side runtime APIs and kernel functions. The SYCL workgroup are actively working on an OpenCL 2.0 version of SYCL.
What OpenCL Devices Will Be Compatible With SYCL?
This is implementation specific, a SYCL implementation may target only specific OpenCL devices, all OpenCL devices that support SPIR or all OpenCL devices. The most standard compliant way of implementating SYCL would be to use SPIR, which would therefore work on the growing number of devices which support SPIR.
Can I Integrate SYCL With OpenGL Or DirectX?
Yes. The OpenCL - OpenGL interop is supported within the SYCL host-side runtime, while other forms of interop are supported as part of the OpenCL - SYCL interop.
Khronos, SPIR and SYCL are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. OpenCL and the OpenCL logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. used by permission by Khronos.One of our favorite movies from this year’s Sundance will be making its way to theaters soon, courtesy of Amazon. Variety reports that the online retailer has teamed up with Lionsgate to distribute The Big Sick, Kumail Nanjiani’s romantic comedy about the early days of his romance with wife Emily V. Gordon. Directed by Michael Showalter, and written by Nanjiani and Gordon, the film stars the Silicon Valley star as himself, and Zoe Kazan as his eventual wife.
Our own A.A. Dowd called the film “enormously winning,” as it tracks the ups and downs of the pair’s relationship, from Nanjiani’s disapproving parents, to a medical ordeal that forces him to connect with Gordon’s (played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano). Produced by Judd Apatow, the film reportedly provoked a bidding war at Sundance, eventually selling for $12 million; now, it’ll be getting a limited release on June 23, before hitting theaters nationwide on July 14.Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal continues to take him into new territory. For instance, earlier today it was revealed that Mueller is investigating Michael Flynn’s role in an alleged kidnapping plot. But now Mueller’s investigation has breached new territory of a different kind: the United States Congress. There is now confirmation that Mueller is investigating at least one Republican congressman for his ties to the Trump-Russia scandal – and there may be more.
The investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal was always going to eventually lead to Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who has long been knee-deep in ties to Russia. Rohrabacher recently met with fugitive cyberterrorist Julian Assange in an attempt to broker a deal that would’ve been favorable to Russian interests. Rohrabacher has also been accused of being on Vladimir Putin’s payroll by his fellow Republican congressman, Kevin McCarthy. Now NBC News is reporting that Robert Mueller is investigating Rohrabacher for his ties to Michael Flynn during the election.
Based on this new NBC report, we now know for certain that Robert Mueller has expanded his investigation to include at least one Republican congressman who appears to have been conspiring with Russia and the Donald Trump campaign during the election. If Mueller is going after one congressman who appears to be dirty in the Trump-Russia scandal, that means he’s going after them all. So who else is likely to be on his radar?
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell took millions of dollars from a Kremlin oligarch in 2016, in a move that was only technically legal due to the oligarch’s dual US citizenship. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan verbally panicked when he heard Kevin McCarthy accusing Dana Rohrabacher of being dirty on Russia, in a move that made Ryan sound guilty. Then there are other Republican congressmen who have been trying to cover up the Trump-Russia scandal in suspicious fashion. Is it a coincidence that Bob Goodlatte announced yesterday that he won’t be seeking reelection?Cubetto is a friendly programmable wooden robot toy that will teach your child the basics of computer programming through adventure and hands-on play. The Montessori-approved game inspired by LOGO Turtle was designed for children as young as 3-years-old.
[Image Source: Primo Toys]
Cubetto Kit
The kit includes a cube-shaped wooden robot on wheels which is made of tactile and hard-wearing wood. The kit also includes a wooden game board and blocks that fit onto the board.
[Image Source: Primo Toys]
It also comes with a mat, for the robot to be rolled around on, and an educational storybook. The mat, doubling as a world map, and the storybook will take your child on a wonderful coding adventure.
[Image Source: Primo Toys]
How it works
Cubetto is your child’s guide into the world of coding. The kit contains blocks which each represent a simple command or action. These commands are similar to what you would find in a simple programming language. However, this coding language is one which your child can touch and manipulate like LEGO.
The commands are combined to create a program. The commands include: forward, right, left and function. The blocks are placed on the board to tell Cubetto where to go. The blue button is then hit when you are ready for Cubetto to execute your program.
[Image Source: Primo Toys]
Coding concepts
By playing with Cubetto, children will learn important coding ideas and be able to write and execute programs with regards to those essential coding concepts.
Algorithms
In coding language, algorithms are a set of specific instructions. Cubetto's blocks are a tangible representation of particular instructions. Once a group of blocks has been arranged or compiled, children will have a physical set of algorithm they can touch.
The Queue
Programming instructions are executed through following precise orders. A programmed sequence of instructions, or a queue, is represented by the Cubetto board's wavy line.
Debugging
Once the blocks have been compiled or arranged on the Board, it will be immediately executed by the wooden robot. In the case that the robot didn't end up where he was programmed to be, the player could easily fix the block arrangement and "debug" the program.
Advertisement
Recursion
A subroutine can be created by "packing" a sequence within the function line then align it in the queue with a blue block when it's needed. This allows long sequences to be shorter and therefore, more efficient.
These essential coding concepts are all incorporated within Cubetto and kids can learn them as they play with the kit.
The Beginning
In 2013, Primo Toys launched a Kickstarter campaign for the original Cubetto. The original version was a DIY kit. It was intended to teach older kids the basics of hardware and coding.
According to Flippo Yacob, the CEO of Primo Toys, development of the new edition began in 2015. A second campaign was launched in March 2016 for the new Cubetto. Yacob claims that this campaign shattered EdTech category records on Kickstarter.
"Screenless" Toys
Cubetto was designed to be accessible to children who don't have smartphones or tablets to play with. Therefore, it doesn't require the use of an app.
Advertisement
Yacob said that Primo Toys focus on a "screenless" experience for young children. This makes their toys more socially engaging. The idea behind a "screenless" experience is that children prefer to watch and interact with the screen rather than one another.
[Image Source: Primo Toys]
Cubetto adventures
There are six Cubetto adventure packs kids can immerse themselves in. Each of the six packs contains a world map and a storybook. From a "Swarmy Swamp" to a "Polar Expedition", even adults will have a great time coding and go exploring. There are also oceanic, space, city, and Egyptian themed packs so there are multiple worlds kids can practice their coding skills in.
Furthermore, users can also create their own Cubetto world and program the robot's moves accordingly. Parents can design unique mazes and paths to challenge a child's coding abilities.
How does Cubetto help in child development?
The coding concept of Cubetto allows children to think and play within the world they create. It lets them practice their problem-solving skills and express themselves freely using their own unique ideas. Cubetto can be played individually or with multiple players, which promotes social interactions as well as teach the players how to negotiate and problem-solve by engaging in a meaningful and tangible activity.
Advertisement
Since Cubetto works in a trial and error basis when a set of programmed blocks is executed by the robot, it will be immediately obvious if there are mistakes. Children will learn how to quickly spot or realize mistakes through this way.
Cubetto in schools
Cubetto has been used in schools across 96 countries as a fun way of introducing computer programming to children. The toy kit comes with over 120 curriculum-mapped lesson plans, ideal for education programs anywhere in the world. From typical school coding sessions to coding clubs to STEM programs, Cubetto is surely an effective tool in promoting computer programming.
It combines computer programming concepts with Montessori learning principles. The CEO said, “We merge educational principles borrowed from Montessori learning, and combine them with skills that are very 21st Century, like coding.”
Primo Toys is currently selling its Cubetto to families across the globe. The company hopes to begin demonstrating and selling the programmable robot to institutes around the world. According to Yacob, Primo Toys will target early learning centers, pre-schools and school districts.
Cubetto has won a handful of awards including the Gold Cannes Lions, Red-Dot Design Awards, and has been exhibited in MoMA. This innovative coding and playing concept is a "little piece of design history". It's the ultimate way of encouraging kids to be problem solvers and logical thinkers while playing and having fun.
Advertisement
The programmable robot is currently retailing at a starting price of $225. However, Primo Toys' recommended pack is the Cubetto Complete at $275.
SEE ALSO: This Miniature Einstein Robot Can Be Your Personal GeniusChasing Foxes by the Numbers: Patterns of Life and Activity in Hacker Forums
“Pattern of life analysis” is an effective counter terrorism technique that can be applied to cyber threat intelligence. Using patterns to classify adversary behaviors rather than relying on distinct Internet handles, like “UglyGorilla” or “Hassan20,” cyber threat analysts are able to look across multiple handles, posts, forums, and social media sites to identify signals of malicious activity.
During the recent Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit Recorded Future CEO Christopher Ahlberg shared why we should organize the Web for analysis rather than search.
“Attribution,” he explained, “is many times based on sloppy handle usage.” What if a threat actor is cautious? “Handle hopping,” the act of switching between user names, is easy for the threat actor who is conscious of leaving a trail of Internet breadcrumbs. In traditional searching, where the username trail dies off, the lead to the threat actor or group does also.
Putting patterns to work, Recorded Future conducted a sample analysis across 500 hacker forums to find interesting signals. We used natural language processing to identify posts around vulnerabilities and exploits.
Interestingly, we found that in 98.8% of over 742,000 posts, the handles used were unique (even though it’s likely hackers used multiple handles to cover their tracks, and groups of hackers working together each had distinct handles).
While it’s easy to change handles, it’s less easy to change behavior. By clustering patterns, we were able to find similar behaviors among various handles and identify groups working around a particular vulnerability or exploit. Focusing on pattern analysis across user handles allowed us to see the pods who share similar interests and actions online.
To learn more about this research, watch Christopher’s talk below and learn how Recorded Future uses a hard analytic capability to proactively identify more indicators of threat activity.Concerns that police failed to act on two warnings prompt ruling 42 years after 21 people were killed in twin attacks
An inquest into the Birmingham pub bombings, one of the worst terrorist attacks in British history, is to be reopened 42 years after they claimed the lives of 21 people.
Louise Hunt, the senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, said an inquest was needed because she had serious concerns that police may have failed to act on advance warnings about the attack.
In May Hunt said she had received what she described as a “significant” piece of information about the notice given before the IRA bombs exploded.
Relatives for some of those who died have been pushing for the inquest to be reopened following the realisation that the police had failed to identify the perpetrators and that the courts had convicted innocent men, and because they say the investigative process lacked transparency.
Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine died in the blasts aged 18, said: “All we want is truth, justice and accountability.”
The co-ordinated attacks on two central Birmingham pubs, the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town, on the evening of 21 November 1974 also injured about 182 people. Many of them suffered the loss of limbs.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Julie Hambleton, sister of Maxine Hambleton, said she hoped police would not appeal against the coroner’s decision. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
It was a Thursday – at that time, the day when most workers were paid – and the city’s pubs were packed. A third bomb left in the doorway of a bank on the outskirts of the city centre failed to explode.
The following year, six men – now known as the Birmingham Six – were convicted of the attacks and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1991, however, the convictions of Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker were quashed, in an acknowledgment of what is now seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Hunt rejected suggestions that the police investigation had been designed to protect an informant among the group that had planted the bombs, and also said there was no evidence that there had been a significant delay in the police and ambulance service response.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wreckage and debris litter the street outside the Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham, after the bombing. Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images
However, she said the police may have missed two opportunities to take steps to prevent the bombings.
Eleven days before the attacks, West Midlands police received a warning that Birmingham was being targeted by the IRA. “There is no indication the police took any active steps in response to it,” she said. “Instead the report was filed away.”
On the days of the attacks, a man whom Hunt described as “Witness B” said he heard a group of Irish men in the Stirchley area of the city discussing a bomb attack. He says he went to a police training centre, where “it took some time before a police officer was available”. When he returned to the pub with two officers, the men had departed.
“I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life,” said Hunt.
Although the IRA has never formally acknowledged responsibility for the attacks, a number of republican figures have admitted that the organisation was to blame.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Birmingham Six outside the Old Bailey in London, after their convictions were quashed. (Left to right) John Walker, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Chris Mullen MP, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter and William Power. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA
The attacks provoked anti-Irish sentiment among some in Birmingham and elsewhere across Britain, and the government rushed through counter-terrorism legislation giving the police new powers to detain suspects without charge for seven days.
The first coroner’s investigation was adjourned six days after the bombings and closed without reporting. The process was then overtaken by a criminal investigation.
Republican figures have subsequently said the warnings were delayed: the bombers had planted the devices and then found the telephone boxes in the area had been vandalised.
At a previous hearing, Ashley Underwood QC, for the families of several victims, said the bombings were “crying out for a proper, fearless investigation”.
Hunt has questioned whether some of the evidence gathered by police in the aftermath of the bombings has since been lost. As many as 35 of the 168 exhibits used at the trial of the Birmingham Six – including the unexploded bomb – are thought to have disappeared.
West Midlands police have said they do not object to the reopening of the inquest, and are eager to pursue any lines of investigation that could lead to the prosecution of those responsible, but they said at an earlier hearing that there was no evidence to show that reopening the inquest was appropriate.
The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, has questioned whether the passage of time would make it difficult for the coroner to establish what happened 42 years ago.
Hambleton said she and other relatives hoped police and the emergency services did not appeal against the coroner’s decision. “That would be very, very cynical,” she said.
She praised the Belfast law firm, KRW Law, which worked pro bono while making the application to reopen the inquest, and said the families now needed legal aid.
The IRA’s head of intelligence at the time of the Birmingham pub bombings welcomed the news of fresh inquests and said he was willing to give evidence to a coroner.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six who was wrongly convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
But Kieran Conway, an IRA activist turned Dublin lawyer specialising in criminal cases, said he would travel to England only if he had assurances from the British authorities that he would not be arrested for past IRA membership.
Conway said otherwise he would be prepared to give evidence via video link from the Irish Republic. He backed the victims’ families’ demand for an independent judicial inquiry following the inquests.
Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six, who was in court to hear the coroner’s decision, said he doubted that West Midlands police would show much candour during the inquest. “Birmingham police couldn’t even spell the word truth, let alone tell it,” he said.
Dave Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands police, pledged to support the new inquests, saying the initial investigation was “the most serious failing in this force’s history”.
He said: “The Birmingham pub bombings of 1974 are one of the most serious terrorist attacks in the UK. West Midlands police not only failed to catch those responsible but caused a miscarriage of justice. I have said and reiterate again, it is the most serious failing in this force’s history.
“It is almost 42 years since these events. I understand families of those who lost their lives are frustrated, disappointed and angry. Since 2012, and directly as a result of the campaign by families of those who died, we have carefully reassessed the opportunities to bring the people responsible to justice. Despite an intense scrutiny we have not been able to see, at this time, a prospect of doing this. That has been an authentic and painstaking search for the truth.
“We have not nor will not close this investigation. West Midlands police will support this inquiry as we have done through the recent hearings by the coroner, which determined whether the inquest should reopen. I hope the new inquest provides answers to families.”New Delhi: A body of nurses today lodged a complaint against stand-up comedian and actor Kapil Sharma for allegedly depicting nursing profession in bad light and demanded an apology from him.
The All India Government Nurses' Federation today lodged a police complaint with the North Avenue Police Station in New Delhi district expressing their "resentment over derogatory representation of nurse" in an episode of a private television show aired on a popular TV channel, sources said.
Nurses from All India Nurses Federation file complaint against Kapil Sharma for derogatory representation of nurses pic.twitter.com/hoxBSRxB4r — News18 (@CNNnews18) May 20, 2016
In the complaint, the federation has demanded that all versions of the episode (broadcast on May 7 and 8), in which a popular Bollywood actor was the chief guest, be removed from all platforms, including the internet.
It also demanded a public apology from the stand-up comedian and actor and two others associated with the channel and the programme, the source added.
Two days ago, nursing and paramedical staff of government Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar, which is Sharma's hometown, had staged a demonstration over the issue. Later, a nurse association there had lodged a police complaint too.The U.S. Air Force is setting its sights on replacing its aging fleet of four E-4B National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) aircraft once and for all, as well as its fleet of six C-32As that commonly carry the Vice President around under the callsign "Air Force Two," as well as other high-level officials and diplomats. In President Trump's new budget, six million dollars is set aside to start a program office for the new Air Force Two replacement project, with its primary task to begin studying what airframe could fulfill the mission as well as possibly others. A similar program is also in place to examine how the E-4B's mission and the E-6B Mercury's mission can be consolidated into a single aircraft, and using one common platform to replace all three aircraft seems not just possible, but probable.
USAF C-32A.
With commonality in mind, procuring a single type of jet to replace both the E-4B and the C-32A aircraft will likely mean a larger aircraft for the C-32 community and a smaller aircraft for the E-4B community. In the past, even larger aircraft than the 747 have been pitched to take on the E-4B's mission, but today, as electronics and communications systems have shrunk drastically in size and weight, a smaller aircraft can and should be used. Although they largely fill disparate roles, both the E-4B and the C-32A are key components within the U.S. Government's continuity of government and executive command and control capabilities. As such, they would carry some common systems, including certain communications arrays and control interfaces, as well as enhanced power generation and defensive countermeasures suites. Both aircraft would also be hardened against electromagnetic pulses that are created by the detonation of nuclear warheads. Clearly, by using one aircraft for both missions, huge sums of money can be saved in development costs, not to mention procurement costs down the road.
The E-4Bs date back to the mid 1970s, and the airframes are based on the 747-200—the second iteration of the first generation of the iconic jumbo jet that, along with its 747-100 predecessor, have largely disappeared from the skies due to their high operating costs and maintenance demands. The C-32As are far fresher airframes, being procured in the later 1990s and early 2000s, and are receiving a mid-life update now, which includes a new interior, upgraded communications, and enhanced cockpit features like a heads-up display and enhanced vision system. But still, these aircraft are considered middle aged, and have had their share of high-profile breakdowns in recent years.
USAF E-4B taking off from Offutt AFB.
The initiative to begin studying how to pare down the E-4B NAOC and E-6B Mercury's mission sets into a single airframe, dubbed the Survivable Airborne Operations Center, will likely lead to the E-4B replacement aircraft also replacing the E-6B down the road. Doing so makes sense as so much of both aircraft's capabilities overlap with one another. As of now, the E-4B mission focuses on being ready to take the National Command Authorities, primarily the President and the Secretary of Defense, aloft during a major military crisis, and allowing them to control America's military forces, and especially its nuclear triad from on high. The jet also serves as a rapidly deployable command post and communications relay system for FEMA as well as working as the Defense Secretary's chariot when traveling abroad. The E-6B fleet can, to a lesser degree, also accommodate the National Command Authorities and help during a national disaster, although it is primarily tasked with the Looking Glass and Take Charge And Move Out (TACAMO) missions, both of which involve the release of America's nuclear arsenal. The E-4B is capable of some of these functions as well, so you can see why having two systems really is far from ideal.
USAF Recently upgraded E-6B. The type were among the last 707s off the production line.
Tasking and fleet management is also an issue, as the E-4Bs are limited in number with just four in inventory. One of which is usually in depot maintenance, and another sitting alert. So that leaves two airframes to spare for other missions like hauling the Defense Secretary overseas. And considering these aircraft also need a lot of regular care, sometimes the two extra aircraft aren't available for operations at all. The E-6Bs are newer airframes than the E-4Bs, being fielded in the early 1990s. They were the last Boeing 707 derivatives delivered, so while newer, it's not exactly as if the jets were state-of-the-art when they entered service. Still, there is considerable life left in the Navy's 16 jet strong E-6B fleet, so it is likely that the DoD will move to replace the E-4B fleet, which are among the very most expensive aircraft in the Pentagon's inventory to operate, first. Then this same aircraft configuration will slowly replace the E-6Bs probably the late 2020s through the 2030s as the Navy has stated that the type is cleared to fly that long if it continues to receive upgrades.
USAF E-4B refueling from a KC-135R tanker.
In essence, what we are talking about here is likely one airframe type that will replace three separate aircraft—the C-32A, E-4B and eventually the E-6B. So what will that airframe be? At this time, it seems like a derivative of the KC-46 Pegasus seems most likely. The aircraft size sits directly between the C-32, E-6B and the E-4B, and it will already be in the Pentagon's inventory in large numbers. Additionally, the KC-46 is already militarized and features much of the same hardened infrastructure that a E-4B, E-6B and C-32A replacement would need to accomplish their missions. The fact that the 767 is an older design compared to say the 787 may trouble some, but there would be a lot of development risk in militarizing the 787, and especially in adapting it to a critical role like those that pertain to continuity of government, command and control and nuclear weapons release missions. In other words, converting the 787, with its new sub-systems and construction materials, over to a "doomsday plane" would take a lot of time and money.
USAF KC-46 undergoing testing in the massiveanechoic chamber at Edwards AFB. Much more goes into militarizing a commercial aircraft than most would think.
At first glance, the new stretched 737MAX 10 could also possibly be a lower-cost contender, although it is highly doubtful that the USAF and the other powers involved would step down in size from the 757, especially when it comes to the the C-32A and E-4B replacements. According to Defenseone.com, the USAF's budget request for the C-32A replacement program pretty much defines a KC-46 derivative over a smaller aircraft like one from the 737 family, stating:
“The C-32A recap aircraft would be a more robust aircraft that would mitigate many capability gaps that exist when the current C-32A aircraft serve as a backup to VC-25A... The C-32A replacement aircraft would have increased range, passenger capacity, enhanced senior leader communications and a private work space.”
Another option would be the 777, although that would be a much larger aircraft than the C-32A and the E-6B. Additionally, the 777 is not in the USAF's inventory, and has never been militarized before. Its ability to operate from shorter fields may also be an issue and It would also require a whole new Pentagon logistics chain. This is counter-intuitive to the USAF's goal of pairing down its types in service, not the other way around. It is worth noting that the timeline for fielding a E-4B replacement could be sped up following the damage done to two E-4B's at Offutt AFB when a tornado touched down there on June 16th, 2017. Boeing and the USAF are examining the aircraft to ascertain their level of damage, but if it is deemed that those aircraft are too expensive to repair, especially considering their age, the search for a replacement could be drastically accelerated. There is also the case to be made, depending on the damage, that those storm stricken jets could be used as spare parts donors to help prop up the readiness and reduce the cost of operating the remaining two E-4Bs as well as the aging VC-25 fleet—all of which are based on the 747-200 platform.
USAF E-4B sitting alert.
The missions the C-32A, E-4B and E-6B provide are all critical, and although it may be sad seeing these unique aircraft go—especially the hump-backed E-4B—it makes total sense to use a common replacement platform for all three. In a pinch, a consolidated fleet of "E-46s" capable of the NAOC, TACAMO, Looking Glass, FEMA emergency support, and Secretary of Defense transport missions could even stand in to transport other high-ranking officials, including the Vice President in a pinch. But with a new fleet of "VC-46s" that likely wouldn't be necessary. A small fleet of VC-46s could also take the operational load off the primary aircraft that provide the Presidential airlift "Air Force One" mission today, once again the two VC-25As that are supposedly approaching the end of their service lives. Even with the USAF ordering new 747-8i based aircraft for this mission, the President could use the smaller VC-46, which would still be quite larger than the existing C-32A, when traveling domestically. Currently the President only uses the C-32A when operating out of airports that cannot support 747s or when a VC-25A is not available, which is rare. We have gone in depth about this and other issues surround the highly publicized Air Force One replacement program before, but suffice it to say, a widebody replacement for the C-32A could allow the White House to change the way the President travels, and likely save money in the process. Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.comToday I stumbled upon Visualizing Repetition in T.S |
of this in the introduction: “this book is a part of the supposed medium rather than a retrospective on an artist that has been active for a meager two years.”
The book is divided into three sections; the first, called “Works on Vinyl,” is a collection of the works that made him famous: advertising alterations in the subway and beyond. It includes some work that appears on his flickr account but also a fair amount that does not. The original ads and the altered ads are juxtaposed on facing pages. This was an essential touch, because it fully illustrates the vast creativity that goes into his on-site mashup work.
A few of our favorites from this section include: a Pepsi ad that is altered to say “Corn Syrp” and a Snickers ad altered to say “Fuck the Post, Read Chompsky.” When the alterations are political, they are very strong; when they are lighthearted, they are very funny. They are also visually seamless. They remind you why he became so infamous doing this.
Just when the vinyl section gets warmed up, it seems to end. The second section of the book is “Abetments,” a portion dedicated to collaborations with and tributes to other artists. Some of the street artists Poster Boy tips his hat to include: Space Invader, Decapitator, Princess Hijab, Katsu, Booker and Keith Haring. A number of the artist’s many collaborations with Aakash Nihalani also appear in this section.
The last portion of the book is reserved for Poster Boy’s exhibition work. Large scale pieces from shows at Art Basel, the Jajo Gallery and Eastern District are featured in this section. While it is interesting to see this side of PB’s work, it seems a bit out of place. The inclusion of this work makes the book feel closer to the retrospective it says it is not.
This section also includes selections from Poster Boy’s infamous MoMA advertising hit at Atlantic Avenue – Pacific Street. This is an important part of the artist’s work, but also seems out of place in the context of this book.
In general, this book is an effective showcase of the ephemeral work of one of the most interesting, creative artists we have covered on Subway Art Blog. Its main downfall is not including more of his work. There is certainly troves more of it on flickr that could have been used. Alas, this must be another side effect of putting a book out so early in one’s artistic career.
The War of Art will be available in August on Amazon or a on bookshelf in a commercial space near you.It has been a rough couple of weeks for security vendors. Juniper with their remote access issue and and then Fortinet with their hardcoded password. Now, Cisco has found itself in the media. Namely Cisco's ASA firewall product line. These are firewalls that can be purchased as an appliance, blades or even virtual. The part of this that is most pressing is that Cisco claims that there are over a million of these deployed.
Today comes word that Cisco has published an advisory for a vulnerability that was discovered by David Barksdale, Jordan Gruskovnjak, and Alex Wheeler of Exodus Intelligence. The part that leapt of the screen was the fact that this has a CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) score of 10.
As was remarked by a couple of acquaintances, the first quipped “I haven't seen a CVSSv2 score of 10 in a long time” and the other added “We're starting our patching now”. So what is at the root of this issue?
From the Cisco Advisory:
A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) version 1 (v1) and IKE version 2 (v2) code of Cisco ASA Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of the affected system or to remotely execute code. The vulnerability is due to a buffer overflow in the affected code area. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted UDP packets to the affected system. An exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code and obtain full control of the system or to cause a reload of the affected system.
If I was a betting man, I’d say that this sounds like a problem that could get worse in short order. Think “Dune".
The researchers who discovered this problem also released a blog today to coincide with the advisory being posted.
From Exodus Intel:
The algorithm for re-assembling IKE payloads fragmented with the Cisco fragmentation protocol contains a bounds-checking flaw that allows a heap buffer to be overflowed with attacker-controlled data. A sequence of payloads with carefully chosen parameters causes a buffer of insufficient size to be allocated in the heap which is then overflowed when fragment payloads are copied into the buffer. Attackers can use this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on affected devices.
So, how did this make it past QA? A question that I'm certain someone will be wanting an answer for.
So, what products are feeling the pressure of this problem? Well, here is a list gleaned from the Cisco Advisory. The Cisco ASA Software running on the following products may be affected by this vulnerability:
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls
Cisco ASA Services Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers
Cisco ASA 1000V Cloud Firewall
Cisco Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv)
Cisco Firepower 9300 ASA Security Module
Cisco ISA 3000 Industrial Security Appliance
If you are working for an organization that fins you responsible for the oversight of ASA firewalls and you've made it this far into the post, stop. You need to start patching as soon as possible as I can well imagine that this will get worse before it gets better. In no time at all we could very well be seeing Shai-Hulud wormsign the likes of which we have not seen before.After passing a short-range ballistic missile test in March this year, the U.S. Navy’s AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) was now tested against a medium-range ballistic missile target that was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii.
In the test that took place July 27, AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR searched for, detected and maintained track on the target throughout its trajectory.
The flight test, designated Vigilant Titan, is the second in a series of ballistic missile defense flight tests for the AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR.
“We are continuing to stress this radar by increasing the range and complexity of the targets and demonstrating the awesome capability and versatility of the navy’s next generation Integrated Air and Missile Defense radar.” said Navy Capt. Seiko Okano, major program manager for Above Water Sensors, Program Executive Office (PEO) Integrated Warfare Systems (IWS). “AN/SPY-6 is the nation’s most advanced radar and will be the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s surface combatants for many decades.”
The navy says that, based on preliminary data, the test successfully met its primary objectives against a complex medium range ballistic missile (MRBM) target. Program officials will continue to evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.
The AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR is being designed for the DDG 51 Flight III destroyer to provide the U.S. Navy with the necessary technology for Integrated Air and Missile Defense.Between surgeries and hospital rounds one recent day, Dr. Rajiv Parakh made a dash into his Gurgaon office for an appointment he couldn’t miss: a consultation with a patient who lives hundreds of kilometres away.
Seated before his laptop in this city on the outskirts of India’s capital, the surgeon listened as a patient in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka described his swollen legs. For the next 20 minutes, Parakh examined the patient via Web camera, made a diagnosis and prescribed treatment.
The bespectacled Parakh, a practising doctor for nearly 30 years, spoke in Hindi during the session, enunciating his words for clarity.
Medanta, the multi-specialty hospital where he works, started its free telemedicine service about a year ago as an outreach service for patients who cannot visit the hospital.
“In-person consultation is obviously the gold standard,” Parakh told India Insight. “But if we have a doctor at the patient’s end, especially somebody who he trusts and who he knows, we can be reasonably comfortable about prescribing treatment.”
Medanta is one of several e-health providers that say they want to change how healthcare is delivered in India, and address the industry’s two biggest problems: accessibility and lack of manpower.
India has 0.7 physicians per 1,000 people — BRIC peers Russia (5), Brazil (1.5) and China (1.5) have better ratios — and most Indians travel about 20 kilometres to reach a hospital, according to a 2012 report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Having direct interaction with a specialist is nearly impossible for many patients since most specialist doctors live in cities, while 70 percent of India’s population lives in rural areas.
Even in cities, health workers say hectic lifestyles and longer commutes make it tough to visit the doctor.
But with nearly 900 million mobile phone connections and over 200 million internet users, experts say wireless technology can be harnessed to decentralise India’s healthcare industry, which is expected to touch $250 billion by 2020.
“Whatever you would have done in a physical hospital in the outpatient department can be achieved by sitting at home in front of a technologically enabled device like a tablet, a PC or a mobile phone,” said Debraj Shome, co-founder of MediAngels, which has specialist doctors from 15 countries on its rolls.
Health portal MediAngels has specialists from the United States and Italy available for Web chats or video calls. iClinic has telemedicine centres in smaller towns that connect patients to specialists in India’s cities. Mediphone, a countrywide medical phone service, costs 35 rupees (60 cents) per consultation.
Amit Dhiman, 33, suffered from nasal polyps and tried Medanta’s telemedicine service for a second opinion without taking a day off from work.
“We are in a corporate world, we get very less time, so I found that this medium is very useful for me because I can interact with the doctor directly without being in a queue,” said Dhiman, a data analyst with an IT services and consulting firm in Noida, southeast of Delhi.
Debasis Sarkar in Siliguri, West Bengal, used the service after meeting several doctors for the treatment of his wife, a singer who developed an “inconsistent fracture” in her voice.
“After the first consultation with the doctor through this telemedicine, I could have a brief idea about the [medical] procedure which is going to take place, so I could plan my trip [to New Delhi for treatment], I could plan my finance and prepare my family,” said Sarkar, speaking by phone from Siliguri.
Several state governments such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have launched free medical helplines. There also are private companies, such as Mediphone. Started in 2011, the paid service has more than 1,000 phone calls each day seeking medical advice, with 33 percent of the calls coming from Bihar, one of India’s most underdeveloped states.
“[In Bihar] somebody was collapsing and our operators gave [the caller] advice on how to do CPR and saved a life,” said Maninder Singh Grewal, managing director at HealthFore, the healthcare solutions firm that launched Mediphone along with mobile phone carrier Airtel.
iClinic, a start-up that started operations in October, has telemedicine centres in eight towns where patients can consult around 70 city-based specialists via video conferencing. This month, it also launched a 24/7 health portal.
“We have proved the concept works. We need to now stabilize the revenue and we need to start expanding in all parts of India because today there are 12,000 towns in India which have got 3G and broadband,” said Sanjoy Mukerji, managing director at iClinic.
Newer and smarter health devices are also helping the industry’s growth. Heart and blood pressure monitors can now wirelessly transmit the patient’s data to mobile phones or a central online database accessed by telemedicine centres.
“Almost all the big manufacturers are looking at developing devices with mobile functionality,” said Ankur Bharti, a consultant at PwC India. “Telemedicine centres have started picking up in the last one year because of these devices.”
Hospital operators such as Apollo and Fortis are also stepping into telemedicine, lured by lower costs and a pan-India reach.
“Hospitals have kind of understood how remote healthcare can give them better ROI [return on investment]. The telemedicine centre that cost you 125,000 rupees ($2,120) can give you 25 percent margins by the end of the year,” said Ruchi Dass, Founder & CEO at HealthCursor Consulting Group.
Despite the benefits of telemedicine, some users don’t see neighbourhood physicians and hospitals shutting up shop any time soon.
“There is no alternative to seeing a doctor face-to-face, at least not now,” said Sarkar.
(Editing by Robert MacMillan and Tony Tharakan; follow David on Twitter at @davidlms25, Robert @bobbymacReports and Tony @TonyTharakan. This article is website-exclusive and cannot be reproduced without permission)Carlisle striker Shaun Miller won a penalty, which was scored by Jamie Devitt against Wycombe
Carlisle forward Shaun Miller has been banned for two games after becoming the first player found guilty of simulation by the Football Association since new laws were introduced in May.
Miller, 30, had denied a charge of "successful deception of a match official" after a "clear act of simulation" against Wycombe on Tuesday.
The suspension is the first of its kind in English football.
Carlisle scored from the penalty which followed the incident, in a 3-3 draw.
A three-member FA review panel, which is changed each week and consists of one former match official, one ex-manager and one ex-player from a pool of 13, have to be unanimous before a charge is made.
Carlisle were awarded the penalty in the first half of Tuesday's League Two game when former Crewe and Morecambe man Miller went down under Wycombe defender Dan Scarr's challenge in the area.
Carlisle'very disappointed'
"We are very disappointed with this outcome," Carlisle chief executive Nigel Clibbens told the club website.
"In our view, there was no intent to deceive the referee and it is not a clear act either. Shaun and no other Carlisle United players appealed for a penalty.
"They all played on and were not expecting or seeking any decision. You can see from the footage that they were all surprised when a penalty was given."
Miller will be suspended for Saturday's home league game against Notts County and the trip to Chesterfield on 28 October.
What are the new laws?
The FA defines the offence for which players will be punished as "successful deception of a match official".
Only incidents that result in a player winning a penalty or lead to an opponent being sent off - through either a straight red card or two yellow cards - will be punished.
The FA says it will act "where there is clear and overwhelming evidence to suggest a match official has been deceived by an act of simulation, and as a direct result, the offending player's team has been awarded a penalty and/or an opposing player has been dismissed".
Such bans have been used in Scottish football since 2011.The weak magnetic moment of the electron makes it difficult to couple spin qubits that are separated by a large distance. Approaches to transferring spin information include physically shuttling electrons with surface acoustic waves or using exchange-coupled spin chains, both of which are experimentally challenging to realize11,12,13. An attractive alternative for realizing long-distance spin-qubit interactions is to interface spins with a superconducting microwave cavity in the cQED architecture. Unfortunately, direct coupling between a single spin magnetic dipole and the magnetic field of the cavity results in a spin–cavity coupling rate of g M /2π ≈ 10 Hz, which is much too weak to be useful for quantum information processing14. Recent experiments have explored coupling ensembles of spins to superconducting resonators, with the large number of spins, N S ≈ 1012, giving a enhancement in the spin–cavity coupling rate15,16,17.
Another approach to spin–cavity coupling relies on the spin–orbit interaction18. Spin–orbit coupling mixes spin and orbital degrees of freedom, resulting in spin states that have some orbital character, the spin–orbit doublets, and. Although electron spin states cannot be coupled directly to an electric field, the spin–orbit interaction enables electrical control by perturbing the orbital component of the electron wavefunction. Fast, coherent electrical control of spin states in quantum dots has been demonstrated in InAs nanowires where the spin–orbit interaction strength is large8,9,19. The cQED architecture could be used to couple two distant InAs nanowire quantum dot spin qubits with the spin–orbit interaction enabling a significantly increased spin–cavity coupling rate, g S (ref. 18). In this Letter, we take the first steps towards realizing this approach and couple the electric field of a high-quality-factor superconducting cavity to an InAs nanowire double quantum dot (DQD) device. We determine the charge–cavity coupling rate, g C, for the molecular orbital states of a single excess charge in the DQD. Then, with each of the two quantum dots acting as a spin qubit, we perform fast electrical spin-state control followed by single spin read-out using the microwave cavity. Our results demonstrate that spin qubits, which require substantial magnetic fields for their operation, can be readily integrated into the superconducting cQED architecture and pave the way for long-range coupling of spin qubits via microwave cavities.
Our hybrid spin-qubit/superconducting device is shown in Fig. 1. We fabricate a half-wavelength superconducting Nb resonator (the cavity) with a resonance frequency of f 0 = ω 0 /2π ≈ 6.2 GHz and quality factor of Q ≈ 2000 (Supplementary Information, section 2). The amplitude and phase responses of the cavity are detected using a homodyne measurement with a microwave probe frequency f R (ref. 5). We couple a single InAs nanowire spin qubit to the electric field generated by the cavity18. The qubit consists of a DQD defined in an InAs nanowire8,9. A series of Ti/Au depletion gates create a simple double-well confinement potential containing (N L, N R ) electrons, where N L and N R are the numbers of electrons in the left- and right-hand dots, respectively. We tune the tunnel coupling, t C, of the DQD by adjusting the voltage, V M, on the middle barrier gate (M in Fig. 1b). A trapped electron in the DQD has an electric dipole moment of d ≈ 1,000ea o, where a o is the Bohr radius and e is the electronic charge.
Figure 1: Hybrid DQD/superconducting resonator device. a, Circuit schematic and micrograph of the hybrid device design. Transmission through the half-wavelength superconducting Nb resonator is measured using homodyne detection at a frequency f R. Standard d.c. transport measurements are made possible by applying a source–drain bias, V SD, to the DQD using a ∼4-nH spiral inductor that is connected to the voltage node of the resonator23. See Supplementary Information, section 1, for further details. b, c, Scanning electron micrograph (b) and cross-sectional schematic view (c) of a typical nanowire DQD. The left and right barrier gates (B L and B R ), left and right plunger gates (L and R), and middle gate (M) are biased to create a double-well potential within the nanowire. The drain contact of the nanowire, D, is grounded, and the source contact, S, is connected to an antinode of the resonator, oscillating at a voltage V Cavity (t). An a.c. voltage at a frequency f G is applied to gate M to generate an oscillating electric field,. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
For a spin in a single quantum dot, the calculation in ref. 18 predicts a spin–cavity coupling rate of, where E Z is the Zeeman splitting of the spin states, ΔE 0 is the orbital level spacing, l is the quantum dot size and λ SO is the spin–orbit length, which characterizes the strength of the spin–orbit interaction18. Therefore, strong spin–cavity coupling requires two key components: a large charge–cavity coupling rate and a strong spin–orbit interaction. Charge–cavity coupling is achieved through the electric dipole interaction, as in experiments with superconducting qubits. An oscillating electric field, with amplitude, periodically displaces the electron quantum dot potential by a distance (Fig. 1c), which is dependent on the quantum dot confinement as determined by ΔE 0 and l (ref. 19). To enhance the cavity electric field at the position of the DQD—and maximize the charge–cavity coupling rate—the source and drain contacts of the nanowire are connected directly to the voltage antinode and the ground of the resonator. In the presence of a strong spin–orbit interaction, the displacement of the electron can induce spin-state rotations at a rate E Z / × r 0 /λ SO, where denotes Planck’s constant divided by 2π, with the linear dependence in E Z due to the Van Vleck zero-field cancellation of the spin–orbit term. Strong spin–orbit coupling is achieved using InAs, which has a short spin-orbit length, λ SO ≈ 100 nm (ref. 20).
We first characterize the interaction between an electron trapped in a DQD and the electric field of the cavity, demonstrating a 30-MHz charge–cavity coupling rate with this device architecture. We focus on the cavity response near the (M, N + 1) (M + 1, N) interdot charge transition in the many-electron regime (M ≈ 20, N ≈ 20; Supplementary Information, section 3). The DQD forms a two-level ‘artificial molecule’ with an energy splitting of, where is the detuning (Fig. 2a, top). Interdot tunnel coupling hybridizes the charge states around, resulting in a tunnel splitting of 2t C. The detuning-dependent dipole moment of the DQD has an admittance that loads the cavity. We characterize the strength of the interaction by the a.c. susceptibility, χ (ref. 21; Fig. 2a, bottom).
Figure 2: Measurement of the DQD charge–cavity coupling. a, DQD energy levels (top) and a.c. susceptibility, χ (bottom), as functions of detuning, ε. b, Phase response of the cavity as a function of gate voltages V L and V R near the (M + 1, N) (M, N + 1) charge transition, measured using a fixed drive frequency, f R = 6194.8 MHz. The dashed arrow indicates the detuning axis. At the interdot charge transition (ε = 0) an excess electron is delocalized across the DQD. Away from zero detuning, the electron is trapped in one of the dots. c, Cavity frequency, f 0 (approximately constant at 6.2 GHz), relative to the bare qubit transition frequency, Ω/h, for different values of the interdot tunnel coupling, t C, as extracted from the data in d. d, Phase response measured as a function of DQD detuning, ε, for a range of tunnel couplings, t C, as set by V M. The detuning is varied by sweeping V R. Phase data are offset by 7.5° for clarity. Dashed lines are fits to the data, allowing the determination of the charge–cavity coupling rate, g C /2π ≈ 30 MHz (see main text). Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
A qualitative understanding of the coupling between the quantum dot and the cavity can be obtained by considering the relevant energy scales in the system. The single-dot charging energy, E C ≈ 12 meV, is much larger than the relevant photon energy, hf R ≈ 25 μeV, and the cavity is largely unaffected by the DQD in Coulomb blockade. However, near interdot charge transitions (for example (M, N + 1) (M + 1, N)) or transitions with the source and drain electrodes (for example (M, N) (M, N + 1)), the energy scales associated with the DQD are close to the cavity energy, and the cavity is damped, resulting in a phase shift in microwave transmission at the bare cavity frequency. In Fig. 2b, the DQD charge stability diagram is measured around the (M, N + 1) (M + 1, N) transition by probing the phase response of the microwave cavity as a function of the gate voltages V L and V R (refs 10, 22).
Quantitative analysis of the cavity response requires a fully quantum mechanical model that accounts for photon exchange between the microwave field and the DQD18,23. In cavity QED, the pertinent interactions are those between an atom with transition frequency ω a = Ω/ and the photon field of the cavity, characterized by the resonance frequency ω 0. The atom and cavity energy levels hybridize when the atom–cavity detuning, Δ = ω a − ω 0, is less than g C, leading to the Jaynes–Cummings ladder of quantum states24. When the atom and cavity are detuned in the dispersive limit (Δ > g C ), the cavity field exhibits a phase shift in microwave transmission at the bare cavity frequency that is given by, where κ is the cavity decay rate. In Fig. 2d, we plot the phase response of the cavity for several values of the interdot tunnel coupling (see Supplementary Information, section 4 for the magnitude response). We observe a sign change in the phase as the atom–cavity detuning, Δ, is varied from positive to negative values5. We fit the phase and magnitude data to a master equation model (Supplementary Information, section 6.1) using a best-fit value of g C /2π = 30 MHz; an inhomogeneous broadening parameter,, to account for low-frequency charge noise; and a V M -dependent tunnel coupling that ranges from 2t C /h = 1.8 to 7.0 GHz (Fig. 2c). The charge–cavity coupling rate extracted here compares favourably to values obtained using Cooper pair box qubits5 (g C /2π ≈ 6 MHz), transmon qubits25 (g C /2π ≈ 100 MHz) and many-electron GaAs quantum dots10 (g C /2π ≈ 50 MHz).
We characterize the strength of the spin–orbit interaction by operating the device as a spin qubit (Fig. 3). For simplicity, we label the charge states (1, 1) and (0, 2) (ref. 4). The ground state with two electrons in the right quantum dot is the singlet S(0, 2). At negative detuning, the electrons are separated in a (1, 1) charge state, and the four relevant spin states are,, and (ref. 8). The level diagram is similar to a GaAs singlet–triplet spin qubit, with a key difference being that the g-factors for the two spins can vary significantly4 (Supplementary Information, section 6.2). Interdot tunnel coupling hybridizes the states with singlet character near, and an external field results in Zeeman splitting,, of the spin states, where is the electronic g-factor, µ B is the Bohr magneton and B is the magnetic field.
Figure 3: Spin-qubit spectroscopy. a, The measurement cycle for spin-qubit spectroscopy. The DQD is put in either the or the spin configuration as a result of Pauli spin blockade. EDSR transitions lift this blockade, resulting in current flow through the device. b, Spin-qubit spectroscopy as a function of magnetic field, B, measured under Pauli blockade. Pauli blockade is lifted by EDSR driving when the microwave frequency is, where (i = 1, 2) is the electronic g-factor of dot i. Inset, current through the DQD as a function of gate voltages V L and V R, with V SD = 2.5 mV. Current is suppressed inside the dashed region owing to Pauli spin blockade. c, Energy levels of the spin–orbit qubit plotted as a function of ε. The data in b are acquired with ε = ε′ ≈ 1 meV. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
Spin selection rules result in Pauli blockade at the two-electron transition, a key ingredient for spin preparation and measurement4,8,26 (Fig. 3b, inset). For example, state cannot tunnel to S(0, 2) due to Pauli exclusion. Modulation of the confinement potential with a gate voltage results in spin–orbit-driven electric dipole spin resonance (EDSR) transitions that lift the Pauli blockade8,19. In Fig. 3b, we plot the current, I, through the DQD with V SD = 2.5 meV and the gates tuned in Pauli blockade (Fig. 3b, white dot in inset). Hyperfine fields rapidly mix spin states when, where B N ≈ 2 mT is the hyperfine field9. At finite fields, the leakage current is non-zero when the a.c. driving frequency on the gate, f G, satisfies the electron spin resonance condition E Z = hf G. We observe two resonance conditions corresponding to single spin rotations in the left- and right-hand quantum dots, with g-factors of 8.2 and 10.6 (ref. 8).
In cQED with superconducting qubits, measurements of the cavity response can be used for qubit read-out. For spin qubits, around, the DQD has a spin-state-dependent dipole moment due to Pauli blockade that allows spin-state read-out via the superconducting cavity27. We combine quantum control of the spins using EDSR and cavity detection of single-spin dynamics using the pulse sequence shown in Fig. 4a, b. Starting with the spin qubit in state, we pulse to negative detuning ( ) and apply a microwave burst of length τ B to drive EDSR transitions. For example, an EDSR π-pulse will drive a spin transition from 〉 to. The resulting spin state is probed by pulsing back to for a measurement time T M. The cavity is most sensitive to charge dynamics near owing to the different a.c. susceptibilities of spin states and (Supplementary Information, section 6.3). In Fig. 4c, we plot the cavity phase shift as a function of f G and B. We again observe two features that follow the standard spin resonance condition, consistent with the d.c. transport data in Fig. 4b. By varying T M, we fit the measured phase response to theory and estimate a spin lifetime of T 1 ≈ 1 μs (Fig. 4d). We anticipate that the relaxation time is detuning dependent, with longer spin relaxation times away from (ref. 28; Supplementary Information, section 5).
Figure 4: Coherent spin-state control and detection using the microwave cavity. a, Top: pulse sequence used for spin-state control and resonator read-out, superimposed on the level diagram. Bottom: the a.c. susceptibility, χ, is dependent on the spin state of the DQD and allows for sensitive spin read-out via the microwave cavity. b, Pulse sequence used for spin-state control and resonator read-out. Starting in state, an EDSR burst is applied at far detuning (ε = ε′ ≈ −2 meV). The resultant spin state is then measured at ε = 0 by probing the cavity transmission using a weak continuous tone of frequency f R. c, Phase response of the cavity measured as a function of EDSR drive frequency, f G, and external field, B, with τ B = 100 ns and T M = 850 ns. EDSR transitions are observed in the phase response, in agreement with the d.c. transport data, with small differences in and attributable to the difference in sample tuning necessary to optimize the response. d, Measured phase shift as a function of T M, with τ B = 100 ns, B = 90 mT and f G = 13.1 GHz. A fit to theory yields a spin relaxation time of T 1 = 1 μs. e, Phase response of the cavity as a function of EDSR burst length, τ B, and approximate driving power at the sample, P G, for B = 86 mT, f G = 9.5 GHz and T M = 1.75 μs. Data were taken at a different sample tuning from data in c–d. f, Rabi oscillations at different powers, indicated by the dashed lines in e. The data are shifted in phase by 0.45° for clarity. The solid curves are fits to a power-law decay. We obtain a minimum Rabi period of τ Rabi = 17 ns (Supplementary Information, section 5). Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
We demonstrate coherent control of the spin qubit and read-out via the cavity by varying the EDSR microwave burst length, τ B. Figure 4e shows the measured phase as a function of τ B and the gate drive power, P G. We observe Rabi oscillations with a minimum period of 17 ns (Fig. 4f), consistent with an EDSR driving mechanism8. These data show how the microwave field of the cavity is sensitive to the spin state of a single electron and that by using the cQED architecture quantum dot spin states may be coherently controlled and measured using microwave electric fields.
Long-distance coupling of spin qubits via a cavity will require a spin–cavity coupling rate that is larger than the cavity decay rate and the qubit decoherence rate. Although the method of spin-state read-out that we have demonstrated does not imply spin–cavity coupling, on the basis of our results we can estimate the effective spin–cavity coupling strength. From our measurements, we find that g C /2π = 30 MHz, E Z = 25 μeV and ΔE 0 = 1.7 meV, which gives, where m*, the effective electron mass in InAs, is 0.023 times the bare electron mass. Assuming a spin–orbit length of λ SO ≈ 100 nm (ref. 20), we find a spin–cavity coupling rate of g S /2π ≈ 0.2 MHz, which is four orders of magnitude larger than the coupling rate g M that would be obtained by coupling a single spin to the magnetic field of a microwave cavity. This spin–cavity coupling rate could be readily increased to ∼1 MHz by increasing the cavity resonance frequency to f 0 = 15 GHz (which would proportionally increase both g C and E Z ). Recent theoretical work also predicts an enhanced spin–cavity coupling for a single spin in a DQD biased at (ref. 29).
In addition to increasing the spin–cavity coupling rate, there is significant scope for improving the cavity decay rate and the qubit decoherence rate. Optimization of the resonator design will reduce the cavity decay rate to well below 1 MHz (Supplementary Information, section 2). There are several options for decreasing the qubit decoherence rate, which is at present limited by coupling to the nuclear spin bath. Dynamical decoupling has already been used to reduce the qubit decay rate to ∼1 MHz in the InAs system8. InAs could also be replaced by nuclear-spin-free Ge/Si core–shell nanowires where hole spin–orbit coupling is predicted to be large30. On the basis of our results, we anticipate that the strong-coupling regime for single spins can be reached, eventually allowing spin qubits to be interconnected in a quantum bus architecture.White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Thursday said Republicans in Congress have a long history of attempting to appeal to extremists.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I think what is clear is that there has been a willingness on the part of Republicans in Congress to appeal to extremists in this country to try to build political support for their party," Earnest said.
Earnest was asked if the White House shares 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's sentiments that Republican nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE is making a "hate movement mainstream."
Earnest said he'll let the candidates "offer up their own opinions about the tactics that are employed by either side," and then shifted to congressional Republicans.
His comments come ahead of a speech that Clinton will make linking Trump to the "extremism" of the "alt-right" movement — a sect of hardcore conservatives often associated with white nationalism. In a video released Thursday, Clinton linked Trump to the Ku Klux Klan.
Earnest said Republicans in Congress have come forward in support of religious tests to try to keep Muslims out of the country.
He also said Republicans have supported voting-rights measures in some states to "disenfranchise minority voters."
"There's a long track record of the cynical political tactics of congressional Republicans to appeal to extremists that move their agenda forward and to win elections," Earnest said.
"I think it’s why you see a lot of Republicans, not just here in Washington, D.C., but across the country, quite concerned about the state of their party and the years-long willingness of leading Republicans to engage in these kinds of cynical tactics," Earnest continued.
"It appears to be taking a toll on their party."
— This report was updated at |
(or a Burning Bush) touched by his fire.
I don’t think we know more about theology now than the first Christians did, unlike other sciences. Well, what does theology mean—ideas about God, or this science of prayer, healing, union with God? Orthodox Christians believe that the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, already in the first century mastered this science of prayer. After that, centuries of practice, across multiple cultures, further defined it. That accumulated knowledge provides much guidance, and accountability keeps us safe.
Theology in the more abstract sense has to meet the practical test of whether it’s compatible with increasing holiness. I don’t think we can make the case that our own generation is the most theologically accurate generation that ever lived. If we were, we would all be walking on water. The test of theology is holiness, and we’re just not that much noticeably holier than the martyrs of the early centuries, to pick an example.
The question of how people of other religions fit in is a frequent one. I think where we get confused is in imaging “other religions” as a series of clouds: a Muslim cloud, a Buddhist cloud, etc. In reality, there are only people—people who believe and follow Islam, Buddhism, and so forth. Every one an individual person, created and known by God. Every one in a direct personal relationship with God already, whether they know it or not; a connection deeper than their own knowledge of themselves, a connection of a sort possible only to their Creator. Every one of them beloved and of eternal value.
When they pray to God, their prayers are heard by Jesus, because he (the Trinity) is the only God there is. And he loves them. “He wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4).
This means coming to Christ, who is “the truth.” Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).
To what extent that relationship advances in any individual’s lifetime is not something God has asked me to have an opinion about. I can’t even judge my own progress (1 Corinthians 4:3), much less someone else’s. He assigned me to be a witness (Acts 1:8), not a judge (Matthew 7:1). But he did call us to be witnesses, and to present Christ “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). If he has a plan to save people apart from their accepting Christ as Lord, he hasn’t told us about it. Apparently he’s told us all a servant needs to know.
I come back to—it’s not about ideas, but about a relationship. I met a Christian evangelical missionary to Muslims once and said I thought it would be very hard to present the Christian faith in that context. She said that’s not how conversions happen anyway; 75% of the time, when a Muslim becomes a Christian, it is the result of a dream or a vision. God leaps right over a wall (Psalm 18:29).
A couple of people mentioned St. Thomas Aquinas. Oddly enough, he had an experience at the end of his life that caused him to reevaluate his life’s work. At a liturgy on December 6, 1273, he had an experience of Christ—an overwhelming experience, it seems, but he never described it to anyone.
After that, he stopped writing. His assistant begged him to, but he refused. He said, “I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me.” He died three months later.
Finally, I don’t know what to say about, or to, those who long to experience God’s presence, but never have. I don’t know why it’s easier for some than others. In my case, I was a recent college grad, comfortably contemptuous of Christianity and dabbling in Hinduism, when the undeniable presence of Jesus knocked me flat.
Why me and not someone else? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem fair. I expect it helps, as Jesus said, to ask, seek, and knock—but I wasn’t doing any of those things. I thought Christianity was embarrassing, not lofty and exotic like other religions. Well, he just knocked me flat.
I have so much admiration for those who keep on trying, though their bowl remains empty. I can’t imagine what that is like—what fortitude, what faithfulness, that entails. It’s suffering, isn’t it? Desiring this contact with God, and not receiving it, is suffering.
All I can think is that you must already be experiencing some hint of it, in some way you don’t immediately identify. Think about what people are like who don’t care about God; there are plenty of people like that. If this question haunts you, and you keep returning to the night sky that seems so empty—I believe you are already sensing something, or you wouldn’t keep seeking it. You wouldn’t desire it, if you hadn’t caught a whiff of that intoxicating fragrance. Something is already there. I pray it will get stronger.
Maybe God knows I wouldn’t keep following him if he didn’t keep sprinkling M & Ms on the path. Maybe he knows you have a stronger, deeper heart than mine. My prayer for you is that God will make clearer to you that “still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), provide some manna in your wilderness, and reward your noble, persevering heart.
Funny, when I began writing (very suddenly, in 1989), it was all about social issues. I thought the place to be was the public square, crafting language that could call people to justice. It seemed so urgent and important, and now I see how strangely ineffective most of that was. I begin to think it’s really all about bearing witness—that the only really useful thing I can do (getting back to my preference for practicality) is to tell what happened to me.
***
Awhile back I had an experience that confirmed my suspicion of theologizing-for-its-own-sake in a way that was almost comical. I was participating in an ecumenical academic conference. When invited to such things I usually tell the host that I’m not an academic and can recommend someone better, but often they still want me.
So I was participating in a panel, when another member, a very old Catholic scholar, said, “What you said in your book, it’s not true.” I wondered what I’d said in which book; from his comments, it was apparently something about the Great Schism and the filioque…but as he went along he was covering a lot of things I actually agreed with, and things I’d never written about, and not coming to any particular point. (He even said something about the filioque that was harsher than anything I’d *ever* written, referring to the “unilateral ecclesiastical arrogance that Rome could introduce a word into a conciliar text”.)
I was racking my brain to figure out which book he was talking about, and what I might have said there, as the most likely books were over ten years old. I kept jotting notes on what he was saying, hoping to piece it together later. I took what he said seriously. I never want to give offense unintentionally. If I’m going to have to give offense, I want it to be well thought through.
He ended by fixing me with a bold stare and pronouncing, “History is not confessional propaganda masquerading as history.” And the room burst into applause. I looked up, shocked. A portion of the audience composed of Catholic seminarians were laughing and clapping with delight.
I talked to the event host later, and he explained that they like to see this aged professor really zing somebody; they like to egg him on. But, I said, what he’d said didn’t actually make sense. It didn’t correspond to anything I’d written, and it didn’t even hang together as a series of thoughts. Over the phone I heard a shrug.
So that’s why I say it confirmed my lack of enthusiasm for pure-theory theology. Those audience members weren’t applauding the old professor’s intellectual insight or rigor. They were rewarding the sizzle of confrontation. It’s the fight that’s thrilling, not the logical purity. This is what happens when theology gets too far disconnected from prayer, and becomes a sport in its own right. People don’t even realize how spiritually unhealthy it is.Since Donald Trump was elected president, economic news about the U.S. has done one thing: get better.
But for the first time, recent rounds of economic data have begun to disappoint.
The March jobs report saw the economy add 98,000 jobs, well below economists’ expectations for gains of closer to 180,000 ahead of the data. And last Friday, we saw retail sales numbers come up shy of expectations, while on Tuesday both housing starts data and industrial production missed estimates.
And according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the U.S. economic surprise index is starting to roll over. Which means that economic news — while not necessarily bad — is no longer better-than-expected.
Economic surprises have started to turn down in recent weeks, bucking a months-long trend. (Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch) More
“For the first time since the US elections economic data overall have begun to surprise to the downside,” writes Hans Mikkelsen, a credit strategist at BAML.
While the magnitude of these disappointments depends on perspective — i.e. how the individual data releases are weighted and more — this trend is noteworthy.”
Actual economic growth, of course, is a combination of activity and confidence and plans long since committed to. But part of what makes confidence such a pivotal measure for markets and economists to track is that upticks in confidence can lead to either new plans or change the trajectory for existing investments.
So while the ups and downs of economic confidence are far more volatile than economic growth itself, confidence is the thing with the most potential to change what actually happens.
Mikkelsen adds that this drop in expectations, “comes after an extended period of time where, as we have addressed frequently, loan data has been weak.” This decline in bank loans, which we saw again in last week’s H.8 data on bank balance sheets from the Federal Reserve, has been much discussed in markets, though dismissed as not a concern by Fed officials, among others.
And whether the decline in credit growth and the drop in economic surprises are the beginning of a downturn or the right-sizing of trends that broke out after the election, it’s clear we are entering a new phase for the U.S. economy.
—
Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland
Read more from Myles here:Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu may have selected Amaravati as the new capital and directed all government offices to relocate from Hyderabad to Vijayawada-Guntur, but the nondescript village of Ibrahimpatnam has emerged as the most preferred destination for temporary offices.Located on the periphery of Vijayawada, Ibrahimpatnam has a population of about 30,000.It is now buzzing with activity as many government departments have set their eyes on this mandal headquarters, which falls under the Vijayawada city police commissionerate.The sudden demand has spiked the rents for residential and commercial properties here.The apparent advantage of Ibrahimpatnam is its location. As it is on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway, one does not need to battle the traffic congestion of Vijayawada.The travel time from Hyderabad to Ibrahimpatnam is about four hours and it is also located at a stone's throw distance from the upcoming interim government complex at Velagapudi village.All one has to do is cross river Krishna by boat to reach Velagapudi within a few minutes.Several departments have identified buildings to locate their temporary offices at Ibrahimpatnam. The education department has identified Anjaneya Towers while the AP Genco, stamps and registration as well as survey and settlement departments too have zeroed in on this village. The finance, pay and accounts, and treasuries departments have decided to set up offices near the village.However, even as only four days are left for the June 27 deadline for shifting, only 20 of the 89 heads of departments have finalised their offices. The remaining are struggling as they too want the offices to be located on the national highway. "The reason is simple. We can reach the office in three to four hours and also return to Hyderabad whenever there is a need. We need not get into the traffic congestion of Vijayawada, which is experiencing a high VIP movement of late. Narrow roads and lack of flyovers make it difficult to move fast in the city. Having an office near Ibrahimpatnam is ideal for officials who have families in Hyderabad," said a senior government official.As per the data available with the general administration department (GAD), 20 HoDs will start their operations from June 27 while about 10 HoDs will start from July 15."Some have already taken their offices, but the renovation work is going on to refurbish old buildings. This will take one more month and during this time, we have asked the officers to shuttle between Hyderabad and Vijayawada," said an official in GAD.Among those who have shifted or identified offices in Vijayawada are departments of rural development, housing, irrigation, commercial taxes, excise and three HoDs of the medical and health department. Among those still struggling to find suitable office accommodation are the minorities department and the revenue department, which has sought about 80,000 sq ft area on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway.Interestingly, 90 per cent of the buildings are owned by people from one community. Private owners have jacked up rents from Rs 25 to Rs 30 per square feet, which is more than the rates prevailing in major cities.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Altankhuyag attended the special legislative meeting held on Wednesday to vote on his ouster
Mongolia's Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag has been removed after MPs, including some from his party, voted to dismiss him.
He had been accused of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.
One of Mr Altankhuyag's close aides is now being investigated for embezzlement of coal subsidies.
Mineral-rich Mongolia had seen rapid economic growth in recent years but this has slowed sharply, as has foreign investment, while inflation has risen.
Out of the 66 parliamentarians who voted on Wednesday in a special meeting, 36 chose to oust him. Another 10 did not show up.
Deputy Prime Minister Dendev Terbishdagva has been placed temporarily in charge until a new prime minister is elected.
The move is the latest development in ongoing political turmoil.
In recent weeks, seven ministers have resigned after Mr Altankhuyag consolidated some ministries, prompting calls from the opposition for him to step down.
The country has yet to pass a budget for this year - parliament rejected a budget proposal for the second time last month amid criticism of exorbitant spending.
Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Altankhuyag (R) handed over his official government seal to deputy PM Dendev Terbishdagva (L)
Mongolia has had a strong economy in recent years, gaining 17.5% growth in 2011. But that figure has since slid to 6.3% currently.
Foreign investment has dropped by 59% this year, as the government continues to negotiate the development of a copper and gold mine with mining company Rio Tinto.
A former natural environment and tourism minister who was also a senior adviser to Mr Altankhuyag was arrested in July for embezzlement.
Gansukh Luumed is being probed for taking money from a coal subsidy programme meant for poor residents living in slum areas of the nation's capital Ulaan Baatar, according to reports.
Mr Altankhuyag had said at that time that Mr Luumed's arrest was an act of "sabotage" on the government.Share. Our pick of the best teasers and video virals, including Man of Steel, Star Trek and The Dark Knight. Our pick of the best teasers and video virals, including Man of Steel, Star Trek and The Dark Knight.
Movies have been marketed in a myriad of ways in recent years, but since the advent of the internet, film studios have become ever more imaginative and creative.
The most popular recent development is what has become known as the ‘Video Viral’ – clever, promotional shorts that don’t look like or sound like ads, but really are ads, and extremely shareable ones at that.
We’ve posted a few of our favourites such videos below, but first, a potted history of how this trailer technique has evolved in recent years…
In the 1990s teasers were all the rage, with the summer blockbusters shooting special trailers in advance of principal photography, with Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park prime examples; brilliant adverts that masterfully whet the appetite without showing a single shot from the finished film.
David Fincher also had a go with his now legendary Fight Club Public Service Announcements, which were deemed too subversive for theatres at the time but later found a home on DVD and YouTube.
As the internet grew in popularity, and sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit became dominant, the industry was forced to adapt, creating teasers and trailers that not only impressed in theatres, but also inspired people to post and share on social networks, thereby increasing the reach of their campaigns exponentially.
In 2006 Michael Bay’s Transformers teaser skilfully set the stage for carnage that hit screens the following summer, and immediately became the most talked-about trailer on the 'net, inspiring other filmmakers to show little but say a lot.
Exit Theatre Mode
Christopher Nolan simply used dialogue in the first The Dark Knight tease, with trailer brilliantly backed up by a huge viral campaign revolving around The Joker and Harvey Dent, a technique he again used when marketing The Dark Knight Rises last summer.
Exit Theatre Mode
J.J. Abrams is another filmmaker who has embraced the internet, the jaw-dropping teasers for Cloverfield and Super 8 supported by stacks of online material offering clues as to the nature of the horror at the heart of both films.
Exit Theatre Mode
With his Star Trek reboot he produced one of the most simple but effective teasers yet seen; a nostalgia trip for long-time fans of the franchise, and an introduction to the majesty of the U.S.S. Enterprise for newcomers.
Exit Theatre Mode
And Abrams’ recent Star Trek Into Darkness trailer took the technique to the next level by secreting URLs in the background and foreground of shots that unlocked content in the shape of brand-new international posters. For example, when Alive Eve appears in her underwear, the following URL appears in the background: bit.ly/WyJV4F. Though why you'd be checking out the background during that moment is anyone's guess.
But the coolest and most interesting of these teasers are the ones that ignore the traditional trailer template in favour of something a little more exciting and original.
The clever people at Pixar released a spoof ad for Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear to promote Toy Story 3, and even added a tracking line to lend proceedings for that 1980s VHS look.
Disney followed that example with its fake trailer for Fix-It Felix, the made-up game at the heart of Wreck-It Ralph.
Eli Roth took a less family-friendly approach to the marketing of The Last Exorcism, the below compilation of Chatroulette videos terrifying and hilarious in equal measure and the kind of clever content that spreads across the internet like wildfire.
David Fincher was at it again for The Social Network, crafting a a teaser that made clever use of the subject of the film - Facebook - which as a by-product made it hugely shareable on that very site.
But perhaps the most interesting viral vids to hit the net were those created for Prometheus. The ‘Quiet Eye’ short offered an illuminating glimpse into the mind of Elizabeth Shaw while ‘David’ gave the audience some background on the film’s scene-stealing android.
Best of all was Peter Weyland’s TED talk, a marvellous three-minute short that introduced the film’s most mysterious character as well as the film’s major themes. “We are the Gods now” explains Weyland at the end of his speech, and Prometheus revolves around the horror that follows making such a statement.
Exit Theatre Mode
Finally we come to the latest video viral to hit the net – General Zod’s ominous warning to the people of earth issued earlier this week and heralding the release of Man of Steel in June. It’s the first such video to hit this summer, but with shorts of this sort increasing in both effectiveness and popularity, we’re pretty sure it won’t be the last.
Exit Theatre Mode
Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and wants to know what your favourite teasers and virals are, so drop him a line on either Twitter or MyIGN.[Disclaimer: I’m British and trying to talk about the NFL, so it’s pretty likely I’m going to sound like either an idiot or an alien while trying to describe what’s going on here, my only request is that you send abuse using the anonymous field at the bottom which goes straight to my email instead of the comment box which everyone can see]
Imagine walking down the street and someone with a clipboard and a bored expression asks you the question “How many glasses of water did you have in the last week?”. You probably don’t really know the answer, and the person asking doesn’t really give too much of a crap. Maybe you could guess at any number between 30 and 40 glasses of water with an equal amount of belief, but you have to choose a number – are you just as likely to choose 32 as 35?
Maybe not, and in the NFL when the guy with the ball gets tackled or stopped at the end of a run and the officials only get a few seconds and a compromised view to decide where it stops, Will every yard line be treated equally?
What I’ve got: A spreadsheet containing every single play run in the NFL from 2000-2014 (500,000 in all)
What I’m going to do with it: Show that the referees subconsciously change the outcome of a play based on where the painted lines are on a field, and subsequently show that it doesn’t matter.
OK let’s go, first off for the football illiterate, a walkthrough of all the words you won’t know that are important in this post. (skip to next horizontal line if you don’t need me to explain what a play is)
American Football is based on a series of plays. A play is started by the offense taking the ball and either deciding to run with it or pass it to another player down towards the opponent’s endzone. The play finishes when the player holding the ball:
Is tackled by the defence Runs off of the field Throws the ball to someone who doesn’t catch it Has their motion stopped by the defence.
For 1, 2 and 4 the next play then starts where the ball was when that event happened. However 1 and 4 often look like this:
Can you see the ball? You can take some time if you’d like. The situation above usually starts and ends within a second, and the officials (referees to those who follow soccer) need to get the ball and place it down on a yard line within a few seconds. This is the spot of the next play.
Also relevant to our discussion is the gridiron. This is a colloquial way to refer to the markings (required by regulations) on an official NFL field. It look like this:
so in a play you will start at yard x, and go y yards – then on your next play you will start at the x+y yard line – in most cases you will start at a yard line such as 1,2,3,4,…,99 even though the only ones marked out by full lines are 0,5,10,15,..,100. The game of football is then essentially a slow crawl to the opponents end of the field.
Relevant later is the scoring. The two main ways to score are to walk into your opponents endzone (the darker green at the end of the gridiron) – that’s known as a touchdown and is worth 7 points. The second is to be able to kick the ball between the posts at the end of your drive, which is known as a field goal and is worth 3 points.
Okay, I can breathe now safe in the knowledge I haven’t alienated the vast majority of people who might read this. Let’s move on to the interesting part of this post.
The first thing I decided to do when I picked up the spreadsheet with these half a million plays was to ask the question where do plays start from?
So I took every single play in the 14 year dataset, took its starting position and plotted a bar graph. Here it is:
For those of you who realised that my explanation of football above was incomplete, or realise from this graph, an important point is that most of the collections of plays (known as drives) start from the 20 yard line, and the offense can lose the ball if they don’t move it upfield fast enough. This explains both the large peak at the 20 yard line and the smooth decline from 30 down to 100 (the opponents endzone) as the offense has to give the ball to the other team.
In fact, this graph is 90% completely inane and what you might expect. Drives start, some drives finish in midfield (30-60 yard line) and some drives make it all the way to the end (100) in which you have a tense goal line battle (see the peak at your opponents 1st (99th) yard line). What is less easy to explain though is the very sharp peaks which jut out above the smooth curve. I assumed these peaks were my fault and messed around for ages to get rid of them, but I just couldn’t shake them. Then I took this graph and compared it to the lines on a gridiron like so:
Every single one of those staccato sharp peaks occurs on a line which is drawn on the field. This isn’t a small effect, on the 40 yard line this deviation is around about 20%. And it isn’t due to a lack of data, the average deviation from the ‘true’ distribution for a dataset this large should be around 1%, so this is highly statistically significant.
So what could it be? The first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps football teams preferentially run plays which are based around the yard lines. Say instead of just running five yards forward, run to that next line across the field and I’ll chuck it to you. Or maybe there’s a conscious effort by a player to reach for a field line when they see one. Those two sound about reasonable until you consider that if someone was to receive the ball at the 30 yard line, they’re going to run in either direction until they get tackled, which means that a play that was based around the 30 yard line might end up at the 31 yard line, or the runner who is reaching for the 30 yard line might just miss and get the 29. The effect of this on that graph would be to spread out the peak across a few yards, but we instead see a perfectly sharp peak.
The only explanation that has stuck with me is that when a official thinks “oh damn this is a mess, there are seven separate six foot tall millionaires all piled up on top of the ball and I have 100 rules to try and remember, where did that ball stop?” their subconscious makes them grab for the safety blanket of a line drawn and place it down on there.
This is known as Statistical Heaping and is a well known effect for respondents of surveys. It is the act of choosing a number you’re more comfortable with in the range of values you think it might be, is the number between 8 and 12? Just say its 10. For example take this graph of the birth weight of babies in Tanzania taken from this link:
You see that either you are to believe that the babies weights are being reported as round numbers to save time, or something is happening where you can only produce babies with a multiple of 500 grams.
So if it is true and we’re to believe that the referees are favouring putting the ball on the yard lines – what does it mean? We see that the peaks are far more pronounced by midfield, and when you get closer to the goal line they almost entirely disappear, this makes it seem like the referees are paying closer attention near the goal line because they know it’s more important.
Why is it more important, isn’t a one yard gain a one yard gain? Well to work this out I made a graph of the average amount of points scored based on where the team is on the field. This means that for every yard line I took all drives that had at least one play that started on that yard line, and then did an average over all their points. Shown below: (N.B. 7 points for a touchdown, 3 points for a field goal)
You can see that in the area where the peaks on the painted field lines are most pronounced (30-50 yards), the extra yard on average makes little difference to the outcome of the drive, however when you get close to the endzone between 80 and 90 the difference in one yard is quite significant – this is why the referees are being extra careful.
To sum up: are referees biased in where they place the ball? Yeah, probably. Does it make a difference to a football game? Not really. I feel like there might be something I’m missing as this hasn’t been brought up before to my knowledge, so if you know why this is wrong please hit me up below.
Further unbelievably complex reading on statistical heaping can be found at: Sex, lies and self-reported counts.
Follow me at my shiny new ‘semi-pro’ twitter @JoeyMFaulkner
AdvertisementsLocated 12 km (7.46 miles) east of Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, Wang Family's Grand Courtyard, or "Wang Jia Da Yuan," is the largest folk residence among all the well-known grand courtyards.
It was built by Wang Family, one of the four grand families of Lingshi County during the Kangxi Emperor's Reign (1661-1722) to the Jiaqing Emperor's Reign (1796-1820) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The site features the architectural style of the Qing Dynasty.
It consists of five alleys, five fortresses and five ancestral halls. It has 231 small courtyards and 2,078 rooms, covering an area of 80,000 square meters (8 hectares). The layout of the yards shows the strict hierarchical system of ancient China. Rooms and yards with different scales were offered to people in accordance with their social status. [China.org.cn/Photo by Han Bo]Kenny is a white tiger that was ‘selectively’ inbred while in captivity in the United States. As zoos and exotic pet stores along with consumers have increased the demand for white tigers, breeders have attempted to recreate the ideal white tiger — large snout, blue eyes, white fur — by relying on a limited pool of white tigers that are in captivity.
The result? With such a limited gene pool, white tigers are born with an astoundingly high rate of deformities and health issues.
For example, Kenny is mentally retarded, has significant physical limitations, and is considered the first tiger with down syndrome. The pictures, in many ways, speak to the condition that Kenny and other captive white tigers are in:
Videos Of Kenny, The Tiger With Down Syndrome
In the videos below, you can see what the daily life was like for Kenny as he lives his days out at the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas:
And if you enjoyed this post on Kenny, the inbred white tiger, be sure to like PBH2 on Facebook and check out PBH2’s other posts on the cutest pictures on the internet and creepiest GIFs ever.A press group has been triggered by the NRA's advertising campaigns. Chris Pedigo, the senior vice president of government affairs at Digital Content Next, which represents major outlets like 21st Century Fox, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and the BBC, among others, sent a letter to NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch noting that they did not appreciate her recent ad spots.
In a viral video published earlier this year, Loesch told the NRA's supporters that outlets like The New York Times cannot be trusted. She and other NRA members are "coming for" the “untrustworthy, dishonest rag,” she said.
Her words, Pedigo argued, could very well lead to violence against reporters.
"It's your equal right to express your disagreement with viewpoints expressed by The New York Times or any other news organizations. The Constitution and its amendments are not ripe for cherry picking," the trade group said in Tuesday's letter. "However, when you use such incendiary language as 'we're coming for you,' it is our right to suggest in the strongest terms that your behavior is blatantly irresponsible as it may incite violence against journalists." "Ninety-nine people out of a hundred would interpret this language as threatening and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst. Bottom line: It is un-American to threaten journalists," the letter said.
Loesch has denied threatening the media. Anyone who interpreted the video that way, she said, was pushing “their violent fantasies on to others.”
She wasn't done.
Basically, I’m told that it is “unAmerican” to question the media. Oooookay. — Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) September 5, 2017In December 2015 virtual reality (VR) developer Khora ApS launched its first videogame for the Samsung Gear VR mobile head-mounted display (HMD). Called Cityscape Repairman, it’s a third-person puzzle title that appeared as a finalist in the Oculus mobile VR jam, entered by Peter Fisher, the 3D VR artist who created the experience and subsequently joined the company. Today the studio has announced the latest version Cityscape Repairman 2.0 will be launching on the Oculus Rift next week.
The videogame centres around a repairman those duty is to keep the city running through regular maintenance and fixing problems. This involves completing each of the increasingly difficult puzzles put before players.
Covering 18 industrial levels, Cityscape Repairman 2.0 not only challenges players to complete the puzzles but also to do it as quickly as possible in order to make it to the top 10 leaderboard for each puzzle.
Cityscape Repairman 2.0 will be launching on the Oculus Store on 21st July 2016, priced at $7.99 USD.
Khora has previously mention plans to bring the title to HTC Vive, with support for its Room Scale tracking technology, but as of yet no further details have been released.
The next project from the studio will be DIY the Universe, an educational game where 2 students collaborate to create the universe by assembling the necessary atoms.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Khora ApS, reporting back with any further announcements.Human rights groups on Thursday condemned the execution of at least 20 Kurdish activists in Iran who had been charged with links to terrorism.
A statement by the Iranian intelligence ministry confirmed the Wednesday executions, saying the convicts were part of a terrorist cell that was responsible for armed attacks in Iran’s western provinces.
"These people had committed murder... killed women and children, caused destruction and acted against the security, and killed Sunni religious leaders in some Kurdish regions," Mohammad Javad Montazeri, Iran’s top prosecutor, told IRIB TV, a state-run channel.
The Iranian government said that the men had ties to foreign Islamist groups, an apparent reference to Islamic State, and that they were plotting to carry out attacks inside Iran. But rights activists said the government’s accusations were baseless.
Imprisoned earlier
“Some of them had been in prison even before Daesh [Islamic State] or other Sunni extremist groups appeared in the region,” said an attorney from Tehran who requested anonymity.
Shahram Ahmadi, 29, a Kurdish activist from Sanandaj, was among those who were hanged. He was reportedly arrested for distributing leaflets that demanded rights for the Sunni minority in Iran.
Ahmadi’s sister told VOA the family recently received a call from an Iranian court, asking that the relatives give him a “farewell visit” in prison.
“When we went to Tehran, we received another call saying that only [Shahram’s] dad must show up,” she said. “But when we got [to the prison], we received the body of our executed brother.”
Scaring the public
Rights activists in Iran say the government is using IS as an excuse to instill fear in the public.
Iranian national television recently aired a documentary featuring interviews with alleged IS agents who had been arrested by Iranian intelligence forces. The men pictured in the report confessed to infiltrating Iran with the aim of destabilizing the country.
“The broadcast of this so-called documentary was a sign that a string of executions is under way,” said Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, a spokesperson for Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group that monitors Iran’s executions. “These sorts of tactics are used to prepare the public for upcoming actions.”
Ethnic Kurds make up nearly 9 percent of Iran’s 80 million people. They are largely Sunni Muslims in a country ruled by Shi'ite Muslims.
“Kurds in Iran are persecuted twice — first because they are Kurds, and second because they are Sunnis,” said Azad Moradian, spokesman for the Los Angeles-based Kurdish American Committee for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran.
Kurds in Iran have long desired more autonomy from Tehran's firm grip, and they have been calling for cultural and political rights. Since mid-June, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been clashing with Kurds in some areas along the Iran-Iraq border.
Support for Kurds alleged
Tehran has accused foreign powers, Saudi Arabia in particular, of backing Kurdish rebels against Iranian forces. But Kurdish groups say this is merely a pretext for the government to justify its suppression of Kurds.
Saudi Arabia is a traditional rival of Iran in the region. In Syria, Iran has been a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while Saudis have been supporting anti-government Syrian rebels.
“These [executions] have something to do with Iran’s regional policy,” said Moradian. “Iran is afraid of a Saudi influence in Sunni Kurds. And so these executions could be a message for Saudi Arabia.”
Rights groups have long criticized Iran for hangings and executions of people that the regime says are criminals. Amnesty International said 977 people were executed in 2015 |
-Fi in lobbies, but travelers say it’s not the same.
“Everyone has to line up in the computer room, and the hotel lobby becomes an Internet cafe, which is rather unappealing,” Kevin Leibel, president of a brand strategy company in Chapel Hill, N.C., wrote in an e-mail message from the business center at the Westin Palace in Madrid while on vacation. For in-room Internet, that hotel charges 18 euros for 24 hours (about $24 at $1.33 to the euro) or 12 euros an hour, but users are allowed 30 minutes at a time free in the business center.
So why do many upscale hotels continue to charge for Internet access while more affordable brands do not? The guest bending over a keyboard could be forgiven some impatience at hearing one explanation: the role of hotels’ legal agreements on branding.
“In the management contract scenario, the brands would like to maximize revenue because all of that is subject to base management fees,” said Bjorn Hanson, an associate professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. When the ownership is through a franchise, as is typical with less expensive hotels, the hotel brands “let the owners pay for installation and providing the service.”
Hotels say Internet charges are driven by what the market will bear. Because travelers have been willing to pay extra at high-end properties, those hotels continue to charge. But that doesn’t much change the experience for travelers who have paid for in-room Internet service at a Hilton, for example, but received it for free at a Hilton Garden Inn.
“That’s the big disconnect” said Juliana Shallcross, senior editor at HotelChatter.com, where hotel Wi-Fi has become a frequent topic. HotelChatter issues an annual Wi-Fi report detailing hotel policies across various brands. This year, the report focused not just on which hotels were charging and which weren’t, but also on reliability.
“What brings out the most ire,” Ms. Shallcross said, is finding that not only is there a fee for the Internet connection, but also that “it’s not working.” She recently paid $14.99 for in-room Internet at the Mirage in Las Vegas. First, she tried using the wireless option, but the connection was “so terrible,” she said in a post on HotelChatter, that she tried using the ethernet cable she found in a drawer. Still no luck.
“After trying for about an hour to send an e-mail,” she wrote, “we got on the horn with the technician who said the modem looked zapped and that a technician would arrive to fix it. We waited for 45 minutes, and no one came. At 11:30 at night, we decided we could not afford to wait for someone to come as we needed to be up and working by 5:30 a.m. We called the front desk and asked for a different room.”
At checkout, the Mirage removed the Internet charge from her bill.Acadian Black Beans and Rice is an updated version of the red beans and rice classic. Made with a variety of spices popular in Cajun country.
Everything about this recipe screams comfort! Even with all the spices it is mixed and melded for the perfect side dish. You can even make this a main meal.
Just add a big salad and crusty bread.
My extended family has roots in Avery Island. That is way way down on the south side of Louisiana and through osmosis I feel as though I have a closer connection there too.
Marcel Olivier, came to California from the Olivier Plantation in the early 1900’s and through a close encounter with my Aunt Lou became my Uncle Frenchy. Yep, in those years, nationalities played a big part for your identity.
I am just now trying to put together his ancestry line but at least I have Acadian Louisiana.
Thick accents, unmistakable music and food traditions, that are uniquely Cajun, belong to America as one of it’s most colorful regions.
Spices like cayenne pepper, paprika and chili powder along with garlic and bell pepper make up part of the delicious Cajun flavors.
Different spices, flavors, and measurements make for some delicious meals.
And … Acadian Black Beans and Rice is done in under 30 minutes. So easy. So fast. So tasty.
This is a big batch so you might be able to take advantage of leftovers for lunch also.
If you wanted to serve Acadian Black Beans and Rice as a side Cauliflower Po Boy Sandwich would be a fantastic main dish. Take a peek!
What are some other classic Acadian Recipes?
Don’t forget the salad.
Beignets are must have when you visit Louisiana. Fried fritters balls sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Beets are grown in many areas of the state and canning pickled beets are popular because it’s a great way to preserve the beautiful red vegetable to last the whole year.
White taffy made with either molasses, maple syrup or just plain organic white sugar is an Acadian sweet treat. As always it’s wrapped waxed paper with twisted ends.
And how about the mix of truly Creole/Cajun/Acadian ingredients? Hot peppers, yams, greens, black-eyed peas, melons, coffee, and okra!
Helpful Tools for Black Beans and Rice
I know it’s kind of easy to cook rice in a pot with a lid but do you know it’s even easier in a rice cooker? If the pot comes in a pretty red color then all the better.
I’m all about one piece stainless steel when it comes to measuring spoons. They last forever. But … I need two sets. Especially on a cooking spree.
It’s almost the same for measuring cups. Well, exactly the same when it comes to stainless steel and you even get 7 sizes with this set.
This recipe needs a large skillet and I figure you might as well get one with a lis for future recipes.
Connect with Vegan in the Freezer Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Bloglovin
Print 5 from 5 votes Acadian Black Beans and Rice Acadian Black Beans and Rice is an updated version of the red beans and rice classic. Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Total Time 25 minutes Servings 6 Calories 400 kcal Author Ginny McMeans Ingredients 30 ounces black beans 2 - 15 ounce cans each, drained
1 1/2 cups brown rice
3 1/2 cups vegetable broth low sodium, for rice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup tomatoes diced
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt Instructions Cook the brown rice in any method you choose. I use a rice cooker and I like to cook the rice with vegetable broth for this recipe.
In a large skillet heat the oil to medium and then add the onion and bell pepper.
Saute until the onion becomes transparent, about 10 minutes.
Add all the other ingredients (except the rice) to the large skillet that has the onion and bell pepper.
Cook for 10 minutes.
Add the rice and heat through. Nutrition Nutrition Facts Acadian Black Beans and Rice Amount Per Serving (12 ounces) Calories 400 Calories from Fat 36 % Daily Value* Total Fat 4g 6% Sodium 941mg 39% Potassium 699mg 20% Total Carbohydrates 74g 25% Dietary Fiber 14g 56% Sugars 2g Protein 16g 32% Vitamin A 10.2% Vitamin C 22% Calcium 6.3% Iron 22.7% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
How do you Freeze Acadian Black Beans and Rice
To Freeze:
Let cool to room temperature. Package in rigid sided containers and freeze up to 6 months.
To Prepare After Freezing:
Remove from the freezer and put in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours. It will keep in the fridge 3 days.
The night of serving:
Put all in a large skillet and heat through. Add more vegetable broth or salsa if it becomes too dry while heating. You can also heat in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes stirring every minute. Ready to serve.HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Roy Moore is trying to scare his way into the United States Senate.
In the final days of Alabama’s raucous Senate race, the Republican candidate is invoking conservatives' go-to list of liberal boogeymen as he tries to energize GOP voters. Moore’s campaign has singled out everyone and everything from George Soros and kneeling NFL players to the media and the specter of voter fraud.
Story Continued Below
And that's just in the past week.
Moore, trying to fend off numerous allegations of sexual harassment or worse, has been largely absent from the campaign trail in recent weeks, aside from a Tuesday rally with former White House strategist Steve Bannon. But Moore’s campaign has been busy: It held a news conference Thursday alleging “election theft” and attacking a Democratic super PAC, Highway 31, for running what it says are misleading and deceptive advertisements.
The moves by Moore’s shoestring campaign fit in with the candidate’s long history of embracing unproven conspiracy theories. They are aimed at discouraging GOP-leaning voters from crossing the aisle and backing Democrat Doug Jones.
Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Jones laughed off Moore’s accusations.
“He’s claiming voter fraud already?” Jones said to reporters. “It seems like every time somebody gets behind and they’re going to lose an election, they start claiming voter fraud.”
Democrats’ internal polling shows Jones running neck-and-neck with Moore in this deep-red state, where President Donald Trump romped to victory. The party is spending heavily on radio and TV ads to make the case that electing Moore would do irreparable damage to the state’s reputation.
Moore, in response, has implored Alabamians not to listen to outsiders.
“They just don’t like conservatives like us,” Moore says in a recent ad. “They call us warmongers for wanting to rebuild the military, racists for wanting to secure the border and bigots for recognizing the sanctity of marriage, and they call us foolish for believing in God.”
On Tuesday, the Moore campaign raised fears of widespread voter fraud in the state. It sent a letter to Alabama’s Republican secretary of state noting that some absentee ballots in Bullock County, in the state’s black belt, had been marked for Jones before being sent out. Bill Armistead, the Moore campaign chairman, said he was “disturbed” and wanted reassurances the incident was “not part of a broader plot to steal this election.”
Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, said he warned county election officials to make sure the issue wasn’t widespread.
Two days later, Moore campaign officials accused Highway 31 of “election theft” at a news conference in Montgomery. They argued that a digital ad from the group warning voters that their vote was public and “your community will know whether or not you helped stop Roy Moore” was misleading since voters' ballot selections remain private. Merrill asked Google to take down the ads, which were running in front of YouTube videos.
Meanwhile, at his rally with Bannon on Tuesday, Moore claimed “Soros’ army” was in the state trying to register voters, referring to the Hungarian-born financier and progressive donor who is frequently invoked by conservatives. The claims relate to work by progressive groups to register felons to vote after their rights were restored earlier this year, thanks to a law sponsored and signed by Republicans in Alabama.
“No matter how much money he’s got, he’s still going to the same place that people who don’t recognize God and morality and accept his salvation are going,” Moore said of Soros in an interview on American Family Radio earlier this week. “And that’s not a good place.”
Washington Republicans charged with winning Senate elections — the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Senate Leadership Fund — are still staying away from Moore, and are largely in the dark about his chances of winning. Moore does have outside help: The Republican National Committee sent $170,000 to the Alabama GOP to help its field efforts, and the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action is out with mailers saying Jones “stands in the way of making America great again.”
The first bullet point on the mailer? Jones “publicly supports players kneeling to protest the National Anthem.” (The players are protesting police violence against African-Americans, not the anthem.)
When the football protest controversy flared in October, Jones said Moore, who was twice removed from the state Supreme Court, lacked the "moral authority" to criticize NFL players.
The National Rifle Association is also spending $55,000 on mailers attacking Jones.
Moore’s focus on liberal boogeymen comes as Democrats grow increasingly confident in their field operation. Jones has told volunteers they will have knocked on 100,000 doors and made 1 million phone calls by Election Day. Jones visited a field office in Huntsville filled with volunteers making phone calls on his behalf on Thursday afternoon. Printouts on the wall listed the phone numbers for legal help with voting or a ride to the polls.
The volunteers, mostly older women, wore T-shirts declaring “VOTE OR DIE” and “NO MOORE.”
Outside groups are spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to turn out minority voters. The Voter Participation Center is reaching out to 327,500 African-American and Latino voters statewide, the group said, part of a nonpartisan push to remind minorities to vote that includes 423,000 mail pieces.
BlackPAC, which played a major role turning out African-Americans in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, is also spending $22,000 on canvassing for Jones.
And the Democrat is getting a boost from Stand Up Republic, a group founded by anti-Trump conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin, which is spending $500,000 to run two different ads attacking Moore.
“My family’s been in Alabama for four generations, and Roy Moore doesn’t represent this state,” a Republican named Robert de Buys says in the ad. “I’ve been a Republican all my life, but I won’t vote for Roy Moore. I just can’t.”
Much of Jones’ advertising has focused on how electing Moore would embarrass the state and hurt its business climate. A radio ad from Highway 31, a pro-Jones outside group that has avoided revealing its donors, opens with a male narrator listing Alabama’s accomplishments, including building rockets for NASA, winning college football championships and producing civil rights leaders.
“This is Alabama. A proud history with a bright future,” the narrator says. “But after this Tuesday, Alabama could become something very different. We could become the state that elected an accused pedophile to the U.S. Senate. Don’t let Alabama’s good name be tarnished.”Germany again appeases Kiev as ceasefire is again violated, preparing the ground for the failure of Minsk 2.0
Those who follow the military news from Ukraine closely will know that there has been an outbreak of fighting over the last few days in the area around Donetsk airport.
As usual, both sides have blamed each other; however reports by Colonel Cassad and Gleb Bazov - both acknowledged supporters of Novorossiya, but both consistently reliable reporters of the conflict - make clear the fighting began as a result of a Ukrainian attack.
Both Colonel Cassad and Gleb Bazov report that the militia was initially taken by surprise and lost ground in the town of Peski. However, as of the time of writing, the very latest reports from Gleb Bazov say (based on information from sources he “considers reliable”) that the ground lost by the militia has been recovered, and that both sides are now back at their start lines.
If so, then this would suggest that the latest fighting was more a probing attack by the Ukrainians, testing the militia’s defenses and trying to make some tactical gains, rather than the start of a general offensive for which Kiev still looks unprepared.
This, however, begs the question of why the fighting has resumed now?
The short answer is that the attack was intended as a show of force in advance of the meeting on 13th April 2015 in Berlin of the foreign ministers of the Normandy Four (Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine).
The Ukrainian leaders were presumably hoping that a military victory - however minor - would show that, despite its recent defeats and its economic crisis, Ukraine is still a force to be reckoned with and that this would strengthen the hand of their negotiators at the meeting in Berlin.
Colonel Cassad, Gleb Bazov, and others have speculated - probably rightly - that the Ukrainians were also hoping to use the resumption of fighting to push their idea for a peacekeeping force whilst giving themselves excuses for their failure to implement the political sections of the Minsk Memorandum. As to that, the Berlin meeting appears to have ruled out the idea of a peacekeeping force, so if this was the Ukrainian gambit, then it appears to have failed.
However, that is not the most important lesson to take from this episode.
Ukrainian motives for restarting the fighting are irrelevant. What matters is that they restarted it.
The resumption of the fighting shows again that the present government in Kiev is not seeking peace.
It has refused to implement the political section of the Minsk Memorandum. As the recent fighting shows, it is not committed to the ceasefire either. At the first chance, it goes back on the attack.
The nature of the Ukrainian government makes it incapable of seeking peace.
This point has now been made by many commentators, including by some whose articles have appeared on Russia Insider. It has been made by highly regarded scholars like Dmitry Trenin and Paul Robinson. It has also been made (repeatedly) by me (see for example Ukraine Goes to War - And Always Will As Long As Maidan Holds Power).
Any idea that a Ukrainian government that employs someone like Dmitro Yarosh, the head of Right Sector, as an adviser in the Defense Ministry, can possibly be interested in peace, is frankly delusional. However, it is a delusion that the one government that has it in its power to decide whether there will be peace or war continues to cling to.
That government is the government of Germany. Germany is the only country that has both the means to force Kiev to compromise and potentially the self-interest to make it want to do so.
However, based on the recent conduct of Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, its government is nowhere close to finding the courage to do so, even though the part it played in the negotiations that led to the Minsk Memorandum shows that at some level it understands the need to do so.
In a situation where Kiev has clearly violated the ceasefire, all Steinmeier could bring himself to say in an interview with Die Welt was "we expect both Moscow and Kyiv to seize the central issue of the implementation of the next phase of Minsk.” Bizarrely, as the shells rained down on Donetsk, he lauded the “progress” to date, citing the "well-advanced withdrawal of heavy weapons.”
With the fighting intensifying and the ceasefire in tatters, all Steinmeier could say at the Berlin meeting itself was that there is “no alternative” to the Minsk ceasefire agreement and that “nothing is easy in the Ukraine crisis, this is not new. During these talks today the differences of opinion between Kiev and Moscow also became clear once again.”
These weak and banal comments, splitting the difference between Moscow and Kiev for violating a ceasefire that Kiev is plainly in breach of, in a conflict in which Moscow is not even directly involved, must leave the Russians baffled - or would, if they were not by now wearily used to them. Certainly these comments are not the straightforward condemnation of Kiev’s conduct that the situation on the ground and the cause of the negotiated peace as envisaged by the Minsk Memorandum urgently calls for.
So long as the German government persists in this pusillanimous behavior - whatever the reason for it - the conflict will continue, until one side or the other achieves final victory on the battlefield. Since there seems little chance of the present German government ever finding the will or the courage to take a firm stand, victory on the battlefield by one or side or the other looks like the way this conflict will end.A supporter stands by a sign at the launch of the Vote Leave bus campaign, in favour of Britain leaving the European Union, in Truro, Britain May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples
LONDON (Reuters) - The campaign to get Britain out of the European Union has taken a three-point lead over the “Remain” campaign, polling firm TNS said on Tuesday, the first time it has found the “Out” campaign ahead since February.
Forty-one-percent of respondents wanted Britain out of the EU, up five percentage points from a May 3 poll, while those wanting to remain in the bloc fell one point to 38 percent.
“This poll suggests that we are seeing movement from undecided voters towards the Leave camp, though we will need to wait until the next poll to see if this is a trend or random variation,” Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at TNS UK, said.
“Although this poll is the first time since February that we have seen a lead for ‘Leave’, the race remains very tight with many yet to make up their mind.”
Two of three polls published on Monday put the “In” camp ahead.This article describes a mixed-race political figure, basically a professional activist, who projected a benevolent exterior, yet brought destruction in his wake. Count Richard Nikolaus Eijiro von Coudenhove-Kalergi is today an obscure political figure, though in his time he was kind of a minor celebrity, and began the concept leading to the European Union.
His father descended from Byzantine nobility, and also with ancestry from lineages all over Europe. This citizen of the world was a diplomat and married a Japanese woman whose parents were quite displeased, throwing her out of the family. Richard was born in 1894, the second of seven children. In his infancy, they moved from Tokyo to a small town near the present-day Czech-German border.
When Richard was twenty years old, his father died, leaving him wealth of which the vast majority can only dream and freeing him to pursue his hobby full-time. Much like Karl Marx, Richard wrote a lot but never had a real job in his life. The major difference was that he was a scion of landed gentry, while Marx was basically a bum plotting worldwide revolution while swilling beer at London pubs.
Implementing meddlesome aspirations is all about having connections
Richard’s cause was globalism. In 1923, he founded the International Pan-European Union, which he would head until his death. Its flag was oddly similar to the Japanese imperial flag. This was the outfit that first got the ball rolling, beginning the ideological impetus eventually leading to the leviathan of the European Union.
His inherited wealth and privileged status allowed him to associate with many world leaders, enjoying access unknown to their own common citizens. He even tried to hit up Mussolini for support, but Il Duce didn’t buy it. Richard also associated with ultra-wealthy, anti-nationalist bankers who took quite an interest, such as Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild and Max Warburg. The latter donated heavily to his early efforts and served as a liaison to Wall Street whiz kid Bernard Baruch.
On a side note, this must run in the family. Max was the brother of Paul M. Warburg, considered the father of the Federal Reserve. Paul’s son was James Warbug, who was FDR’s financial adviser, a Council on Foreign Relations member, and a proponent of the Morgenthau Plan. He even had the supreme audacity to tell the Senate:
We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest.
Richard had some interesting ideas for how the world should work, such as making English the global official language. Further, he wanted to collapse all the world’s countries into just five: the USSR, East Asia dominated by Japan and China, the British Empire, the United States of Europe (including the rest of Africa), and the Pan-American Union (all of North and South America, basically NAFTA on steroids). At least it’s two more superstates than in Orwell’s 1984, though it’s not clear why he didn’t go full monte like John Lennon imagining no nations.
This great patriot of Europe had some even more interesting aspirations. From his book Praktischer Idealismus (Practical Idealism) came the concept now commonly called the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan. There’s a good bit of snobby babble about nobility; just what you’d expect from an elitist like this. The book is full of revealing quotes, but I’ll keep it brief, providing my translation:
Destroying diversity in the name of diversity
Der Mensch der fernen Zukunft wird Mischling sein. Die heutigen Rassen und Kasten werden der zunehmen-den Überwindung von Raum, Zeit und Vorurteil zum Opfer fallen. Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äußerlich der altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen. The man of the far future will be mixed race. Today’s races and castes will fall victim to the increasing overcoming of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid future race, outwardly similar to the ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals.
After that, so the argument goes, races won’t exist but their spirit will live on, and everybody will be really, really diverse, which is a good thing because, as we all know, diversity is our greatest strength. As for the world’s rich cultural tapestry, it would be reduced to least common denominator items, such as television, hamburgers, and shopping.
Destroying distinct cultures and genetic uniqueness, and replacing them with atomized, deracinated individuals — for some odd reason, that sounds rather like the agenda today’s social engineers have in mind. Back in 1925, before the influence of Franz Boas, Ashley Montagu, and Trofim Lysenko had gotten very far with spreading the “race is only a social construct” meme, that was a pretty bold proposal.
In fact, Richard might have been tarred and feathered back then if his wealth, connections, and celebrity status didn’t make him untouchable. That may have gone over with high society airheads, but it didn’t fly with real people. Today, of course, only the very brave dare to speak against any of these ideas in public.
He went further yet to describe how wonderful the future would be after the multicultural pressure cooker turned everyone into monocultural mush. Still, Richard was dead wrong about this being inevitable. Countries that want to protect themselves from mass migration are quite able to do so. For just one example, China is still Chinese after thousands of years, and Israel is determined to remain a Jewish state.
Richard’s fevered dream is possible only if a country opens its borders to everyone, oblivious of how they’ll fit in (or not) with the native population, and with even less concern for the will of the people already living there — in other words, exactly the situation throughout the West. Finally, if a pan-gaeic melting pot is supposedly inevitable and good, why is there so much propaganda trying to make people believe this? Why rush it? Now that’s an evocative question.
Finally, he was wrong about the ancient Egyptians. They were not a mishmash but a distinct people, part of the Semitic family of nations, thus related to the Arabians, Babylonians, Israelites, Phoenicians, and so forth. It’s a minor quibble, but distorting history to suit an agenda is rather disingenuous.
It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to see that this man without racial identity wanted to soothe his feelings of rootlessness by trying to remake the world in his image. And in thinking about who should be in charge of the Brave New World Order, he naturally chose another group that did not identify with the peoples and cultures of Europe.
You Know Who
Der Kampf zwischen Kapitalismus und Kommunismus um das Erbe des besiegten Blutadels ist ein Bruderkrieg des siegreichen Hirnadels, ein Kampf zwischen individualistischem und sozialistischem, egoistischem und altruistischem, heidnischem und christlichem Geist. Der Generalstab beider Parteien rekrutiert sich aus der geistigen Führerrasse Europas: dem Judentum. The struggle between capitalism and Communism about the inheritance of the defeated hereditary nobility is a brother’s war of the victorious intellectual nobility, a struggle between individualistic and socialistic, egoistic and altruistic, heathenry and Christian spirit. The general staff of both parties recruits itself from the spiritual leader-race of Europe: Jews.
Today, one must be careful about talking that way in German-speaking countries! Basically, Richard said that capitalism versus Communism was a Jewish family quarrel. (If so, it’s been quite a proxy war for the rest of us!) In any event, describing capitalism versus Communism as a good cop/bad cop strategy might be taking it too far, but there were (and are) some pretty prominent figures on both sides. As you may have guessed, he wasn’t too unhappy that the “spiritual leader-race of Europe” was manning the general staff.
Richard dishes out yet more lavish praise, including describing the murderous Leon Trotsky as the pinnacle of modern politics (!!). Then it gets more interesting yet:
Nicht: das Judentum ist der neue Adel; sondern: das Judentum ist der Schoß, aus dem ein neuer, geistiger Adel Europas hervorgeht; der Kern, um den sich ein neuer, geistiger Adel gruppiert. Eine geistig-urbane Herrenrasse ist in Bildung: Idealisten, geistvoll und feinnervig, gerecht und überzeugungstreu, tapfer wie der Feudaladel in seinen besten Tagen, die Tod und Verfolgung, Haß und Verachtung freudig auf sich nehmen, um die Menschheit sittlicher, geistiger, glücklicher zu machen. It’s not that Jews are the new nobility; rather, Jews are the womb from which emerges a new, spiritual nobility of Europe; the kernel from which a new spiritual nobility gathers. A spiritual-urban master race is being educated: idealistic, spirited, and sensitive; brave as the feudal nobility in their best days; joyfully taking death and persecution, hate and contempt in order to make humanity more ethical, spiritual, and happy.
That’s quite heart-warming. But there’s more:
Als Volk erlebt das Judentum den ewigen Kampf der Quantität gegen die Qualität, minderwertiger Gruppen gegen höherrvertige Individuen, minderwertiger Majoritäten gegen höherwertige Minoritäten. As a people, Jews experience the eternal struggle of quantity against quality; inferior groups against superior individuals; inferior majorities against superior minorities.
How’s that for laying it on thick? As a non-Jewish Eurasian, he includes himself in the “inferior” category. In any case, this particular hobbyhorse of Richard’s might explain why the Eurocrat regime turned out the way it did.
What was he thinking?
What are we to make of that, along with the document’s frequent Führerrasse and Herrenrasse blather, as well as the rhetoric about wiping out distinct nations? This means that Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, like Hitler, believed in a master race which, although labeled a “spiritual master race,” must be considered to be something more than that given the ethnic reality of Judaism. Actually, Hitler did have some pointed words about the Pan-European movement. For example, his little-known Zweites Buch has a scorching criticism of the pacifism and warm, fuzzy internationalism, in which the former German chancellor calls Richard the “bastard of all the world.”
Like his father, this rootless cosmopolitan had a complicated thought process about the Jewish community: first disliking them, then coming to embrace them. In Richard’s case, two Jewish wives (the first and third) apparently made the difference.
It’s not about all Jews
Lest there be misunderstanding, most in the Jewish community don’t have the inclination or the power to promote this destruction. The organized Jewish community and individual wealthy and powerful Jews have played a significant role in opposing European nationalism and in promoting displacement-level immigration into Western countries, but the common people among them are not at fault. Some Jews, in fact, are horrified by the madness. Much better relations between our respective communities would be very desirable. Restoring good will can’t be just a one way street, though. Handling these problems within their community would be an ideal solution, if that could come about.
Ultimately, this isn’t really about Jews versus non-Jewish people of European descent, but rather unaccountable globalist elites versus the public. Those to blame (be they of any background) are would-be social engineers scheming to impose their will on the public, corrupt politicians selling out their countries, and overreaching plutocrats. Those types would be well-advised that their hubris does not win hearts and minds.
In summary
A nation’s first duty is to protect its citizens. If you’ve noticed all the riots and chaos, and wonder why the EU doesn’t stop the flow of “refugees” and immigrants incompatible with their native populations — and send the ones already there back to where they came from — it’s because the Eurocrats have other priorities. The dysfunctional system is working as designed. The politicians don’t serve the people, but rather their ultra-wealthy globalist cronies. This is exactly what Richard, the grandfather of all this, wanted. If Hell exists, he’s smirking about it even while enduring the tortures of the damned.
In 1950, for his efforts which eventually led to today’s Eurocrat regime, Richard himself was the first recipient of the Charlemagne Prize, sometimes called the Coudenhove-Kalergi Prize. He shares this dubious distinction with Bill Clinton in 2000, and Angela Merkel (bless her heart) in 2008. It’s a strange world where there’s a medal for treachery.
Beau Albrecht blogs at Return of Kings.US Army Corps postpones confrontation over Dakota Access Pipeline construction
By our reporter
5 December 2016
The US Army Corps of Engineers announced on Sunday that it will not grant an easement for the final stage of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through Native American tribal lands in southern North Dakota.
The decision came a day before evacuation orders issued by the Corps and the Governor of North Dakota against thousands of protesters at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Hundreds of military veterans supporting the protests—led by Wes Clark Jr., the son of former Democratic presidential candidate General Wesley Clark—have traveled to the reservation in recent days and were planning a demonstration today.
The announcement was clearly aimed at preventing a further confrontation with protesters, who have been subject to brutal violence from police and National Guard units over the past several months and have won widespread support. At the same time, the order does not prevent construction, but is rather a move by the Obama administration to put off a final decision until President-elect Donald Trump takes office next January 20.
After the eruption of protests in the summer, the Obama administration delayed any final decision while standing by as police used water cannon, rubber bullets and concussion grenades against protesters. In September, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior announced a temporary halt on pipeline construction after initial police violence against protesters generated widespread public outrage.
Sunday’s announcement from the Army’s assistant secretary for Civil Works, Jo-Ellen Darcy, states, “Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do. The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.”
Darcy added that the consideration of alternate routes “would be best accomplished through an environmental-impact study with full public input and analysis.” Such a study would take several months to complete.
The announcement reverses a decision made by the Corps earlier this year to override concerns from officials within the Environmental Protection Agency and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation about the initial draft environmental assessment. The Corps issued a final environmental assessment in August approving construction of a tunnel under the Missouri River, threatening the primary water source for much of South and North Dakota, including the Standing Rock reservation.
Significantly, the Corps decision on Sunday does not assert that the current route—which passes under Lake Oahe, formed by a dam on the Missouri River—is not in the “public interest,” only that a further assessment is required. The Obama administration also did not take further action that would block construction, such as declaring the region a national monument.
Nonetheless, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, Dave Archambault, who is closely aligned with the Democratic Party, issued a statement full of praise for the Obama administration. “We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing,” Archambault said.
The decision actually does nothing to “correct the course of history,” constituting only a brief delay before the next administration takes office, committed to a full-blast development of oil, gas and coal deposits, regardless of cultural, environmental or democratic concerns.
Last week, the Trump transition team released a memo announcing the support of the president-elect for completion of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which is financed by a consortium of US and global banks and would transport 50,000 barrels of oil a day from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to southern Illinois. The statement asserted that Trump’s position was not connected to his personal investment in Energy Partners, the Texas-based company leading the project.
“It’s not over. It’s never over,” one Standing Rock member told USA Today. “They say one thing and do another.”
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple denounced the denial of the easement, calling it a “serious mistake” that “prolongs the dangerous situation.” Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the industry consortium, Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, responded, “With President-elect Trump set to take office in 47 days, we are hopeful that this is not |
family into an elegant villa on today’s Rav Kook Street. Jerusalemites know it today as Beit Ticho, named for a prominent Jerusalem couple that resided here for many years. One of the first houses outside of the Old City walls, it was built in the mid-19th century by a rich Arab with an eye for arched doors, domed ceilings, and lush gardens.
In 1883, while dwelling here in luxury, Shapira was involved in a highly publicized scandal. He claimed to have in his possession scrolls of Deuteronomy dating back thousands of years, whose text differed slightly from the accepted version and added an 11th Commandment to the Decalogue. The 11th Commandment, according to the Shapira scroll, was “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: I am GOD, thy GOD.” The report caused a sensation, since the earliest biblical manuscripts at that time were only a few hundred years old.
Shapira offered his find to the British Museum for a million English pounds, and people flocked to the historic display. Then, a month after the opening, the scrolls were exposed as skilled forgeries. One expert found that the language had an Eastern European touch; another was convinced that the strips had been cut off from Torah scrolls only a few centuries old. But Shapira’s main detractor was Charles Clermont-Ganneau, a long-standing adversary who had denounced Shapira on previous occasions as well, and who argued that no scholar in his right mind would believe that parchment could hold up for so many years.
Shapira’s already tarnished reputation was torn to shreds, the Museum cancelled the exhibit, and Shapira disappeared, to be found dead months later in a Rotterdam hotel. The scrolls were sold for a tiny sum and faded from sight.
In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, well-preserved in a desert cave for 2,000 years. Ever since that time scholars have wondered if Shapira’s scrolls could actually have been genuine. Indeed, perhaps Shapira took his own life not from the shame of worldwide exposure, but because he had held in his hands a momentous discovery that no one would believe was real.
—————————————————————————————————–
Aviva Bar-Am is the author of seven English-language guides to Israel.
Shmuel Bar-Am is a licensed tour guide who provides private, customized tours in Israel for individuals, families and small groups.Get the biggest Celtic 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
GORDON STRACHAN is set to call up Swansea’s Stephen Kingsley to challenge Lee Wallace for Scotland’s decimated left back slot.
And he may hand Charlie Mulgrew a shock return as cover.
The national boss, who’ll name his squad on Wednesday for the England clash at Wembley, has been shorn of his two first-choice left-backs in the past fortnight.
Kieran Tierney’s ankle ligament injury in training on Thursday looks set to keep him out until after the winter break, while Andy Robertson’s calf problem sustained in Hull’s EPL defeat to Bournemouth two weeks ago will keep him on the sidelines too long for the win-or-bust London showdown.
The Tierney news came as another blow for Strachan to add to the worries over Robert Snodgrass’ fitness.
But it’s understood he’s not unhappy with either of his alternatives at a slot which up until 18 months ago was a perennial problem for the national team.
(Image: SNS Group)
Kingsley, a regular with Swansea this season in England’s top flight, playing both left back and left centre-half, was given his first cap by Strachan in June when he came on as a 63rd minute sub against France in Metz.
The former Falkirk star has also impressed in his six under-21 caps.
Mulgrew, meanwhile, made only his second start of the season for Blackburn yesterday after making a full recovery from a calf injury which kept him out for a month.
The former Celt has made two appearances from the bench in the past two weeks for Owen Coyle’s strugglers before being given the nod to face Wolves at Ewood Park yesterday.
But despite his lack of action, the 24-cap 30-year-old is understood to be on the manager’s radar for consideration, although his lack of match action against the kind of pace England have too offer is a concern.Hundreds of asylum-seekers have taken part in protests at an Australian immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, with many swallowing razor blades, washing powder and sewing their lips in protest against detention.
Refugee advocate, Ian Rintoul, said on Friday that up to 40 men had sewn their lips together, three others had swallowed razor blades and four had consumed washing powder.
There were also reports that more than 400 people were on hunger strike.
Australia's Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed a "number of incidents of self-harm within Manus," adding he was worried about the "volatile situation" at the camp.
Australia sends asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific with no prospect of being settled on the mainland, even if they are genuine refugees.
An asylum-seeker at Manus, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, there were also clashes involving security guards and detainees were threatened.
"They threatened the boys. They told them tomorrow... the new group will come from Australia and we will come and will enter into the camp and we will beat you," ABC reported.
Papua New Guinea's government, however, denied the reports on Saturday. "There was no physical engagement between asylum seekers and security personnel," a government spokesman said in a statement.
'Harsh facility'
The protests come a month before the first anniversary of a riot at the camp, which left 23-year-old, Reza Barati dead, and 69 injured after tensions flared among inmates about their fate.
The violence was described in a parliamentary report in December as "eminently foreseeable" and mostly caused by delays in processing refugee claims.
Some 1,035 men are held on Manus Island, according to latest immigration figures, while 895 asylum-seekers, 596 men, 164 women and 135 children are held on Nauru.
The UN refugee agency has condemned Australia's camps on Manus and Nauru as "harsh" facilities that "impact very profoundly on the men, women and children housed there", and asked for information from the government, warning that Australia could be breaking international law if it is forcing boats back to Indonesia without proper regard for safety.
Hundreds of people are known to have drowned making the perilous journey to Australia, fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.For anyone who is getting this error, please post it here. I am also getting the CE-34878-0 error as soon as the Main Menu pops up. I literally have no time to do anything as it instantly kicks me out of the game and back to the PS4's main menu screen. This happens every single time I boot up the game. The whole game has been installed. I have the retail disc version of the game.
If I delete the game data from my hard drive, and re-install the game completely, I can access BF4's Main Menu just fine. But if I quit out and re-boot the game (either by removing and inserting the disc again or using "close application" to close BF4 and choosing "Start" on the PS4 Menu to start it) I get this error, effectively making the ENTIRE GAME unplayable for me. I have the latest "patch" for BF4 installed on the PS4 as well.
This is absolutely ridiculous. I expected the PS4 version of BF4 to at least be playable. But now until DICE fixes it I am stuck with a $60 game that can't do anything. I was really looking forward to playing this game. Shipping out a game that can't play after you boot it up once is pretty much equivalent to stealing my money. I would return the game, but I can't, as I had to open it to test out the game in the first place. It's clear that no testing was done on the game prior to launching, otherwise none of these bugs would even exist.Citus is commonly used to scale out event data pipelines on top of PostgreSQL. Its ability to transparently shard data and parallelise queries over many machines makes it possible to have real-time responsiveness even with terabytes of data. Users with very high data volumes often store pre-aggregated data to avoid the cost of processing raw data at run-time. With Citus 6.0 this type of workflow became even easier using a new feature that enables pre-aggregation inside the database in a massively parallel fashion using standard SQL. For large datasets, querying pre-computed aggregation tables can be orders of magnitude faster than querying the facts table on demand.
To create aggregations for distributed tables, the latest version of Citus supports the INSERT.. SELECT syntax for tables that use the same distribution column. Citus 6 automatically ‘co-locates’ the shards of distributed tables such that the same distribution column value is always placed on the same worker node, which allows us to transfer data between tables as long as the distribution column value is preserved. A common way of taking advantage of co-location is to follow the multi-tenant data model and shard all tables by tenant_id or customer_id. Even without that model, as long as your tables share the same distribution column, you can leverage the INSERT.. SELECT syntax.
INSERT.. SELECT queries that can be pushed down to the workers are supported, which excludes some SQL functionality such as limits, unions, and window functions. Since the result will be inserted into a co-located shard in the destination table, we need to make sure that the distribution column (e.g. tenant_id) is preserved in the aggregation and is included in joins. INSERT.. SELECT commands on distributed tables will usually look like:
INSERT INTO aggregation_table ( tenant_id,...) SELECT tenant_id,... FROM facts_table...
Now let’s walk through the steps of creating aggregations for a typical example of high-volume data: page views. We set up a Citus 6 on PostgreSQL 9.6 cluster using Citus Cloud consisting of 4 workers with 4 cores each, and create a distributed facts table with several indexes:
CREATE TABLE page_views ( tenant_id int, page_id int, host_ip inet, view_time timestamp default now () ); CREATE INDEX view_tenant_idx ON page_views ( tenant_id ); CREATE INDEX view_time_idx ON page_views USING BRIN ( view_time ); SELECT create_distributed_table ( 'page_views', 'tenant_id' );
Next, we generate 100 million rows of fake data (takes a few minutes) and load it into the database:
\ COPY ( SELECT s % 307, ( random () * 5000 ):: int, '203.0.113.' || ( s % 251 ), now () + random () * interval '60 seconds' FROM generate_series ( 1, 100000000 ) s ) TO '/tmp/views.csv' WITH CSV \ COPY page_views FROM '/tmp/views.csv' WITH CSV
We can now perform aggregations at run-time by performing a SQL query against the facts table:
-- Most views in the past week SELECT page_id, count ( * ) AS view_count FROM page_views WHERE tenant_id = 5 AND view_time >= date '2016-11-23' GROUP BY tenant_id, page_id ORDER BY view_count DESC LIMIT 3 ; page_id | view_count ---------+------------ 2375 | 99 4538 | 95 1417 | 93 ( 3 rows ) Time : 269. 125 ms
However, we can do much better by creating a pre-computed aggregation, which we also distribute by tenant_id. Citus automatically co-locates the table with the page_views table:
CREATE TABLE daily_page_views ( tenant_id int, day date, page_id int, view_count bigint, primary key ( tenant_id, day, page_id ) ); SELECT create_distributed_table ( 'daily_page_views', 'tenant_id' );
We can now populate the aggregation using a simple INSERT..SELECT command, which is parallelised across the cores in our workers, processing around 10 million events per second and generating 1.7 million aggregates:
INSERT INTO daily_page_views ( tenant_id, day, page_id, view_count ) SELECT tenant_id, view_time :: date AS day, page_id, count ( * ) AS view_count FROM page_views GROUP BY tenant_id, view_time :: date, page_id ; INSERT 0 1690649 Time : 10649. 870 ms
After creating the aggregation, we can get the results from the aggregation table in a fraction of the query time:
-- Most views in the past week SELECT page_id, view_count FROM daily_page_views WHERE tenant_id = 5 AND day >= date '2016-11-23' ORDER BY view_count DESC LIMIT 3 ; page_id | view_count ---------+------------ 2375 | 99 4538 | 95 1417 | 93 ( 3 rows ) Time : 4. 528 ms
We typically want to keep aggregations up-to-date, even as the current day progresses. We can achieve this by expanding our original command to only consider new rows and updating existing rows to consider the new data using ON CONFLICT (“upsert”). If we insert data for a primary key (tenant_id, day, page_id) that already exists in the aggregation table, then the count will be added instead.
INSERT INTO page_views VALUES ( 5, 10, '203.0.113.1' ); INSERT INTO daily_page_views ( tenant_id, day, page_id, view_count ) SELECT tenant_id, view_time :: date AS day, page_id, count ( * ) AS view_count FROM page_views WHERE view_time >= '2016-11-23 23:00:00' AND view_time < '2016-11-24 00:00:00' GROUP BY tenant_id, view_time :: date, page_id ON CONFLICT ( tenant_id, day, page_id ) DO UPDATE SET view_count = daily_page_views. view_count + EXCLUDED. view_count ; INSERT 0 1 Time : 2787. 081 ms
To regularly update the aggregation, we need to keep track of which rows in the facts table have already been processed as to avoid counting them more than once. A basic approach is to aggregate up to the current time, store the timestamp in a table, and continue from that timestamp on the next run. We do need to be careful that there may be in-flight requests with a lower timestamp, which is especially true when using bulk ingestion through COPY. We therefore roll up to a timestamp that lies slightly in the past, with the assumption that all requests that started before then have finished by now. We can easily codify this logic into a PL/pgSQL function:
CREATE TABLE aggregations ( name regclass primary key, last_update timestamp ); INSERT INTO aggregations VALUES ( 'daily_page_views', now ()); CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION compute_daily_view_counts () RETURNS void LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $ function $ DECLARE start_time timestamp ; end_time timestamp : = now () - interval '1 minute' ; -- exclude in-flight requests BEGIN SELECT last_update INTO start_time FROM aggregations WHERE name = 'daily_page_views' :: regclass ; UPDATE aggregations SET last_update = end_time WHERE name = 'daily_page_views' :: regclass ; SET LOCAL citus. all_modifications_commutative TO on ; -- for on-premises, replication factor >1 only EXECUTE $$ INSERT INTO daily_page_views ( tenant_id, day, page_id, view_count ) SELECT tenant_id, view_time :: date AS day, page_id, count ( * ) AS view_count FROM page_views WHERE view_time >= $ 1 AND view_time < $ 2 GROUP BY tenant_id, view_time :: date, page_id ON CONFLICT ( tenant_id, day, page_id ) DO UPDATE SET view_count = daily_page_views. view_count + EXCLUDED. view_count $$ USING start_time, end_time ; END ; $ function $ ;
After creating the function, we can periodically call SELECT compute_daily_view_counts() to continuously update the aggregation with 1-2 minutes delay. More advanced approaches can bring down this delay to a few seconds.
A few caveats to note:
In this example, we used a single, database-generated time column, but it’s generally better to distinguish between the time at which the event happened at the source and the database-generated ingestion time used to keep track of whether an event was already processed.
Due to a current limitation in the INSERT.. SELECT implementation, we recommend using timestamp instead of timestamptz for the ingestion time column.
When running Citus on-premises with built-in replication, we recommend you set citus.all_modifications_commutative to on before any INSERT..SELECT command, since Citus otherwise locks the source tables to avoid inconsistencies between replicas. On Citus Cloud this is a non-issue as we leverage Postgres streaming replication.
You might be wondering why we used a page_id in the examples instead of something more meaningful like a URL. Are we trying to dodge the overhead of storing URLs for every page view to make our numbers look better? We certainly are! With Citus you can often avoid the cost of denormalization that you would pay in distributed databases that don’t support joins. You can simply put the static details of a page inside another table and perform a join:
CREATE TABLE pages ( tenant_id int, page_id int, url text, language varchar ( 2 ), primary key ( tenant_id, page_id ) ); SELECT create_distributed_table ( 'pages', 'tenant_id' );... insert pages... -- Most views in the past week SELECT url, view_count FROM daily_page_views JOIN pages USING ( tenant_id, page_id ) WHERE tenant_id = 5 AND day >= date '2016-11-23' ORDER BY view_count DESC LIMIT 3 ; url | view_count ----------+------------ / home | 99 / contact | 95 / product | 93 ( 3 rows ) Time : 7. 042 ms
You can also perform joins in the INSERT..SELECT command, allowing you to create more detailed aggregations, e.g. by language.
Distributed aggregation adds another tool to Citus’ broad toolchest in dealing with big data problems. With parallel INSERT.. SELECT, parallel indexing, parallel querying, scaling write throughput through Citus MX, and many other features, Citus can not only horizontally scale your multi-tenant database, but can also unify many different parts of your data pipeline into one platform.France will partner India in its next Mars mission, which the Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch in 2018.
French space agency, CNES on Monday signed a letter of intent with the ISRO for French participation in the next Mars mission. The details of the French proposal remains unknown.
A joint statement issued in the wake of the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande says, both leaders “welcomed the announcement of collaboration through the participation of the Centre National d’études spatiales (CNES) in future space and planetary exploration missions of the ISRO.”
India’s first Mars mission was a technology demonstrator. Its success led to the planning of Mars-2 mission for carrying out more substantive scientific experiments. As the slot in 2016 is out of question because of the non-availability of a suitable launch vehicle, the plan is to have the second mission in 2018 when the reliable PSLV could be used. A lander and a rover is being thought of in the second Indian Mars mission.
In addition to the Mars programme, India and France signed agreements for a future earth observation satellite and putting French Argos-4 data collection payload in the Oceansat-3, which may be launched in 2018 to provide continuity of data for already established services in the area of oceanographic applications. The earth observation project is to have a joint thermal infrared mission.
The leaders expressed confidence that these missions would contribute significantly to the monitoring of environment, weather, water resources and coastal zones and further strengthen the partnership between the two countries.India and France currently have two joint payloads Megha-Tropiques and SARAL for studying tropical atmosphere and sea surface.Republicans need to "have a discussion on guns" in the wake of last week's grade-school massacre in Newtown, Conn., 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 (R-Ohio) told his conference Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Speaking to his troops at a closed-door meeting in the Capitol, 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 was mindful of conservatives' traditional opposition to new gun restrictions, emphasizing that Republicans wouldn't do "anything knee-jerk," according to a lawmaker in the room.
But the Speaker also said he wants to "de-politicize" the issue of gun violence, which has been thrust dreadfully into the national spotlight following the murder of 26 people — 20 of them young school children — at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.
Since the massacre, President Obama and a long list of congressional Democrats have urged tougher gun laws — including a reinstatement of the assault-weapons ban and the elimination of the gun-show loophole — but GOP leaders have remained largely silent about a violence-prevention strategy. The discrepancy has lent partisan undertones to the Sandy Hook response that Boehner clearly wants to eliminate.
Boehner said the GOP's strategy would be to examine the reasons that the mass shootings of recent years have been carried out, almost exclusively, by young, white males with mental illnesses, according to the lawmaker in the room.
"We need to have a discussion about guns," the lawmaker said, relaying Boehner's remarks, "and that doesn't mean that all of a sudden we abandon the Second Amendment or the NRA [National Rifle Association] or anything like that. But there needs to be a discussion and everybody needs to participate and we need to depoliticize it."
Boehner also told Republicans that they need to be "circumspect" in their observations, the lawmaker said, warning that "it's not helpful" for lawmakers to call for arming teachers as a way to prevent mass shootings.
That remark was a not-so-veiled shot at Rep. Louie Gohmert Louis (Louie) Buller GohmertTrump met with group led by Ginni Thomas at White House: report House passes bill expressing support for NATO The Memo: Trump veers between hard-liner, dealmaker on shutdown MORE (R-Texas), who churned headlines Sunday when he lamented that one of the victims, Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, was unarmed during the attack.
"I wish to God she had an M-4 in her office locked up so when she heard gunfire she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands but she takes him out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids,” Gohmert said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
The massacre — coming so close to the holidays and targeting such young kids — has put the NRA and other opponents of gun reform in a tough spot. Indeed, two Sunday news-show hosts — CBS’ Bob Schieffer and NBC’s David Gregory — said they struggled this week to find gun-rights supporters who'd agree to interviews. And the NRA was silent on the tragedy until Tuesday, when the group issued a brief statement vowing "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
Boehner's comments Tuesday — an indication that GOP leaders view that silence as a losing strategy — mark a shift for the Ohio Republican, who has shown no interest in gun reform in the face of other recent mass shootings.
Indeed, after the February shooting death of three students at Chardon High School not far from his district, Boehner rejected the call for new gun laws, suggesting tougher rules would not keep criminals from obtaining firearms. Instead, Boehner called on gun owners not to shoot other people.
"Let's be honest, there are about 250 million guns in America," he said at the time. "So they are out there, but people should use them responsibly."
Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) noted the change on Tuesday, telling The Hill that the mood in the conference among "even the strongest gun supporters" is that they "don't object to having a conversation about it — which is a big shift."TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) -- Florida State football strength and conditioning coach Victor Viloria pleaded no contest to a 2016 DUI charge earlier this month, court documents show.
Viloria, who was originally supposed to appear in court Wednesday, entered the no contest plea on January 4 of this year.
Court documents show Viloria was sentenced to six months probation, a six-month suspension of his license, 50 hours of community service, a DUI course, and a victim awareness program.
In August, Viloria was found passed out in his vehicle on the Eastbound off ramp of Interstate 10 on North Monroe Street, police say.
At the time the incident was reported, FSU said it was a human resources issue and that the athletic department was working to gather more information.
Viloria is still with the FSU program, according to the athletic department website.
By: WCTV Eyewitness News
Florida State University Football strength and conditioning coach coach Victor Viloria faces DUI charges.
According to a police report, Viloria was found passed out in his vehicle on the Eastbound off ramp of Interstate 10 on North Monroe Street.
The report goes on to say when an officer attempted to wake him, he drove South on Monroe Street before driving up an embankment.
The Florida State Athletic Department released a statement saying:
"We are aware of the reported incident and are in the process of gathering more information. The issue falls under the human resources policies for university employees, which restricts further comment at this time."DA refutes lawyer's allegations her office broke the law in jailing rape victim
A mentally ill rape victim is suing Harris County and the county's law enforcement agencies for jailing her over the Christmas holidays after she had a psychological breakdown on the witness stand while testifying against her attacker. The victim's face has been blurred in this photo to protect her identity. less A mentally ill rape victim is suing Harris County and the county's law enforcement agencies for jailing her over the Christmas holidays after she had a psychological breakdown on the witness stand while... more Photo: Sean Buckley & Assoc. PLLC Photo: Sean Buckley & Assoc. PLLC Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close DA refutes lawyer's allegations her office broke the law in jailing rape victim 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
Prosecutors broke the law when they jailed a rape victim in order to secure her testimony against her attacker, the attorney for the woman said in a letter to Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson.
In the letter delivered Monday, Sean Buckley, the rape victim's attorney, said he believes prosecutors illegally obtained a court order to confine his client in the Harris County Jail last December, committing the crime of official oppression. He requested that Anderson appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the matter.
"I have made a colorable claim that employees in your office engaged in official oppression in their mistreatment of my client," Buckley stated in the letter. "This is a very serious matter that deserves a full, independent investigation by a neutral prosecutor with no ties to your office."
Anderson responded promptly that her office didn't break any laws.
"There is no reason to believe that anyone in this situation - the prosecutor or the judge - believed that what they were doing was unauthorized by the law," Anderson said at a Monday press conference.
Anderson has previously defended her prosecutors' actions, stating that while the DA's office does not jail victims, this was "an extraordinary set of circumstances."
On Monday, Anderson said her office found two other examples where witnesses were held in the jail. One man, who is homeless, is currently being held on a witness bond. He is a critical witness in a capital murder case and has been in custody for three months, she said.
Another rape victim was also held in the jail earlier this year, Anderson said. The woman was serving a six-month jail sentence for drug possession, and was issued a bench warrant to testify in a rape case. She was transferred to the Harris County Jail but her sentence expired and she remained an extra two months, she said.
"It was our fault, from what I know today," Anderson said.
Thirty-five other witnesses are being held under bench warrants, meaning they were convicted of a crime and were transferred to the Harris County Jail to testify.
Buckley filed a federal suit for his client in July over her jailing.
The 25-year-old woman, identified in court documents as "Jane Doe," agreed to testify in the December trial against her assailant, serial rapist Keith Edward Hendricks. However, the victim, who has long suffered from mental illnesses, suffered a psychological breakdown while testifying about her 2013 attack, according to the lawsuit.
She was subsequently taken to a hospital for mental health treatment and then jailed for 27 days following her release at the request of prosecutors who wanted to ensure she would testify in the January trial.
It is that court order - called an "attachment order" - prosecutors used to take the woman into custody that Buckley says was illegally obtained.
"The evidence shows that prosecutors and others in your office broke the law by obtaining an illegal attachment order/witness bond that was unauthorized by any statute," Buckley stated in his letter. "Specifically, there was no legal basis for your employees to 'attach' my client and throw her in the Harris County Jail for 27 days, since she was not under subpoena, was not a resident of Harris County, and was not financially able to pay a surety bond."
During her confinement in jail, the rape victim, who was housed in the facility's general population, was attacked by another inmate, had an altercation with a jailer and was not regularly given her medications, according to her lawsuit.
On Jan. 11, the rape victim returned to court and testified against Hendricks. He was convicted and received two life sentences.
In a video statement released last month, Anderson said Hendricks, 55, could have gone free had she not taken the stand in the trial and the woman's life again would have been at risk.SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A citizens’ group dedicated to restoring the now-flooded Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park has sued the city of San Francisco in a bid to change the way water is diverted from the Tuolumne River.
The lawsuit was filed in Tuolumne County Superior Court by the Oakland-based group Restore Hetch Hetchy on Tuesday.
The 9-mile-long glacier-carved river valley was flooded in 1923 when the city of San Francisco built the O’Shaughnessy Dam to create the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
The action was authorized by the federal Raker Act, enacted by Congress in 1913, which gave San Francisco rights to Tuolumne River water along with permission to build a dam and pipelines.
The reservoir, managed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, now provides water to the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts and 24 cities and water districts in Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, in addition to San Francisco.
The lawsuit claims the drowned valley, bordered by sheer granite cliffs, was once “as thrilling and majestic a landscape as Yosemite Valley” to the south in the park.
It alleges that the continued operation of the dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir violates the California Constitution, which requires state water resources to be used in a reasonable way and “put to beneficial use to the fullest extent” possible.
The reservoir eliminates or impairs scenic, recreational, aesthetic and fishing uses of the river, the lawsuit claims.
It asks the court to order San Francisco to develop a plan to provide the needed amount of water by diverting the river and storing the water further downstream outside of the park, so that the dam can be breached and the valley restored.
“Not one drop of water need be lost” if the river water is captured and stored at a later point and the valley restored, Restore Hetch Hetchy leader Spreck Rosekrans said in a statement.
The lawsuit suggests that the court refer the case to the California Water Resources Control Board for an investigation and report before the case is returned to court for a decision.
Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Wednesday that lawyers in that office had not yet seen the lawsuit, but said San Francisco will “vigorously defend” its water arrangements.
The Bay Area Council, a public policy group representing 275 employers in the region, issued a statement calling the lawsuit “misguided” in view of the current drought.
“Who needs an historic drought when there’s a group that wants to tear down one of California’s critical water storage and clean energy systems,” council president Jim Wunderman said.
Proponents of eliminating the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir gathered signatures to put a measure on the San Francisco ballot in 2012 that would have forced the city to formulate a plan to dismantle the dam.
However, that measure, Proposition F, was roundly rejected by 77 percent of the city’s voters in the November 2012 election.
© Copyright 2015 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.by Karin Vergoth
The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and gas activities influence summertime ozone pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region’s chronic ozone problem.
Summertime ozone pollution levels in the northern Front Range periodically spike above 70 parts per billion (ppb), which is considered unhealthy—on average, 17 ppb of that ozone is produced locally. The new research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, shows oil and gas emissions contribute an average of 3 ppb of the locally produced ozone daily, and potentially more than that on high-ozone days.
“By combining nearly 50,000, high-precision measurements of VOCs in Colorado’s Front Range with an equally detailed model, we’ve been able to parse out the role of oil and gas,” said Erin McDuffie, a scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, working in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and lead author of the new study. “We expect this technique to help us better understand what factors are contributing to air quality challenges elsewhere in the West.”
Ozone pollution—which can harm people’s lungs and damage crops—is produced when sunlight sparks reactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ). In cities like Denver, NO x comes primarily from vehicle tailpipes. VOCs can come from both natural sources like trees and anthropogenic ones, like oil and gas activities.
Colorado’s northern Front Range was an interesting location for this study for a number of reasons, the researchers said. First, it contains the major city of Denver as well as active oil and gas regions to the northeast. “This area is unique, with high concentrations of both nitrogen oxides from urban areas and VOCs from oil and gas,” McDuffie said. “That allows us to look at how oil and gas emissions are influencing ozone production.”
Second, the region already has a high natural background of ozone—and that means there’s less room between the background levels and the Environmental Protection Agency standard. The researchers determined on an average summer day, about 58 ppb of ozone present in air above the surface is from regional background sources or residual ozone produced locally during previous days. Mixing of this ozone to the surface during the day leaves very little room for local production before hitting health-based ozone standards.
Third, compared to other parts of the country, the plains of Colorado’s Front Range have low levels of VOCs from natural sources during daytime hours when ozone forms—making the region potentially more sensitive to any oil and gas VOC emissions entering the air.
The northern Front Range has seen a big boom in oil and gas activity in recent years: the number of active wells in central Colorado’s Wattenberg gas field nearly doubled to over 27,000 between 2008 and 2015, according to state data. Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division experts use a model to identify the sources of ozone formation at various monitoring locations on various days. Considering all sources of emissions, they find that in the Northern Front Range area, the oil and gas sector can be a significant source of VOCs for ozone pollution formation, depending on meteorology and transport.
Colorado has been out of compliance with federal ozone standard since 2007. Last year, the EPA tightened the standard from 75 ppb to 70 ppb.
This study used measurements of ozone and its precursors—NO x and VOCs—made during field campaigns in the summers of 2012 and 2014 at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO), a tall tower built specifically for atmospheric research, owned and operated by NOAA. To precisely quantify the contributions of oil and gas air to local ozone production, McDuffie used a custom model that included more than 15,000 chemical reactions.
She and her colleagues found that the VOCs from oil and gas contribute an average of 17 percent to local, chemically produced ozone during the summer. “Seventeen percent is small but potentially still significant,” said Steven Brown, a scientist at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and co-author of the new study.
Brown and his colleagues said they’d like to explore how oil and gas emissions may affect the number of days that ozone is above the standard; this study could not quantify that. And they’d also like to see follow-up work at a series of coordinated ground sites—for example, between Denver and Fort Collins to the north—to capture what’s going on in different places across the region. And the team would like to use this new technique in other places in the U.S West, to analyze the various sources that contribute to ozone pollution there.
—Karin Vergoth is a science writer at CIRES, which is a partnership of NOAA and CU-Boulder. This post originally appeared as a news release on the CIRES website.Earlier this week, Google unexpectedly rolled out an update to their AdWords Ad Rank algorithm—you know, the one that decides how your ads are positioned on search results pages and how much they cost. The blog post announcement seems fairly benign, but what does this actually mean for advertisers using AdWords?
In short, if you’re using ad extensions, you might expect to see better ad placement and lower costs per click. If you’re not… well, that’s not a very attractive option anymore. If you aren’t using ad extensions, you’d better start.
This Google’s AdWords update also places extra |
, because they feel those rules step on their freedoms. And sometimes they might even be right, but that doesn't mean that they are above those rules and can do whatever they want.
Moore hastens to add, "Now, I don't want to excuse the other side of this," so it's totally fine that his takeaway from a senator getting his ribs cracked is that libertarians suck. But really, who doesn't want to punch a libertarian, amirite?
God knows, if we had a libertarian neighbor we'd want to beat them. But c'mon folks, that's unacceptable. We're building a civilization here — Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 6, 2017
The attack has prompted impressively in-depth reporting on Paul's irritable views toward his local Home Owner Association rules, with asking-for-it newspaper headlines such as, "Rand Paul is not a perfect neighbor, says community developer." But extra credit goes to Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson, who wrings an entire piece out of the question: What kind of politician mows his own lawn? Sample:
[C]ynicism inclines me toward another explanation, which is that Paul is the sort of fellow who wants to be known as a self-mower, and to be seen driving a John Deere around his own yard. Mowing one's own lawn is a time-honored way for a well-educated politician to establish his "just folks" bona fides. Former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis had a Harvard Law School degree, but preferred to be known as a guy who pushed a hand mower around the yard of his modest Brookline home. (That might have been the image that stuck in voters' minds if Dukakis had not carelessly allowed himself to be photographed in a ridiculous tank helmet.) Piloting a riding mower around a big yard combines the virile self-reliance of mowing with the aspirational elements of horsepower and real estate acquisition.
Some conservative outlets are also criticizing Hamilton Nolan's Splinter piece "Drink More Milk Rand Paul," but I'm a big defender of news-surrealism. Also this, from Trevor Noah, is pretty funny:
Though arguably not as funny as Shepard Smith's aggressive eye-rolling here (with Judge Andrew Napolitano as the straight man):
We will hopefully understand more about this puzzling incident soon. In the meantime, a pledge: If and when Bernie Sanders gets curb-stomped by an irate Burlingtonian, I won't use that as an excuse to talk about the inherently off-putting personal traits of democratic socialists. Besides, he was already kicked out of the commune….
UPDATE: Over at Above the Law, Elie Mystal writes a piece with the subhed: "Rand Paul received the kind of justice that makes libertarianism unworkable." Come again?INDIANAPOLIS -- Police are searching for a man who is accused of kidnapping, imprisoning and raping a woman in an Indianapolis house in July.
According to court documents, Maurice Nelson, 28, met up with the 23-year-old woman through a phone service on July 10 at a hotel room, then took her to a house on the 4500 block of Norwaldo Avenue.
Once they were inside, Nelson sprayed her with pepper spray, beat her and handcuffed her before walking her down to the basement, officials say.
Once in the basement, he chained her leg shackles to the floor and put a chain around her neck, then chained that to a pole.
She told police he repeatedly raped and threatened her while she was in the basement.
She was in the basement for four days before a neighbor heard her screaming and called police. Police found her shackled in the basement.
There is an active warrant for Nelson. In addition to the photo above, he was described as black with short, balding hair. He has a tattoo on his chest that reads "Prince" in red letters. He also has a tattoo of a woman in a dress and a cross on his arm. He is 5-foot-9-inches tall, and weighs 200 pounds.
The woman identified Nelson in a photo lineup.
Nelson has been charged with the following:Barriers to Electrification for "Under Grid" Households in Rural Kenya
NBER Working Paper No. 20327
Issued in July 2014, Revised in July 2016
NBER Program(s):Development Economics, Environment and Energy Economics
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people live without electricity. Despite ambitions of governments and donors to invest in rural electrification, decisions about how to extend electricity access are being made in the absence of rigorous evidence. Using a novel dataset of 20,000 geo-tagged structures in rural Western Kenya, we provide descriptive evidence that electrification rates remain very low despite significant investments in grid infrastructure. This pattern holds across time and for both poor and relatively well-off households and businesses. We argue that if governments wish to leverage existing infrastructure and economies of scale, subsidies and new approaches to financing connections are necessary.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20327
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:on •
Le t’s be honest. It’s not about the junk science. There were some crazy things said recently but they were crazy with a purpose.
Republican Rep. Todd Aikin (who is a policy blood brother to Republican Reps. Paul Ryan and Chris Smith) effectively said a woman’s subconscious can determine if she gets pregnant. He said as a result of a rape a women’s body can shut down its reproductive mechanisms. Of course this is junk science. And Republicans quickly reacted to the predictable public uproar by castigating Rep. Aikin and seeking his resignation from the race. (Two interesting exceptions to that list were former Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and current Congressional candidate Rep. Chris Smith. Huckabee by his stout defense and Smith by his silence.)
But this had nothing to do with Republicans’ regard for science. In fact science is held in very low regard in the Republican party. This is best exemplified by the fact that the Republicans appointed Rep. Aikin to the Congressional Science Committee.
The real subject of Aikin’s discussion was not science but rape. And his real purpose was to delegitimize and trivialize rape. His implication is that, since pregnancies don’t really happen by rape, then it can’t be a real or serious reason for seeking an abortion. (Stated otherwise, a woman seeking an abortion for rape is probably lying about really being raped.) Further, his more insidious point is that there must be degrees and types of rape. Hence there must be ’legitimate’ and illegitimate rapes, etc. Of course this is a merely a logical progression from Rep Chris Smith’s proposal to distinguish ‘forcible rapes’ from, apparently, unforced rapes.
Why is it necessary to distinguish between types of rape? There must be a reason. And the reason is simple. Abortion is a simply defined act. If there are types and degrees of rape then rape is not a simply defined act. Rape is not rape. There must be a relative scale where some rapes are worse and some better than others. Some rapes might be important and legitimate and some illegitimate and unimportant. So if you are raising rape as a reason to do, or not do, something, you must further define and defend that rational by further classifying your rape into those categories. And there can be reasonable differences of opinion where different rapes fall on a relative scale. (Like science!) So, as an example, simple rape alone is not a reason for claiming a simple right to abortion. And once you are on that slippery slope you have lost your moral ground. Rape cannot stand against abortion.
All of this has exactly one purpose- ‘personhood’. Todd Akin, Chris Smith, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party all support a constitutional amendment on personhood. A personhood amendment says “we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed”. It says that ‘life’ begins, and is sacred and protected, at conception. It requires the logical destruction of abortion. It abides no exceptions. Rape is not an exception, incest is not an exception, a woman’s health is not an exception. Consequences be dammed. Only the imminent death of the woman can potentially stand astride this mighty and sacred right. Personhood rights also call into legal question many existing infertility, reproductive, and contraception practices
Of course all of that makes sense if you hold that religious position and are willing to legally impose it on women that do not hold it. So, in the end, it is not about junk science it is about religious and personal freedom. Republicans Chris Smith and Todd Aikin believe that women have the legal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- unless they are pregnant. Based on these Republican religious beliefs, at conception women forfeit their legal rights to someone else. The real point of Aikin’s discussion was that women have ceretain rights and the Republicans want to take them away
War on!
Brian Froelich, Democratic Candidate for US Congress (NJ, 4th Dist.)
Brian Froelich is running for Congress (NJ 4th District) as a Democrat against the author of the ‘forcible rape’ language, Republican Chris Smith. Brian obtained advanced degrees at Boston College (BS, Finance), Rutgers University (MBA, Accounting), and Seton Hall Law School (JD). He is a lifelong New Jersey resident, lives with his wife or 45 years in Spring Lake, and has five children and twelve grandchildren. He is an entrepreneur and has been a successful businessman in both large and small enterprises for decades. Brian has also been active in (and on the Boards of) several civic, business, and charitable organizations.
Advertisements
Categories: Politics, Power relations, Rape Culture, Sexual ViolenceAvailable February 8, 2017
About the Game
It's Clara's last day on the island where she grew up. With high honors, she's graduated and fulfilled her childhood dream of joining the Guild of Maritime Exploration. She needs to complete preparations, visit her favorite places, and say her goodbyes before leaving on a journey she may not return from. *dangerous journey not included*
Features
Leaving Lyndow is a peaceful experience, with a detailed environment to explore at your own pace.
Examine objects to learn about the life and world of a young scientist preparing to leave home.
Partake in mini-games that further reveal the story.
Speak with friends and family as they prepare for the departure of a loved one.
Short and sweet: An experience that can be completed in one sitting.
LinksThe time is now
Health Sector Workers Network Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 6, 2017
A confusing part of the NZNO DHB MECA negotiations has been the pay equity claim. The negotiating team has recommended the deal and considers the pay equity claim as part of the reasoning for accepting the deal. These are separate issues. If people want significant change, HSWN believe the time is not tomorrow to bring this, the time is now.
Kristine Bartlett and the equal pay campaign
Pay equity has brought amazing improvements to the pay for support workers in the aged-care sector. The Kristine Bartlett case brought pay increases across the aged-care sector — a private sector with multiple different collective agreements which is known to be a hostile anti-union environment to negotiate within. This was an extremely effective strategy in this context. Ongoing pay equity claims are great ways of overcoming these barriers, and there will be more wins through this process.
The NZNO DHB MECA on the other hand covers 27,000 members across the country and is solely public sector. Effectively, despite there being 20 DHBs, there is really only one employer — the government. Negotiating and bargaining for significant gains in this context is not the same as the aged-care sector or similarly diverse sectors (i.e. mental health community support workers). With such a centralised and consolidated group, a well organised mobilisation could leverage to achieve substantial pay and contractual improvements.
The opportunity is now. With New Zealand’s employment legislation, there are only two instances when industrial action can lawfully be taken. The first is during collective bargaining and the other is due to health and safety reasons. The legislation also controls the conditions of industrial action for essential services and especially the public health sector. The legislation takes into account the ethical conflict between the right to “do no harm” and the right of workers to withdraw their labour. Subsequently, any argument against industrial action fails to appreciate both the measured approach that must be taken and the ‘safety’ embedded in the process. But if safety and “do no harm” is paramount in this process — why is this not taken so seriously on a daily basis? In a chronically underfunded and under-resourced health system, health sector workers must consider the safety of themselves, their colleagues and above all, the people they are trying to help. The opportunity for industrial action is about bargaining power. It is an opportunity that is rarely afforded to make change.
This is the moment when members could be mobilised and unified towards genuine change. 27,000 people could demand better. A pay equity case, while potentially offering improvements to pay, offers no change to terms and conditions. Additionally, it gives the decisions to some committee, some selection of people who may not represent members and workers. It distances decision making. It takes power away from members. It offers no chance of industrial action if members do not agree with the settlement. This is a strategy that disempowers. Should workers accept this?
Capitalism and the exploitation of women by Carlos Latuff
Lastly — the pay equity claim will look at equity across the sector, re-establishing the benchmark which has been created through the sexist operations of the capitalist system. But at the same time the NZNO DHB MECA is the benchmark across the health sector. The multitude of collective agreements that exist in the health sector use the DHB MECA as comparator. The terms and conditions won in these negotiations is an opportunity to rewrite the conditions and assert the value of healthcare workers. Why wait for a pay equity claim?
With all this in mind, health care workers across Aotearoa/New Zealand should be mobilising to win better terms, better pay and conditions. Why wait for a committee to decide on something tomorrow when the opportunity is here and now? The time is now.
In solidarity
Health Sector Workers Networknational
Since 2011, Nayna Devekar, a constable attached with Kurla GRP, has been ensuring that every unclaimed body found on railway tracks gets a proper funeral, even if that means chipping in with expenses
They may have had to lead their lives alone, but Nayna Devekar ensures that they have somebody with them at least on their final journey.
Nayna Devekar scans the list of deceased at railway stations and takes custody of the unclaimed bodies to perform their last rites. Pics/Datta Kumbhar
For more than three years now, the 33-year-old GRP constable has been ensuring that every unclaimed body found on the railway tracks in the city gets a proper funeral, even if that means that the money for it has to come out of her own pockets.
Nayna Devekar spends her duty hours warning people to stay off the railway tracks and helps conduct the last rites for unclaimed bodies found on the tracks when she is off duty
What’s more, Devekar makes sure that the last rites are conducted in strict accordance with the dictates of the deceased’s religion. Attached with the Kurla Government Railway Police since 2011, Devekar has laid more than 450 unclaimed bodies to rest, some of which were found on the city’s roads as well.
“On my first day with the GRP, a girl had died in a railway accident and nobody turned up to claim her body. After several days had passed, I decided to conduct her last rites according to the customs of her religion.
That experience touched my heart and I decided to ensure that the final rites are conducted properly for every person who dies in a railway accident,” said the constable. “Every day, I check the list of the people who die in railway accidents and later take custody of unclaimed bodies to conduct their last rites.
I believe that a railway accident is one of the worst ways for a person to die and I want to make sure that they don’t have to make their final journey alone,” she added.
‘Religion is key’
Devekar said she finds out the religion of the person with the help of the belongings found on the body. Once Devekar is sure of the deceased’s religion, she treats the body accordingly. She ensures that the body is taken to a crematorium if the person was a Hindu, to a burial ground for a Muslim, and so on.
“It is important not only for the last rites to be conducted, but for them to be conducted according to the religion of the deceased. During duty hours, I ensure that people do not cross the railway tracks and try to make them aware of the consequences, and conduct the funerals for the dead while I’m off duty.
People just don’t realise that they are playing with their lives by trespassing on the railway tracks,” said the constable. Devekar said that while most of the cost for the funeral is borne by the government, she bears the expenses of the things like ghee etc required for cremation and also pays small amounts to the workers involved. She said that she conducts the funerals before or after duty hours, depending on her shift.
Admirable effort
Devekar’s superior, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rupali Ambure said, “We highly appreciate and admire her work and encourage her. She will be felicitated and given a reward on Women’s Day.”Here is a list of quotes on the topic of religion and science showing how the two can work together. Note, it is not my intent to claim that religion and science are necessarily compatible in all ways (certain forms of of religion and science certainly are not). Nor is it my goal to show that religion or science are false. But it is my intent to show that certain formulations of science and religion can find harmony and be mutually beneficial. Science and religion are opposed the same way our thumb and fingers are opposed. They work orthogonally in important ways, but their power is when they can be used together to grasp something that neither could on their own.
I will update this page as I run across more quotes. The quotes are more geared towards a Mormon perspective, but are not exclusively Mormon.
The quotes on this page are also available as a Unix fortune database. Just download it, copy it to your fortune database location (see your “fortune” man page), run “strfile science-religion”, then you can view these quotes using “fortune science-religion”.
Millennial Star:
The pressing need of the age is a system of religion that can recognize, at the same time, the truths of demonstrated science and the doctrines found in the pages of sacred writ, and can show that perfect harmony exists between the works and words of the Creator; a religion that will reach both the head and the heart–that is, will both the intellect and the conscience… Nothing short of this can satisfy the demands of this age of independent investigation and research, when men are not satisfied to take, unquestioned, the opinions of uninspired, self-constituted ministers or priests. (Thursday, December 1, 1898, “Science and Religion”)
Henry Eyring:
There are lots of things, of course, that science does not know, but to me the saddest thing I see is people who feel that science threatens them religiously. It could not possibly threaten us religiously, because the same God who ‘made’ our religion, that same God is making the universe. Science might threaten our understanding of religion. I am not doubting that – that some of us, including me, have such a faulty understanding of our religion that almost anything might threaten it. But the thing that is important about that is if we want to influence our sons and daughters, we must get our religion in the kind of shape that it cannot be threatened by anything that science discovers or does not discover. (Mormon Scientist, p. 241)
Werner Heisenberg:
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.” (as cited in Hildebrand 1988)
Leonardo da Vinci:
To develop a complete mind,
Study the science of art;
Study the art of science;
Learn to see;
Realize that everything connects to everything else
Ada Lovelace:
“I am more than ever now the bride of science. Religion to me is science, and science is religion. In that deeply-felt truth lies the secret of my intense devotion to the reading of God’s natural works… And when I behold the scientific and so-called philosophers full of selfish feelings, and of a tendency to war against circumstances and Providence, I say to myself: They are not true priests,they are but half prophets — if not absolutely false ones. They have read the great page simply with the physical eye, and with none of the spirit within. The intellectual, the moral, the religious seem to me all naturally bound up and interlinked together in one great and harmonious whole… There is too much tendency to making separate and independent bundles of both the physical and the moral facts of the universe. Whereas, all and everything is naturally related and interconnected. A volume could I write on this subject…” (From an 1844 letter to Andrew Crosse printed in Betty A. Toole’s “Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers”)
John Taylor:
True science is a discovery of the secret, immutable and eternal laws, by which the universe is governed; and when practically applied, sets in motion the mighty wheels of useful engines, with all the various machinery which genius has invented, or art contrived. It ameliorates the condition of man, by extending the means of intellectual, moral, social, and domestic happiness. (Times and Seasons, vol. 4, pg. 46, 15 Dec 1842)
Orson Pratt:
The study of science is the study of something eternal. If we study astronomy, we study the works of God. If we study chemistry, geology, optics, or any other branch of science, every new truth we come to the understanding of is eternal; it is a part of the great system of universal truth. It is truth that exists throughout universal nature; and God is the dispenser of all truth. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, pg. 157, 12 Feb 1860)
Brigham Young:
How gladly would we understand every principle pertaining to science and art, and become thoroughly acquainted with every intricate operation of nature, and with all the chemical changes that are constantly going on around us! How delightful this would be, and what a boundless field of truth and power is open for us to explore! (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, pg. 168, 26 Jan 1862)
Brigham Young:
Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, pg. 369, 31 Aug 1862)
Brigham Young:
Yet I will say with regard to miracles, there is no such thing save to the ignorant–that is, there never was a result wrought out by God or by any of His creatures without there being a cause for it. There may be results, the causes of which we do not see or understand, and what we call miracles are no more than this–they are the results or effects of causes hidden from our understandings. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, pg. 140 – p.141, 11 Jul 1869)
John Taylor:
Science reveals the beauty and harmony of the world material; it unveils to us ten thousand mysteries in the kingdom of nature, and shows that all forms of life through fire and analogous decay are returned again to its bosom. It unfolds to us the mysteries of cloud and rains, dew and frost, growth and decay, and reveals the operation of those silent irresistible forces which give vitality to the world. It reveals to us the more wonderful operations of distant orbs and their relations to the forces of nature. It also reveals another grand principle, that the laws of nature are immutable and unchangeable as are all the works of God. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, pg. 224, 6 May 1870)
Brigham Young:
The origin of life whether human or inferior, must be lodged in some character whom I have not seen! Follow it back, no matter whether it be for six thousand years, six millions, six million millions, or billions of years, the figures and numbers are immaterial, I must have come from some source, my natural philosophy teaches me this. But, leaving the natural philosophy of the child free from false tradition, let us inquire. What does the philosophy of the Christian sects, or many of them, not all, teach? “God made the world in six days, out of nothing!” This is very wrong; no child should be taught any such dogma. God never did make a world out of nothing; He never will, He never can! (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, pg. 248, 25 Sep 1870)
Brigham Young:
It is hard to get the people to believe that God is a scientific character, that He lives by science or strict law, that by this He is, and by law he was made what He is; and will remain to all eternity because of His faithful adherence to law. It is a most difficult thing to make the people believe that every art and science and all wisdom comes from Him, and that He is their Author. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, pg. 302, 13 Nov 1870)
Brigham Young:
Our religion embraces chemistry; it embraces all the knowledge of the geologist, and then it goes a little further than their systems of argument, for the Lord almighty, its author, is the greatest chemist there is. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 15, pg. 127, 11 Aug 1872)
Brigham Young:
The idea that the religion of Christ is one thing, and science is another, is a mistaken idea, for there is no true religion without true science, and consequently there is no true science without true religion. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 17, pg. 51, 3 May 1874)
Parley P. Pratt:
Among the popular errors of modern times, an opinion prevails that miracles are events which transpire contrary to the laws of nature, that they are effects without a cause. If such is the fact, then, there never has been a miracle, and there never will be one. The laws of nature are the laws of truth. Truth is unchangeable, and independent in its own sphere. A law of nature never has been broken. And it is an absolute impossibility that such law ever should be broken. (Key to the Science of Theology, 1891, pg. 102)
Parley P. Pratt:
The science of geography will then be extended to millions of worlds, and will embrace a knowledge of their physical features and boundaries, their resources, mineral and vegetable; their rivers, lakes, seas, continents and islands; the attainments of their inhabitants in the science of government; their progress in revealed religion; their employments, dress, manners, customs, etc. The science of astronomy will also be enlarged in proportion to the means of knowledge. System after system will rise to view in the vast field of research and exploration! Vast systems of suns and their attendant worlds, on which the eyes of Adam’s race, in their rudimental sphere, have never gazed, will then be contemplated, circumscribed, weighed in the balance of human thought, their circumference and diameter be ascertained, their relative distances understood. Their motions and revolutions, their times and laws, their hours, days, weeks, sabbaths, months, years, jubilees, centuries, millenniums and eternities, will all be told in the volumes of science. (Key to the Science of Theology, 1891, pg. 161-162)
James E. Talmage:
Miracles are commonly regarded as occurrences in opposition to the laws of nature. Such a conception is plainly erroneous, for the laws of nature are inviolable. However, as human understanding of these laws is at best but imperfect, events strictly in accordance with natural law may appear contrary thereto. The entire constitution of nature is founded on system and order. (The Articles of Faith, pg. 220)
B. H. Roberts:
I believe also that with this flood of knowledge concerning these highly spiritual things, there has come into the world, almost imperceptibly, a more generally diffused and brighter spirit of intelligence than was known before; like collateral rays shooting off to right and left from the more direct light of God’s revelations which ushered in the great work of the last days. By those collateral rays of light men have been led to those great discoveries in the arts and sciences and in mechanics, which make our age so wonderful as an age of progress and enlightenment. (LDS Conference Report, Oct 1903, pg. 73)
Stephen L. Richards:
I believe it to be a generally accepted proposition in our church that no man’s standing is affected by the views which he may honestly hold with reference to the beginning of man’s life on the earth and the organization of the universe, or the processes employed in the working of the miracles of the Bible. (“Bringing Humanity to the Gospel,” LDS Conference Report, April 9, 1932)
Stephen L. Richards:
The time of creation has ever been a subject of much comment and dispute. Yet I challenge anybody to produce from the Bible itself any finite limitation whatsoever of the periods of creation. By strained inferential references and interpretations men have sought to set the time in days or periods of a thousand years, but I feel sure that no justification of such limitations is warranted by the scriptures themselves. If the evolutionary hypothesis of the creation of life and matter in the universe is ultimately found to be correct, and I shall neither be disappointed nor displeased if it shall turn out so to be, in my humble opinion the Biblical account is sufficiently comprehensive to include the whole of the process. (“An Open Letter to College Students,” Improvement Era, vol. 36 (June 1933), pg. 451-453, 484-485)
John A. Widtsoe:
Truth is truth forever. Scientific truth cannot be theological lie. To the sane mind, theology and philosophy must harmonize. They have the common ground of truth on which to meet. (Joseph Smith as Scientist, originally published in 1908, Bookcraft, 1964, pg. 156)
B. H. Roberts:
On the other hand, to limit and insist upon the whole of life and death to this side of Adam’s advent to the earth, some six or eight thousand years ago, as proposed by some, is to fly in the face of the facts so indisputably brought to light by the researcher of science in modern times, and this as set forth by men of the highest type in the intellectual and moral world; not inferior men, or men of sensual and devilish temperament, but men who must be accounted as among the noblest and most self-sacrificing of the sons of men — of the type whence must come the noblest sons of God, since “the glory of God is intelligence” (D&C 93:36); and that too the glory of man. These researchers after truth are of that class. To pay attention to and give reasonable credence to their research and findings is to link the church of God with the highest increase of human thought and effort. On that side lies development, on the other lies contraction. It is on the former side that research work is going on and will continue to go on, future investigation and discoveries will continue on that side, nothing will retard them, and nothing will develop on the other side. One leads to narrow sectarianism, the other keeps the open spirit of a world movement with which our New Dispensation began. As between them which is to be our choice? (The Truth, the Way, the Life, originally written 1931, published by Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, UT, 1994, pg. 364)
James E. Talmage:
According to the conception of geologists the earth passed through ages of preparation, to us unmeasured and immeasurable, during which countless generations of plants and animals existed in great variety and profusion and gave in part the very substance of their bodies to help form certain strata which are still existent as such. … Geologists say that these very simple forms of plant and animal bodies were succeeded by others more complicated; and in the indestructible record of the rocks they read the story of advancing life from the simple to the more complex, from the single-celled protozoan to the highest animals, from the marine algae to the advanced types of flowering plant — to the apple-tree, the rose, and the oak. What a fascinating story is inscribed upon the stony pages of the earth’s crust! … This record of Adam and his posterity is the only scriptural account we have of the appearance of man upon this earth. But we have also a vast and ever-increasing volume of knowledge concerning man, his early habits and customs, his industries and works of art, his tools and implements, about which such scriptures as we have thus far received are entirely silent. Let us not try to wrest the scriptures in an attempt to explain away what we cannot explain. The opening chapters of Genesis, and scriptures related thereto, were never intended as a textbook of geology, archaeology, earth-science or man-science. Holy Scripture will endure, while the conceptions of men change with new discoveries. We do not show reverence for the scriptures when we misapply them through faulty interpretation. (“The Earth and Man,” address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, 9 Aug 1931; published by the LDS Church)
David O. McKay:
Whatever the subject may be, the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ may be elaborated upon without fear of anyone’s objecting, and the teacher can be free to express his honest conviction regarding it, whether that subject be in geology, the history of the world, the millions of years that it took to prepare the physical world, whether it be in engineering, literature, art — any principles of the gospel may be briefly or extensively touched upon for the anchoring of the student who is seeking to know the truth. (“Gospel Ideals — Life’s Surest Anchor,” BYU Speeches of the Year, 30 Oct 1956)
Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr.:
Even the most devout and sincere believers in the Bible realize that it is, like most any other book, filled with metaphor, simile, allegory, and parable, which no intelligent person could be compelled to accept in a literal sense. … The Lord has not taken from those who believe in his word the power of reason. He expects every man who takes his “yoke” upon him to have common sense enough to accept a figure of speech in its proper setting, and to understand that the holy scriptures are replete with allegorical stories, faith-building parables, and artistic speech. … Where is there a writing intended to be taken in all its parts literally? Such a writing would be insipid and hence lack natural appeal. To expect a believer in the Bible to strike an attitude of this kind and believe all that is written to be a literal rendition is a stupid thought. No person with the natural use of his faculties looks upon the Bible in such a light. (Doctrines of Salvation, Bookcraft, 1956, vol. 3, pg. 188)
Pres. David O. McKay:
On the subject of organic evolution the Church has officially taken no position. The book “Man, His Origin and Destiny” was not published by the Church, and is not approved by the Church. The book contains expressions of the author’s views for which he alone is responsible. (letter to Prof. William Lee Stokes, 15 Feb 1957)
John A. Widtsoe:
We may go further. Every person born into the earth has claim upon the assistance of the Spirit of God. That is a species of revelation. Consequently, all good achievements of man, in science, literature, or art, are the product of revelation. The knowledge and wisdom of earth have so come. (Evidences and Reconciliations, Bookcraft, 1960, pg. 101)
John A. Widtsoe:
The Church, the custodian of the gospel on earth, looks with full favor upon the attempts of men to search out the facts and laws of nature. It believes that men of science, seekers after truth, are often assisted by the Spirit of the Lord in such researches. It holds further that every scientific discovery may be incorporated into the gospel, and that, therefore there can be no conflict between true religion and correct science. The Church teaches that the laws of nature are but the immutable laws of the Creator of the universe. (Evidences and Reconciliations, Bookcraft, 1960, pg. 139)
John A. Widtsoe:
By recognizing our universe as one of law, order, and intelligence, science has driven fear from the hearts of men. Intelligence acts in intelligent ways. The intelligence at the head of all things may be trusted to act intelligently. There arises therefrom a trust in the things about us. The age-old horror, called fear, which has so long distracted humanity, vanishes. Superstition is laid low. Men come to understand better the love of God, and his offerings of goodness. Certainly, in so doing, science has contributed to religious faith. (Evidences and Reconciliations, Bookcraft, 1960, pg. 171)
John A. Widtsoe:
As science advances and increases, as new discoveries are made, as more complete command is obtained over the forces of nature, the more necessary it becomes that we have a religion to guide us in employing these discoveries. To save the world from science, and to make science the builder of a good world, we must hasten our progress towards the fuller acceptance of God. |
can't paint it. But Vermeer, unlike other painters, painted his walls the way a photographic camera would record it.
In my day job I work with video and computer graphics, and I am used to looking at images from a technical point of view. To my eye, Vermeer had done something humanly impossible, and that's what I was thinking about when I got my bathtub epiphany.
Here's the idea: A small mirror on a stick that lets you exactly match your paint colors to the colors of your subject.
I set up a simple experiment to test the idea. I don't know how to paint but in a few hours I was able to use the mirror to copy a black-and-white photo. This was my very first oil painting.
So far, so good. The basic idea works, but could Vermeer paint real people in a real room with an optical machine? I wanted to do another experiment to find out.
I mentioned the idea to my old friend Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) over dinner one night. Penn got very excited about the idea and convinced me that we should make a documentary film about the experiment I was about to do. He enlisted Teller to direct it, and we were off and running.
That's where things got a little out of control. The simple-sounding experiment took years to complete. I decided that to really test the theory, I would have to make a little time machine. I would build an exact full-scale model of the room Vermeer painted in The Music Lesson, and then sit in the room with my optical device and paint, using natural light and only materials available to Vermeer in the 17th century. I reasoned that if I, a non-painter, could paint something resembling a Vermeer, my theory might hold water.
A few of the items that appear in the painting could be purchased, for example the viola lying on the floor and the Turkish carpet covering the table. Almost everything else I would have to build myself.
Fortunately, I'm a DIY kind of guy.
I started by making computer models of the objects in the painting using LightWave 3D.
I transferred the 3D models to my trusty Fadal 4020 milling machine and started generating sawdust. Normally a machine like this is used to fabricate metal, but it's perfectly happy cutting wood. I couldn't take advantage of 3D printing, because I wanted everything to appear as it did in the 17th century, and that means wood, not plastic.
The Fadal is an XYZ milling machine, but I needed a CNC lathe to make the legs for the harpsichord and the blue chair. I couldn't find a CNC lathe large enough to make these parts so I came up with the simple hack of bolting a cheap wood lathe onto the bed of the milling machine. Then, I programmed the mill to trace out the contour of the leg while the lathe spun the wood underneath the mill head.
At the center of the painting is a blue chair that appears in several of Vermeer's paintings. I took lots of photos of a similar chair I found in a museum in Delft, Holland, in order to make an accurate 3D model of it. I separated the chair model into individual pieces that could be carved on the milling machine. The most intricate wood parts are the little lion heads attached to the top of the blue chair.
Here are the chair parts made on the milling machine ready to be varnished and assembled.
At the left side of the painting are some stained-glass windows. There is a fairly complicated pattern of circles and squares on the lower windows. I used my flatbed laser cutter to cut this pattern out of black acrylic, which I then glued onto the window glass.
The harpsichord in the painting is called a Ruckers virginal. I found a harpsichord expert in Scotland named Grant O'Brien who provided blueprints and patterns to build the instrument. The legs of the instrument turned out to be a few inches too long for my wood lathe so I pulled the lathe out of the milling machine and cut it into two pieces on a band saw. I then bolted both pieces back into the mill, separated by a few inches. Now the lathe could accommodate a longer piece of wood.
Here is the assembled harpsichord before varnishing and decorating.
The decorations on the front of the harpsichord were made from block-printed paper back in the 17th century. Several of these instruments still exist in museums with the decoration paper intact, so we know exactly what Vermeer was seeing as he painted. Working from photographs of the harpsichords and patterns supplied by O'Brien, I reconstructed the decorations on the computer and then printed them on a large-format inkjet printer. Then I stuck them to the harpsichord case with double-faced tape.
It took over a year to construct the room and all the objects. Here's the finished "time machine." Now I could set up the optics and begin the painting experiment.
You can see the optical machine here. It consists of a 4-inch diameter lens with a focal length of 28 inches, a concave mirror with a focal length of -12 inches, and a small first-surface mirror mounted on a stick.
Since lenses in the 17th century were less perfect than modern lenses, I decided to make my own lens using 17th century techniques. First, on a lathe, I made a brass dish in the reverse shape of the lens surface.
Then, using finer and finer grades of abrasive and a potter's wheel, I ground the lens into shape and polished it.
It took another seven months to actually paint the picture. The work was tedious and very hard on the back, but the machine worked well. My experiment doesn't prove that Vermeer worked this way, but it proves that he COULD have worked this way. And the impossible white wall came out looking about the way Vermeer painted it.
Here is my finished painting.
Multiple cameras were constantly running throughout the experiment. At the end there were about 2400 hours of film in the can. Penn and Teller and their team then began the arduous process of editing it down to 80 minutes. After about a year they finished the movie and named it Tim's Vermeer.
[Video Link] Tim's Vermeer began its theatrical run in January and was released on Blu-ray Combo Pack & Digital download today (June 10, 2014). Bonus material includes deleted, extended and alternate scenes, commentary and a special Toronto International Film Festival Q&A.Jill Filipovic wildly claimed that "sex is about to get a lot less fun" in a Thursday op-ed on CNN.com. Filipovic pointed the finger at Donald Trump nominating ObamaCare opponent, Rep. Tom Price, to be HHS secretary, and claimed the move is "just one peek at what Trump's notorious misogyny will look like when it's translated into policy." The Cosmopolitan contributor zeroed in on ObamaCare's "provision that full covers contraception," and claimed that if the controversial law is repealed, many women would no longer be able to "enjoy recreational sex without suffering economically, professionally or medically from an unwanted pregnancy."
The title of Filipovic's editorial, along with its lead sentence, contained the over-the-top "lot less fun" statement about sex. She followed this by noting that "anti-abortion and anti-contraception" Rep. Price is also a "proponent of defunding Planned Parenthood, an organization that serves more than 2.5 million patients, many of them low-income, every year." The feminist writer, who received an award from Planned Parenthood for "media excellence" in 2015, continued with oft-used talking points about the abortion giant: "Birth control and STI testing and treatment make up the majority of services Planned Parenthood provides...Federal funding mostly goes to Planned Parenthood in the form of Medicaid dollars, which are set aside to provide health care for poor Americans, and that's who these funding cuts will largely affect."
Filipovic then outlined why, in her view, American women would have "a harder time getting contraception" with Rep. Price heading the Department of Health and Human Services:
Price suggests that birth control was perfectly affordable before the ACA [ObamaCare], and there simply were not American women who couldn't pay for it; he and I must hang out in different circles, because few women I know can comfortably shell out more than $1,000 at the gynecologist's office, especially when they're already paying for health care via their insurance plans.......An increasingly large body of research shows that long-acting contraceptive methods, like IUDs, are the most effective at preventing unintended pregnancy, because unlike the birth control pill or condoms, they are less vulnerable to human error (a missed pill, a broken condom). But long-acting methods are also the most expensive, and the fact that so few women used them pre-ACA can be partly attributed to their cost. An IUD routinely costs between $600 and $900, and can be as much as $2,600.... Even if women rely on more affordable methods, like the birth control pill, they're still looking at a $50 a month payment without ACA coverage. That may not be much to the Trump women sporting $10,000 bangles or the patients Price sees in his tony Atlanta suburb, but to a single mother stretching every dollar to feed her children, or a first-generation college student taking out debt and paying her own tuition for a chance to claw into the middle class, $50 is not pocket change.
The left-wing columnist also played up how "certain forms of contraception combat painful fibroids or cysts; other women face life- or health-threatening complications from pregnancy and use birth control to prevent a condition that could kill or maim them." She added that "part of the role of government is to cultivate conditions for a healthy citizenry, and birth control falls squarely in that purview."
It should be pointed out that Filopovic failed to mention other "health-threatening complications" in her write-up: the side effects and risks to using many forms of birth control. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed in recent years involving one popular form of the IUD, after thousands of women suffered adverse reactions to the product. Some liberals are also finally acknowledging the link between hormonal forms of birth control and depression, along with the problematic (to say the least) modern history of contraception.
Filipovic's full radical feminist colors emerged later in her op-ed piece, when she be basically accused conservatives/Republicans of wanting to deny women the "right" to have recreational sex:
...[D]espite its efficacy at preventing abortion, not a single national pro-life organization supports broader contraception access. That's because at its heart, hostility to birth control coverage, Planned Parenthood, and abortion rights aren't about "life" or "religious freedom" or any other right-wing buzzwords. Price and pro-life advocates like him easily disregard the health benefits contraception brings because they care more about women having sex than they do about women being healthy....As a consequence of having control over our fertility, women around the world have seen our rights and status skyrocket....more of us are [also] able to have sex without the anxiety of pregnancy, to enjoy the unique and fundamentally human pleasure that sex creates, and to tend to our relationships without the interruption and emotional devastation that an unintended pregnancy can bring. This makes women, men and children happier. It makes our relationships and our marriages stronger. It makes us better mothers and fathers. This, too, is an enormous gain, and a moral, social and political good. These things -- good health, strong relationships, healthier children, pleasurable experiences -- should be on offer for all women, not just those who can afford to plan their pregnancies. But the future of women's health under President Trump, and HHS Secretary Price, looks grim: Price's plan turns sex for pleasure into a luxury item and puts our health at risk. And it sends women a clear message: That partaking in a full range of human enjoyment and physical experience isn't for us, and that we exist instead to reproduce.
The Cosmopolitan writer concluded that the Price nomination shouldn't come as a surprise, as "Trump's own behavior implies our role as women is to be professional beauties he can ogle and rate onstage, or simply bodies he can grab if he feels like it. Women's sovereignty over our own bodies, let alone our pleasure, has never seemed to matter to Trump, personally, professionally or politically."Can pregnancy occur if penetration only happens for a few seconds?
Anytime the penis comes into direct contact with the vaginal area, there is the chance of pregnancy. The probability is extremely low, particularly compared to if intercourse with ejaculation took place, but there is still a risk. The transmission of STIs can also happen through any type of skin to skin contact like this.
Can pregnancy occur if a woman and a guy have faux sex or dry sex?
This is when there is no penetration, but there is skin to skin contact of the genital area. Again, anytime the penis and the vaginal area come into contact, there is the slight risk of pregnancy and a risk for STD transmission. All that needs to happen is for seminal fluid to leak inside the vagina.
Can a woman get pregnant from pre-ejaculation (pre-cum)?
Pre-ejaculation is the liquid that seeps out of the penis before ejaculation occurs. This fluid is released from the Cowper’s gland, located at the top of the urethra. The purpose of this fluid is to reduce the acidity in the urethra and provide a lubricant for the sperm that is released once ejaculation occurs. Most men have no control over it and cannot feel it coming out.
There is a lot of conflicting data on whether this fluid contains sperm that can result in pregnancy. Some studies have concluded that it does contain sperm and others have concluded that it does not. Most sources do agree that without definitive confirmation, precautions should still be taken to protect from pregnancy and STI transmission. For information about pre-ejaculation and the risks of pregnancy read this.
Can pregnancy occur if the woman does not have an orgasm?
Yes, pregnancy can occur even if a woman does not have an orgasm. An orgasm is not related to an egg being available for fertilization.
Can sperm travel through clothing or material?
If the clothing was completely saturated with semen and was in direct contact with a woman’s vagina, there is a very slight chance the sperm could enter the vagina, but this is highly unlikely. No conclusive studies give a definite answer on this possibility.
Can a woman get pregnant from having sex in water?
If actual intercourse takes place in any type of water, pregnancy is definitely a possibility. This is because intercourse will allow the sperm to be directly deposited in the vaginal area, and the water on the outside of the body would not interfere with this.
Can pregnancy occur if ejaculation takes place in water?
It is not likely that tiny sperm could travel through the vast area of water that would fill a pool, bathtub, or hot tub to reach the vagina and result in pregnancy. If ejaculation occurred in plain warm water, sperm could survive for a few minutes. If ejaculation occurs in very hot water, or water filled with pool chemicals, bubbles or other substances, sperm would not be able to survive for more than a few seconds. Pregnancy occurring from this is very unlikely and in most cases is not possible at all.
Can pregnancy occur from having anal sex?
Pregnancy cannot occur from the act of anal sex, but because the vaginal opening and the anus are very close together, there is the chance that sperm could leak into the vagina and travel to fertilize an egg. However, this is exceptionally unlikely.
Can pregnancy occur from having oral sex?
If genitals do not come in contact with each other, and semen does not enter the vaginal area, there is no chance of pregnancy.
Can ejaculating numerous times lessen the chance of pregnancy occurring?
The number of times ejaculation takes place can decrease the amount of sperm in each ejaculation, but there are still millions of sperm present. Each ejaculation contains about 2-5 mL of sperm, and each mL can contain from 40 million to 400 million sperm. This means that even in someone who has ejaculated numerous times, the number of sperm can still be in the hundred millions. Only one is needed to fertilize an egg.
Is sperm dead once it reaches the air? Does oxygen kill sperm?
No, oxygen does not kill sperm. This is a myth that many people believe, but it is not true! Once sperm is DRY it is dead and cannot travel to fertilize an egg. Sperm can live for 3-5 days if it is in a warm, moist environment such as the vagina or uterus of a woman. Sperm cannot come back to life once it has dried, even if it is re-moistened.
I am wondering if I could be pregnant, what do I do next?
You may have just discovered that pregnancy is a possibility in your particular circumstance. Don’t panic; as noted above, in most cases the possibilities of pregnancy are extremely rare. Your next step is to begin watching for early pregnancy symptoms. If you experience any of these symptoms and then miss a period, you can take a pregnancy test. You can use an over the counter test or you can contact the helpline at the American Pregnancy Association to locate a testing center in your area: call 1-800-672-2296.
If you are already noticing symptoms or believe you could be pregnant you can take a test. Keep in mind that it is common to get false negatives before a missed period, so even if you are having symptoms or early pregnancy, consider waiting until you miss your period. Order an affordable early detection pregnancy test here.
Compiled using information from the following sources:
1. Researchers find no sperm in pre-ejaculate fluid. Contracept Technol Update. (1993) (10):154-6.
PMID: 12286905[PubMed-indexed for MEDLINE]
2. Sperm content of pre-ejaculatory fluid. Hum Fertil (Camb.) (2011)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21155689
3. Mayo Clinic
https://www.mayoclinic.comThe University of California, Los Angeles has announced a $20 million commitment from film producers Eric Esrailian and Anthony Mandekic to the UCLA School of Law to launch an institute that will serve as a national hub for human rights education and advocacy.
Derived from the proceeds of the film The Promise, which is set during the Armenian genocide that began in 1915, when more than 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by the Ottoman government in a mass atrocity driven by ethnic and religious intolerance, the gift will support the establishment of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law. When operational, the multidisciplinary institute will expand UCLA Law's course offerings in human rights studies, enhance hands-on programs in human rights law and policy, bring experienced human rights scholars and practitioners to the law school as faculty members and guest speakers, support students through fellowships and scholarships, and host symposia and related events.
"This visionary gift is a giant step toward making UCLA Law the premier center for human rights in Southern California," said UCLA Law dean Jennifer Mnookin. "While the school already has a strong record of human rights scholarship and activity, the Promise Institute will greatly enhance our program and have an impact felt around the world. Dr. Esrailian and the makers of The Promise have shown extraordinary leadership, and we are thrilled that their commitment permits us to launch an institute that promises to grow into a major academic crossroads for human rights."
Esrailian, a faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Mandekic, president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, co-produced The Promise and are the co-managers of Survival Pictures, which was founded by the late Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian to tell the story of the Armenian genocide. Recently, Survival Pictures began a campaign to teach the public about the genocides and other mass atrocities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
"The Armenian genocide must never be forgotten, and this need was one reason why we made The Promise," said Esrailian. "However, human rights tragedies — in Syria, the Congo, and South Sudan — and a global refugee crisis continue to unfold today."Marc Andreessen is at it again. First, he said that software is eating the world. Then, he told us the bitcoin digital currency will remake global finance. And now, the venture capitalist and founding father of the web browser says we're on the verge of a major boom in the business of journalism, an internet-powered resurgence that will see the industry grow more than tenfold.
Andressen isn't the first investor to bet big on a new wave of original online content – either in this internet revolution or the last one – and few bets have actually panned out. But there's hard evidence that the boom he forecasts is already underway.
For years, the internet undercut newspapers and other traditional news outlets. Tools like Blogger and YouTube and social networks like Twitter and Facebook turned everyone into news producers, and this glut of content devalued the sort of polished news traditionally created by professionals, driving old school journalism towards irrelevance. But Andreessen argues that this very phenomenon has now created a huge opportunity for the news business to reinvent itself.
Joi Ito /Flickr
The very platforms that killed newspapers, he says, have amped up news consumption, creating more news readers (compared with broadcast systems used 30 years ago) and intensifying the habits of existing news consumers. Andreessen believes that the quantity of news consumed is now growing even faster than the quantity of news produced – that demand now far exceeds supply. This implies there's tons of new money to be made in the news business and that profits are only going to grow. "The big opportunity for the news industry in the next five to 10 years," Andreessen writes, "is to increase its market size 100x AND drop prices 10X – become larger and much more important in the process."
If such a monumental shift were happening, if the market for news were really going to grow 100x due to social networks and internet disruption, you'd expect to see some signs of that by now. And indeed there are at least some:
The Smart Money Arrives ———————–
In the days of monopoly newspapers, cloistered wealthy families tended to control media properties. But the list of names throwing money at the news business reads like a who's who of the internet. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar pledged $250 million to a news startup led by surveillance journalist Glenn Greenwald. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes bought The New Republic. And, yes, Andreessen has seeded three different news startups. He even employs my former editor, so that he can produce news on his firm's own site (consider that a disclosure).
To be sure, some of these investments might be chasing influence rather than profits, and some will surely end in folly. But the trend is real. Even Marissa Mayer – who, as a top Google executive, famously leaned heavily on data to drive her decision-making – is now throwing money at name journalists like Katie Couric and David Pogue from her new perch atop Yahoo.
The Catalogs ————
Other operations are discovering entirely new ways of making money from news. Andreessen is high on a site called Wirecutter, run by gadget blogger Brian Lam. The Wirecutter is funded not primarily by advertising but by affiliate fees it generates by sending electronics buyers to other sites. The site is as much a smartly curated catalog as a work of journalism. Ditto with Ben Lerer's Thrillist, an internet empire built on making, stocking, and selling its own menswear as well as on smart writing and distribution. It's news as salesmanship. Thrillist's revenue recently crossed $80 million.
Ads Actually Work —————–
Still others are using premium display advertising. For all the pessimism around the ads that accompanies online journalism – even the optimistic Andreessen railed against "crappy teeth whitening come-ons" – there are plenty of brands making it work with top-shelf ads. Andreessen mentions The Atlantic, where digital ad revenues surpassed print in 2011, and WIRED, which crossed the rubicon in 2012. Gawker Media (where I used to work and am a tiny shareholder) is also profitable. CNET was already profitable when it was acquired in 2008. And the Huffington Post was profitable right before it was acquired by AOL.
Om Malik, venture investor and founder of the tech news site GigaOm, believes the advertising gravy train is only just getting started. "The business of news is still in the dark ages... mired in the systems of the past," Malik tells WIRED. "The intellectual makeover of Madison Avenue hasn’t even started yet."
Instagram as a News Engine ————————–
Of course, as a venture capitalist, Andreessen is in the business of saying big booms are on the way. And he can do just fine for himself even if most of his bets never pan out. His wild optimism about the future is news echoes the "content is king" delusions that infected the last tech boom, and in recent months, we've seen plenty of news failures. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong bet the farm on original content, and the company is struggling. Demand Media is faltering too. And Andreessen is applauding startups that are still in the red (like Business Insider).
Plus, it's hard to tell whether people want professionally reported news over news from their friends. Malik points out that the explosive popularity of apps like Snapchat indicates just the opposite. "Instagrams, Secrets, Whispers, and Snapchats are in direct competition with the Times," he says. "Daily attention is being sliced and diced multiple ways."
But apps aren't just a means of personal communication. They're also a way of distributing professional news. And all the money flowing into the news business right now means they'll be delivering a surge in quality journalism. Enjoy it while it lasts.Moments ago, the Bank of Canada's chief finally said what we had been patiently waiting for over the past several months: admission that Europe's experiment with negative rates is about to cross the Atlantic. From Market News:
BOC POLOZ: NOW SEES EFFECTIVE LOWER BOUND FOR POLICY RATE AROUND -0.5%
BOC POLOZ: CANADN FIN MKTS COULD FUNCTION IN A NEG INT RATE ENVRIONMNT
BOC POLOZ: 'SHOULD THE NEED ARISE' FOR UNCONVENTIONAL MONETARY POLICY, 'WE'LL BE READY'
That, as they say, is "forward guidance" of what is coming.
And what is coming, is also precisely what Keith Dicker from IceCap Asset Management said in his latest monthly letter, would happen in Canada in the very near future. To wit:
Canada
Now that the election is over, the new government can quickly get down to work to missing all of their economic forecasts and budgets.
IceCap is apolitical – we support neither the left, the center or the right. Instead, we see the world with our global goggles and can confirm that despite any and all economic policies from the new (or old) government – the Canadian economy will continue it’s downward trend.
This negative outlook for Canada isn’t driven by an insular view or perspective. Rather, the global trend is downward. The economic and monetary foundation for the global economy has shifted and this is the reason for our downward view for the Great White North.
During the election campaign, we shared this view with the eventual winning party. The response was a slow yawn and disapproving look which suggested either we didn’t know what we were talking about or they were not really interested in our answer to their question.
This lack of empathy for the escalating global government debt crisis is also shared by many in the financial sector as well. Yes, increasingly more and more investment managers are echoing concerns similar to ours – but make no mistake, the majority, and especially the really big investment and mutual fund companies continue to see a recovery right around the ole corner.
Of course, this mythical corner continues to be just as elusive as unicorns, trolls, elves and dragons. In 2014, Canada’s top Bay Street economists were all clamouring for the Bank of Canada to begin raising rates – after all, these economists had very big spreadsheets, with all kinds of neat formulas and corporate logos that predicted the Canadian economy was about to shoot to the moon.
Yes, the good times were back.
But they weren’t.
At the time, IceCap stated that the global economy was beginning to roll over and that the Canadian economy would begin shooting in the opposite direction. As well, based upon our outlook for declining growth, we also expected the Bank of Canada to REDUCE interest rates, not INCREASE interest rates as predicted by Bay Street.
Naturally, our view meant that the Canadian Dollar would decline significantly relative to the US Dollar. This provided us with a great opportunity to add a significant USD currency strategy within every Canadian Dollar Client Portfolio.
Now here we are in 2015, and the Canadian Dollar (and other currencies) has in fact declined significantly, and the Bank of Canada has in fact REDUCED interest rates not once, but twice.
We share this investment success story for 2 reasons:
Taking an insular view of your Country’s economy will lead you to losing money.
The global economy and financial markets continue to move in the direction which we expect. And this direction is going to produce outcomes that are being completely missed by many in the investment community.
Which brings us back to Canada. Currently, both the Bank of Canada and Bay Street economists predict the Canadian economy to recover in 2016, and then to accelerate in 2017.
The ONLY way for this to occur is if the global economy sheds it’s government debt problem. IceCap places a 0% probability of this occurring.
Instead, everyone should expect:
Canadian economy to be in recession in 2016 Bank of Canada will be at 0% interest rates in 2016 Bank of Canada will be at NEGATIVE interest rates in later 2016 Bank of Canada will be PRINTING MONEY in later 2016
And for the Canadian Dollar? It’s headed lower, a lot lower. If you are not Canadian, just know that you are in a similar boat. And when it comes to boating, there is one simple rule – going against the flow is difficult, it’s exhausting, and it can be humbling.
* * *
So, in order to force the Bank of Canada's hand, is this what's coming next?Aurora police seeking to solve four 1984 murders have released a composite image created based on the DNA of a killer who slaughtered an Aurora family and murdered a Lakewood woman.
An unidentified killer left his DNA behind at 16387 E. Center Drive on Jan. 16, 1984, when he fatally stabbed and bludgeoned Bruce Bennett, 27, raped and fatally bludgeoned his wife, Debra, 26, and fatally stabbed and beat his daughter, Melissa, 7. The killer also shattered the face of a second Bennett daughter, 3-year-old Vanessa Bennett, that same night. Six days earlier, he murdered Patricia Smith, 50, of Lakewood.
Aurora cold case homicide Detective Steve Conner recently asked Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia company, to use its newly developed technology to create an image based on DNA predictions of the suspect’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, freckling and face shape, Conner has said.
“When investigators find themselves ‘chasing a ghost,’ Snapshot can provide a wealth of information to make the search for a suspect or person of interest more efficient,” said Ellen Greytak, director of Bioinformatics at Parabon.
“This is the first time we have had some idea of who we’re looking for. He is no longer invisible,” Conner said. “With release of these Snapshot composites, we hope people familiar with the case and the area at that time might be reminded of something or someone significant to the investigation.”
The image that was created predicted what the killer would have looked like when he was 25 and what he might look like today. A full description is available here.
Parabon specializes in DNA phenotyping. It creates images that help police identify possible suspects of unsolved crimes.
“It is important to note that Snapshot composites are scientific approximations of appearance based on DNA and are not likely to be exact replicas of appearance,” according to a news release by Chris Amsler, Aurora police spokesman.
Environmental factors such as smoking, drinking, diet and other non-environmental factors, such as facial hair, hairstyle and scars, cannot be predicted by DNA analysis and may cause further variation between the suspect’s predicted and actual appearance, Amsler said.
The same killer is believed to have first struck on Jan. 4, 1984, when he slipped inside an Aurora home and used a hammer to beat James and Kimberly Haubenschild. James Haubenschild suffered a fractured skull, and his wife had a concussion. Both survived. On the same day, a man using a hammer attacked flight attendant Donna Dixon in the garage of her Aurora home, leaving her in a coma. Dixon survived.
Anyone with information that could help solve the case is asked to contact Conner at 303-739-6190 or swconner@auroragov.org.The land acquisition process for the park is making slow progress, sources say.
Nine months after the Chinese government signed a memorandum to set up an Industrial park for Chinese players in Gujarat, the project is yet to take off in earnest. The land acquisition process, apparently, is progressing at a snail's pace.
The Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, which was supposed to acquire land, had identified a few plots near Vadodara and Ahmedabad, but the acquisition process is yet to begin, sources said.
Sources also said Chinese delegations had expressed a keen interest in a location near Vadodara, but the high price of land has acted as a stumbling block.
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping became the first head of state to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his home state Gujarat. One of the projects signed during the visit was this park.
The signatories were Indextb -- the nodal agency of Gujarat government for investment promotion -- and China Development Bank. Under it, Indextb was to assist Chinese investors in obtaining clearances and creating infrastructure facilities.
Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel is heading for China along with PM Modi's delegation and sources say there will be an attempt to push the projects.
Critics say it is hype, that no actual investment is reflected on the round. "The actual investment that came during the successive Vibrant Gujarat events has been a dismal 2.3%... similarly, these Chinese deals where nothing has translated into real investment," said economist Professor Hemant Shah.
The Gujarat government maintains that the project is on course. Industries secretary Mamta Varma told NDTV that the department was scouting for land and "acquisition process is in the advanced stage".
The opposition Congress has criticised Mr Modi and Ms Patel for going on a China trip when the earlier projects are yet to take off.
"You signed the memorandum while eating theplas and dhoklas on the river front. We want to know what happened to them and now you are going to China again for more MoUs. This is a farce," said Congress spokesman Manish Doshi.BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes reached the center of the western town of Hit, dislodging Islamic State militants and evacuating thousands of civilians, state television said on Friday.
Iraq's counter-terrorism forces vehicles gather in the town of Hit in Anbar province, April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer
A local commander said the pro-government forces had routed the militants from their stronghold in Hit, which had a pre-war population of nearly 100,000, but fighting was still going on.
“We are still pursuing them. They have abandoned their families and fled,” the commander said in a live broadcast. “Within days, God willing, Iraqis will rejoice at the complete liberation of Anbar province.”
The recapture of Hit, located on the Euphrates River near Ain al-Asad air base where several hundred U.S. personnel are training Iraqi army troops, would roll back Islamic State further west towards the Syrian border.
Baghdad has had success in pushing back the militants in recent months and has pledged to retake the northern city of Mosul later this year, though an offensive billed as the first phase of that campaign was put on hold this week.
The government forces’ control of Hit appeared incomplete and fragile on Friday. One of the commanders said the insurgents, who have planted explosives in roads, cars and buildings, had tried to retake a main street but were repelled.
A coalition official said on Sunday that up to 300 Islamic State fighters based in Hit had built formidable defensive perimeters.
The counter-terrorism forces, which have led the military’s offensive in Anbar for months, helped more than 10,000 civilians leave Hit in recent days, the commanders said. State television broadcast images of men, women and children carrying belongings and waving white flags as they walked out of the town.
The jihadists have regularly used civilians as human shields, a tactic aimed at slowing the advance of Iraqi forces and complicating air strikes essential to the ground advance.
Separately, bombs hit markets in Baghdad and a Sunni mosque in Baquba, the capital of eastern Diyala province bordering Iran, security sources said.
A blast in Tarmiya, 25 km north of the capital, killed one person and wounded seven others. Another explosion in the southern district of Doura killed two and wounded five more.
In Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad, an explosion went off following Friday prayers, killing the mosque’s imam and his son and wounding several worshippers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts. Islamic State bombs have regularly targeted civilians in both cities, while Shi’ite militia elements have been accused of attacking Sunnis’ property in Diyala - charges they deny.As the first major Linux distribution to have Btrfs as the default file system, what can users and developers expect from openSUSE 13.2?
How is the systems capabilities enhanced?
Btrfs has different performance characteristics; it’s a logging-style file system that provides fault tolerance, repair, and easy management features.
The most well known advantage of Btrfs is the rollback capability with the open-source tool Snapper.
“Btrfs is mature,” said George Shi, who helped rollbacks become a reality for openSUSE users. “It works with Snapper to implement snapshot and rollback, the killer function of Btrfs. You can pick any date you saved to rollback your full system.”
The snapshot tool is the ultimate replenishing mechanism for Linux. The tool is enabled by default and snapshots are automatically created in regular intervals as well as before and after each software installation. Users and administrators can therefore have their computers or servers travel back in time to a previous state. With Btrfs and Snapper, it’s even possible to boot a previous state, which is why 13. |
. The company has already brokered deals with multiple partners to help achieve this goal, and its platform also syncs with over 40 APIs. This means users don’t need to grant permissions to dozens of apps to create a life project on the platform — a valuable time saving element.
Functioning as a data dashboard, Tictrac will eventually begin to learn a user’s behavior to personalize information. So if you’re focusing on improving your diet, the system would tell you to eat more protein.
Blinder believes this type of evolved adaptation will help people design their lives in the future. He says, “I feel we’re reaching a point in history where we can really empower ourselves based on an understanding of our own data.”
The Priority of Privacy
Image via iStockphoto, Mari
Edd Dumbill is a principal analyst for O’Reilly Radar, and program chair for the O’Reilly Strata Conference. The conference, launched in February 2011, is thought to have originated the term "data scientist."
Dumbill notes a number of trends for 2013, but the subject of privacy is an especially hot button issue that needs to be addressed sooner than later. “When the car was invented, a lot of people died until the seat belt was invented," he says. “The industry has to arrive at a level of self-regulation or it will get regulated by people who don’t understand what they’re doing.”
But unlike most discussions around big data privacy hinged on philosophical debate, Dumbill provides a welcome pragmatic insight to the mix. “We simply don’t currently have the technological infrastructure to manage privacy.”
Once you have a user’s data, you not only have to manage it but store it and create systems to identify who has touched it. It’s the technological reasons surrounding privacy for most organizations that keep them from fully leveraging big data. This is why vertically integrated data solutions will provide the ability for people to make better decisions. This integration will help us move beyond a granular scrutiny of the technology behind big data and focus on the massive insights it can bring when managed by a team of connected experts.
In regards to the future, Dumbill notes, “I would prefer not to look at the phenomenon that’s feeding the IT trend of big data and focus on our increasingly programmable world.”
The Rise of the Personal Data Economy
Another danger with big data is focusing on the granularity of specific implementations before helping users understand an overall paradigm for how advanced analysis will look in the enterprise.
“It’s more of an economic discussion than a technology discussion,” says Brandon Barnett, director of business innovation at Intel Corporation. Barnett works in conjunction with Ken Anderson, senior researcher at Intel Labs, and Eric Berlow, founder of Vibrant Data labs, on We The Data, an initiative designed to utilize complexity science to create the portrait of a future data economy that doesn’t currently exist. As their site explains, “How do we balance our anxiety around data with its incredible potential? We the Data can create new forms of social cooperation and exchange, or give us more of the same corporate obsession with better targeted advertising.”
Note this language isn’t about demonizing marketers — it’s about shifting the conversation. We can't think of the ROI of innovation in quarterly terms, but rather, determine how the full breadth of big data can be understood within our current business environment.
Barnett notes, “The data economy is one example where our research suggests the world is moving, and yet traditional tools of market analysis fall short in identifying the products, services and business models that companies can pursue to begin to add value to the consumer.” This is why We The Data utilizes complexity science applied to business ecosystems to generate information about an economy that could be created. The goal of the work is to catalyze the imaginations of business leaders to envision a future where a unifying infrastructure that makes sense in the big data world doesn’t yet exist, but could.
We the Data also addresses the fundamental issue of privacy by creating awareness around treating personal data as a resource. Today we primarily utilize our data as a transactional tool leveraged in the identification and purchasing of products. This limited landscape will soon evolve, Berlow notes: “The anxiety towards privacy is real, but what is much more difficult to communicate are the potential opportunities to improve the lives of everyday people – not just if we can address the issues of privacy and trust but because we address them.”
As examples of these opportunities, he cites the categories of health, open government data for citizens and micro-entrepreneurship. “Imagine what we might learn if more people shared their health data because they could easily control other aspects of their anonymity? Imagine if small entrepreneurs had easy-to-interpret access to market research data that is now only available to large corporations?”
We the Data provides an important model to follow as the personal data economy becomes codified over the next five to 10 years. As people begin to understand the power their data holds beyond commercial transaction, openness and value-creation can help shape the business landscape of the future. Our new focus will be on the word “share” versus “holder.”
The Global Human Being
Through the Internet, we are developing a species-level nervous system, capable of transmitting thoughts, ideas and information. The resulting meta-organism — this ‘global’ human being — is also beginning to exhibit physiological reactions and even ‘higher’ human traits like empathy and compassion.
The author of this excerpt is Jonathan Harris, the artist, and co-creator of We Feel Fine. He is also quoted in The Human Face of Big Data, a multimedia book/app experience created by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt. In the book, lush visualizations and photos document dozens of existing scenarios for readers to fully understand the context and breadth of the existing big data era.
It’s not always pretty, though. “I’m worried that the people spending the most time thinking about big data are corporations and governments," notes Smolan. "Our legislators are not being informed about where this tech stands right now and where it’s heading.”
In the book, stats like "Facebook has 955 million monthly active accounts using seventy languages" and "one in three children born in the United States already has an online presence" paint a portrait of how pervasive data has become in our lives. Then you discover the massive positive discoveries from companies like Proteus Digital Health, which have created ingestible event markers (EMIs) with hardware that provides ongoing real-time data from within a patient’s body.
The overarching effect of big data is we’ll soon be able to perform real-time polling of the human race, or literally listen to the heartbeat of the planet. But there’s no ethical framework guiding this massive expanse of data infrastructure.
“I’m not worried about privacy — I’m worried about proclivity,” Smolan says. “There is no set of laws that says, ‘This is how you should be judged.’ Algorithms are writing algorithms and we’re losing the connection of what guides the technology that’s beginning to govern our lives.”
The Devil’s Had His Due
It’s wise to see software not only as a product or service, but also as the staging ground for humanity’s future, affording us the time and space to get our ethics right before the stakes are raised. Big data is powerful, but ethically neutral — we have to choose how to use it.
Above and in his "Data Driven" essay, Jonathan Harris explains that, while big data is ethically neutral, it can be used like any tool: for good or evil. If two people look at a stick, one sees a lever and the other sees a weapon. But without an ethical framework to guide the context of what people are looking at in the first place, even the question “What do you see?” doesn’t make sense.
So in the end, big data isn’t the devil. We just need to focus on issues like collaboration, context and design to guide our analysis, or give way to disillusionment and dystopia.
In other words, the devil is in the details. So let’s work them out before he does.
Homepage image via iStockphoto, Henrik5000For Salvador Dalí: a toilet made from intertwined dolphins — one mouth to receive piss; the other, shit — and $100,000 an hour to play the Emperor of the Universe. For Pink Floyd, Gong and Tangerine Dream: a planet each. For some of the then unknown, now best-known sci-fi and comic book talent in the world: the opportunity to do whatever they want under the guidance of a cinematic visionary. For the human race: enlightenment.
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s plans for a film of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel Dune, it’s been suggested, may have been a little too ambitious to come off. But they came damn close: two years of pre-production work and two million dollars were spent before the plug was pulled, during which time Jodorowsky’s team of ‘seven samurai’ forged productive alliances and pushed the look and feel of sci-fi cinema forward. Effects man Dan O’Bannon would go on to create Alien with the artists hired; Jodorowsky and Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud would rework much of their Dune into the hit French comic book series L’Incal.
If ever there was an unfilmable novel, it was Dune. Spanning generations and planets, portraying complex fictional dynasties and hidden identities, and drawing on Islam, Buddhism and environmentalism, it seems it was simply too vast a prospect to be realised successfully onscreen (or summarised here — see the wiki for an overview). Arthur P Jacobs, producer of Planet of the Apes and Doctor Dolittle among others, had planned to film Dune with David Lean, who declined; Jacobs was nevertheless set to begin filming when he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973. Herbert himself then attempted a screenplay, but ultimately had to throw his hands up and accept that it was a disaster. Ridley Scott would pick up the baton for a year after Jodorowsky’s attempt folded, but drop it again to make Blade Runner, balking at the prospect of the three further years’ work ahead. The messy Dune we know and half-remember for Special Agent Dale Cooper riding giant worms and an unconvincingly villainous Sting finally emerged in 1984, heavily edited by the de Laurentiis producers. It would soon be disowned by its director, David Lynch.
Perhaps the only sane approach to filming Dune would be to create your own myth inspired by it, as Jodorowsky intended: “I did not want to respect the novel. I wanted to [reinvent] it. For me Dune did not belong to Herbert as Don Quixote did not belong to Cervantes.” And there have been few figures in cinema better suited to the task than Jodorowsky.
Opening up his world to the newcomer is a challenge perhaps best met with a quote from the man himself: “I’m extremely attracted to what I don’t understand. My intuition tells me that there lies something important to study.” Born to Russian Jewish parents in Tocopilla, Chile in 1929, he became a published poet while still in his teens, working alongside future Nobel nominee Nicanor Parra; studied philosophy and psychology in Santiago while also running a large theatre company; left to pursue an interest in puppetry; moved to Paris to master mime alongside Marcel Marceau and direct his film debut, La Cravate (praised by Jean Cocteau); founded the Panic movement with playwright/director Fernando Arrabel and cartoonist/author Roland Topor, whose theatre happenings — provocations intended to reclaim Surrealism from its stuffy old guard — would involve snakes strapped onto torsos, crucified chickens, and giant vaginas giving birth to actors; directed, wrote and acted in over 100 plays in Mexico City (his Godot got him vilified) while also working in mainstream Parisian theatre (at one point directing Maurice Chevalier’s comeback); and contributed the weekly, subversive Fábulas Pánicas comic strip to the reactionary Heraldo de Mexico newspaper (it was too popular to drop by the time they twigged what was going on).
A Panic happening (anti-explanation by Arrabel; explanation by Jodorowsky)
Summarising Jodorowsky’s cinematic style is even harder: there really aren’t many illuminating comparisons to be made. (David Lynch if he switched to decaf? Kenneth Anger if he'd got past the occult to embrace a fuller history of ideas, psychology and symbols, with a healthy dash of humour?) His genius lies in making cinema do things no one suspected it could; his attraction to the unfathomable has led to some of the most original and engaging storytelling in the history of film. 1968’s Fando Y Lis was very much part of Panic: a wild step on from Samuel Beckett via Jodorowsky and Arrabel’s brand of surrealism. Our protagonists (paraplegic Lis and her betrothed, Fando) roam cemeteries and wastelands, taking in burning tarantulas and pianos, real-life vampirism, sexually predatory pensioners and a pride of bowling ball-wielding drag queens along the way, in search of a mythical city called Tar where all dreams come true. There was a riot at its premiere, and the film was banned by the Mexican government.
But it was in El Topo that Jodorowsky really found his voice. The influence of Ejo Takata, the Zen Buddhist monk who trained him in the ways of the koan and meditation, is notable throughout, alongside the vast library of literary, artistic, philosophical and religious ideas Jodorowsky had consumed. The joke is that he set out to make a Western and ended up making an Eastern; the reality is both stranger and more kick-ass. The first half mixes aestheticised bloodbaths and exploitation film thrills (plus a black leather get-up inspired by Elvis's '68 comeback) with Buddhist, Sufi and Christian-styled soul-searching. The second pits a small-town society steeped in capitalist and religious corruption against a caste of disabled outsiders liberated from their underground lair by a reformed El Topo. Jodorowsky has always hoped that the making — and viewing — of his films will be a life-changing experience; this one seems to have captured his own progress from the culture of the machista he grew up with to a more enlightened outlook. It became an unlikely underground smash, establishing New York’s ‘midnight movie’ scene and impressing John Lennon so much that he persuaded Beatles manager and counterculture tycoon Allen Klein to buy it and release it properly.
Lennon’s influence also secured Jodorowsky a million Klein clams to make his next film, the peerless The Holy Mountain. Before we go on, it should perhaps be emphasised that Jodorowsky has never been a drug user, nor anything other than a fierce critic of all religions; yet by this point he genuinely did feel as if he was on a holy mission. He wanted his film to both document and become a transformative experience — to be the tab of LSD itself (as he pitched it to the hippies) rather than to depict the drug use or drug-induced visions his new audience of stoners might be more at home with.
The results were spectacular: an end-to-end riot of colour, emotion and sensation, frame after frame packed with powerful symbols, not to mention pop art, fashion and set design that far outstrips even Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. If it’s a take on a genre, it’s very loosely the ‘Berg’ (or mountain-climbing) film. But that’s just underneath somewhere, providing the momentum; there's simply nothing else like it, anywhere. The Holy Mountain is populated throughout by Jodorowsky’s people — the disabled, the homosexual, the dissident; everyone, in short, who would have been classed as degenerate or undesirable by the Mexican authorities of the day. You also get the Jodorowskian menagerie: peacocks, tigers, apes, hippos, pelicans and camels; even chameleons and toads dressed as Aztecs and Spanish conquistadors. If he’d only managed to film the bravura, almost dialogue-free 40-minute opening sequence we’d still be banging on about it here. With judicious editing of the middle section, it could have taken off and made a multitude of converts. As it stands, The Holy Mountain is the most incredible director’s cut you will ever see.
So you can understand why Dune appealed to Jodorowsky: a synthetic myth of that scale would seem the ideal playground for his syncretic imagination. Following The Holy Mountain’s cult success in 1973/4, he’d actually hoped to make Mr Blood and Miss Bones: a pirate film for children based on the voyage of Saint Brendan, set and shot (in a boat!) on the streets of NYC. (“Pirates were true examples of anarchism... and pirate women were the first to proclaim women’s liberation,” he explained.) Klein steered him in the opposite direction: ‘adult’ films had become fashionable in the era of Deep Throat and Emmanuelle, so he lined Jodorowsky up to adapt and direct Pauline Réage’s dom-sub tome The Story of ‘O’. Jodorowsky did a runner from a London meeting in which he was to be given a $200,000 cheque to seal the deal, and flew immediately to New York. “I am a feminist,” he later said. “I didn’t want to make a picture about a woman who is a slave.”
And that was the end of his relationship with Klein. Or rather, the birth of Klein as Jodorowsky's long-serving nemesis. Klein seized all prints of El Topo and The Holy Mountain, and would refuse all requests for screenings over the next 30 years. Jodorowsky would personally donate VHS copies to pirate distributors in every new country he visited; Klein would weigh in with a heavy lawsuit against those distributors. Jodorowsky would tell interviewers that Klein deserved death for killing his films; Klein wouldn’t budge.
Upon arrival in New York, Jodorowsky called Michel Seydoux, the French producer who’d launched El Topo and The Holy Mountain in Paris, to pitch a new idea. He would direct the film of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune — which he had not yet read. Immediately, he packed his family and belongings up and flew to Paris, where he’s lived ever since.
Many intriguing names were attached to the project. Orson Welles was in line to play the ultra-corpulent Baron Harkonnen, who can only move when he has anti-gravitational balloons attached to his limbs. Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard), Mick Jagger, David Carradine (known then for the Kung Fu TV series and now for Kill Bill), Geraldine Chaplin (Dr Zhivago) and Alain Delon were in line for other parts. Each planet in the film would have its own designer and score. Reports suggested that the running time could be anywhere up to 10 or even 14 hours. You can read Jodorowsky’s own account of the Dune experience here, but the main players were as follows.
Salvador Dalí was cast as the insane Emperor of the Universe, who lived on an artificial planet built from gold and had a robot doppelgänger – actually conceived as a way around the real Dalí’s extortionate fiscal demands for appearing in person – to keep people guessing, fearfully, which one they were dealing with. He accepted the part with apparent glee, his only demand being that the Emperor’s throne must be a toilet made from intersected dolphins, the tails forming the feet and the mouths to receive piss and shit separately. (He thought it terribly bad taste to mix the two.) Dalí then insisted that he be paid $100,000 an hour to sit on it. He also deemed it essential that we see the Emperor defecating and micturating in the film — but a body double would have to do that for him.
Following various dinners with Dalí’s entourage, who included at the time Mick Jagger, Pier Paolo Pasolini and “an enormous, virile Dutchwoman who posed while Dalí combed her sex”, Jodorowsky handed Dalí a tarot card (The Hanged Man). This was their contract. Only able to secure $150,000 — enough for one-and-a-half hours of Dalí — Jodorowsky created the plastic robot double and reduced the painter’s script to a page and a half. Accounts of what happened thereafter vary, but according to Brian Herbert (son of Frank) real-world politics impinged unpleasantly. Dalí had long been a vocal supporter of the Franco regime back home in Spain, and dug himself up to the neck with public pronouncements following the execution of political prisoners in September 1975: “there’ll be no more terrorism because they’re going to be liquidated like rats. Three times more executions are needed.”
Jodorowsky, who’d received death threats from the Mexican authorities and memorably depicted their massacre of students in The Holy Mountain, had apparently had enough. He announced to the press: “I would be ashamed to use now in my work a man who in his masochistic exhibitionism demands the ignoble death of human beings.”
The director headed for England to find the right musicians. Each band chosen would have its own planet to soundtrack with a suitable style of music. Virgin offered him Gong, Mike Oldfield and Tangerine Dream; Jodorowsky asked, “Why not Pink Floyd?” Fans of El Topo, they agreed to meet while recording Dark Side of the Moon. Greeted by the sight of the band stuffing their face with steak and chips, Jodorowsky stormed out only for Dave Gilmour to run after and placate him. They ended up agreeing to provide most of the music for the film, and to record a double album called Dune.
Struck by his “non-scientific” covers for sci-fi books — the antidote to the standard “gigantic freezers vomiting imperialism”, as Jodorowsky saw them — and the cinematic feel of his comic strips, Jodorowsky had Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud in his sights. In a chance meeting, he was invited to drop everything to fly to L.A. and begin work on Dune — which he did, going on to produce over 3,000 drawings. Moebius designed the characters and sets, and drew the storyboards for the film as Jodorowsky paced the room providing instruction and inspiration. When the former was ready to design the Baron’s costumes, the latter covered his own eyes, picked a book — by chance, about Titian — off the shelf, slammed it on the table and opened a random page: “It’s going to be like that!” It did the trick.
H.R. Giger, a Swiss painter whose catalogue had been handed to Jodorowsky by Dalí, designed the planet of the bellicose Harkonnens using these storyboards as a starting point. The “dark, sick, suicidal” world of these paintings is immediately recognisable to anyone who’s seen Alien. British sci-fi illustrator Chris Foss, conversely, joined the team in Paris to provide vast, vivid spacecraft that drew on everything from Aztec architecture to tropical fish: living, breathing machines. Finally, Jodorowsky turned down Hollywood’s special effects don, Douglas Trumbull (responsible for 2001...) in favour of Dan O’Bannon, who’d co-created the no-budget Dark Star with John Carpenter. Being praised by Jodorowsky for being “completely out of conventional reality” was perhaps always a bad omen, and the experience of working for six months in Paris on a project that never came into fruition appeared to take its toll on O’Bannon. He returned home broke and spent time in a psychiatric hospital. But he kept on bashing out scripts, the 13th of which was partly inspired by working with Giger, Foss and Moebius; it would soon become Alien.
As Moebius sees it, “The film remains what it should be, a mirage between the dunes.” Some of his, Foss and Giger’s work can currently be seen in an inspired — and free — little exhibition running until October 25 at The Drawing Room gallery in London. Intermittently as impressive are the accompanying new pieces from younger artists, all inspired by the Dune myth. Matthew Day Jackson’s to infinity... presents a life-size golden skeleton with a black plastic skull dotted with abalone shell. A series of skulls alongside steadily mutate through geometric stages into a pyramid, drawing on Dune’s astral travel/cosmic consciousness themes.
Vidya Gastaldon’s superb pencil and paint drawings, each illustrating a quote from Herbert’s novel, pack a different kind of power. Bringing to mind in places William Blake (You should never be in the company...’s billowing flame and underground sandworm) or Jodorowsky himself (the eyeballs on grass-like stalks in What senses do we lack... recall a memorable Holy Mountain image), they nevertheless have a vitality all their own. In short, the idea of Dune still provides fertile ground for the right imagination.
Since Dune, Jodorowsky has continued to live in Paris and work at his customary, inspiring pace, but his cinematic fortunes have been mixed. At the end of the 70s he headed to India to make the children’s film Tusk, another troubled project, which he later disowned (understandably — it’s pretty bad). But in 1989 he revisited Mexico City to make his strongest film to date. Santa Sangre, funded by Dario Argento, might be described as a surreal, oedipal slasher pic with serious emotional clout. It's one of the purest expressions of an artist's strange soul ever committed to celluloid. With all the visual flair of The Holy Mountain but none of the esoteric excesses, everything feels just right; there’s not a second you’d cut given the option.
Following its generally positive reception, Jodorowsky was commissioned to make what’s turned out to be his final film to date: 1990’s The Rainbow Thief, starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. It’s a peculiar proposition: the work of a wealthy Jodorowsky fan who hired the man himself to direct on the condition that he had no creative input whatsoever. There's plenty to recommend it, but despite his presence on the set, you couldn’t really call it a Jodorowsky film.
So he’s busied himself by writing numerous books, comics and plays, reading, researching and restoring the Tarot De Marseilles, practising his one-man school of therapeutic work (‘Psychomagic’), donning The Holy Mountain Master’s costume to officiate at Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese’s wedding, and delivering ‘good news’ stories on Spanish TV news bulletins. There was talk around the turn of the millennium of Son Of El Topo — renamed Son Of El Toro and then Abel Cain in response to sabre-rattling by Allen Klein — becoming his next film, but it seems the money could not be raised. Recently, though, cinema seems to have tentatively tipped a wide-brimmed hat back in Jodorowsky’s direction. In 2004, Klein called a truce that would allow those key Jodorowsky films to be screened and lead to a superb remaster and DVD release. Even more encouragingly, shooting is apparently due to begin in Spain this month for King Shot — a “metaphysical spaghetti western” starring some or all of the following: Marilyn Manson (as a 300-year-old, flesh-eating pope who also appears as a beautiful woman), Nick Nolte, Asia Argento, Mickey Rourke, Udo Kier and Arielle Dombasle.
From what we can gather, it’s set in a casino in the middle of a desert where gangsters gamble, and where scientists begin to uncover a trail of giant, prehistoric bones that form the skeleton of a man as big as King Kong. And the story, it seems, is told by a beetle, who a prophet emerges from underground to eat. Some leaked sketches for set and costume designs look every bit as spectacular as you’d hope: the King Shot casino, topped by a huge revolver and flanked by winged sphinxes; a giant skeleton hand and Jesus-like head being excavated in the desert; a gnarly-faced pope either bellowing at or about to eat rats as big as cats. The project has backing from David Lynch, and funding apparently in place from Hungarian and Italian interests. Deceptively for a director of such lavish-looking films, Jodorowsky has always managed to shoot cheaply (Santa Sangre, he says, cost just $800,000 to make) so the signs are promising. Let’s hope this one ends up as more than a mirage.
To see our gallery of great films that never were click on the picture belowA Dallas mom facing kidnapping charges has given an interview from jail to try and 'clear the record', saying she did not abduct the two children but thought something was wrong and was trying to help.
Briana Blount was arrested Wednesday after one of her neighbors in McKinney saw her with two kids that were not her own, sensed something was wrong and called police.
The 23-year-old mother-of-one - who has a history of drug problems and admits to using meth - says she found the seven-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister unattended on New Year's Eve at the at the Garland Road Thrift Store.
She told CBS DFW she decided to take them to her apartment four miles away to call police.
'This is a misunderstanding': Dallas woman Briana Blount gives an interview from Lew Sterrett Justice Center, saying she did not kidnap two children but tried to help them, believing they had been abandoned
Scene: Blount said she found the two kids - aged seven and four - unnattended at the Garland Road Thrift Store in White Rock around 5.30pm on New Years Eve
Safety: Blount said she took the two kids to his apartment complex four miles from the thrift store where her friends were in order to call police
Arrested: Blount has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and assaulting a peace officer and has other outstanding warrants for driving without insurance and without a valid license
'It doesn't look good, but those actions weren't based off of kidnapping,' she said.
'Those actions weren't based off of trying to hurt or trying to take somebody away from anything.
'I legitimately thought something was wrong and I was trying to help.'
However the children's father was in the change room trying on clothes, only to come out and not be able to find his kids.
An employee at the store told the father she saw a white woman leave with the children, who are black.
Blount said she didn't call 911 from the store because she was alone and knew her friends were home at her apartment complex and wanted their help.
'I felt as if I needed to help these kids and keep them safe until I could get them in the hands of the police,' she told CBS.
However her neighbor, April Hobbs, saw the situation differently.
Mom: Blount has a young son named Aiden, who is currently with his father in Michigan
'I legitimately thought something was wrong and I was trying to help': Briana Blount is trying to clear her name
Locked up: The Dallas woman has been accused of kidnapping
She said the children seemed upset and Blount told her she had found them.
'The little girl came and jumped into my arms and was like, 'I'm scared, I'm scared, I don't know where my dad is,' Hobbs told NBC 5.
'Something in my chest said something wasn't right.'
Blount was arrested the children were returned unharmed to their father.
Blount has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and assaulting a peace officer and has other outstanding warrants for driving without insurance and without a valid license.
Blount has a young son, Aiden, who she says is currently with his father in Michigan.Existing protocols not robust enough for emergencies that could materialise in cyberspace, says Foreign Office official
Britain has begun tentative talks with China and Russia about setting up a hotline to help prevent cyber-emergencies from spiralling out of control.
The discussions are at an early stage but they reflect anxiety from all sides that a calamity in cyberspace, whether deliberate or accidental, could have devastating consequences unless there is a quick and reliable way for senior officials to reach each other.
The US has been talking to the Chinese about a similar arrangement and the ideas will be among several raised at an international conference on cybersecurity in Hungary on Thursday.
The event will involve 600 diplomats from up to 50 countries and is a follow-up to a conference in London last year. One of the aims of the negotiations is to agree rules of behaviour in cyberspace at a time when states have become aware of the potential to attack, steal from and disrupt their enemies online.
China and Russia have been arguing for a more restrictive, state-controlled future for the internet and for formal arms-control-type treaties to govern what countries can and cannot do.
But they have been challenged by European countries and the US. The UK has said there is no need for treaties and that controls on the internet would restrict economic growth and freedom of speech.
Some progress has been made in reconciling the two positions, diplomats say, but the gulf between them is still huge, and the negotiations are continuing at snail's pace.
With the cyber arena evolving so quickly, and with the US and the UK saying cybertheft now represents a genuine threat to western economies and national security, the need for a hotline is pressing.
"At the moment, we don't really have sufficient information-sharing arrangements with some countries such as Chinaand the Chinese computer emergency response team," said a senior Foreign Office official.
"There isn't a form of crisis communication. If we can build that sort of partnership and relationship then the normative framework develops around that. If you ask for assistance, you get a response. That develops into an obligation to assist. One isn't naive about that, but I don't think the Chinese or the Russians enjoy uncertainty, not knowing who to turn to, who to talk to."
The official said the existing protocols and procedures were not robust enough for the type of emergencies that could materialise in cyberspace. "In theory, there are lists of people who to call, but I think they need to be tested and relied upon."
The foreign secretary, William Hague, and the cabinet secretary, Francis Maude, will be in Budapest for the two-day conference. They will announce that the UK is to establish a new £2m cyberhub at one of country's leading universities, which will provide guidance to the government and companies about where to invest money for initiatives in cyberspace abroad. The money will come from the £650m set aside for cybersecurity in the strategic defence and security review.
The official said talks with China were slow going and that there had not been any fundamental shift in Beijing's position. "Through initiatives such as its draft code of conduct, [China] has promoted a vision of cyberspace which has got much more sovereignty and government involvement in it. They have got particular points that they want to get across to the international community."Houston Komen race sees decline in registration, fundraising
CORRECTS TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO NUMBER OF YEARS AND RACES, TIGHTEN 2ND HALF OF CAPTION - In this April 14, 2012, photo walkers and runners stop for the Star Spangled Banner before the start of the Cure in Fort Worth, Texas. Organizers of Race for the Cure events across the country have reported drops in participation following a controversy involving Planned Parenthood. In Fort Worth, the participation declined by 23 percent. (AP Photo/Star-Telegram, Joyce Marshall) MAGS OUT less CORRECTS TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO NUMBER OF YEARS AND RACES, TIGHTEN 2ND HALF OF CAPTION - In this April 14, 2012, photo walkers and runners stop for the Star Spangled Banner before the start of the Cure in Fort... more Photo: Joyce Marshall Photo: Joyce Marshall Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Houston Komen race sees decline in registration, fundraising 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
This weekend's Komen Race for the Cure in Houston could see 3,000 fewer participants than in 2011 after the breast-cancer charity was thrust into a heated abortion controversy earlier this year.
In January, the Dallas-based charity announced it would stop making grants to Planned Parenthood for breast-cancer screening, prompting widespread criticism. It reversed its decision after three days.
Komen Houston says it has raised about $2 million including online, mail-in and corporate donations for the race. The charity hopes to reach its goal of $3 million - a million less than it raised last year - by Nov. 15.
A tally of donations on the Komen website shows its Houston affiliate has reached only 35 percent of its goal for this year's race as of Wednesday evening, but spokeswoman Lisa Bustamante said that only represents online pledges. She said they are hopeful to be at or near the $3 million goal by the end of the campaign.
As a result of the controversy, many Komen supporters around the country abandoned the 5K run and walk, which is the main event for the charity's fundraising. Participation dropped between 10 percent and 30 percent in some cities. The charity, however, has had a few races bring in more money and participants.
Houston's Komen affiliate could not provide exact numbers for registration for the 2012 race, set for Saturday, but acknowledged it had seen a decline since last year. As of Wednesday, the number of registrations was down 6,000 from the same time last year.
Still registering online
Affiliate spokeswoman Tania Cruz said 25,000 people have registered for the race so far and up to 30,000 could be expected to participate. In 2011, 33,000 took part, including 2,400 breast cancer survivors. The event raised more than $4 million for breast-cancer research, education, screening and treatment programs. About 3,000 people signed up between Wednesday and Saturday before last year's race.
Komen Houston did not immediately comment on why participation and fundraising are down this year. Online registration is open, and people are registering daily, Cruz said.
'We are encouraged'
Adriana Higgins, the executive director of Komen Houston Race for the Cure, said that some 80 percent of eventual participants will have registered by the weekend before the race.
"We are pretty much on target with how Houston responds," she said. "I don't think we were hit quite as hard as some areas of the country.... We are encouraged and looking forward to a good day."
She reminded people that Komen is a fundraising and grant-making organization, with the money raised going back into the community.
Houston's Komen affiliate was established in 1990 to provide breast-cancer education, screening and treatment projects for the medically under |
, almost 1,400 Venezuelans crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Most of these (1,160) sought asylum in Spain. The number was a significant increase from 150 in February 2016, and 985 in February 2017. Cultural and linguistic ties are the main reason why Spain is the most popular destination among European countries for Venezuelan migrants.[148]
Response [ edit ]
International [ edit ]
Intergovernmental organizations [ edit ]
Governments [ edit ]
Catholic Church [ edit ]
The Catholic Church in Peru organized programs to help Venezuelan refugees, dedicating masses and collections to the migrants.[156]
Domestic [ edit ]
President Nicolás Maduro said that international reports of millions of Venezuelans emigrating are "propaganda", and Venezuelans regret leaving the country because they end up "cleaning toilets in Miami".[78] Angry Venezuelans criticized Maduro, saying that they would rather clean toilets in another country than live in Venezuela.[78]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Groups [ edit ]
Somos Diáspora – Network with Venezuelan entertainment, news and migration informationThe Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong.[2] The position was created to replace the Governor of Hong Kong, the representative of the Monarch of the United Kingdom during British rule.[3] The office, stipulated by the Hong Kong Basic Law, formally came into being on 1 July 1997 when the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China.
The functions of the Chief Executive (CE) include nominating principal officials for appointment by the Central People's Government of China (State Council), headed by Premier, conducting foreign relations, appointing judges and other public officers, giving consent to legislation passed by the Legislative Council, and bestowing honours. The Basic Law grants the Chief Executive a wide range of powers, but obliges him or her, before making important policy decisions, introducing bills to the Legislative Council, making subsidiary legislation, and dissolving the Legislative Council, to act only after consultation with the Executive Council (all of whose members are the CE's own appointees).[4] The Executive Council consists of official and non-official members, including the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong, the most senior official and head of the Government Secretariat, in charge of overseeing the administration of the Government.
The Chief Executive holds the title "The Honourable", and ranks first in the Hong Kong order of precedence.[5] The official residence of the chief executive is Government House in Central, Hong Kong Island.
The current Chief Executive is Carrie Lam, who was selected on 26 March 2017, appointed by the Central People's Government with the State Council Decree signed by Premier Li Keqiang, on 11 April 2017 and took office on 1 July 2017. She is the first woman to serve as Chief Executive.[6]
Eligibility for office [ edit ]
According to Article 44 of the Basic Law, the Chief Executive must be a Chinese citizen as defined by the HKSAR Passports Ordinance.[7][8] The individual must be at least 40 years old, a Hong Kong permanent resident who is a Chinese citizen with right of abode in Hong Kong, and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 20 years.[7] Article 47 further requires that the Chief Executive be a person of integrity, dedicated to his or her duties.[7] In addition, since the 4th Chief Executive term, candidates may not stand for selection by the Election Committee without first obtaining 150 nominations from its members.
Election [ edit ]
The Chief Executive is elected from a restricted pool of candidates supportive of the Central Government by a 1200-member Election Committee, an electoral college consisting of individuals (i.e. private citizens) and bodies (i.e. special interest groups) selected or elected within 28 functional constituencies, as prescribed in Annex I to the Basic Law. In the first election of the Chief Executive, the Committee consisted of only 400 members. It was expanded to 800 for the second term.[9][10] As a result of enabling legislation stemming from a public consultation in 2010,[11] and its approval by the National People's Congress Standing Committee in Beijing, the number of representatives was increased from 800 to 1200.[12]
The functional constituencies correspond to various sectors of the economy and society, each of which hold their own internal procedures to select electors. The chosen Chief Executive must be appointed by the Central People's Government (State Council) before taking office.
According to Article 46 the term of office of the Chief Executive is five years with a maximum of two consecutive terms.[7] If a vacancy occurs mid-term, the new chief executive's first term is for the remainder of the previous Chief Executive's term only. The method of selecting the Chief Executive is provided under Article 45 and Annex I of the Basic Law, and the Chief Executive Election Ordinance.[7]
According to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance, the winning candidate in the Chief Executive election shall, within 7 working days after the election, publicly make a statutory declaration that he or she is not a member of any political party and will not become a member of any political party or do any act that has the effect of subjecting himself to the discipline of any political party during his or her term of office.[13]
Term of office [ edit ]
Duties and powers [ edit ]
Under the Basic Law the Chief Executive is the chief representative of the people of Hong Kong and is the head of the government of Hong Kong. The CE's powers and functions include leading the government, implementing the law, signing bills and budgets passed by the Legislative Council, deciding on government policies, advising appointment and dismissal of principal officials of the Government of Hong Kong to the Central People's Government (State Council), appointing judges and holders of certain public offices and to pardon or commute sentences. The position is also responsible for the policy address made to the public.
The CE's powers and functions are established by Article 48 of the Basic Law.
The Executive Council of Hong Kong is an organ for assisting the Chief Executive in policy-making.[14] The council is consulted before making important policy decisions, introducing bills to the Legislative Council, making subordinate legislation or dissolving the Legislative Council.
Resignation [ edit ]
Article 52 stipulates circumstances under which the Chief Executive must resign. Examples include the loss of ability to discharge his or her duties or refusal to sign a bill passed by a two-thirds majority of the Legislative Council.[7]
Acting and succession [ edit ]
The acting and succession line is spelled out in Article 53. If the Chief Executive is not able to discharge his or her duties for short periods (such as during overseas visits), the duties would be assumed by the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary or the Secretary for Justice, by rotation, in that order, as acting Chief Executive.[7] In case the position becomes vacant, a new Chief Executive would have to be selected.[15]
Residence and office [ edit ]
Prior to the handover in 1997, the office of the Chief Executive-designate was at the 7th floor of the Asia Pacific Finance Tower.[16] When Tung Chee-hwa assumed duty on 1 July 1997, the office of the Chief Executive was located at the 5th floor of the Former Central Government Offices (Main Wing).[17] In the past the governor had his office at Government House. Tung did not use Government House as the primary residence because he lived at his own residence at Grenville House.[18] Donald Tsang decided to return to the renovated Government House during his first term, and moved in on 12 January 2006, for both his office and residence.[19] In 2011, the office of the Chief Executive moved to the low block of the new Central Government Complex in Tamar. Government House continues to serve as the official residence of the Chief Executive.
Former Chief Executives [ edit ]
Upon retirement, former chief executives have access to office space at the Office of Former Chief Executives, 28 Kennedy Road.[20] The office provides administrative support to former Chief Executives to perform promotional, protocol-related, or any other activities in relation to their former official role. The activities include receiving visiting dignitaries and delegations, giving local and overseas media interviews, and taking part in speaking engagements.[21] A chauffeur-driven car is provided to discharge promotional and protocol-related functions.
Depending on Police risk assessment, personal security protection is provided. Former Chief Executives also enjoy medical and dental care.[22]
The former Chief Executive holds the title "The Honourable", and ranks third in the Hong Kong order of precedence.
Remuneration [ edit ]
Remuneration for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong is among the highest in the world for a political leader, and second only to that of the Prime Minister of Singapore. The pay level took a cue from the handsome amounts paid to the city's colonial governors – worth $273,000 per annum plus perks in 1992 – and is 25 times more than that of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (highest position in China).[23]
In 2005, Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa received some HK$3 million ($378,500) in pay. From 2009 until the end of 2014, the salary for the job stood at HK$4.22 million. In January 2015, CY Leung reversed a pay freeze imposed in 2012, resulting in its increase to HK$4.61 million ($591,000).[24] In July 2017, Directors of Bureau (DoBs) were approved to have a 12.4% pay rise and the 3.5% pay differential between Secretaries of Departments (SoDs) and DoBs remained,[25] indicating a new annual pay of approximately HK$5 million for the city's leading role because the Chief Executive received a salary of 112% of the Chief Secretary.[26]
Criticism of the office [ edit ]
Since the Chief Executive is elected by a committee of 1,200 select people, rather than the general population,[27] many people, in particular the pro-democrats, have criticised the office as undemocratic, and have criticised the entire election process as a "small-circle election."[28]
Many events, including 2010 events such as the Five Constituencies Referendum have attempted to push for greater democracy and universal suffrage.[29]
In January 2015, when CY Leung reversed a pay freeze imposed on the CE and senior civil servants in 2012, he was accused of granting himself a pay rise by stealth and going against the trend of top politicians taking pay cuts instead of pay increases.[24]
List of Chief Executives of Hong Kong [ edit ]
Political party: Nonpartisan
^ Successive fixed five-year CE terms in which incumbent ^ Resigned, Donald Tsang served as acting Chief Executive from 12 March to 25 May 2005 and Henry Tang acted from 25 May to 21 June 2005.
See also [ edit ]Gunman says he initially planned three car bombs, but making one explosive device was'more difficult than I thought'
Anders Behring Breivik has claimed he did not want to carry out the gun massacre that left 69 people dead on the island of Utøya, but was "forced" to do so because Norwegian and EU regulations had made it difficult to acquire sufficient bomb-making equipment.
Giving evidence on the fourth day of his trial, the 33-year-old said he would have preferred to carry out three bomb attacks than target Utøya, where the Norwegian Labour party was holding its annual youth summer camp on 22 July last year. In the end, he went on the rampage on the island after planting one bomb in Oslo's government district, killing eight people.
Attempting to explain his logic, Breivik said: "It's easy to press a button and detonate a bomb. It's very, very difficult to carry out something as barbaric as a firearm-based action."
To do so, he claimed, was difficult. "It is contrary to human nature to execute something like this," he said. "You have to work on yourself for a very long time to make yourself do this … to hammer away at your emotions."
Breivik said he never intended to kill anyone under 18 on Utøya, but that it was hard to assess his victims' ages when so many had their backs to him.
He revealed on Thursday that his original plan for the Utøya attack was to time his arrival on the island with a visit from Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Labour prime minister of Norway. He told the court he planned to handcuff her before "decapitating" her using a bayonet on his rifle, filming the execution on an iPhone.
"The plan was to chop her head off with [the bayonet] while reading a text and then upload the film to the internet," he said.
Brundtland was his main target, said Breivik, adding that he nonetheless expected everyone on the island to die. "The objective was not to kill 69 people at Utøya. The objective was to kill all of them," he said, adding that he planned to fire shots, scaring the campers into the water where he anticipated they would drown.
"The main goal was to use the water as a mass destruction method. Basically, I assumed most people would drown," he said, adding that it was "hard to swim if you have death anxiety".
Breivik claimed he had chosen decapitation as his preferred method because it is an "old European death penalty method used in Europe".
In the end Brundtland was not on the island when Breivik arrived after detonating the Oslo bomb.
The self-confessed "ultra-nationalist" said he knew he had been criticised for killing minors on Utøya, and that "for 50% of other militant nationalists in Europe Utøya was too much". But those he killed, some as young as 14, were "legitimate targets", he said. Yet he insisted: "I am not a child murderer. I believe that all political activists who choose to fight for multiculturalism … and have leadership positions are legitimate targets."
Breivik was also questioned about why he chose to bomb Oslo's government district, killing eight and seriously injuring many more.
He revealed his original plan was to bomb three targets: Oslo's government district, the Labour party's office and a third target, possibly the royal palace.
"There would be three car bombs, followed by a firearm-based action," said Breivik.
Questioned by prosecutors, Breivik said he had several options for the third target, including the headquarters of the newspapers Aftenposten and Dagsavisen, the Norwegian parliament building and the royal palace.
"I settled on the palace in a setting where the royal family wouldn't be hurt," he said. "Most nationalists and cultural conservatives are supporters of the monarchy, including myself."
The anti-Muslim militant said the three bombs would be followed by several shooting massacres, if he survived. He decided against multiple bombs because building one was "much more difficult than I thought".
Breivik said: "If it hadn't been for the EU and Norway's rules on explosives … there would have been an action that was three car bombs." It was very difficult these days to source the sufficient amount of fertiliser required to make a bomb, he claimed.
He claimed he had "trained" for the "operation" by going on long walks wearing rucksacks filled with 30kg of rocks, aiming to mimic the weight of body armour. He also carried out "reconnaissance missions", scoping out potential targets by walking past them as unobtrusively as possible.
Earlier on Thursday, Breivik revealed he had practised shooting by playing the computer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.Arguing that Texas cities are essential to the state’s continued prosperity, a group of mayors on Friday urged the Legislature to avoid enacting laws that could harm their success, including proposals to crack down on transgender-friendly bathroom policies.
As cities brace for continued, explosive population growth, fear of an economic backlash over the transgender bathroom bill is a growing concern, the mayors said after a downtown Austin lunch meeting to discuss legislative priorities.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said a major corporation, while he was making a relocation pitch in a meeting last year that included Gov. Greg Abbott, raised concerns about a potential crackdown on transgender bathrooms.
"The positions of some of our state elected officials were front and center of that discussion," he said.
It wasn’t an isolated incident, Rawlings said.
"I do it all the time when corporations come to Dallas, and a lot of them … ask me about that," he said.
TEXAS POLITICS DELIVERED EVERY DAY: Sign up for our Texas Politics email
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor said she feared that her tourism-dependent city would lose two large 2018 events — the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four and a national NAACP conference — if lawmakers approved Senate Bill 6, which would prohibit transgender-friendly bathrooms in public schools and government buildings and overturn city ordinances requiring transgender bathrooms.
"That would have a huge, multimillion-dollar impact on our city," she said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who set up Friday’s meeting of mayors and officials from 11 cities, said the transgender bathroom bill threatens the tourism economy that helps lower taxes for the city’s residents.
"In this debate, I think we need to focus on what is working in the state of Texas," Adler said. "We have a wide open state. We attract businesses. We attract tourists. This is a state that is friendly and welcoming."
Discussion of the bathroom bill, Adler complained, "is taking too much oxygen out of the room" — detracting from a desperate need to reform a school finance system that drains hundreds of millions of dollars from the Austin school district.
Rawlings said he preferred to look at the "glass half full."
"We believe we have leaders in the state of Texas who understand exactly what we just said. The speaker has built his career on pulling people together," he said.
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, has said passing a transgender bathroom bill isn’t a priority in the House, where the focus will be on fixing the state’s child protection system, reforming education financing and improving mental health treatment.
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: Our Lone Star Politics page brings Capitol news to your Facebook feed
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, however, has made SB 6 one of his priority items this session and has downplayed fears of an economic backlash as overblown and politically motivated.
Abbott has largely stayed quiet on the matter except to criticize the National Football League for interfering in state political matters after an official said passage of SB 6 could preclude future Super Bowls from being held in Texas.
"While there’s a lot of saber rattling, when push comes to shove, Texas will do the right thing," Rawlings said.
In a legislative session dominated by issues of local control — such as when it is appropriate for state officials to limit or overturn ordinances ranging from shopping bag bans to anti-discrimination protections — several mayors said they hoped the Legislature would recognize that their cities have unique cultures and values that contribute to the state’s success.
"Cities in Texas seem to be under attack at times, and we hate to see that because this really is a partnership. The cities don’t create success alone. The state doesn’t create success alone," said Mayor Maher Maso of Frisco, 25 miles north of Dallas. "We have to be really careful not to break it."From "
America’s Future: California vs. Texas
" in Trends Magazine:
What's the worst state to do business in? According to readers of Chief Executive magazine, it's California. In the same poll, Texas won first place as the best state in which to put your headquarters. As reported in The Economist, the two largest states in the nation have very different philosophies and very different success rates.
What’s wrong with California, and what’s right with Texas? It really comes down to four fundamental differences in the value systems embodied in these states:
1. Texans on average believe in laissez - faire markets with an emphasis on individual responsibility. Since the '80s, California’s policy-makers have favored central planning solutions and a reliance on a government social safety net. This unrelenting commitment to big government has led to a huge tax burden and triggered a mass exodus of jobs. The Trends Editors examined the resulting migration in “Voting with Our Feet,” in the April 2008 issue of Trends.
2. Californians have largely treated environmentalism as a “religious sacrament” rather than as one component among many in maximizing people's quality of life. As we explained in “The Road Ahead for Housing,” in the June 2009 issue of Trends, environmentally-based land-use restriction centered in California played a huge role in inflating the recent housing bubble. Similarly, an unwillingness to manage ecology proactively for man’s benefit has been behind the recent epidemic of wildfires.
3. California has placed “ethnic diversity” above “assimilation,” while Texas has done the opposite. “Identity politics” has created psychological ghettos that have prevented many of California’s diverse ethnic groups and subcultures from integrating fully into the mainstream. Texas, on the other hand, has proactively encouraged all the state’s residents to join the mainstream.
4. Beyond taxes, diversity, and the environment, Texas has focused on streamlining the regulatory and litigation burden on its residents. Meanwhile, California’s government has attempted to use regulation and litigation to transfer wealth from its creators to various special-interest constituencies.
MP: The 4.2% difference in October jobless rates (12.5% in CA vs. 8.3% in TX) tells the story (see graph above). In fact, California's unemployment rate has been more than 4 percent above the rate in Texas every month this year except for January, and that is the first time in state jobless rate history back to 1976 that there has ever been a 4-point difference in the unemployment rates between those two states.
HT:
Enterprise BlogThis January, like many Chicagoans, Gia Guerrero was dreaming of warmer weather and planning a summer vacation with her sister. The 28-year-old and her sister wanted to travel to Argentina, but during the planning process, Gia realized that as a transgender woman, traveling through customs and leaving the United States would be difficult and potentially dangerous.
“I wasn’t too worried about changing my name and having my ID updated until that moment. I realized then that I can’t really leave the country and be out. My ID doesn’t match how I present myself,” she explains. “And while the U.S. is really supportive of transgender rights, excluding some states, in other countries there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be able or allowed to present myself authentically.”
So Guerrero and her sister put the trip planning on hold. Months passed, and one day in early July, Guerrero received a message from one of her coworkers at the Lurie Children’s Hospital about a new pro bono clinic and program launched by the John Marshall Law School.
“I saw the program and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was exactly what I needed to help me go through with changing my name and gender on my driver’s license and passport,” Guerrero says. She called the phone number almost immediately, and was accepted days later.
John Marshall Law School launched the name and gender marker change program this summer. The program gives legal assistance and guidance to transgender individuals who are navigating the complicated process of changing official legal documents to reflect their true gender identity.
According to the school, only 59 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people have updated the gender marker on their driver’s licenses or state identification cards since transitioning, while only 26 percent have updated their passport.
Transgender individuals are presented with a difficult choice when their gender identity does not match their official identification documents; they either are unable to present their gender identity authentically for fear of dealing with harassment or discrimination, or they are outed as being transgender whenever they present an ID.
This conflict not only has serious negative psychological consequences for transgender individuals, it also presents very difficult barriers regarding applying for jobs, signing a lease, opening a bank account, and traveling within the U.S. or to other countries.
“Before this project I didn’t really realize the significance and the impact of having your name changed as a transgender individual,” says Kelly Burden Lindstrom, supervising adjunct professor and staff attorney. “I sort of equated it to getting your name changed when you’re married. But through this process I began to realize how problematic it is for your ID to not match how you present yourself.”
Guerrero is one of the program’s first clients.
“When I went to meet Kelly and the rest of the law school students for the initial meeting last month, it was my first time downtown as my authentic self. I had done my hair and makeup and was wearing heels and was so anxious but also excited,” Guerrero says.
The name change is the easier part: Burden Lindstrom and a group of law students review each case and work with clients to prepare necessary paperwork. The legal team files the petition on the client’s behalf. After the waiting period, usually six to eight weeks, a hearing is scheduled where a judge will approve or deny the name change petition.
“Once a name change petition is approved, our clients can take that court order and present it to the DMV and other agencies as proof for a name change,” Burden Lindstrom explains. “With gender marker changes, it’s a different process. In those instances, most government agencies require a physician’s note explaining that the individual has taken the necessary medical steps to transition to their authentic gender.”
This part of the legal process can be particularly stressful and intimidating for transgender individuals who cannot afford or are not ready to go under the knife. (The law does not require individuals to have gender reassignment surgery; less invasive surgeries, such as facial feminization, count toward the requirement, but hormone therapy does not.)
For Guerrero, she says the process will change her life.
“My hearing date when I will hopefully get my name changed will be on September 15. My birthday is the next day, and I scheduled the hearing for the day before on purpose. After my name change petition is hopefully approved, I’m going straight to the DMV with Kelly and the students to get my new driver’s license with an updated picture, name, and gender change,” Guerrero says. “And the next day I’m going to have a big going out party and will go to a bar for my birthday with my friends. I’m excited to finally have an ID that matches who’s walking into the club. I’m going to celebrate.”
ShareEarlier this month, Tucker Carlson questioned how Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), a career politician, could afford a multi-million dollar, 6,000 square-foot mansion in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The Fox News host reminds us that Waters' home doesn’t even fall within her district, which is one of the poorest in the state.
The inquiry came after Waters slammed Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson in her speech at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, claiming he "knows nothing about the mission of HUD" and "doesn’t care about people in public housing."
Later in the month, Waters was asked about the Fox News host’s comment during an interview with New York Times Magazine. Her response was to call Carlson racist.
"I own several properties. The way Carlson talked about it is: What right does an African-American woman have to do well?" Waters told New York Times Magazine. "He doesn't know anything about my investments, about the house that I've lived in for 25, 30 years. This idea of 'how could she afford that?' is racist, and I just dismiss it."
As expected, Carlson didn’t back down and once again pressed Waters on how she could afford such an extravagant home, making it clear that the question has nothing to do with the Representative's race.
"We're not alleging wrongdoing here, but really, how did this happen?" he asks.
You can watch Carlson's full retort below:I’m pretty sad, I’ll tell you what. After 13 seasons, on Sept. 13 at 8 p.m., Fox’s King of the Hill will air its last two episodes, back to back. Fans will want to check out the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, in which Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Luanne, and Hank’s alley pals — with the help of the KOTH writers — share their parting words of wisdom (Says Bobby, “Football and propane are what make America tick. Oh, really, my dad won’t be reading this? Then, I dance with troll dolls and I love it!”). These pearls are accompanied by an original drawing of the gang’s farewell cookout that you’ll want to hang up on your wall and stare at wistfully the next time you smell propane.
One of my favorite shows, Mike Judge’s KOTH has been on the air for 13 seasons, as comfortably reliable a part of the TV landscape as David Letterman and Doppler radar. (Well, semi-reliable: In its later years, Fox scooted it all over the schedule like it was in the witness relocation program.) It never got old to me, as there was no mythology to burn out, no romances to come and go, just funny, perceptive storylines. The characters never aged (the writers say that the entire run took place over one year in Arlen, Texas), nor did they evolve. And that was kind of the point: They were suburbanites who wanted no surprises, and for their worlds to stay happily familiar. Everything was fine with Hank, as long as his lawn was in good shape, he had enough gas in the tank for the weekend barbecue, Dale Gribble wasn’t setting his house on fire, and everyone around him was patriotic. (Much like Everybody Loves Raymond, another classic sitcom about stagnant suburbanites, KOTH won’t go out with a stunt-filled finale. The last episodes will be characteristically low-key and organic: Bobby becomes an in-demand date for the Homecoming dance, and later bonds with his dad after getting a job inspecting raw meat at the local plant.)
As we approach these final new moments with the Hills (who thankfully will live on in reruns and rerun accessories), let’s reminisce: What were your favorite King of the Hill moments? After 255 episodes, they’re hard to narrow down, but here are some of my top picks: I loved when Hank, Boomhauer, Bill, and Dale become volunteer firefighters and ruin a funeral and burn down the firehouse. (Frankly, anything with lonely sad-sack Bill is great with me.) Then there are the classic Bobby storylines: he forgets to send in the home insurance bill; he becomes obsessed with Dance, Dance Revolution; and after learning self-defense to protect himself from bullies, he becomes addicted to kicking people in the groin. (“I didn’t go looking for trouble. Trouble came a-knockin’ and Bobby Hill’s foot answered the door.”)
What are some of your favorite King of the Hill episodes?The Matrix
What strategies can be effective in reducing crime and disorder in policing? The Evidence-Based Policing Matrix is a research-to-practice translation tool that organizes moderate to very rigorous evaluations of police interventions visually, allowing agencies and researchers to view the field of research in this area. The Matrix is updated with all qualifying studies each year.
The Matrix categorizes and visualizes evaluated police tactics according to three common dimensions of crime prevention – the nature of the target, the extent to which the strategy is proactive or reactive, and the specificity or generality of the strategy (see the Matrix Key to learn more). This visualization reveals clusters of studies within intersecting dimensions, or “realms of effectiveness.” These realms provide insights into the nature and commonalities of effective (or not effective) police strategies and can be used by police agencies to develop tactics and strategies or assess their tactical portfolio against the evidence. Click the “enlarge” button under each target type to view a summary of studies and their findings, and access summaries of individual studies within each cluster. For more information:Below is the full text of the Dear Leader's speech to our school children. Interspersed in bold is my commentary on the ridiculous propaganda and nonsense which Obama spewed. Of particular hilarity is the way in which he threw the equivalent of doggy treats at all the parents and school teachers for getting a "blue ribbon" award. Every line of the speech was so idiotic and so thoroughly backwards I actually managed to comment on practically every statement! A blue star goes to anyone who can get through the whole text!
**
Hello Philadelphia! It’s wonderful to be here. Today is about welcoming all of you and all of America’s students back to school – and I can’t think of a better place to do it than Masterman. You’re one of the best schools in Philadelphia – a leader in helping students succeed in the classroom. And just last week, you were recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School for your record of achievement. [Translation: Doggy treats for everyone!!!] That’s a testament to everyone here – students and parents, teachers and school leaders. And it’s an example of excellence I hope communities across America embrace.
Over the past few weeks, Michelle and I have been getting Sasha and Malia ready for school. And I bet a lot of you are feeling the same way they’re feeling. You’re a little sad to see the summer go, but you’re also excited about the possibilities of a new year. [You mean they don't want to go back to jail?! Blasphemy!] The possibilities of building new friendships and strengthening old ones. Of joining a school club, or trying out for a team. The possibilities of growing into a better student, and a better person, and making your family proud. [External motivation!]
But I know some of you may also be nervous about starting a new school year. Maybe you’re making the jump from elementary to middle school, or from middle to high school, and worried about what that’ll be like. [Don't worry, Daddy government is here to protect you] Maybe you’re starting a new school, and not sure how you’ll like it. Or maybe you’re a senior who’s feeling anxious about the whole college process; about where to apply and whether you can afford to go. [Thanks to our subsidies which have driven college tuition through the roof!]
And beyond all these concerns, I know a lot of you are also feeling the strain of these difficult times. You know what’s going on in the news and your own family’s lives. You read about the war in Afghanistan. You hear about the recession we’ve been through. You see it in your parents’ faces and sense it in their voice. [Purposely vague for you to fill in the blanks]
A lot of you are having to act a lot older than you are; to be strong for your family while your brother or sister is serving overseas; to look after younger siblings while your mom works that second shift; to take on a part-time job while your dad is out of work. [Again I could change all that and I campaigned on ending the wars, instead I've expanded them, raised your taxes, AND put you under mountains of debt!]
It’s a lot to handle; it’s more than you should have to handle. [And it's my own doing!] And it may make you wonder at times what your own future will look like; whether you’ll be able to succeed in school; whether you should set your sights a little lower, and scale back your dreams. [Cue pop psychology blather]
But here is what I came to Masterman to tell you: nobody gets to write your destiny but you. Your future is in your hands. Your life is what you make of it. And nothing – absolutely nothing – is beyond your reach. [Unless you include the government policies which are bankrupting you and putting you in millions of debt which is entirely beyond your control, unless you include government taxes which you're forced to pay at the barrel of a gun, unless you include government regulations which you're forced to obey at the barrel of a gun, unless you include working for any less than $7.25 an hour which you're forced to do at the barrel of a gun] So long as you’re willing to dream big. So long as you’re willing to work hard. So long as you’re willing to stay focused on your education. [Just ignore the gun in the room!]
That last part is absolutely essential – because an education has never been more important. [Actually it's never been less important] I’m sure there will be times in the months ahead when you’re staying up late cramming for a test, or dragging yourselves out of bed on a rainy morning, and wondering if it’s all worth it. [It's not but we need to test your level of obedience to authority] Let me tell you, there is no question about it. [It's not] Nothing will have as great an impact on your success in life as your education. [The same way a baseball bat to the skull can "impact" someones brain]
More and more, the kinds of opportunities that are open to you will be determined by how far you go in school. [Go to school and you'll have none] In other words, the farther you go in school, the farther you’ll go in life. [Farther down a ditch] And at a time when other countries are competing with us like never before; when students around the world are working harder than ever, and doing better than ever; your success in school will also help determine America’s success in the 21st century. [But our tax policy and spending will have no effect, so just ignore that!]
So, you have an obligation to yourselves, and America has an obligation to you to make sure you’re getting the best education possible. [No better way to take away someone's desire to learn than to force them and turn it into an obligation] And making sure you get that kind of education is going to take all of us working hand-in-hand. [Actually no one else can teach you anything, all learning is done internally]
It will take all of us in government – from Harrisburg to Washington – doing our part to prepare our students, all of them, for success in the classroom, in college, and in a career. [Run children!! Run away and never look back!!] It will take an outstanding principal and outstanding teachers like the ones here at Masterman; teachers who go above and beyond for their students. [Just like the outstanding government workers at the DMV!] And it will take parents who are committed to your education. [That is, committed to taking no role in your education and allowing the state to brainwash you!]
That’s what we have to do for you. That’s our responsibility. That’s our job. [Constitution Schmonstitution!] But here’s your job. Showing up to school on time. Paying attention in class. Doing your homework. Studying for exams. Staying out of trouble. That kind |
second right), poses with Republican senators-elect Jeff Flake (left), Deb Fischer (second left), and Cruz (right) at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 16 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks to reporters on September 25, 2013, after ending his talk-a-thon on the floor of the US Senate in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 17 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks as then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (left), Sen. Mike Lee (second right) and Sen. Rand Paul (right) listen during a news conference May 16, 2013, on Capitol Hill. Hide Caption 18 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz listens to testimony during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 22, 2013, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 19 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz holds a news conference to announce the plan to defund Obamacare on March 13, 2013. Hide Caption 20 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks at the CPAC on March 6, 2014, in National Harbor, Maryland. Hide Caption 21 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks at the 'Patriots for Romney-Ryan Reception' on August 29, 2012, in Tampa, Florida. Hide Caption 22 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 28, 2012. Hide Caption 23 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks during the Republican National Convention in 2012. Hide Caption 24 of 24
But a CNN review of the committee transcripts shows that not once did he use the word "amnesty" in describing illegal immigration during the five days of lengthy deliberations, a common mantra for Cruz on the campaign trail today. And he sought to both double the cap of legal immigration from 675,000 to 1.3 million and pushed for a dramatic increase of 500% for high-skilled H-1B visas to 325,000.
When Sessions, the Alabama Republican, sought to issue stringent new caps on visas issued to foreigners from across the globe, Cruz pushed back.
"I intend to vote no on this amendment, and the reason is I think legal immigration is a fundamental pillar of our country," Cruz said at the committee debate. "And I think, as a nation, we need to remain a nation that doesn't just welcome, but that celebrates legal immigrants around this table."
Speaking to reporters here in Cedar Rapids Tuesday, Rubio seized on Cruz's past positions to paint him as a flip-flopper on an issue that riles up the conservative base.
"I understand now he has changed his position," Rubio said. "He has a right to change his position, it's a different position."
Rubio added: "He supported a massive expansion of temporary guest workers coming into the United States, he supported a massive doubling of the number of green cards -- so his position is different than what is now."
Catherine Frazier, a Cruz spokeswoman, strongly denied that Cruz is shifting his positions on the issue. She said that the Texas Republican sought to mold the immigration bill into a plan that conservatives could get behind by offering a variety of amendments. She also said that Cruz had sought to tie the growth of legal immigration to border security, saying that enforcement always came first in his mind.
"It's completely dishonest to suggest that Sen. Cruz is not a staunch proponent of securing the border," Frazier said. "And he believes that needs to be the first priority in fixing our immigration system."
In November, under pressure from conservative talk radio and Rubio, Cruz issued an immigration plan that went even further right than Sessions' 2013 amendment, which the Texas Republican opposed. The new plan would in part halt all legal immigration until the unemployment rate decreases. The new plan also would end birthright citizenship, suspend the H-1B visa program for 180 days to investigate alleged abuses and deny certain government aid to legal immigrants.
During the 2013 markup, however, Cruz had a different approach.
"I think we need to remain a nation that welcomes and embraces legal immigrants and in both regards my amendments go further to improving legal -- legal immigration than does the Gang of Eight," Cruz said.
Among the changes he sought at the time: Beefed up border security, limiting welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants, removing the path to citizenship for the undocumented and a dramatic expansion of legal immigration.
Sharp campaign rhetoric
On Tuesday, Cruz's campaign unveiled an ad showcasing a tough approach on the issue.
"If I'm elected president, we will triple the border patrol. We will build a wall that works. Will secure the border," he said.
The ad comes after Cruz has been vaulting in the polls here in Iowa, where he has been endorsed by Rep. Steve King, a leading immigration hardliner. He told an Iowa voter this week that he would prevent deported immigrants from reentering the country, moving to the right of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on the issue.
Cruz's immigration record came under the spotlight in November after Rubio sought to muddy the waters by spotlighting the Texas Republican's position on legal immigration. Specifically, Rubio pointed to an amendment offered by Cruz in 2013 to eliminate the path to citizenship -- but still offer undocumented immigrants the opportunity to obtain a legalized status. Sessions backed the amendment, which ultimately failed.
"They would still be eligible for legal status," Cruz stressed in defending the amendment during the committee deliberations.
During CNN's Republican presidential debate in December, Cruz and Rubio traded fire over the issue.
"Ted, you support legalizing people who are in this country illegally," Rubio said.
Cruz's response: "I have never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization."
JUST WATCHED Marco Rubio attacks Ted Cruz's voting record Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Marco Rubio attacks Ted Cruz's voting record 02:38
When pressed on his amendments in recent weeks, Cruz has said it was part of a concerted strategy to tank the bill. Speaking to Laura Ingraham on her radio show before Thanksgiving, Cruz said he no longer backs expanding H-1B visas and he cited abuses of the program in recent years.
"I don't believe that's a good idea," Cruz told the radio host of a dramatic expansion of H-1B visas. "It's important to understand on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was leading the fight along with Jeff Sessions to defeat this bill, the Gang of Eight bill. As a result, I was introducing a whole series of amendments, in part, to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Democrats."
Cruz said it was part of a "concerted strategy" to defeat the Gang of Eight bill.
But that's hardly how he couched it in the 2013 deliberations. Cruz said that he was working in "good faith" to "improve" the bill so it could pass Congress and be signed into law. "We're actually trying to be helpful," he said during the committee markup.
On the campaign trail, his positioning has come under attack from Trump as well.
Speaking Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," Trump said the Texas Republican is "weak" on this issue, saying he was "copying" his plan, where the brash businessman proposed increasing the prevailing wage requirements for H-1B visa workers to discourage companies from hiring cheaper overseas workers.
"Ted Cruz is trying to step up his whole game on amnesty and illegal immigration, because it was actually quite weak," Trump said.
Shifting right
As part of Cruz's new plan, the senator called for suspending the H-1B visa program for 180 days to investigate abuses of the program and halt any increases in legal immigration so long "as American unemployment remains unacceptably high." He consulted with Sessions in calibrating his new immigration plan.
But during the 2013 committee proceedings, Cruz offered an amendment that would have increased H-1B visas from 65,000 to 325,000 -- regardless of unemployment rates or conditions in the market place.
(The unemployment rate was 7.6% in May 2013, compared to 5% in November, the last month for which data is available.)
JUST WATCHED Watch Ted Cruz coach his family through a campaign ad shoot Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Watch Ted Cruz coach his family through a campaign ad shoot 04:30
"I think the number that Senator Cruz has raised is a bit high," Sessions said with some alarm at the time.
Cruz strongly defended his idea.
"High- skilled immigrants whether temporary or permanent are, I believe, the data demonstrates pro-growth," Cruz said. "They generate jobs. They generate economic productivity."
On 11 occasions during the Senate Judiciary Committee's consideration of the immigration bill, Cruz voted opposite of the two staunchest immigration hardliners on the committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sessions.
Cruz supported an amendment offered by Chuck Schumer that would have, in part, provided additional up-front funding for implementing the bill -- something that conservatives like Sessions and Utah Sen. Mike Lee opposed.
He backed an amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that would, in part, clear the way for spouses of H-1B visa holders to work. He opposed repeated efforts by Grassley to clamp down on H-1B visas, including an amendment to audit annually one percent of companies that sponsor high-skilled visas.
In one plan, Cruz sought to eliminate what he considered "arbitrary" caps for four countries -- China, India, Mexico and the Philippines. "I don't think we should be discriminating against those nations." The plan sought to consolidate various different high-skilled employment visas into a single visa, while increasing the number of family-based green cards.
Fighting back charges from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, that Cruz was being too hard on undocumented workers, Cruz was indignant, saying he was hoping a consensus could be reached.
"I think it's unfortunate that my friend from Illinois would cast aspersions in terms of my motivations in what I'm saying," Cruz, a son of a Cuban immigrant, said in 2013. "This is an issue that is near and dear to many of us in this committee -- and it's near and dear and personal to a great many of us."It started with Mein Kampf. James Q. Whitman, a specialist in comparative law at Yale University, was researching a legal-history question when he pulled Adolf Hitler’s mid-1920s manifesto from the shelf. What jumped out at Whitman was the admiration that Hitler expressed for the United States, a nation that the future Führer lauded as "the one state" that had made progress toward establishing a healthy racial order. Digging deeper, Whitman discovered a neglected story about how the Nazis took inspiration from U.S. racial policies during the making of Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, the anti-Jewish legislation enacted in 1935. That history is the focus of Whitman’s new book, Hitler’s American Model (Princeton University Press). The interview that follows has been edited and condensed.
What’s your core argument in this book?
Scholars have wondered whether there might have been an American influence on the Nazis. The question suggests itself naturally, since, as we all know, America in the era of Jim Crow was the home of an awful lot of ugly racism. But it is really not the right question, because the program introduced by the Nuremberg Laws didn’t involve segregation as such. It involved two other efforts at creating a race order: the creation of new forms of second-class citizenship for Jews, and bans on interracial sex and interracial marriage.
In both of those respects, the Nazis found a lot to admire and imitate in American law. And it was American immigration law in particular that Hitler praised. America also pioneered in the creation of forms of second-class citizenship, especially for blacks, but not only for blacks. There were also forms of second-class citizenship, whether de jure or de facto, that applied to American Indians, Asians, Filipinos, and Puerto Ricans.
What are some examples of specific American laws that influenced the Nazis?
The two relevant Nuremberg Laws are called the Citizenship Law and the Blood Law. The Citizenship Law limited citizenship to persons of German blood. Other persons, in particular Jews, were to have the status only of nationals, not citizens. That idea, that some persons could be nationals but not citizens, played a big role in American law as well. The Nazis talked about it quite a bit. After the Spanish-American War, in 1898, America found itself in possession of the Philippines and Puerto Rico. There was widespread sentiment that Filipinos and Puerto Ricans were, at a minimum, insufficiently civilized to be American citizens. But at the same time there was no provision in American law for anybody to be anything but a citizen. In response, the Supreme Court created a new status for them, called noncitizen nationals.
Did the Nazis borrow from American laws directly?
Advertisement
I can’t say whether they were directly borrowing from the Americans in the Citizenship Law, because I don’t have all the evidence. The really dramatic evidence of direct influence comes with the second of the Nuremberg Laws, the Blood Law. This was the one on sex and marriage. We’re in the high age of eugenics here. The idea that superior races and inferior races should not sexually intermingle was pretty widespread. But American statutes did something really unusual, which was to criminalize mixed marriage. That was of intense interest to the Nazis because their program, too, involved criminalizing mixed marriage. We know that they took an interest in these U.S. statutes because we have a stenographic transcript of a planning meeting for the Nuremberg Laws. The strong advocates for the use of American models were the most radical Nazis.
You also write that some Nazis felt that the American legal example went too far. The Nazis were very interested in the way Americans classified members of the different races, defining who counted as black or Asian or whatever it might be. And there, in particular, the most far-reaching Nazi definition of who counted as a Jew was less than what you found in almost any American state. The most far-reaching Nazi definition, which dates to 1933, held that a Jew was anybody who had one Jewish grandparent. There were a few American states that made the same provision with regard to blacks. But most of them went much further than that. At the extreme, American states had what’s called the one-drop rule. That is, one drop of black blood makes you black.
Why have scholars neglected this story?
There have been obstacles to the discussion of this. For almost all Germans, it remains fundamentally important not to do scholarship that might be interpreted as denying German responsibility for Nazi crimes. A German professor friend of mine said that any German who wrote a book like this would be regarded as a wild-eyed anti-American ideologue.
Does this story matter today?
It may seem of particular timeliness at a moment when the "alt-right" seems to have put questions of white supremacy back on the table. It’s worth remembering how deep these traditions run in the United States.
There are also, beyond that, important lessons about American legal culture. What the radical Nazis touted about American law was its open-endedness, its adaptability, its common-law pragmatism, and in particular its permeability to political influence. The feature of American law that the radical Nazis admired is still present, in particular in American criminal punishment — which is spectacularly and very nearly uniquely harsh. That fact has a great deal to do with its exceptional vulnerability to political pressure, whether through tough-on-crime politics or through politicization of the judiciary and prosecutorial corps. And, of course, the race problem is very much present in American criminal justice as well. What we see there is the same disturbing pattern of politicization that radical Nazis admired in the 1930s. To that extent, working through the details of this disturbing episode in the 1930s helps us to recognize the roots and the depth of our problems today.
Marc Parry is a senior reporter at The Chronicle.Eddie Pepperell turned professional in 2011
144th Open Championship Venue: St Andrews Dates: 16-19 July Coverage: Live across BBC TV, Red Button, Connected TVs, online, Radio 5 live, sports extra, tablets, mobiles and app
Interesting golfer walks into a clubhouse. No, this isn't a joke, I met him a few weeks ago. Eddie Pepperell was his name: Open debutant, rare sporting philosopher, chronicler - the Samuel Pepys, pardon the whimsy, of the European Tour.
I am, of course, being facetious. There are, no doubt, interesting golfers galore. It's just that, well, they rarely come across that way.
Blame the media for its bland enquiries. Blame the golfers for their lack of candour. Blame modern sport for its insistence on focus and discipline. Blame those damn caps they wear that make them all look the same. Whatever the reason, it's nice to meet a golfer willing to open up about pretty much anything.
"I share your frustration," says the 24-year-old Pepperell, who qualified for St Andrews courtesy of finishing tied for second at the Irish Open in May.
"Modern sportspeople are geared up to being professionals from such a young age that they tend not to have other experiences. And even when a sportsperson is interesting, they're often not very good at portraying it."
Pepperell, who turned pro in 2011, has been keeping an online blog since 2012. It includes discursions on failure, passion, nature and nurture and the relative merits of intro - and extroversion. But the most arresting blogs focus on the reality of life on tour: it turns out that much of a budding golfer's existence is not too dissimilar to Alan Partridge's dismal stint in the Linton Travel Tavern.
Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan's dysfunctional comic creation, extolled the virtues of living in a hotel
"It was very lonely at first, so tough," says Pepperell, who I caught up with at Frilford Heath Golf Club, near his Oxfordshire home. "I played a tournament in Italy and spent every night dining on my own in a motorway cafe with all these fat Italian truckers. I remember thinking: 'Is this what it's all about?'
"In Abu Dhabi, I stayed in an incredible five-star hotel, with a bathroom worthy of Julius Caesar. At first I thought 'wow!' But that was followed by a sad realisation that I had nobody to share it with."
When Pepperell beautifully describes the existential bleakness of being served a Baileys in his palace of a hotel room, you can't help but think of Alan Partridge extolling the virtues of his unconventional circumstances, all because he is able to order an Irish coffee at 3am.
It was what Pepperell describes as the "mind-destroying" tedium and loneliness of tour life that compelled him to start writing in the first place, as well as a sudden conviction that expanding his mind might make him a better golfer.
If I'm not playing great I'm so miserable. And I'm not a miserable person.
"I felt like a candle," says Pepperell, who is still to win on the European Tour but does have previous major experience, having qualified for the 2013 US Open. "I'd be flickering on and off, the fire wasn't there every day. But once I started reading books - I didn't read one until I was 19 - it opened my mind completely, I started to see the world from different angles, as well as myself."
Many fans have little sympathy for the complaints of pro sportspeople, every one of whom they believe to be millionaires living out 'the dream'. And while Pepperell isn't angling for anybody's sympathy, he is keen that they are at least furnished with an unvarnished truth. And the truth is that professional golf is a grim, Darwinian struggle for survival.
"To succeed on tour, it's important to be good but it's infinitely more important to be tough," says Pepperell, whose particular interest is in books that deal with the ingredients of success.
"If you're not tough enough, you're going to fade away. The only thing that makes most golfers happy is playing good golf. If you're struggling with the lifestyle and playing bad, you're really in trouble."
The more Pepperell talks, the more one is reminded of the starving artist in his garret, desperately striving for a perfection that is always, tantalisingly, out of reach. And while pro golfers aren't exactly starving, many of them are struggling to pay their bills - when Pepperell won his first pro title, a Challenge Tour event in 2012, his straitened circumstances meant he pretty much had to.
"My credit card had been rejected that morning and I had to get my friend to pay for my hotel room," says Pepperell, who does not come from money. "Being out of cash almost forced me to play well."
Pepperell poses with Sir Nick Faldo after winning one of the English legend's junior tournaments in 2006
Winning was something golf folk thought Pepperell would do a lot of when he finished runner-up to Tom Lewis in the 2009 British Boys Championship. But when Lewis was winning his maiden European Tour title only two years later, Pepperell was playing for relative peanuts on the Challenge Tour, a league below the big time.
Four years later, it is Lewis who is struggling. Down to 424 in the world rankings, Lewis, a close friend of Pepperell's, failed to qualify for this year's Open. Professional golf is snakes and ladders by a different name.
"Learning as a golfer is like trying to complete a puzzle," says Pepperell, ranked 105 in the world. "You're always trying to add pieces in without the pieces that were already in place falling out.
"On any given day, maybe 10 players out of a field of 100 will be happy. Some guys are financially secure, but if they're playing badly it will still affect their mood. Other guys have no money and are battling their game. You see so many guys on tour pulling their hair out. If I'm not playing great I'm so miserable. And I'm not a miserable person.
"People have this idea that because we're playing for all this money, that makes us upbeat. It's nice to have money but it doesn't pull you through the moments when you're alone and stressed and things are going wrong in a foreign country.
"The lows are very low but the highs are so high that they make up for it. Then again, you will never experience anything like that first high again."
The fortunes of Pepperell (left) and old amateur team-mate Tom Lewis have fluctuated in the pro ranks
Pepperell stresses the importance of perspective, before adding that too much perspective can be dangerous for an elite sportsperson: it's all very well telling yourself that knocking a small white ball around a field with a stick isn't that important really, but success in sport requires a healthy dose of self-absorption and delusion.
"I think of myself as a load of helium balloons attached to a stone," says Pepperell. "There are parts of me drifting off in all sorts of crazy directions and if I was to lose that stone - which represents family, my girlfriend and friends - I would end up floating in space, with no direction and no idea where I was going.
"But if we all thought too much about how insignificant we are, none of us would ever get out of bed in the morning. So you've got to find that balance, you almost need to be like two people in order to become successful."
Therein lies another dilemma: the more successful a sportsperson becomes - and every sportsperson craves success - the more famous he or she becomes and the more difficult it is to remain tethered to that stone.
"When I read that Rory McIlroy doesn't enjoy the game like he used to, I wasn't at all surprised," says Pepperell. "I don't think many top golfers actually enjoy what they do. I don't think many top sportspeople enjoy what they do. They're constantly scrutinised and it becomes so stressful, so pressurised.
"People think being famous is great. But being that famous can be the worst thing in the world. I want to be the best I can be. But being the best I can be means winning majors, becoming famous and all the bad stuff that comes with it. It's like making a pact with the devil."
If St Andrews should prove to be Pepperell's crossroads moment, expect any pact with the devil to come with clauses - because Pepperell is too self-aware and conscious of the dangers to go all in.
"There's no sense I've made it now I've qualified for the Open," he says. "I'd never want to feel like that. To be thinking like that is dangerous. You have to always feel vulnerable, have people around you reminding you of your frailties, your insecurities and your weaknesses.
"Once you start feeling invincible, something bad inevitably happens. Golf is tough like that. Life is tough like that."Image caption Ronay booked into hotels and restaurants using an assumed name
Restaurant critic Egon Ronay has died at the age of 94 after a short illness.
Ronay, who was born in Hungary in 1915, wrote his first guidebook in 1956 after managing several restaurants and contributing to the Daily Telegraph.
He continued to publish the books for three decades, helping to usher in the era of restaurant reviews.
Paying tribute, Michelin-starred celebrity chef Raymond Blanc said Ronay was a visionary who had pushed up "the standard of British cuisine".
Ronay died on Saturday morning at his Berkshire home with his wife and two daughters by his side, said close friend and broadcaster Nick Ross.
"He was, in the most literal sense, incredible, right up until the last few weeks of his life - he was sharp as a button," said Ross, who had known the writer for 15 to 20 years.
"We went for a tasting with him four months ago and he had this remarkable ability to taste flavours in anything.
"Right up until his death, even young chefs regarded him as the monarch."
Blanc said winning Ronay's Restaurant of the Year award in 1978, for Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire, "changed his life".
He said: "[Ronay] was meticulous, he was a visionary and he knew what gastronomy should be.
"There's no doubt that he had a huge, huge influence and he helped British chefs to believe in themselves."
Ronay was the son of a prominent restaurateur in Budapest whose businesses were destroyed during and after World War II.
Penniless
Ronay escaped from communist Hungary in 1946 and arrived in London as a penniless refugee.
He went on to manage several restaurants before opening his own establishment in 1952, the Marquee in Knightsbridge, serving classic French dishes that were almost unheard of in post-war Britain.
Television chef Fanny Craddock raved about the place and persuaded Ronay to write a food column for the Daily Telegraph.
Image caption His often scathing criticism is credited with helping improve UK catering
He sold his restaurant in 1955 to concentrate on his writing, and Egon Ronay's Guide to Hotels and Restaurants arrived the following year.
The guidebook was inspired by France's Michelin restaurant guides.
"Everybody looked at his guides," celebrity chef Phil Vickery told BBC News.
"He really did make everyone stand up and say, 'Oh my goodness, are we selling good food or not?'"
Vickery added: "He was a very successful restaurateur in his own right.
"He knew his stuff. I think very few people these days understand cooking fully, or understand the process.
"Coming from that background, he knew exactly what to say and what to do."
Threat of exposure
Ronay produced the books, with the help of a team of inspectors, for 30 years - never accepting a free meal.
"I think the guides certainly have had the effect, particularly in mass catering, of telling people that they could no longer get away with murder - because I would expose them," Ronay once said.
"My aim was to improve catering standards and having seen the way the Michelin guides worked I felt a guide was the best way.
"I never considered it a business and only made money out of the guides when I sold them."
He sold the guidebooks to the AA in 1985, but regained the rights to the books in court in the late 90s after arguing that the company's actions were in danger of tarnishing his name.
Restaurant critic Michael Winner said Ronay was "humble" but the "greatest food critic ever".
"He surpassed all the supercilious, arrogant, position-seeking food critics we have at the moment. He had a great heart, great dignity and great warmth.
"He was a true expert and I admired him beyond belief. He was superior to us all.
"I was very sad to hear of his death."A Simple, Serverless API using Azure Tables & Functions
Alex Billson Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 9, 2017
Who would’ve thought developing in a Portal would be so bearable.
Whilst serverless is in no way a new technology, it is only recently whilst studying for my 532 Microsoft Exam that I have truly come to enjoy the power of products such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions. Whether it be for scalability, costs or ease of implementation; there is merit in taking the serverless approach with your cloud based solutions. This piece is not necessarily a fleshed out tutorial of how to work with Microsoft’s Azure Functions but more of an exploratory piece on just how easy it is to create a database backend “API” of sorts all from within the Azure Portal itself!
Note that I don’t necessarily advocate that this is the way you should develop Azure Functions. Microsoft supports using Git and other version control systems for working with Azure functions, as well as providing an Azure Functions CLI for running functions locally.
Setting Up
Assuming you have an Azure Subscription (if not sign up here it’s free), locate the “Serverless Function App” resource in the marketplace. Whilst usually I’d recommend you create your resource group and storage account seperately, for the purposes of a concise process we’ll create both with the function.
For those who are unsure about the Azure jargon, a Resource Group is essentially what the name implies and is a collection of Azure resources which are the services you use on Azure. A Storage Account is a type of resource which provides multiple types of storage solutions all under the one resource including file, blob, table, queue and more. We’ll be focusing on using Tables for this tutorial which Azure describes as ;
NoSQL storage for unstructured and semi-structured data — ideal for web applications, address books, and other user data.
When creating your function app, Azure will pre-fill the names for the resource group and storage account as you type. For the hosting plan I’ve gone with Consumption as that is the type in which you are billed for usage rather than uptime. Location is very much dependent on, well, your location so it doesn’t really make a different to the function itself. Clicking create will validate the Azure Function configuration and add it to your Function Apps.
Let’s Write Up Some Functions!
Once the Function App is deployed you can find it in the aptly named “Function Apps” section of the Azure Portal. Before we get into creating the functions I like to modify my CORS origins to allow all (*) as for the purposes of this article defining the specific origins I’m using is unnecessary.
Click on your function app and go to Platform Features -> CORS and then remove all the allowed origins, add a single origin of *.
Once those changes are saved, go to the Functions section of your Function App and click the new function button. This will display all the templates Azure has to offer. For this tutorial we’ll be using the HTTP GET and HTTP POST templates as the template includes everything we need to connect to our Table Storage.
So many options :O
We’ll start with HTTP GET, for this tutorial I’ll be using C# but as I’m admittedly relying on generated code for the most part you’re more than welcome to use any language you wish.
Let’s go with a food theme for a change.
For this tutorial we’ll be adding and retrieving items from a food database. For the most part it is up to you what you name your function, what will need to be changed is the table name and storage account connection. The table name can be anything as Azure will create a table if it doesn’t exist already, and to retrieve your storage account that you created previously click the “new” button and select it from the list of options. Repeat this process for HTTP POST.
First we’ll edit our GET function to make it a little bit more our own. Opening the function in the Azure Portal will open up a monaco editor with our function in it. If you are using a strongly typed language like C# for your function, Azure will have generated you a TableEntity for the function (by default its person). Let’s edit this a bit to be more unique…
As you can see a TableEntity is very much a Plain Old C# Object with the exception of the RowKey and PartitionKey. Whilst this is very much not an Azure Functions concept and more of an Azure Tables piece of info, to sum it up a RowKey can be thought of as a Primary Key in the table. We can use it to uniquely identify and easily retrieve an entry in our table. The PartitionKey is a bit more complex and defines how Azure will distribute the entry in your storage. It can be assumed that elements with the same partition key are kept in the same partition of your storage and so can easily be queried and batched together.
As you can probably guess, for this example I will be using the name of the FoodItem as a RowKey, with all items partitioned the same.
I also need to refactor the function for the HttpResponseMessage so that it works with the correct data types.
With those changes our GET endpoint is done! All of the implementation achieved within the Azure Portal editor. For testing the function we can copy URL from the Get Function URL button in the top right hand corner and query with Postman, the response an expected empty array.
Your navigate over to your POST function, for mine I wrote the following code;
Whilst the model remains unchanged, there are some things to note in the function itself.
Emphasis on nullable data types, especially int? for example.
for example. My validation is pretty much ensure that name and rating are present.
and are present. There is no need to explicitly set a PartitionKey and a RowKey like in the originally generated code as we take care of that in the constructor and the Name setter.
Once implemented, save your post function and ensure there are no errors in your log. If all is good congratulations! You just implemented GET and POST endpoints utilising Azure Functions backed by Azure Table storage. To test it let’s open up postman and send some data to the POST endpoint;
Nothing was more satisfying than the 201 I received for this
GET Endpoint works as expected.
Whilst there’s so much more to explore with Azure Functions, I’m hoping this was a good primer into just how easy it is to get started with them.
If you enjoyed this article please give us a clap as it inflates my ego and fuels my need to write more pieces.
PS: Just wanted to recommend Scott Duffy’s Udemy Course “70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions Certification” for being the reason for me wanting to write this article. Definitely worth checking out as it’s incredibly in-depth, up to date and modelled around the Microsoft Examination of the same name.The Ulster Volunteers 1913-1914: force or farce?
Published in 1913
In January 1913, Ulster Unionist resistance to Home Rule entered a more militant phase with the establishment of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Work published on the UVF to date (most notably, A.T.Q. Stewart, The Ulster Crisis: resistance to Home Rule 1912-1914 [London 1967]) has concentrated largely on the Larne gunrunning of 24 and 25 April 1914, when, in a meticulously planned operation 24,600 rifles were landed in Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee and dispersed throughout the province. But what about more mundane issues, such as the organisation, officering and personnel of the UVF between January 1913 and July 1914? Were the Ulster Volunteers an efficient military ‘force’, or simply a theatrical ‘farce’, designed to frighten Liberal politicians and boost attendance figures at Ulster Unionist demonstrations?
The organisation of the UVF was a constant problem for the Belfast Unionist leadership. The UVF itself largely grew out of the Orange Order and the Unionist Clubs, which had started to drill by March 1912. Other UVF units had more obscure origins. In Magherafelt, the ‘Catch my Pal’ Temperance Society had started drilling twice weekly by May 1912; while in Londonderry, the Church Lads’ Brigade provided a precursor to the UVF in that city. Elsewhere, many units were formed on purely private initiative. By October 1912, Osbourne Young, a former sergeant in the Imperial Yeomanry, had established a small cavalry unit in Omagh. Some of these units only reluctantly came under the control of UVF headquarters in Belfast. As late as October 1913 Newry Unionist Club was trying to reassert its control over the local UVF.
No uniformity in command structure
With the arrival of Lieutenant General Sir George Richardson as general officer commanding the UVF, in June 1913, a regimental system was established, which attempted to replicate the Cardwell-Childers system which had been introduced in the British army in 1881. Thus, each county was to provide a UVF regiment, which would be formed from a number of battalions. In Belfast, each parliamentary constituency (North, South, East and West) provided a regiment. This slavish reproduction of the British army territorial system was not at all satisfactory for UVF purposes: regiments varied greatly in strength; while the North Belfast regiment ultimately had eight battalions, West Belfast never rose above a strength of two. Similarly, while in 1913 a British battalion consisted of eight companies, in the UVF there was no uniform establishment. The North Down battalion had fifteen companies in October 1913, while in mid 1914, 1st Battalion, Fermanagh regiment, had seven companies. On top of that companies in the battalions also varied greatly in size. These discrepancies became even more pronounced over time. While in July 1914, County Cavan had only one regiment with four battalions, recruitment in County Down had proved so successful that there were |
Here it is important to be aware of ‘impact’. This is an internal process whereby the body and mind respond to some input with mental pain. As we all learn very young, pain is a vehicle that helps us to avoid being damaged a second time; we become careful in certain situations. Pain is not something we can safely ignore. This is never truer than with mental pain.
If we process something that hurts us mentally as normal, what does that say about us? That we deserved it? That we are so worthless or bad that we should be hurt? Why is that true? Where did we pick up this nonsense from? We have to be aware of the impact of mental distress on ourselves. Some is inevitable of course: in bereavement, the departure of a loved one, the loss of a job and many other ‘losing’ situations. But when this losing involves self-esteem and self-confidence it is not inevitable and those that try to make us believe it is so are doing us enormous harm. Nobody deserves to be treated as worthless, least of all by themselves. When something hurts us emotionally, when we feel this impact, we must stop and question it, the more so if our first tendency is simply to accept it as ‘normal’.
In this situation we have to make the effort to process the painful input: to think about it. And then be ready to act on ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. All sensory input that gets beyond the ‘normal’, ‘good’, ‘harmless’, stage requires thinking about. This is true for everyone. We have a lifetime’s experience of doing this so it is essential to group the damaging events we ‘just accept’ in this area that requires thought, and build a habit of seeing them as such.
[Back to Contents]
Listening to yourself
This requires the ability to listen to oneself. Most of us become so used to the internal dialogue that we no longer listen to it and this can be a huge mistake. It can be time well spent to take a few hours during one specific day and note every negative self-comment encountered. It is quite likely that these will number in the hundreds during a normal day for a person with self-esteem problems. Realising this, how readily we ‘knock’ ourselves without thought, can be a turning point in the struggle against negative self-talk.
Some people find a visual aid useful here. If you wish to try this, you could invest in a pack of self-adhesive notelets, write ‘what am I saying to myself now?’ on each and stick them up around the house. Then each time you encounter one the process is triggered. If the life situation makes this obvious reminder difficult or potentially embarrassing, small coloured adhesive dots or stars, available at any stationers, can be used instead.
Good self-listening helps us to develop the habit of responding not reacting to situations and learning how not to confuse the two. That is, situations that trigger negative emotions about ourselves are almost invariably reactive: something that does not trigger thought but an emotional ‘knee-jerk’. We are so used to it that we don’t think about it anymore, we just do it. Responding to a situation means that we consider it, we look at its pros and cons and take action through conscious choice. As very few of us will consciously hurt ourselves, this habit is one well worth building.
Be kind to yourself
Following on from self-listening is the requirement to be kind to oneself. Most people reading this will be a lot harder on themselves than on any other person in their lives. This is never useful. Self-disgust leaves very little room for healthy positive attitudes of any sort. The man who hates himself easily hates others. The woman who finds nothing likeable in her herself might have a completely unbalanced approach to judging the niceness of others: expecting too little or too much.
Obviously we are all capable of performing acts of which we later become ashamed and because of which we feel guilt. Some acts in our lives will richly deserve this response, others will not. The trick has to be deciding which is which. Many people coming to Anxiety Care have absorbed a sense of guilt and/or shame from a very early age; their ‘mind-set’ is towards feeling worthless or in need of punishment.
It is not possible to say that a certain type of parent makes this inevitable because it does not, only more likely. How much we take guilt upon ourselves depends, to a large degree, on our personality. However, guilt is only useful if it leads to change. Guilt and shame that pounds away, telling us we are worthless or deserve to be treated badly or should punish ourselves, is totally useless and works against leading a reasonable life. Here again, it is vital to catch the thought and ask ‘why?’ Why should I be treated badly? Why should I punish myself? And if the answer is a blanket: ‘because I am bad’, why is this true? Who told me that, or let me believe that?
As mentioned elsewhere in our literature, some parents’ attitude to their children encourages them to feel worthless, bad, unloved, even undeserving of love. This is the parents’ inadequacy, not the child’s. But as a very young person, it is almost impossible not to integrate such a parental attitude, or perceived attitude, into one’s life. This is painful and very sad for the child; but the adult grown out of this child can put the feelings aside. Only he or she can look at it all and say: ‘I am not worthless!’ ‘I am not bad!’ Other people can’t talk us out of such a perspective; we have to do it ourselves. To achieve it we have to develop the techniques described above and build up a more rational vision of the self. Just saying it won’t make it happen, nor will ‘positive thinking’. We have to work at it every day and prove to ourselves that we are worthwhile. We have to change the beliefs of a lifetime and this is not easy. But only then will it become part of us rather than a meaningless mantra that brings shallow comfort not honest, positive, personal growth.
[Back to Contents]VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh government agency today initiated an international competitive bidding process through the 'Swiss Challenge' approach for development of "start-up area" of the state's new capital city Amaravati.The area is spread over 6.84 sq km (1,691 acres).Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) has invited competing counter proposals from eligible prospective bidders for selection of the Master Developer for the capital city.The AP government entered into a memorandum of understanding with the government of Singapore in December 2014 for development of the new capital city on the banks of Krishna river, between Vijayawada and Guntur.The Singapore, in turn, nominated Ascendas- Singbridge and Sembcorp Development Ltd to participate in the development of Amaravati as the Master Developer.The Singapore consortium on March 12 submitted a suo motu proposal, through 'Swiss Challenge' approach as per the AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act-2001, to be the Master Developer of Amaravati.The consortium estimated the cost of developing infrastructure in the "start-up area", which includes a central business district, commercial hubs, business parks and high-density residential zones, at Rs 3,137.3 crore.It proposed to undertake development of the area in three phases over a period of 15 years (five years for each phase).The State Cabinet, on June 24, approved the Singapore consortium's proposal and it was subsequently notified by a Government Order (GO) on July 4.Based on the GO, the APCRDA today invited international competitive bids from eligible developers to counter the Singapore proposal.Under 'Swiss Challenge' route, a developer is asked to presents a bid. Then, other prospective developers would be asked to present counter bids. If the latter is lower, the first bidder will be asked to submit another bid. If the first bidder comes up with lower bid, then he gets the right or if he fails, the one with lower bid gets the project.September 1 has been set as the last date for submitting the competing counter proposals.An interesting pattern has been emerging in the Republican Party’s handling of foreign policy: Individual GOP officials are now making a regular point of not only formulating an alternative foreign policy, to be presented to the American people and debated in Congress — they’re acting on it too, and undermining the official White House policies at multiple turns:
⢠Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is visiting Honduras in order to support the recent military coup against a leftist president, which has been opposed by the Obama administration and all the surrounding countries in the region. (Late Update: DeMint’s office says he is not taking sides during his visit to the current Honduran leadership, denying the New York Times reports that this was his intention.)
⢠Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will be going to the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, bringing a “Truth Squad” to tell foreign officials there that the American government will not take any action: “Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate.”⢠House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) traveled to Israel, where he spoke out against President Obama’s opposition to expanded settlements. He also defended Israel on the eviction of two Arab families from a house in east Jerusalem, which had been criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
⢠Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) boasted in June that he told Chinese officials not to trust America’s budget numbers. “One of the messages I had — because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor,” said Kirk, “is that the budget numbers that the US government had put forward should not be believed.” Since then, he has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.Everyone knows the universe exists in three dimensions, right? Maybe not. For some time now serious physicists have been pondering the seemingly absurd possibility that three-dimensional space is merely an illusion--and that we actually live in a two-dimensional "hologram."
And now scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois have launched a mind-blowing experiment to show once and for all what sort of universe we live in.
"We want to find out whether space-time is a quantum system just like matter is," Dr. Craig Hogan, director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics, said in a written statement. "If we see something, it will completely change ideas about space we've used for thousands of years."
According to quantum theory's uncertainty principle, it's impossible to know both the precise location and the exact velocity of a subatomic particle. If the same uncertainty principle applies to space as well as to matter, space too should have built-in fluctuations--a.k.a. "quantum jitter" or "holographic noise," according to the statement.
The 21 scientists involved in the experiment will look for the jitter with the help of an exquisitely sensitive device known as a Holometer. It produces laser beams 200,000 times brighter than a laser pointer and, with the help of an optical technique known as interferometry, measures jitter in the beams as small as a few billionths of a billionth of a meter.
(Story continues below images.)
A close-up of the Holometer at Fermilab.
The holometer includes two interferometers in 6-inch steel tubes about 40 meters long. Optical systems (not shown here) in each one “recycle” laser light to create a steady, intense laser wave. The outputs of the two photodiodes are correlated to measure holographic jitter.
"If we find a noise we can't get rid of, we might be detecting something fundamental about nature--a noise that is intrinsic to space-time," Dr. Aaron Chou, the experiment's lead scientist and project manager for the Holometer, said in the statement. "It's an exciting moment for physics. A positive result will open a whole new avenue of questioning about how space works."
The prospect of making a discovery that would not only defy common sense but also overturn centuries of scientific thinking has Chou thinking in philosophical, almost mystical terms.KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) -- Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.
Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who was raised Baptist but is now an atheist, says the military violated his religious freedom.
Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.
Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.
His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. Watch why Hall says his lack of faith almost got him killed »
In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.
"I think it's utterly and totally wrong. Unconstitutional," Hall said.
Hall said there is a pattern of discrimination against non-Christians in the military.
Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?"
Hall isn't seeking compensation in his lawsuit -- just the guarantee of religious freedom in the military. Eventually, Hall was sent home early from Iraq and later returned to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, to complete his tour of duty.
He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.
"I was told because I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader," Hall said.
Michael Weinstein, a retired senior Air Force officer and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is suing along with Hall. Weinstein said he's been contacted by more than 8,000 members of the military, almost all of them complaining of pressure to embrace evangelical Christianity.
"Our Pentagon, our Pentacostalgon, is refusing to realize that when you put the uniform on, there's only one religious faith: patriotism," Weinstein said.
Religious discrimination is a violation of the First Amendment and is also against military policy. The Pentagon refused to discuss specifics of Hall's case -- citing the litigation. But Deputy Undersecretary Bill Carr said complaints of evangelizing are "relatively rare." He also said the Pentagon is not pushing one faith among troops.
"If an atheist chose to follow their convictions, absolutely that's acceptable," said Carr. "And that's a point of religious accommodation in department policy, one may hold whatever faith, or may hold no faith."
Weinstein said he doesn't buy it and points to a promotional video by a group called Christian Embassy. The video, which shows U.S. generals in uniform, was shot inside the Pentagon. The generals were subsequently reprimanded.
Another group, the Officers' Christian Fellowship, has representatives on nearly all military bases worldwide. Its vision, which is spelled out on the organization's Web site, reads, "A spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform empowered by the Holy Spirit."
Weinstein has a different interpretation.
"Their purpose is to have Christian officers exercise Biblical leadership to raise up a godly army," he says.
But Carr said the military's position is clear.
"Proselytizing or advancing a religious conviction is not what the nation would have us do and it's not what the military does," Carr said.
The U.S. Justice Department is expected to respond to Hall's lawsuit this week. In the meantime, he continues to work in the military police unit at Fort Riley and plans to leave as soon as his tour of duty expires next year.
All About Religion • U.S. Department of Defense • Armed ForcesWashington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives on Tuesday gave final approval to a nearly $59 billion emergency spending bill, the bulk of which would go toward the U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan.
Specifically, the bill includes almost $33 billion for Afghanistan, along with over $5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, almost $3 billion for Haiti relief programs and $68 million for the oil disaster response in the Gulf of Mexico.
It now goes to the president for his signature.
The Senate passed the measure last week after stripping out more than $20 billion for domestic priorities favored by many Democrats.
Top Democrats struggled to maintain support for the bill among more liberal House members, who have increasingly turned against the Afghan war effort and are upset about the loss of funding for programs designed to prevent teacher layoffs, among other things.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, slammed the Senate for stripping domestic funding from the bill, including funding for teachers and other forms of education funding.
Obey said he opposed the emergency funding bill because of questions over the prospects for success in Afghanistan.
"The Afghan government has not demonstrated the focused determination, reliability and judgment necessary to bring this effort to a rational and successful conclusion," he said.
The federal government has "appropriated over $1 trillion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to date, more than $700 billion to Iraq and $300 billion for Afghanistan," Obey noted.
"To those who say we must pay it because we're going after al Qaeda, I would note that Afghanistan is where al Qaeda used to be," he said. "Today, there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda in Afghanistan, which was publicly confirmed last month by CIA chief (Leon) Panetta. Al Qaeda has relocated to other countries and regions."
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, called the Afghanistan war policy "deeply flawed."
"Occupying Afghanistan in support of a corrupt and incompetent government will continue to claim the lives of our soldiers," McGovern said. "It will continue to bankrupt us, and it will not enhance our national security.... It is a mistake to give this administration yet another blank check for this war."
Also Tuesday, the House defeated a non-binding resolution that called for the withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. Currently, the United States has more than 200 armed service members in Pakistan.
Fueling liberal discontent with the war effort was Sunday's release by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks of roughly 76,000 U.S. military and diplomatic reports about Afghanistan filed from 2004 to January 2010.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he is "concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information," but insisted the documents don't shed much new light on the war effort. A number of critics, however, insist the documents back their assertion that the war effort is foundering in part due to unreliable allies in the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, asserted Tuesday that the document leak would not affect the House vote. He noted that funding of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will run out early next month, and said Congress needed to ensure they have the necessary supplies.
"The fact is those troops are there now, and money to fund those troops... will be depleted as of the seventh of August," Hoyer said. "So whatever we decide on policy in the longer term does not, in my opinion, affect our obligation today to make sure that the troops, as long as they are there, have the resources they need."
CNN's Alan Silverleib, Deirdre Walsh and Craig Broffman contributed to this reportRepublican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in a clip of an interview posted Friday that he thought GOP rival Donald Trump was the “worst nominee” for the Republican party.
Paul’s full interview with Newsmax TV is scheduled to air Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
Paul said that Trump would be the “largest loser of any candidate ever in the history of the country if he were our nominee.”
Paul and Trump have exchanged insults throughout their campaigns. In Paul’s interview with Newsmax, he mentioned some of Trump’s remarks.
Trump had said the immigrants were rapists and drug dealers. Trump also commented on GOP hopeful and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s face.
“Do you think women are going to nominate some guy who judges people by their appearance and calls another candidate ugly? Do you think they’re going to nominate somebody who implies that most Hispanics are rapists and drug dealers? ‘Oh yeah there might be a few of them who are not,’” Paul said.
“You know, that kind of attitude is such and so polarizing. We’d get just swamped in a landslide.”
Paul said that he thought the majority of Republicans will “wake up” and realize Trump “would be a disaster for our party and the country” if he was nominated.
“He’s the worst nominee that we could possibly think of,” Paul continued. “And part of the reason is he’s not really a Republican. He’s recently become a Republican, but he’s been a Democrat for most of his life.”
Watch the preview of the interview with Paul:
h/t: BuzzFeed NewsWhen you're running for president, attention gets paid to your every word – as Michele Bachmann found out when she mistakenly compared herself to a notorious serial killer instead of Hollywood legend John Wayne.
In an interview before announcing her bid for the Republican presidential nomination in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa, Bachmann told a Fox News interviewer:
John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too.
Except as the conservative Washington Times reported, John Wayne – the star of movies such as True Grit and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – was born in Winterset, Iowa, more than 100 miles away from Waterloo. The John Wayne of Waterloo was someone entirely different:
Waterloo's John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the homophobic serial killer.
Oh, that John Wayne. As Minnesota's City Pages details:
The only famous John Wayne from Waterloo was one of the most deranged murderers in American history – the "Killer Clown" himself, John Wayne Gacy. Gacy's first arrest happened in Waterloo, after two teenage boys accused him of sexually assaulting them. After spending less than two years in prison for sodomy, he went back to Waterloo, then brutally raped and murdered 33 boys and young men over a period of six years, stashing the bodies in crawl spaces, his basement or dumping them in a river. He was executed in 1994.
Rather than just admitting to making a minor mistake, the Bachmann campaign has made a lame attempt to justify the candidate's words: "John Wayne is from Iowa, his parents lived in Waterloo."
Welcome to the big leagues, as they say. Bachmann thus joins the ranks of presidential candidates who have made gaffes over the years, including Barack Obama – who famously claimed to have visited 57 states during the 2008 campaign.
The worst gaffe made on the campaign trail was the Republican running for the presidential nomination in 1967, who said he had been "brainwashed" into supporting the Vietnam war. The candidate? George Romney, father of Mitt Romney.But Perdue has not been announced for the post, and Trump has continued to receive a parade of other contenders. When he named David Shulkin to head veterans affairs last week, USDA became the last unfilled Cabinet position.
After Perdue’s appointment was floated, reports indicated that the Trump team wanted to pick a woman or Hispanic for the position instead, in order to add diversity to the Cabinet. Elsa Murano, the former president of Texas A&M, and Abel Maldonado, former lieutenant governor of California, have been prominently mentioned. Both have experience with agriculture: Murano, an expert on food safety, was a USDA undersecretary under George W. Bush, while Maldonado is the child of immigrant farmworkers and owns a vineyard. But the idea that the administration might use the USDA post to “balance” the overwhelmingly white and male Cabinet has sparked controversy in agricultural circles.
“I would say there has been anguish,” Gary Baise, a D.C. lawyer who helped Trump marshal rural and agricultural support during the campaign, told me. “Agriculture is too important to use as a dumping ground for political correctness.”
Baise and others warn that Trump owes a debt to rural voters, from among whom he drew his strongest support in the election. They are not the only ones affected by agricultural policy, of course—everybody eats, and more than 40 million low-income Americans rely on the food stamps the USDA administers. But agriculture, from family farmers to big agribusiness, looms especially large in the landscape, economy, and culture of rural areas.
And rural voters went overwhelmingly for Trump. His 27-point margin over Hillary Clinton among voters in rural areas was 7 points better than Mitt Romney’s margin over Barack Obama four years ago. Many commentators have seen the election’s outcome as the result of a larger-than-ever divide between rural and urban America.
“Rural America would be really disappointed,” Baise said, if Trump is seen as not keeping faith with the agricultural community. The smart money is still on Trump picking Perdue, according to Baise, a well-connected Republican ag-politics veteran who helped Trump assemble his agriculture advisory team. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. A source in Perdue’s orbit said he still wants the job and is mystified by the delay.
For now, the ag world watches and waits for an agriculture secretary to be named. On Friday night, they will gather at Washington’s Grand Hyatt for a black-tie inaugural ball—the “Piggy Prom”—formally known as the Inaugural Gala Celebrating American Agriculture.
But the difficulty for Trump won’t end once he chooses a USDA head. Farmers and farm experts are also wary of some of his signature policy promises. As the top ag journalist Jerry Hagstrom wrote recently in National Journal Daily, “The selection of Agriculture secretary may be simple in comparison with figuring out both the right policies and the right politics for rural America and agriculture.”WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—President Obama’s plan to offer Americans two years of college for free has come under fire from congressional Republicans, who are calling it a blatant plot to make Americans smarter.
The G.O.P., which has benefited from the support of so-called “low-information voters” in recent years, accused Obama of cynically trying to make people smarter as a way of chipping away at the Republican base.
“You take low-information voters and give them information, and pretty soon they’re Democrats,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.
House Speaker John Boehner said that “forcing knowledge into people” was “flagrantly un-American,” adding, “We make this promise to the American people: if you like your brains, you can keep your brains.”
Get news satire from The Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox.Essex, England (CNN) With a flick of her wrist, the drum beat begins. The familiar deep sound of the tom-tom drum echoes around the makeshift studio. But this is a musical performance with a twist.
For a start, the "studio" is actually a converted barn deep in the English countryside. The woman playing the "instrument" is Grammy Award-winning musician Imogen Heap. And the drum she's beating doesn't exist.
Pioneering the fusion of wearable tech and music, Heap is in a completely different octave thanks to what she calls her Mi.Mu Gloves -- gloves that put the power to create an entire musical composition right at her fingertips.
"In the past the only way that I could interact with the computer (to make music) was by using a mouse and a keyboard and this is very two-dimensional," explains the musical trendsetter.
"I wanted to be able to have something which... was directly from (the) brain -- to quickly be able to manipulate sound just by intuitive gestures."
JUST WATCHED Turning hand gestures into music Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Turning hand gestures into music 03:24
While visiting MIT's Media Lab in 2009, Heap met Elly Jessop, an engineer developing her own musical gloves using gestural data. Heap's mind exploded with ideas and she soon set about putting together a team of musicians, makers, hackers and technologists to bring her ideas to life.
Fast forward five years and the dream is finally becoming a reality. Known for her distinctive fusion of soft acoustic sounds, electronica and tech, the British-born artist hopes the gloves will also help bring her music to fans in a more tangible way.
"The gloves help me embody those sounds which are hidden inside the computer, for me to physicalize them and bring them out so that I can play them and the audience members will understand what I am doing -- rather than fiddling around on a keyboard and mouse which is not very clear -- I could just be doing my emails."
How it works
Each glove is loaded with a myriad of sensors, buzzers and buttons that all send a chorus of information wirelessly back to computer software. It then interprets each gesture and produces sounds.
"It has sensors in the fingers that sense the bend of your finger, all of them, including the thumb, some motion sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers," explains Kelly Snook, a Mi.Mu engineer, who has been working on the gloves project since its conception almost six years ago.
"It takes all the information about your hand and the posture that you are making -- where your hand is positioned and how fast you are moving it -- and it sends all that information to the computer and then allows you to, on the computer, tell your music software what to do with each gesture."
JUST WATCHED Dancing with... a samurai sword? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Dancing with... a samurai sword? 03:23
JUST WATCHED Power of gesture guides energetic conductor Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Power of gesture guides energetic conductor 03:25
She adds: "It has little buzzers in your wrist that... (vibrate) when you've done something or you are in this mode. It's all wireless and it's all very seamless."
Music and movement have forever had a symbiotic relationship. But with these gloves, Heap hopes to take her stage performances a step further.
"Movement for me is key," she says. "I have a body and I have a mind and in my mind I have music. And it's a very shapely, sculptural thing that's going on.
"With the gloves I've almost got infinite mobility and so many different ways that different actions can cross over each other and therefore make something I wouldn't have thought of -- I can almost jam with myself," she laughs.
"So movement and playing with music with my hands, almost like a potter, is now becoming a reality with these gloves that I've been developing with my team."
Musical revolution?
The gloves are already making waves among technologists and musicmakers eager to get their hands on them. Initially, the project looked to KickStarter for crowdsourced funding, and while they didn't make their target, the campaign introduced the team to a group of like-minded engineers and hackers, who still wanted to help fund the bespoke gestural gloves. They now collaborate with the team by providing data and feedback from use of their own pair.
"We found 15 people who were willing to invest quite a lot of money at this early stage and help us develop them further. (They) have their own gloves and they range from people interested in robotics, to music therapy, to storytelling, to musicians, to sound engineers and animators -- all kids of different people," says Heap.
And the gloves look set for international stardom as they've even caught the attention of pint-sized pop princess Ariana Grande, who recently spent some time with Heap and ordered her own gloves to bring on tour next year, according to the thrilled Mi.Mu team.
A video posted by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:48pm PST
The team is quick to point out the idea isn't particularly new -- gestural music devices have been around for decades. But they hope they can spur the musical innovation forward.
Snook says: "We are not the first to do this, nor will we be the last. We've just been really passionate about doing it for music and doing it on stage and breaking down the barriers between the audience and the performer and making it much more intuitive the way the performer can communicate what they are doing electronically.
"Similar to when the electric guitar came on the scene, music really changed because of that one liberating instrument and so what's exciting to me about the glove project is the way that we could be seeing that complete shift in music making and performance."
Heap adds: "The gloves have certainly changed the way I make music. I'm not going to say it's going to change the world. It's certainly part of a big movement of wearable tech and I really hope that we can move forward the game."More than 400 protesters stuck their heads in the sand on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Thursday,
The stunt was meant to mock the Australian government's reluctance to put climate change on the
agenda of this weekend's G20 summit, being held in the country.
A protest organizer pointed to the new agreement between the United States, and China, to limit their carbon emissions. "Obama's on board, Xi Jinping's on board, everyone's on board except one man," activist Pat Norman, bellowed into a megaphone.
"Tony Abbott!" the protesters shouted back.
Young adults, children, and several people in business suits dug holes on the beach and stuck their heads in
them. The ostrich is said to stick its head in the sand in a futile bid to avoid danger.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called climate change science "crap" in 2009 and said coal was "good for humanity". His government repealed a tax on greenhouse gas emissions in July, the only country to reverse action on climate change.When the Montreal Canadiens visit the New Jersey Devils tonight, it will be a milestone night for Montreal Canadiens Carey Price. The 27-year-old goaltender will be playing his four hundredth game in the NHL, all with the Habs. It hasn’t been the smoothest ride for Price up to this point, and he has had to battle some goalies for the starters job over the years. However, in the past couple seasons, Price has proven to be one of the best goalie in the NHL.
Carey Price To Play In 400th Game
He was drafted fifth overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft during a time where goaltending in the Canadiens organization wasn’t entirely stable, but for the most part the job was taken. Jose Theodore was playing well, but only every other season. Granted he didn’t have much of a team in front of him, so it wasn’t fully Theo’s fault. Cristobel Huet was also acquired in Theo’s last year as a Hab and Jarsolav Halak was in the system. Suffice to say, some analysts were confused by the picking of Price when the Habs had numerous goalies, even though Halak wasn’t highly touted at the time.
Price broke into the league in 2007-08 as a fresh faced 20-year-old, coming off from a Calder Cup championship win the previous spring with the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Baby Habs. He won 24 games in 41 games, effectively ending Huet’s tenure in the Montreal organization, as Huet was traded at the 2008 trade deadline. After the trade Price was backed up by Halak, who was just starting to get looked at with the big club.
The work of Price, Huet, and Halak over the regular season got the Habs the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs they got past the Boston Bruins in seven games, then fell to the Philadelphia Flyers in five games. Price was sensational against Boston, posting two shutouts in the Bruins series; but seemed to struggle against the Flyers.
The next six years were up and down for Price, who was still learning how to handle a starters job at such a young age and in Montreal nonetheless, where any wrong move, no matter how big or small, is magnified and will be over exaggerated. But for the most part he was excelling and he was still putting up good numbers for the team he had in front of him.
He also had the intense battle with Halak for the crease job, which culminated in the 2009-10 playoffs. Halak had been in the Habs system for quite some time, being a ninth round pick in the 2003 NHL Draft, but wasn’t considered much of a prospect. He got his shot with the Habs in 2006-07 and continued his stellar play with the Habs, which was sparking trade rumors of either goalie because the crease was not big enough for both of them.
In the 2009-10 season, Halak won the job and began the playoffs as the starter. They got to the Eastern Conference Finals, but were once again foiled by the Flyers in five games. After the playoffs ended, Habs management made the choice to stick with Price and trade Halak, sensing that Price had more long-term value and with more work would be the franchise building block they desperately needed. They were right.
The picking of Price has definitely been a huge part of the Habs revitalization and with this past spring, playoffs success. Prior to the 2013-14 playoffs, Price did have some struggles in the spring, although not his fault entirely at all, it was more the team in front of him, or lack of. But he carried the 2013-14 Canadiens to the Eastern Conference Finals, until he went down with a knee injury and Dustin Tokarksi had to take over for him. This season so far it is no different with Price being one of the biggest reasons for the Habs sitting fourth in East, seventh overall in the league.
He will be the third goalie (behind Patrick Roy and Jacques Plante) in Canadiens history to reach this benchmark and will be tied for the youngest on the team, and I mean literally tied. Patrick Roy was 27 years old, 139 days old on February 21st, 1993 when he played his 400th game with the Habs. Price is exactly 27 years old, 139 days right now. They were both 10,002 days old when hitting this milestone. Since Roy’s first game as a Hab in 1985 (despite it only being 20 minutes), it took him 2.902 days to reach four hundred games played, although if you want to be technical and use Roy’s first full game, it was 2,692 days. It has taken Price 2, 642 |
gum.”
A large group of guests reached its own consensus: limes were candied, vinegar resembled apple juice, goat cheese tasted like cheesecake on the tongue and goat cheese on the throat. Bananas were just bananas.
For all the excitement it inspires, the miracle fruit does not make much of an impression on its own. It has a mildly sweet tang, with firm pulp surrounding an edible, but bitter, seed. Mr. Aliquo said it reminded him of a less flavorful cranberry. “It’s not something I’d just want to eat,” he said.A university Islamic Society has apologised for handing out booklets written by a preacher saying 'every Muslim should be a terrorist'.
MPs have reacted with fury to the gaffe and called for strategies such as Prevent to be refocused more on universities than schools.
Students attending a 'Discover Islam Week' at Durham University were stunned to see the banned writings of Dr Zakir Naik on display outside the university library.
Dr Naik's Answers to Non-Muslims' Common Questions About Islam were available to students at Durham University just days before the Westminster attacks
Students attending a 'Discover Islam Week' at Durham University were stunned to see the banned writings of Dr Naik on display (above) outside the university library
Copies of the Dr Naik's Answers to Non-Muslims' Common Questions About Islam were available from one of the stalls in March, just days before the Westminster Attack.
The booklet states that 'every Muslim should be a terrorist to anti-social elements in society'.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen stormed: 'Terror organisations always prey on the fact our society is decent and civilised.
'But we should not be spreading their propaganda for them – particularly through our respected educational institutions.
'These young people are supposed to be among our brightest and best..it is deeply concerning.
'I wonder how many they handed out before they realised and who authorised them to be in display.
'The real question which has to be asked 'why were they in possession of this kind of material in the first place?' I mean why did they even ask for them?'
Tory MP Phil Davies said: 'It is a massive concern that stuff like this can be distributed at universities in the first place.
'It would indicate universities are places that need to be focused on when combating radicalisation. It was clearly irresponsible for the material to be issued in the first place.'
The booklet rants that 'alcoholism' has driven Western countries to high levels of rape, molestation, incest, and AIDS, and 'a true Muslim' ought to be a terrorist to'such people'.
Durham Islamic Society President Mohammed Alatiyyah said: 'DUISOC is very sorry if anyone was upset or offended by the booklet, which doesn't represent the views of our society and was distributed by honest mistake'
The booklet also claims that women should wear hijabs to 'prevent them from being molested'.
It also states Western culture has turned women into 'concubines, mistresses, and social butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers'.
It describes a girl wearing a mini-skirt as 'an indirect invitation to the opposite sex for teasing and molestation.'
Having been handed the booklet, students Martha Muir and Sabrina Steuer wrote to Durham University Islamic Society to complain.
They said in the letter: 'Considering the hateful things this man has said and the fact he is literally barred from entering the country we find it highly problematic that your society chose to spread this pamphlet.
'Furthermore, this was just one of the many of his pamphlets being offered on your stand.'
The booklet states: 'Every Muslim should be a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who causes terror. The moment a robber sees a policeman he is terrified.
'A policeman is a terrorist for the robber. Similarly every Muslim should be a terrorist for the antisocial elements of society, such as thieves, dacoits and rapists.
'Whenever such an anti-social element sees a Muslim, he should be terrified. It is true that the word "terrorist" is generally used for a person who causes terror among the common people.
'But a true Muslim should only be a terrorist to selective people i.e. antisocial elements, and not to the common innocent people. In fact a Muslim should be a source of peace for innocent people.'
Dr Naik is an Indian Islamic preacher and has been banned from entering the UK and Canada because of his radical talks
Dr Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was banned from India to'safeguard national security', according to the Delhi High Court.
The court has ruled that the government order was 'not arbitrary' and is legal, amid fears people could be 'radicalised' by the group.
Dr Naik is an Indian Islamic preacher and has been banned from entering the UK and Canada because of his radical talks.
Durham Islamic Society President Mohammed Alatiyyah said: 'DUISOC is very sorry if anyone was upset or offended by the booklet, which doesn't represent the views of our society and was distributed by honest mistake.
'We very much regret that they were displayed. These views in no way represent the views of our society, and they are not views that we want to spread or promote.'
Naik has previously stated that a man has the 'right' to beat his wife 'gently'.
He also says Muslim men have the 'right to sex with their female slaves', and recommends 'death penalty' for homosexuals, who he believes are 'patients suffering from sinful mental problems'.
Naik supported Osama Bin Laden, stating 'if he is terrorising America, the biggest terrorist, I am with him.
'Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he is terrorising a terrorist, he is following Islam.'Champions of democracy and inclusion are applauding Toronto City Council for supporting a pair of pioneering motions that could fundamentally rewrite the city’s election rules and change the face of local politics. On Tuesday, council voted to ask the province to give permanent residents the right to participate in municipal elections, and to allow the city to adopt ranked choice balloting, which would give voters the option to rank candidates in order of preference. If the province agrees to make the necessary legislative amendments, experts say it could open the door to similar changes in jurisdictions across Canada. “It would set a serious precedent,” said André Côté of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at University of Toronto. “If a city like Toronto decides that they want to move ahead with a significant electoral reform like this, people would certainly take notice elsewhere.” Officials in Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office said they were closely watching the city council decision.
Article Continued Below
“The Toronto population is truly diverse. We obviously just heard council’s vote and we will review it, have conversations before making any firm decision,” a senior official said late Tuesday. The new system could be in place for the 2018 civic election, although it’s not yet clear how the province would change Toronto’s election rules, which are spread across the City of Toronto Act, the Municipal Elections Act and the Municipal Act. But Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council for Agencies Serving Immigrants, sees council’s hard-won support as the most crucial step to extending voting rights to permanent residents.
“We’re very pleased that Toronto is once again leading the country in terms of progressive policies,” said Douglas. That motion, which would allow 250,000 non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, barely squeaked through, by a vote of 21-20. Mayor Rob Ford was among those who believe that Torontonians should be Canadian citizens to vote. “It doesn’t make sense. How can someone that’s not a Canadian citizen vote?” he said. “I just think we wasted six hours because I don’t believe the province is going to do anything with this.”
Article Continued Below
While similar policies are in place internationally, Douglas said Toronto would be the first city in the county to welcome non-citizens into the ballot box. Ranked balloting, which passed by a vote of 26-15, would also be a first in Canada.
Poll
Poll
Under such a system, voters are free to either select their one favourite or rank their favourites in order of preference: A “1” for their top candidate, a “2” for their next-best candidate, a “3” for their third. If a candidate gets a majority of first-place votes — 50 per cent plus one — the election is over. But if no candidate achieves a true majority, an “instant runoff” is carried out: the least popular candidate is knocked out, and the second-place votes of that candidate’s supporters are added to the totals of the candidates who are left. This process continues until someone has a majority. “City council is moving forward on a really positive step to make local elections more fair, and less polarizing,” said prominent local activist Dave Meslin, who spearheaded the drive for ranked ballots leading a group called Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (RaBIT). “Now it’s in the hands of Queen’s Park. We’re hoping they respect the wishes of council and give permission the council needs to make this change happen for 2018,” Meslin said. The extent to which those changes would touch other municipalities remains to the seen. A report from the city manager and city clerk called from “extensive public consultation before implementing any change to the current electoral system.” As their report suggested, the public may be wary: since 2005, major electoral reforms have been defeated in referenda in three Canadian provinces. Meslin said Premier Kathleen Wynne told him when she was the municipal affairs minister that she does not believe the province should stand in the way of council on this issue. A spokesperson for then-minister Wynne did not dispute Meslin’s account, saying Wynne is a “firm believer in local democracy.” With files from Robert BenzieGet the biggest politics 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
Shamefaced David Cameron faces a public grilling over his personal tax affairs amid questions about a second secret stash of shares worth £72,000.
The under-fire Prime Minister will make a humiliating statement to Parliament after his tax returns showed he secretly sold off another huge tranche of shares in 2010 alongside the £31,000 stake in his dad’s offshore fund.
Downing Street is refusing to say which other investment funds or private firms the PM held a stake in - and if any more of them were based in dodgy tax havens.
“There are big questions that have to be put to him by Parliament,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said.
After a week of pressure Mr Cameron finally published details of his last six annual tax returns on Saturday night, revealing a huge second income as a London landlord and raising questions about a possible £200,000 inheritance tax dodge.
(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
With the PM’s total earnings since 2009 topping £1million, the papers also reveal he shamelessly cut his own taxes less than two years after taking office to trouser an extra £200-a-month.
While delivering brutal cuts to the incomes of the poorest in society in the 2012 Budget, Mr Cameron also cut the top rate of income tax for those earning more than £150,000-a-year.
Read more: David Cameron's tax dodge bombshell after he was handed £200,000 GIFT from his mum
And while the PM’s publicly-declared salary at the time was just below this level at £142,000, the tax return details show that both he and wife Sam have each been pocketing nearly £1,000-a-week from renting out their luxury pad in Notting Hill.
That pushed the PM’s earnings beyond £200,000-a-year - meaning his decision to cut the top rate of tax from 50p down to 45p has netted him an extra £2,500-a-year since 2013.
(Image: PA)
“(I) can see now why Cameron was so keen to cut the 50p rate,” said Labour ’s shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith.
The latest scandal comes with Mr Cameron’s ‘Cabinet of millionaires’ facing mounting pressure to follow his lead and publish their own tax returns.
Mega-rich Tory Ministers like Chancellor George Osborne and Business Secretary Sajid Javid have so far refused to reveal their own financial interests, or admit if they have ever profited from shady offshore investments.
Read more: Jeremy Corbyn says David Cameron should publish his FULL tax returns
Mr Osborne repeatedly refused to answer questions about any past offshore investments when asked in a live TV interview last week.
Appearing on the Marr Show, Mr Corbyn said the PM’s move towards transparency was long overdue and warned all MPs may now need to publish details of their personal finances.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
He said: “I think it’s probably a good thing if we move generally in that direction, so that we know what influences are at play."
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has already published his tax return, went further and directly called for all MPs to publish their personal incomes.
“It happens in other European countries, I don’t see the problem with it,” he said on Radio Five’s Pienaar’s Politics.
Publishing tax returns has been a long-standing practice for politicians in America and has been undertaken by candidates standing to be London Mayor.
Mr Corbyn and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron have both pledged to publish their tax returns in the coming days.
(Image: Jeff J Mitchell)
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has already done so.
But Tory Cabinet Minister Amber Rudd battled to resist the plan, claiming it would put rich people off standing for Parliament.
“I think we have to think very carefully about the balance between transparency and privacy,” she said on Sky’s Murnaghan show.
“We don’t want to put people off who might have substantial assets... I don’t think it’s necessarily the right way to go.”
The SNP’s leader in Westminster Angus Robertson said the first priority must be to make clear whether senior members of the Cabinet who make decision on tax laws have themselves benefited from offshore investments, as Mr Cameron has now admitted to doing.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
“The Cabinet has responsibility for making the rules covering taxation, tax loopholes, offshore trusts,” he said.
“What involvement have Cabinet members have in relation to tax havens? Have they had any connections, yes or no? I think the public deserves to know.”
It follows a disastrous week for Mr Cameron since details first emerged in the ‘Panama Papers’ leak of his late father Ian’s financial dealings in tax havens.
After four days of dodging questions the PM finally confirmed on Thursday that he and wife Sam profited to the tune of almost £20,000 after buying thousands of shares in Ian’s offshore firm Blairmore, based in Bermuda.
Under mounting pressure, Mr Cameron took the unprecedented step at the weekend of publishing all his personal tax dealings dating back to the year before he became Prime Minister.
(Image: Getty)
But the publication raised more questions than answers, with revelations that his mother Mary gifted him £200,000 at around the time his father died in 2010 and left him £300,000 in his will.
If 82-year-old Mary lives for another two years the PM will effectively avoid paying up to £80,000 in inheritance tax on the gift.
Tory Armed Forces Minister Penny Mordant admitted people’s faith in the PM has been badly damaged.
“I think what this is about is trust,” she said on the BBC’s Sunday Politics. “And he has to now demonstrate and build up that trust and rapport with the general public.”
In a bid to get back on the front foot Mr Cameron will today (MON) use his statement in the Commons to announce he is bring forward plans to introduce a criminal offence for corporations who fail to stop their staff facilitating tax evasion.
The scheme was actually announced last year, but the PM is desperate to show he is taking action and will say today the new law will be brought in before the end of 2016.
“This Government has done more than any other to take action against corruption in all its forms, but we will go further,” Mr Cameron will say.
“That is why we will legislate this year to hold companies who fail to stop their employees facilitating tax evasion criminally liable.”Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Matt Baggott: "They don't care who they attack... who they kill, they're simply here to bring back violence and destruction"
An attack on officers investigating a robbery in West Belfast could have ended in "mass murder", police say.
Three officers were hurt when an explosive device was thrown at them as they attended the reported robbery at a bookmakers on the Shaw's Road.
One officer remains in hospital with serious arm injuries, and was expected to undergo surgery on Saturday.
"This could have ended in a mass murder investigation," said PSNI Chief Superintendent Alan Todd.
Mr Todd said the robbery was reported at about 2000 GMT on Friday and police were called to the scene.
Disregard
"At about 9pm a young man on a bicycle rode past police and threw an as yet unknown explosive device at the officers," said Mr Todd.
The device, possibly a pipe-bomb, exploded on the pavement in front of them and Mr Todd said the device narrowly avoided injuring members of the public.
"What is clear is the people responsible have complete disregard for the community in that area," he said.
"We are very lucky in the circumstances. Here was an attempt to murder police officers."
The area was sealed off while police carried out a follow-up operation.
Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward.Donald Trump is breaking all the rules in the 2016 election. But there are a few hard and fast principles that he himself lives by: no drugs, no cigarettes and no alcohol.
Trump’s abstinence from alcohol was largely shaped by the death of his brother, Fred Jr., from alcoholism in 1981. He was just 42 years old.
In a rare glimpse at the softer side of Trump, the billionaire businessman tells PEOPLE that his brother’s death had a “tremendous impact” on his life.
“He was a great guy, a handsome person. He was the life of the party. He was a fantastic guy, but he got stuck on alcohol,” says Trump, 69. “And it had a profound impact and ultimately [he] became an alcoholic and died of alcoholism. He would tell me, ‘Don’t drink ever’ He understood the problem that he had and that it was a very hard problem.”
“He had a profound impact on my life, because you never know where you’re going to end up,” Trump adds. “I’ve known so many people that were so strong and so powerful [yet] they were unable to stop drinking.”
The father of five – and grandfather of seven (with another on the way) – tells PEOPLE he also impressed the importance of abstaining from drugs and alcohol on his children. “I think they drink a little bit, but not much. But I say no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.”
Trump told PEOPLE for his cover story last week that his family has always been the most important thing in his life.
“I always prided myself on being a good father,” he said. “With my children, I was always available.”
RELATED: Meet all the 2016 Presidential Candidates
His daughter Ivanka, 33, agreed: “He was tough, firm, but always available to us.”
• Reporting by JESS CAGLE and CHARLOTTE TRIGGSPlay Facebook
Twitter
Embed Will a New Candidate Enter the Presidential Race? 2:11 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog
In this modern era of micro-targeting, where every vote in a swing state is coveted by both major political parties, conservative allies of the Trump campaign are investing in an outside-the-box strategy to court a historically unenthusiastic portion of the electorate — the Amish.
Although there are about 70,000 Amish citizens and counting in the potential swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, very few of them have participated in presidential politics, since their faith requires them to eschew most of the trappings of modern society.
For instance, in 2004, an estimated 1, 300 voted in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania region (or 13 percent of the eligible Amish voting population). While they largely backed President George W. Bush’s re-election, their tiny turnout didn’t prevent Democratic nominee John Kerry from winning statewide.
Complete Coverage: Election 2016
Nevertheless, Trump supporters with ties to Dr. Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich have founded Amish PAC, which aims to launch the most ambitious get-out-the-vote efforts among the devout religious sect to date. They will almost certainly face an uphill battle, since the Amish don’t watch television or read social media, which could be a net positive or negative for Trump, depending on your point of view. And while voting is not necessarily prohibited by their strict religious beliefs, it’s not exactly encouraged either.
“I’ve got to say, I don’t know that we’re going to change voting habits drastically,” Ben Walters, a fundraiser for the PAC, conceded in an interview with Politico on Friday. “But we can only help them.”
Play Facebook
Twitter
Embed Donald Trump stirs controversy at veterans' event in Washington 3:15 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog
“In Florida in 2000, it came down to a couple polling places,” he added. “What if that happened in Ohio or Pennsylvania? It could.”
Trump is not the first candidate to see the Amish as an untapped resource. In 2008, John McCain’s campaign hoped to capitalize on the staunchly conservative values of the Amish. In 2004, then-President George W. Bush made an unprecedented appeal to Amish families, visiting them in person that July to make a direct pitch and winding up registering several hundred new Republican voters in the process, according to the Washington Post.
“George W. Bush is not Donald Trump,” Donald Kraybill, an expert on the Amish people at Elizabethtown College told Politico. “There’s a lot of aspects about Trump that are antithetical to Amish values and Amish beliefs. This is a very different situation now than it was in 2004.”
Also working against the Republicans is the fact that the voter ID laws favored by GOP lawmakers could keep most would-be Amish voters, who object to having their photo taken for religious reasons, away from the polls. While lawmakers have provided a questionnaire for these unique voters, where they can express their faith-based opposition to a photo ID, some have argued that the process would be alienating and intrusive.
Related: Trump Stirs Controversy at Biker Event for Vets
Meanwhile, many farmers have come forward to condemn the Trump campaign for his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the stump (he has accused undocumented workers of being “rapists” and “criminals”) — especially considering the fact that many of them rely on foreign-born labor to function in the modern economy. Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump from aligning himself with the cause of farmers, not unlike his efforts to associate himself with groups like veterans and bikers.
While campaigning recently in California, Trump declared “there is no drought” despite considerable evidence to the contrary in the nation’s most populous state. Trump argued that water resources are being withheld from farmers to protect an endangered “three-inch fish.”
“Playing off ‘farmers versus fish’ is a sound bite but isn’t a solution to any real-world problems,” Lester Snow, executive director of the nonprofit California Water Foundation, told the Los Angeles Times regarding Trump’s latest crusade. “It’s just an old, tired bumper-sticker way of talking about California’s water problems.”Image caption Ms Brennan said the Dundee East team was not accepting Mr Blair's donation
A Labour candidate for the general election has said she is turning down a £1,000 donation from Tony Blair.
Councillor Lesley Brennan is standing for the Dundee East Westminster seat on 7 May.
It has been reported that former prime minister Mr Blair is donating £1,000 to 106 Labour candidates.
Ms Brennan tweeted: "Received donation from Tony Blair. Instinct was to not accept. Discussed with team. Dundee East is not accepting the £1000."
No further explanation was given.
The SNP said the donations were an "embarrassment" to Scottish Labour because Mr Blair led Britain into the Iraq war.
But a Scottish Labour spokesman said: "This money is payable to the Labour Party and we look forward to receiving it and using it to campaign against the return of a Tory government."
Dundee East is currently an SNP seat. The local MP, Stewart Hosie, is defending a majority of 1,821.
Image copyright Other Image caption Ms Brennan sent the tweet about the donation on Sunday morning
When Mr Blair's donations were disclosed on Thursday, Mr Hosie, who is also the SNP's deputy leader said: "Tony Blair's bad money will do Labour in Scotland no good.
"The fact that Labour candidates are happy to accept donations from the man who led us into the illegal war in Iraq, introduced tuition fees and started the process of NHS privatisation is extraordinary."
Mr Blair won three successive elections for Labour in 1997, 2001 and 2005 before handing over to Gordon Brown in 2007.
According to the Labour list website, the target seats he has donated to include five in Scotland.
The other four are East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh West, Argyll and Bute and Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.Here in Washington D.C., the professional basketball team is heading back to the playoffs for the first time in six years. Their squad consists of youngsters brimming with potential and steely defensive veterans. It is led by a budding star who did this over All-Star Weekend. Yet despite having all of these things going for them, nobody is excited about them. There are a variety of seasons for this, but one of the biggest is the lack of attention given to them this year, with only one national TV game on the schedule that ESPN ended up flexing out of.
When you hear stories of the NBA’s past, one of the dominant themes that emerges is how much David Stern transformed the league. The NBA Finals used to be shown on tape delay! The league expanded by seven teams! While I don’t disagree with these—and other—successes, it is worth examining the league’s standing closer.
The NBA should be more popular than it is, challenging football for American sporting supremacy instead of rolling around in the mud with baseball. This assertion is obviously unproveable—you can’t prove a “should”—but I think it is accurate. The NBA has always had a ton going for it. It is the sport of cities, where the majority of Americans have lived for decades. It is exciting, featuring the most jawdropping feats of athleticism. You can sit two feet away from the players with no barrier. There aren’t any funny helmets or hats in front of the players’ faces.
Whenever I bring up that the NBA should be more popular and perhaps David Stern presided over flawed strategies, I’m surprised at the almost violent reaction I get, as if I’m questioning the core tenants of the sport or something. I’m not, I’m simply saying that I love basketball, it could be better, and the league could’ve (and can) do a lot more to make the sport more popular.
I’ve written about what I term the short-sighted free arena problem before, where the NBA aids and abets owners in moving to smaller markets in order to secure publicly-funded arenas. From Vancouver to Memphis, Charlotte to New Orleans, Seattle to Oklahoma City to preventing the Kings from moving from Sacramento to Seattle, this strategy prioritizes a short-term financial windfall over the (for the league) long-term gains of showcasing the sport to more fans. It benefits individual owners at the expense of the league.
Similarly, the league presides over a television strategy that benefits a select few markets rather than the league—and its future—as a whole.
The average team has twelve percent of their games televised nationally each year, but these games are actually distributed very unevenly. This season the Heat, Lakers and Knicks all appeared on ABC, ESPN or TNT 25 times, while the Bobcats, 76ers and Raptors didn’t appear once. The median team was featured on national TV just seven percent of the time, which is reflected in the leftward skew of the graph above: half the league had three or fewer national TV games.
This is just as shortsighted and detrimental to the league as a whole as its arena strategy. You probably noticed that two of the three most televised teams were terrible this year, while two of the three least televised made the playoffs. This resulted in a whole lot of shitty basketball—at one point in January the fifth-worst-team-in-basketball Lakers played three nationally televised games in seven nights—being showcased to the casual fan who tunes in for what are supposed to be the “big” games.
Clearly, this does make a certain amount of (financial) sense. I’d bet TNT’s March 25th match-up between the Lakers and Knicks outdrew its other game, the Thunder and Mavericks, even though the latter is clearly a more tantalizing match-up basketball-wise. The problem is this panders to already existing large fanbases at the expense of working to create new ones. It sends a message to fanbases not featured on national TV that they aren’t important to the league, that the NBA doesn’t care about sharing their team with the entire country, let alone the world. It conditions potential basketball fans to a reality where only a few teams in the league matter, and teaches them they shouldn’t bother paying attention to the rest.
It is telling that the league’s television strategy is markedly at odds with the NFL’s. There are big differences between how the sports can and should be presented—football has almost always been more popular, it mostly plays on weekends, it has an extremely popular feeder league—but it is still instructive to look at how it approaches TV.
The first, biggest difference is that the NFL guarantees each team at least one televised game per year. At least one night each season, whether than be on Sunday, Monday or Thursday Night Football, your team is the only one playing, the focus of the entire league. Furthermore, while the league still does play favorites with certain fanbases (looking at you, NFC East), the distribution of national games is much more even than the NBA’s.
This is because at its core the NFL promotes the league rather than individual teams. Since almost every game is played on the same day, the league promotes Sunday as a day to watch football, not as a day to only watch your favorite team. There is more parity in the NFL, meaning a team heavily promoted last season may suck this season, leading to a more even allocation of promotion. The league has enthusiastically embraced and incorporated fantasy football, a game that requires paying attention to every single team in the league, into everything that it does. There is only a 4% correlation between market size and amount of games on national TV in the NFL; in the NBA there is a 25% correlation.
I don’t mean to say that the NFL is perfect and that the NBA should copy everything it does wholesale. The NBA is different than the NFL in many ways, and its promotion strategies should understand and reflect those differences. But what the league needs is a commissioner willing to promote what is best for the league long-term, even if that means foregoing some short-term financial gain.
The league needs to realize that an ever increasing part of the total revenue pie is made up of the broadcast slice, and its strategies should reflect that accordingly. The league should stop helping owners move teams to minor league baseball cities and instead look to enter (or re-enter) major media markets. The league should put both a floor and a ceiling on how many times a team is allowed to be shown on national TV. The league should consider shortening the schedule to allow fans to watch more rested and less injured players play basketball, and perhaps consider clustering games on certain nights (probably Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday after football season) and promote them as NBA Nights. The league should look to eliminate the incentives that encourage general managers to put a sub-standard product on the floor and treat the final 25% of the season as a joke.
Basketball is a phenomenal sport, but at times it has been severely let down by its stewards. It is time for that to change.CTV Toronto
A woman is dead after being struck by a tractor-trailer at an intersection in Toronto's east end.
According to witnesses, the 56-year-old woman was riding a mobility scooter and had just entered the intersection at Carlaw Ave. and Gerrard St. E., when she was hit by a truck that was making a right-hand turn.
"She did suffer catastrophic injuries and as a result did die of those injuries," Const. Clint Stibbe told CTV Toronto.
Police said the woman was on the road and believe she was either travelling south or west at the time of the collision.
Police continue to investigate whether the truck or the woman had the right of way.
"We can't say they were correct in any fashion; what we have to look at is who had priority," Stibbe said.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say she lived in the area.
The driver of the truck is co-operating with police.
Several area residents who use motorized scooters told CTV Toronto that they believe a truck sideguard could have saved the woman’s life.
The protective guards are meant to prevent an individual from getting trapped under a rig’s wheels.
But Stibbe told reporters at the scene that police believe the scooter may have been too heavy for a sideguard.
“The scooter averages around 350 lbs., that’s a lot of weight for a side skirt to have to move,” he said. “We’re not talking about a pedestrian who’s perhaps just being bumped, or even a cyclist.
“Those skirts may not be meant to protect an individual from that type of situation.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the collision to call investigators at 416-808-1900
With report from CTV Toronto’s Colin D'MelloWe’re going to answer your first two questions right off.
Yes, we have tried Dominos gluten free pizza crust. No, ordering the pizza made in the store is not safe for Celiacs; however, acquiring the crust still sealed in it’s package is.
Domino’s Pizza has two flavors of stores. There are corporate Domino’s and there are franchise Domino’s. if you have a local franchise, you may be able to speak to someone at that store and purchase the Domino’s Gluten Free crust, still sealed in its packaging. We in no way recommend anyone with celiac disease to order a topped and cooked gluten free pizza from Domino’s. To quote Domino’s:
Domino’s Pizza does not give medical advice. Please contact your physician if you have concerns about consuming this product, knowing the following: Pizzas made with Gluten Free Crust are made in a common kitchen. We do not have a separate area in our kitchens that are guaranteed free from gluten.
While the Gluten Free Crust is certified to be free of gluten, the pizzas made with the Gluten Free Crust use the same ingredients and utensils as all of our other pizzas.
https://order.dominos.com/en/pages/content/customer-service/glutenfreecrust.jsp
This review is on the crust itself, and only the crust, topped and cooked by us in our own home kitchen.
If obtaining a Domino’s Gluten Free Pizza Crust is not an option for you, you can try our Gluten Free, Nut Free, Grain Free Thick Crust Pizza recipe or if you prefer a chewy thin crust option try our Gluten Free Quinoa Pizza Crust.
In a word, yum. Domino’s Gluten Free Pizza Crust is by far one of our favorite gluten free pizza crusts. Depending on the cooking method, it has slight chewiness to it that isn’t initially expected from a thin style crust, which gives it its own unique texture. We recommend a pizza stone for a super crispy crust or an air bake pan (pizza pan with holes through it) for a crispy crust with some softer chewiness to it. If you prefer a non crispy crust, a regular pizza pan will leave you with a nice soft and chewy (but not gummy) crust. The flavor is in line with most non gluten free thin style crusts and makes for a perfect slice of pie that is not crumbly, gritty, or overly sweet like several of the other crusts we have tried. Another plus is that this crust will stand up to topping more heavily than some other crusts. I would not recommend going overboard with the sauce, but I have loaded them up with multiple meats cheeses and veggies and have had no problems. Our only gripe on this crust is the difficulty of acquiring it. Domino’s should sell this out of their stores and in grocery stores across the U.S. Rating by acook: 5.0 starsSkip to comments.
Stephen Baldwin says he will leave country if Obama elected! LOL
youtube ^ | today | self
Posted on by Snurple
Stephen Baldwin being interviewed by Laura Ingram.
Link
TOPICS:
Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS:
alecbaldwin
baldwin
hollywood
ingraham
lauraungraham
obama
stephenbaldwin
I like Steve, he's the only one of those brothers with any sense.
To: Snurple
I hate when people say they will leave the country. It makes them sound juvenile. Plus you know they don’t mean it.
To: Edit35
I didn’t listen to it, but perhaps he was making fun of his brother who says that every election cycle.
by 3 posted onby aft_lizard (One animal actually its eats its own brains to conserve energy, we call them liberals.)
To: aft_lizard
He was just making fun of his brother.
To: Snurple
Let’s hope he has a valid passport and a bag big enough to carry his overstuffed brother with him. http://www.polistic.com
by 5 posted onby nesnah (Expression with an attitude - www.polistic.com)
To: Snurple
Hilarious!! Imagine Thanksgiving at the Baldwins. LOL
To: aft_lizard
He was poking fun at his brother’s comment about leaving the country if bush was elected.
To: Snurple
His brother is a liar as he threated to leave the US if Bush was elected. We had great fun tormenting him in on his website’s guest book until he got tired of it and shut it down. The Baldwins are over rated anyway.
by 8 posted onby Rebelbase (Black dogs and bacon bombs.)
To: Snurple
Maybe he’ll be moving into his brother Alec’s empty and never occupied house in France. Maybe I could rent a room from him. If Obammy is elected, American’s should be very popular in France. They LOVE Obammy.
by 9 posted onby garyhope (It's world war IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam. VRWC. TWP.)
To: andyssister
Really, I bet there are or used to |
and form legitimate friendships that could last.
You spent a lot of time with these people, and in my opinion, the people you play an MMORPG with are your lasting memories of any MMORPG. My best memories of any MMORPG is not a single player experience, it’s about the experiences I have with other players and things I accomplished with other players.
The other thing that is did incredibly well was its world. I remember before school every weekday I would get ready for school and then play EQOA before I had to go to the bus stop. What I would do is I’d run as far as I could and then just log out of the game. It was like going through a real world. I wasn’t held back by invisible walls of portals or instances; it was my choice where I wanted to go even if it could result in pending doom. You had respect for the game world and had to learn its geography — much like on our own earth — and that was always fascinating to me.
What were some of EQOA’s faults? What were you always hoping would have been improved that weren’t?
EQOA’s biggest fault was the era it came in and the console on which it was launched. There were A LOT of great games that were out at the same time as EQOA. There were a lot of great options at the time and it was easy to miss out on EQOA.
The second thing is that EQOA was not an easily accessible game. You not only had to buy a PS2, but you also had to purchase the game, the modem, and an a USB keyboard, all while maintaining a subscription. For a lot of people, that was too many lengths to have to go into playing the game. When I played, I would sit criss-cross applesauce with the keyboard in my lap and the controller above it, so I didn’t find it the ideal way to play a game.
The third reason is probably the lack of content. They really could have added more content to keeps players entertained for longer, but at some point they just deemed it not worthy to do that.
Why are you trying to bring back an MMO on an outdated console that didn’t have a huge pool of players when it went dark? Do you see a demand for it today?
First, I can’t take credit for the people who do the hard work on the project. I’m not one of the people who works on the game technically, I keep in tune with them and keep an eye on things, but I’m not the one who does the hard work. They are truly the ones to thank and glorify.
That said, I think I can speak on behalf of everyone that either roots for the project to succeed or is a part of it that it isn’t really about the dwindling player pool (as the game was dying). No one will deny the fact that SOE-now-Daybreak was not crazy to shut down the game, it’s just frustration that the studio did it.
The reason for wanting to make it playable again is because for a lot of people, that was their gaming home. It’s a game they want to play again, and they are unable to do so. There are itches they are unable to scratch. Even if they can’t play it like they used to, they would love to play two to three hours at a time and enjoy the game at their pace. There is truly no game exactly like EverQuest Online Adventures. Companies can claim they’re making games in a light towards a certain group of people, but there is still nothing quite like playing the actual game your memories are tied to.
So really it’a simple answer to a great question. Because whether it’s 20 or 5,000 people who want to play again, there are people who want to play again. It would be great to make that a possibility.
Your revival project is also trying to bring EQOA to the PC. How would that work?
It would run through emulation on the PC. As mentioned above with my lack of technical prowess, I assume it would run through the common PS2 emulator PCSx2. However, we do not condone and we do not suggest people do this through illegal ways. We are such fans of the game that simply want to bring a game back to glory that we expect and suggest you buy the game yourself if you still don’t have your copy.
How far along has your revival project gotten? What needs to be done from here?
As twice mentioned above, since I’m not one of the people who works technically on the project, I can’t give you the specifics. I can tell you that progress IS being made, however there is no timetable for this finishing. The people who work on this technically have jobs and families and their own lives, and therefore this is a non-paid hobby to bring the game back, one that doesn’t have a time table for completion.
Why is EQOA special to you?
EverQuest Online Adventures is special to me because it was the first MMORPG I ever played. Much like the first girl you ever kissed and dated, it’s something you never forget.
Even though I played other MMORPG’s, none were quite like EQOA. The world was beautiful and huge and begging to be explored. Relying on community interaction and others to succeed is great not only in-game, but can be used as a valuable life lesson. There are times in life when you have to be selfish, but it always works better to work with others to advance yourself in life. At some point your boss or a CEO knew someone that helped him get into his position, and he probably didn’t do it through acting negatively. In EQOA, working with others in a positive manner was your best chance to succeed. All these things combined to make EQOA a fantastic game.
Thanks to Jeremy for sharing with us! If you’re interested in the EQOA Revival project or would like to help, please check out its Facebook page.Terry Winograd, whose work inspired the test. Image: Flickr/Lisa Padilla
As machines get smarter, we're still trying to figure out how to actually examine how smart they are. When is artificial intelligence sufficiently genuine? When is a computer truly as smart as a human being? The Turing Test is the most well-known test of AI, and pits bots against humans on the basis that a winning machine should be indistinguishable from a human conversation partner. A competition announced today takes a different tack, rooting itself instead in that elusive human quality that's so difficult to replicate: common sense.
US software company Nuance Communications just announced its sponsorship of the annual "Winograd Schema Challenge," which will be run by the nonprofit Commonsense Reasoning, at the AAAI conference in Quebec. According to Nuance, it's a "more accurate measure of genuine machine intelligence" than the Turing Test.
When chatbot Eugene Goostman passed the Turing Test earlier this year, many people called foul—though to be fair to the bot, it was more the test itself than his performance that was at fault. Pitching Goostman as a young boy with English as a second language might have been a bit of a sneaky move (or a clever one, depending on your view), but it at least served to reveal the drawbacks of using the Turing Test as a real benchmark.
There are already alternatives, like the Lovelace Test, which is rather more demanding: It requires a machine to create something original, that it wasn't designed to do, to demonstrate its superior intelligence. That's a pretty high bar, perhaps even unreachable, and comparing it to the Turing Test shows how subjective what counts as true "intelligence" really is.
The Winograd Schema doesn't ask for quite such originality, and it doesn't rely on fooling humans for a machine to pass, but it still requires machines to reason in a human-like way.
The test was first proposed in a 2011 paper led by researcher Hector Levesque, and is named after computer scientist Terry Winograd. To pass, a machine answers multiple choice questions, where there are two possible answers: one right, one wrong. It sounds easy—and to humans, it is—but the nature of the questions makes them particularly tricky for a machine that doesn't have natural language abilities.
Take the example proposed by Winograd, which inspired the test:
The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they [feared/advocated] violence.
The question is, who are "they"? If the sentence uses "feared," "they" are obviously the councilmen; if it uses "advocated," the answer is the demonstrators.
Ernest Davis, who worked on the paper proposing the test with Levesque, has published a library of potential questions that could be included in this type of challenge. The requirements are that they have to be easy for humans to figure out, not easy to solve by "selectional restrictions" (like if one noun was a singular and the other a plural, which would make it easier to figure out which verb fit), and "Google-proof" so machines can't just compare it to an existing text.
Below are just a handful of the many examples Davis lists. Have a go and check if you're as intelligent as a human:
Paul tried to call George on the phone, but he wasn't [successful/available]. Who was not [successful/available]?
The drain is clogged with hair. It has to be [cleaned/removed]. What has to be [cleaned/removed]?
Ann asked Mary what time the library closes, [but/because] she had forgotten. Who had forgotten?
Sam broke both his ankles and he's walking with crutches. But a month or so from now they should be [better/unnecessary]. What should be [better/unnecessary]?
Look! There is a [shark/minnow] swimming right below that duck! It had better get away to safety fast! What needs to get away to safety?
Grace was happy to trade me her sweater for my jacket. She thinks it looks [great/dowdy] on her. What looks [great/dowdy] on Grace?
Got the picture? I'm not entirely sure it's possible to walk with two broken ankles even with crutches, nor how comparatively likely it would be for a shark to swim near a duck compared to a minnow, but that's irrelevant—the point is that for each given version of the sentence, the answer is logical if you have a human brain. If you're unsure that's the case, see answers at the end of this piece.
Of course, just as with other tests, the definition of "intelligence" here is pretty limited, and based largely on language capabilities. But then again, you could say the same for many of the standardised tests we use to test human intelligence. Looking at the above questions, I was reminded mostly of taking the 11-Plus exam, a test that used to be given to kids in the UK on leaving primary school, and that included verbal reasoning questions along the lines of "Proceed is to (advance/resume/move) as recede is to (rewind/withdraw/recoil)." (Don't feel bad; a recent test by the Mail on Sunday found seven out of eight parents would fail.)
As with school kids, testing "real" artificial intelligence as opposed to academic ability, or simple exam technique, remains elusive in AI, and it seems reasonable that any machine we deem to be intelligent in a properly human sense would really have to pass a range of different tests—maybe a smattering of Turing, Lovelace, Winograd, and, I don't know, a timed personal essay?
In the meantime, at least a program that's adept at natural language could probably make a more eloquent sexting bot.
Answers: Paul/George; the drain/the hair; Mary/Ann; the ankles/the crutches; the duck/the minnow; the jacket/the sweaterBorn in an area that is now part of North Korea, photographer Han Youngsoo’s work gives us rare insight into how the country rebuilt itself after the Korean War. Fighting on the front lines as a young South Korean soldier, Youngsoo returned to an unrecognizable Seoul after the war ended.
Post-war Seoul, left devastated and impoverished, is the backdrop for Youngsoo’s photography. Haunted by the horrors of war, he was stunned to see that “people lived on” despite hardship. The young soldier became a professional photographer, capturing street life in between editorial assignments. In doing so, he both created a historical record and healed himself.
“Though struggling with the multifaceted after-effects of the Korean War, the 1950s was a period of recovery,” Youngsoo wrote. “I was able to find hope watching cities and rural communities being rebuilt; in the bustling markets and the sparkling eyes of children, the laughter I had forgotten. Slowly but steadily I was recovering my own humanity.”
Captured between 1956–1963, the Korean photographer’s work was rarely seen outside the country until now. Currently, the first major U.S. exhibition of his photos is on at the International Center of Photography until June 7, 2017 in Jersey City, NJ. The exhibition was organized in part by the Han Youngsoo Foundation, which works to keep the photographer’s memory alive after his passing in 1999 and has published two books, Seoul, Modern Times and Once Upon a Time.
These rare photos of Seoul after the Korean War were rarely seen outside of the country until now.
h/t: [Vintage Everyday, The Guardian]
All images via the Han Youngsoo Foundation.By narrowing their scope, a group of former minor league players on Wednesday advanced their lawsuit against Major League Baseball. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero recertified Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball as a class action, amending a July decision that had ruled that minor league players' experiences were too broad to be appropriate for a class-action suit. At that time, Spero decertified the class under federal law and denied the minor leaguers' request to process as a class action under several state laws as well. When making his original decision, however, Spero noted that there was room for him to reconsider if the players limited their claim to those players whose experiences were most similar. In response, the suit was narrowed to players who played at least seven days in either California, Florida or Arizona. The certified collective under the new decision will be "any person who, while signed to a Minor League Uniform Player Contract, participated in the California League, or in spring training, instructional league, or extended spring training, on or after Feb. 7, 2011, and who had not signed a Major League Uniform Player Contract before then." "After reviewing more evidence and hearing more arguments, Judge Spero’s order re-certified a narrower class under federal and California law," the St. Louis law firm Korein-Tillery wrote in a release following the decision. The lawyers from Korein-Tillery, which is representing the plaintiffs along with lawyers from Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, include former minor league pitcher Garrett Broshuis. Major League Baseball declined comment on the decision, via the Associated Press. Ultimately, the players' suit seeks to raise salaries for minor league baseball players by having minor leaguers included under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage and overtime rules for workers around the country. Because at present the players aren't considered full-time employees by their clubs—Minor League Baseball has compared them on numerous occasions to interns or apprentices—they aren't covered under the FLSA. The suit notes that minor league salaries have risen just 75 percent since 1976, while inflation over the same time period has been 400 percent. Moreover, the average major league salary has grown by 2,000 percent during the same time period. Minor leaguers are also paid during the regular season only, which means they are not paid for spring training, instructional league in the fall, and the offseason. To put that in perspective, Phillies prospect Dylan Cozens, who won Minor League Baseball's Joe Bauman Award for leading the minors with 40 home runs last season, joked when he accepted the award that the $8,000 prize that came with the award was more than his salary for the entire season. In anticipation of further action in this suit and for other lawsuits or legislation that may arise in the coming years, Minor League Baseball announced at December's Winter Meetings that it was forming a Political Action Committee. The next step for the suit is for the players and MLB to come up with a schedule for how the rest of the case will proceed. They must present their proposed schedule to Spero by April 28.The illustrations aim to support the LGBT community in Russia during the Winter Olympics
Tomorrow, the Winter Olympic Games kick off in Sochi, Russia. But recent legislation, along with official statements attacking and even denying the existence of the gay community in the country, has sparked controversy. As part of a series of international protests, illustration agency Anna Goodson has gathered artists to create a stunning series of designs, bringing together the worlds of sport and sexual politics in subtley clever ways.
"We are often asked to create images for clients," says agency head Anna Goodson, "but here was an opportunity for them to create something meaningful, personal and from the heart."
"We wanted to make a statement and show the world that our agency and illustrators don’t support discrimination or violence of any kind, regardless of religion, race or sexual orientation."
Check out the full range of illustrations at The Anna Goodson Illustration Agency.
[via Design Taxi]
Like this? Read these!
Free graffiti font selection
Illustrator tutorials: amazing ideas to try today!
Great examples of doodle art
Have you seen any inspiring illustrations? Let us know in the comments box below!The bodies of the first donors will be used to collect decomposition odours so forensic scientists can better understand how cadaver dogs find human remains, said Dr Shari Forbes, a forensic scientist with the University of Technology (Sydney) who heads the multiple-disciplinary facility. The skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, Rwanda. Credit:Ben Curtis But, in a new development, Victorian forensic archaeologists and anthropologists will also use the Sydney bush site to study the decomposition of co-mingled bodies in a mass grave, usually caused by political, religious or ethnic violence. Human decomposition was affected by many variables, said Dr Soren Blau, a forensic anthropologist who will direct the mass grave project. She has worked on mass graves in Timor Leste and the Solomons. When bodies are co-mingled, it becomes even more complicated. "We know that with one individual it (human decomposition) is complex, but when you add many individuals, the complexity becomes even greater," said Dr Blau, the senior forensic anthropologist with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The research could assist investigators looking for mass graves, researchers examining remains and prosecutors of war criminals. For instance, a defence team argued that the remains of 300 people found in a mass grave in the Balkans had been killed in two separate incidences. This could have weakened the prosecution's case for a conviction for genocide. But experts found that the 300 people had been killed and placed there at the same time, yet the rate of decomposition varied enormously within the one grave. The project's co-director is Jon Sterenberg, a forensic archaeologist who was head of the the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) excavation and examination division in Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Sydney research would complement a similar research project being undertaken in Tennessee at a facility made famous in Patricia Cornwall's novel, The Body Farm. In the Australian research project, six individuals would be interred in one grave, and three individuals in another. The graves would be dug using two different techniques, hand dug and machine dug (often used by perpetrators of war crimes). They would also dig empty graves as a control. Also, many war criminals dig empty graves to create fear. Over three years, researchers would monitor changes in soil composition, insect behaviour and other aspects. They'd also test the effectiveness of remote-sensing techniques used to locate human remains. At the end of three years, the remains would be exhumed and studied.
Professor Forbes said it was unusual for the site to receive three donors at once, but she was happy to start after years of planning. "We were stoked to start," she said. But Sydney's changing weather had slowed things down. "It (decomposition) hasn't happened as quickly as we thought, although it is going fairly quickly. It is summer, it is hot out there, but the rain has slowed things," said Professor Forbes. Each of the bodies has been placed on the soil or in a shallow grave, protected from animals by some mesh, where nature is allowed to take its course. She visits the site every day to figure out "what decomposition smells like, and how dogs can track that. I will trap the odours and take that to the dogs for training."The President Is On Our Side
Last week we witnessed something practically unheard-of—an American president siding with the people who elected him. Siding with us, standing up for us, instead of with the globalist big shots, Hollywood motor-mouths, lock-step nooze media, and big business moguls who were all set to make a bundle at the people’s expense. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the president to let us down, as all our other leaders habitually do after we elect them. And yet he didn’t.
Liberals were already baying for President Donald Trump’s scalp before he nixed U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Pact. The purpose of that treaty is to Save The Planet from imaginary “man-made climate change” by crippling America’s economy and letting China continue to pollute to their heart’s content. Roping America into this scam, without ratification by the Senate, was another Social Justice project of the Obama gang: America must be punished for succeeding where tinpot socialist countries fail. Unable to raise themselves up, they seek to tear us down.
Meanwhile, TV weatherman in Europe tried to cover the factual nudity of Global Warming by calling record cold temperatures a mere “absence of warmth”.
No one can explain why hysterical liberals, especially the crowd of them infesting our bloated, over-funded “higher education” system, are unable to see the titanic hypocrisy of the world’s Global Warming merchants. Do they act like they believe a single word of what they’re selling us—they, with their multiple mansions, private jets, yachts, and limousines, each with a bigger carbon footprint than many an entire town of normal people? Maybe libs just refuse to see it. We are, after all, talking about people who believe that socialism really works and that Venezuela is an economic model we should emulate.
How they rage, when the American people don’t obey them! They can hardly contain themselves—not that they try very hard to do that. And now we have a president who won’t obey them either. It drives them mad.
But this is what you get when you try to replace God with government. This is the madness of idolatry: creating, with their own hands, the State and so-called Science, and then worshiping what they’ve created.
It comes down to a religious struggle. Those who wish to be as gods labor to force the rest of us to exalt them as all-wise, infallible, and the one and only source of righteousness. They explicitly deny that there is any truth but whatever they can impose on others. They erase history, creating mass amnesia. They invent new pronouns to erase the fact that there are but two sexes. They take good words, like “truth,” “justice,” and “love,” and warp their meanings to fit in with their political agenda. And in the service of yet another idol, “diversity,” they insist on uniformity of thought.
We must not obey them anymore. We must not listen to them. We must defer to them no more. The biggest weapon in their arsenal is their claim that they know best because they’re “smarter” than us, the poor deplorables populating flyover country (where the food that they eat is produced by our labor): but everything they say and do reveals them to be prating fools. It’s time we recognized them for exactly what they are.
But we proclaim that there is truth, God’s truth, unalterable, immutable, and enduring forever.
And they, poor fools, don’t have it.
I have discussed this and other topics on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/, throughout the week. Please stop in and visit. A single click will get you there.
© 2017 Lee Duigon – All Rights Reserved
print(CNN) Tuesday's bombings in Brussels left at least 35 people dead and 300 wounded. They are the latest additions to an increasingly long list of casualties from attacks across the breadth of Europe. Paris, Ankara and Istanbul have all been similarly targeted in the past five months.
But the United States has yet to see such a sophisticated ISIS attack, with trained fighters and direction from the organization's leadership.
It's not that it couldn't happen here, but military, law enforcement and other security-focused officials agree that it's much less likely. As Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told CNN's Carol Costello on Wednesday, "We don't have them (terrorists) here in the United States in anything like the numbers they do in Europe."
Why is the risk to Europe so much greater? Here are five reasons.
1. Europe has more law enforcement and intelligence gaps
Counterterrorism experts and Western officials have cited open borders and gaps in European security services, particularly Belgium's, as a major issue that allowed for the Brussels attacks to take place.
U.S. officials say the lack of intelligence-sharing among European countries, for reasons spanning from lack of political support for integration to distrust between some nations to the absence of a common E.U. defense and intelligence body, has exacerbated the problem.
The failure to coordinate was on display after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Wednesday that one of the Brussels suicide bombers had been arrested near the Syrian border and deported, and that Turkey had warned Belgian officials of his links to terrorism.
Earlier this month French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told an audience at George Washington University that "the threat has never been higher," and though he was happy with cooperation between the international and domestic French security services, he stressed the immediate need for enhanced cooperation among European governments in the security realm.
2. The U.S. doesn't have open borders close to ISIS' heartland
Open borders between E.U. countries complicate the issue, making it relatively easy to move small arms like AK-47s across Europe despite strong gun control laws in most nations on the continent. Millions of such weapons are left over from the series of armed conflicts that ravaged the Balkans following the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Failure to track people coming into Europe and coordinate patrols of Europe's external borders is also a major issue. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told national broadcaster ARD Thursday that "there are too many gaps" in Europe's "external borders." Maizeire has called for the creation of a pan-European database to track visitors.
Additionally, once inside Europe, terrorists have been able to exploit open borders between E.U. member states. The Paris attackers crossed into France from Belgium. And weapons used in the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 in Paris were also smuggled across the border.
Furthermore, Turkey shares a 500-mile-long border with Syria, and while efforts have been made to tighten that border, ISIS still controls significant territory on the Syrian side. It is possible to drive from Syria to Germany in about 30 hours according to Google maps.
3. Europe's politics can work against catching terrorists
Civil liberties and privacy debates calling for the limiting of surveillance and other tracking tools on individuals under suspicion further raises questions about the security services' ability to head off terror attacks and catch perpetrators.
In Belgium, the divided nature of the government and its population means institutions often work at cross-purposes.
Frank Cilluffo, director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, described Belgium's law enforcement structure as "fragmented, some would even say Balkanized."
He told CNN that the Belgian system was split between federal and local law enforcement units that rarely cooperated effectively, so it is "hard to know who is in charge and who is in charge of what."
He said that there were plenty of warning signs prior to Tuesday's attack and the fact that suspected perpetrator Salah Abdeslam managed to hide out in the neighborhood of Molenbeek "was head-scratching... You literally had the world's most wanted man hiding in plain sight."
The situation is compounded by Belgium's heterogeneous make-up. Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, French-speaking Wallonia in the south and the Brussels capital region in the center have differences in language that can trip up law enforcement cooperation as do Belgian politics: From 2010-2011, Belgium took 589 days to form a government. In fact, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon's political party once favored Flanders' outright independence from Belgium.
4. The U.S. has fewer homegrown ISIS fighters
The number of Western Europeans who have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside ISIS and other extremist groups dwarfs the number from the U.S. who have done so.
Approximately 100 Americans have joined the ranks of ISIS and other militant groups, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. It notes that 4,000 Western Europeans have ventured to the region as foreign fighters. This includes some 1,800 from France, 500-600 from the U.K., 500 Belgians and 200 from the Netherlands.
For every one million Belgians, about 40 have joined extremist groups in Iraq and Syria. This is by far the highest per capita rate of foreign fighter participation.
There are also growing concerns that these foreign fighters have infiltrated the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees that are attempting to gain asylum in Europe.
The military commander of NATO, Gen. Philip Breedlove, told Congress this month that the mass influx of migrants was allowing ISIS to spread "like a cancer, taking advantage of paths of least resistance and threatening European nations, and our own, with terrorist attacks."
Cilluffo told CNN that the training in small arms, bomb-making, secret communications and weapons handling obtained while in the region make these foreign fighters much more dangerous and harder to detect.
"They learned battlefield skills, they made contacts there, they wanted to go home, they have this ideological grievance against their own people, their own governments and the things we believe in," Carter said.
5. American Muslims are more integrated
The countries of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden Switzerland, and the U.K. all had substantial Muslim minorities ranging from 5-10% of the total population in 2010, according to the Pew Research Center. This share of the population is bound to grow with the recent influx of millions of refugees fleeing violence and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East.
The U.S. Muslim population, in contrast, is about 1%. And that smaller group is more integrated and prosperous within the society.
A 2011 Pew study found that 74% of Muslim Americans "endorsed the idea that most people can get ahead if they are willing to work hard." A 2007 Pew survey found that Muslims in America were only 2% more likely to be lower-income than other Americans, while in Europe the numbers were in the double-digits. And most in Europe were more likely to think of themselves as Muslims first compared more than half who saw themselves as American first.
Many European Muslims live close together in neighborhoods like Belgium's Molenbeek, a working-class district that has found notoriety as a hotbed of violent jihadist ideology.
Molenbeek has a large, predominantly Muslim population of first-, second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa. The neighborhood also suffers from soaring youth unemployment estimated at more than 40%.
Klugman agreed that marginalization of European Muslims in Belgium and France was a concern and that "long-term" strategies for "better integration" were needed.
He said areas where people "with same origins and a lot of problems" were concentrated needed to be broken up.
Carter also said that neighborhoods like Molenbeek complicated law enforcement efforts, saying that the attackers "were living among their families and their neighbors so it's very hard for the Belgian law enforcement, European law enforcement to find these people."
He added that some of these European citizens were "disaffected, looking for whatever reason for some cause and they find that" in ISIS.
"There's an underlying problem here, particularly in the European countries, they're going to need to confront that," he said.Leader and her government ‘burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine’, says Amnesty
Aung San Suu Kyi has broken her silence on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, delivering a speech denounced as a “mix of untruths and victim-blaming” by Amnesty International.
In her first public address since a bloody military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority that has been branded “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations, the Nobel laureate did not criticise the army and said she did not “fear international scrutiny”.
Myanmar: satellite imagery confirms Rohingya village of Tula Toli razed Read more
“I’m aware of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the situation in Rakhine state. As a responsible member of the community of nations Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny,” she said.
“There have been allegations and counter-allegations … We have to make sure those allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action,” she said in her speech from the capital, Naypyidaw.
She insisted there had been “no conflicts since 5 September and no clearance operations” against the country’s Muslim minority, a point disputed by those who have fled the violence.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won worldwide admiration for her long fight against military rule, claimed the majority of Rohingya villages had not been affected by violence. She refrained from criticising the military – which has been accused of arson and indiscriminate killing – but said it had been instructed to exercise restraint and avoid “collateral damage” in its pursuit of insurgents.
Amnesty International said Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech showed the leader and her government were “burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine state”.
“Aung San Suu Kyi’s claims that her government does not fear international scrutiny ring hollow,” said James Gomez, Amnesty International’s regional director for south-east Asia, who later described the speech as a “mix of untruths and victim-blaming”.
“If Myanmar has nothing to hide, it should allow UN investigators into the country, including Rakhine state. The government must also urgently allow humanitarian actors full and unfettered access to all areas and people in need in the region.”
Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, said the speech was “business as usual, denial as usual”.
Rohingya refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh have described a brutal campaign of army attacks on civilians, while satellite imagery shows scores of Rohingya villages devastated by fire.
The UN’s migration agency says about 421,000 people have fled from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in less than a month amid the crackdown. Joel Millman, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said an estimated 20,000 people are flowing across the border every day.
Unicef spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said the UN children’s agency now estimates that over 250,000 children have fled Myanmar over the last 25 days.
In the Kutupalong refugee camp, Abdul Hafiz told Reuters that Rohingya once trusted Aung San Suu Kyi more than the military, which had not only ruled for half a century before, but also held her under house arrest for many years.
Now Hafiz said she was a “liar” and that Rohingya were suffering more than ever. He said Aung San Suu Kyi should give international journalists more access to the villages to document the destruction.
Aung San Suu Kyi had not spoken publicly about the crisis since fresh violence broke out on 25 August, although in a phone call to the Turkish president she said “terrorists” were behind an “iceberg of misinformation” about the situation.
Striking a less aggressive but defiant tone in her 30-minute televised speech, she said she was “deeply concerned” about the suffering of people caught up in the conflict.
“We are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border to Bangladesh,” she said. “We want to find out why this exodus is happening.”
Aung San Suu Kyi: what has happened to Myanmar's icon of morality? Read more
Aung San Suu Kyi said the country stood ready “at any time” to take back refugees subject to a verification process. However, it was not immediately clear how many of the Rohingya who had fled Myanmar would qualify to return as most are not treated as citizens.
Meanwhile, the head of a UN investigation into violence in Myanmar asked the UN human rights council for more time to examine allegations of mass killings, torture, sexual violence, the use of landmines and the burning of villages.
“We will go where the evidence leads us,” the fact-finding mission’s chairman, Marzuki Darusman, said on Tuesday, before requesting a six-month extension of the investigation to September 2018. He said Suu Kyi’s remarks on scrutiny “bode well for the fact-finding mission”.
Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, Htin Lynn, said Darusman’s investigation was “not a helpful course of action” and the country was taking proportionate security measures against terrorists, and making efforts to restore peace.
During her speech, Aung San Suu Kyi mentioned the Rohingya by name only once, in reference to the armed militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Many in majority-Buddhist Myanmar – including several influential Islamophobic Buddhist monks – say the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been widely criticised – including by fellow Nobel laureates – for failing to speak out against the violence, urged the world to see Myanmar as a whole, and said it was sad that the international community was focused on only one of the country’s many problems.
“She is trying to claw back some degree of credibility with the international community, without saying too much that will get her in trouble with the [military] and Burmese people who don’t like the Rohingya in the first place,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
Q&A Why hasn't Aung San Suu Kyi condemned anti-Rohingya violence? Show Hide When Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to parliament in 2012 there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar's entrenched ethnic divides. Some defenders at the time tried to argue that she was gagged by temporary political concerns because she had to hold on to the |
plot points and emotional elements to much greater effect. That it does so while successfully incorporating it’s many themes is one of the Arrival‘s greatest strengths.This op-ed is in response to the news of ACNA’s consecration of a bishop for missionary work in the United Kingdom and Europe
By Dan Ennis
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the United Kingdom,
Britons, we’re with you. Consider the news that GAFCON, an aggrieved alliance of former Episcopalians and disaffected Anglicans, has dispatched a “missionary bishop” to the British Isles. This missionary bishop is intended “to respond to the voice of faithful Anglicans in some parts of the Global North who are in need of biblically faithful episcopal leadership.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who by implication has been accused of failing to provide Britons with that “Biblically faithful episcopal leadership,” is not amused:
The idea of a “missionary bishop” who was not a Church of England appointment, would be a cross-border intervention and, in the absence of a Royal Mandate, would carry no weight in the Church of England.
Thus the Church of England (and the Scottish Episcopal Church, recently chastened by that selfsame GAFCON) has entered the first stages of a process familiar to American Episcopalians. Whether you call them traditionalist, fundamentalist, or orthodox, disaffected Anglicans act predictably when they break away. Disgusted with the local Anglican Communion presence (TEC in the U.S.), they erect alternative pseudo-Anglican structures. In the United Kingdom, this missionary bishop will reach out to those who desire Anglican-style worship, but who seek to to exclude homosexuals from church life, such exclusion being the ne plus ultra of a certain breed of the “Biblically faithful.”
Episcopalians in the United States are familiar with the phenomenon of “missionary bishops,” as GAFCON and other Anglican-adjacent organizations have been lobbing prelates into North America for more than a decade. We offer our friends in the United Kingdom three hints as they prepare for life with a missionary bishop underfoot:
Missionary bishops are touchy about invitations and membership
Lots of faith organizations employ the title of bishop. Methodists have bishops. Mormons have bishops. UFO worshippers have bishops. GAFCON bishops, however, want the world to know they are official, on-the-level, capital-A Anglican bishops. They are repelled by inclusiveness of the Anglican Communion, but they crave inclusion. For example, getting invited to a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury is a big deal for a breakaway GAFCON bishop. Imagine how disappointing it must be when that the same Archbishop of Canterbury declares that your particular breakaway group is not part of the Anglican Communion. You Britons should expect the new missionary bishop not only to loudly lobby for invitations to Lambeth, but also to ostentatiously fling any such invitations into the Thames. This thirst for recognition leads fantasies of church polity, in which breakaway Anglican bishops insist they are authentically Anglican, the evidence being that they sometimes appear in photos beside bona fide Anglican bishops. One is reminded of the great theologian Groucho Marx, who declared that he would not want to be a member of a club that would admit him. In the case of your missionary bishop, expect him to simultaneously insist he’s a card-carry member of the Anglican Communion, but also to cast doubt on the integrity of any communion that includes the currently apostate Church of England.
Where there is one missionary bishop, others will follow
Whenever three breakaway Anglicans gather in His name, a consecration is likely to result. Or at least that seems to be the case, judging from the enthusiasm with which former Episcopal priests in the United States love to don the purple for breakaway Anglican organizations. If our experience in the US is any guide, you folks in the UK should prepare for your friendly neighborhood missionary bishop to be joined by a bevy of additional bishops from the various factions of the ever-splintering “Continuing Anglican” movement. The US is swarming with bishops from the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), Province de l’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda (PEARUSA), the Anglican Communion in North America (ACNA), the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas (FACA), other Anglican-ish organizations.These groups merge and split on occasion, but despite their doctrinal feuds they all seem to agree that the ratio of lay people to bishops should be as close to 1:1 as possible. It may be that they are worried about the moral character of their laity — otherwise why so many shepherds for so few sheep?
Missionary bishops minister to you whether you like it or not
Like the spurned woman in the film Fatal Attraction, a GAFCON bishop will not be ignored. Britons might be forgiven in assuming that their new missionary bishop will have his hands full running his missionary diocese. Unfortunately for the CofE, breakaway Anglican churches tend to shrink, leaving breakaway Anglican bishops with idle hands. It won’t take long for your missionary bishop to realize that ginning up outrage about the Church of England is good advertising for GAFCON. Therefore, expect the missionary bishop to be an expert in concern trolling. He will issue jeremiads, edicts, and condemnations of CofE so exhausting that were he still among us a shaken G.K. Chesterton would have to steady himself on the furniture. Over here in the States, when The Episcopal Church sneezes, ACNA clergy rush to the pulpit to announce it’s imminent death. You Britons should expect your new missionary bishop to follow the CofE with obsessive attention, offering helpful (if occasionally apocalyptic) advice along the way.
In the end, you Brits will be fine. Remember the “keep calm carry on” graphic that you loosed upon the world? The meme may be played out, but the sentiment holds. If he is like his American GAFCON counterparts, your missionary bishop will rapidly fade from your line of sight. After an initial strident splashing ashore on the sceptered isle — breakaway bishops, like Trollope’s Bishop Proudie, are “prepared to take a conspicuous part in all theological affairs” — his real influence will be confined to a modest sect. During missionary bishop’s consecration, the Archbishop of Nigeria called upon the newly-elevated cleric to “correct, rebuke, and encourage.” If indeed any corrections, rebukes, or encouragements are generated, they will resound primarily in the Anglican blogosphere.
In the United States, GAFCON bishops have provided Christians unlikely to be reconciled to TEC a church home and an attractive theological worldview. Sure, occasionally an American GAFCON bishop will accuse TEC of being aligned with “the spiritual forces of evil,” but that’s just how they talk. In the absence of the legal action that has generated so much bad blood in the US, Britons may find that a network of breakaway Anglican churches in the UK will have a positive effect on the spiritual lives of CofE loyalists. Your synods will still be venues for lively debate and a range of perspectives, but they will not longer be conducted in an atmosphere of walkouts, boycotts, and hysteria, derailed by GAFCON’s dual emphasis on eschatology and sex. For Anglicans in the Global North (including our kin in Canada), the appearance of a GAFCON bishop is a welcome sign that one’s church is becoming uncomfortably, scandalously, and even radically inclusive.
Regards,
Dan Ennis and your friends in the Episcopal Church
Dan Ennis is a member of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Conway, SC.
Like ( 26 ) Dislike ( 0 )Interview with Ben Scrivens
Interview conducted by Sport-Express writer Igor Erenko, with translation by Peter Adler. Published with permission from Sport-Express.
Dinamo Minsk goalie Ben Scrivens who used to play for Toronto, Los Angeles and Edmonton spoke to SE about his political preferences, he explained how to play against Ovechkin and Stamkos, as well as sharing his views about Canadian clubs’ lack of success in the NHL.
So far as I know, this is your first visit to Russia. What did you expect, what surprised you?
This is a first visit for me, but some of my relations have already been here. My dad, brother and grandfather made it all the way from Vladivostok to Helsinki. Mostly by train.
Not every Russian would dare.
That’s possible, but they liked it. So, I had heard stuff, they told me stories from the train, and they spent more than two weeks there, about people, about lifestyles. Sure, this is not the same as travelling from Canada’s or America’s east coast to their western shores, but their trip is unusual in itself, it’s eye-opening and interesting. So, I knew what to expect, and I have heard a lot from other players, too.
What were they saying?
You know, their opinions were so different that this was why I wanted to see it all with my own eyes. What can I say – no balalaika-playing bears. Then again, I haven’t seen any bears in western Canada, either. (Laughs)
But there had to be some cultural shock? Handshakes, smiles, food?
Certainly, there are things like that. Naturally, the food is different. The road manners are completely different, people don’t drive their cars like they do across the ocean. And, of course, things I considered automatic, such as respecting the gender minorities’ rights, just simply do not exist here. That was a bit of a shock. Still, no matter what, it’s not done to try to impose your own rules in somebody else’s convent. So I do not plan to interfere and start making changes.
So you do not plan to fight for human rights?
The only thing I can do, actually, is speak. But since I can’t speak Russian, that makes communication more complicated.
But you do intend to learn the language?
I do want to. The question is whether there’ll be enough time. The season’s quite short. But if I am able to help someone with something in Belarus even without speaking the language, I will definitely try to help.
You are a political observer, including political developments around the globe. So, you must know views about Alexander Lukashenko (president of Belarus). And now, all of a sudden, you’re joining Dinamo Minsk (Minsk is the capital city of Belarus).
Democracy, in my view, is an optimal political system. But there are issues with real democracy, the one where everyone has a right to vote, even in the West. In any case, I am here as a guest. I have my own personal opinions, and I am ready to share them. But I must respect local environment (sic: meaning society), people who live here. And I found that people here are kind, nice and warm-hearted. That’s what I am going to focus on, not on political systems and things like that.
In my view, real democracy exists only in some people’s imaginations. After all, in the U.S. presidential elections, people are going to select the lesser of two evils. I understand your views about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are negative, aren’t they?
Neither of them, putting it mildly, is ideal. And Trump is really dangerous. His election would endanger the entire world. I would have wished to hear more about Gary Johnson (Libertarian presidential nominee) or Bernie Sanders (Democratic nomination candidate) whom I would have liked to see in Hillary’s place, but I would prefer any of them to Trump.
Imagine you are invited to see Lukashenko. Will you go? Will you pose for photographs with him?
Depends on circumstances. (laughs) What if he doesn’t want to have his picture taken with me? I am not hiding my views, I do not plan to repeal them, but I am not going to start changing anything in the system of Russia or Belarus.
You will remember that Tim Thomas, Boston’s goalie at the time, refused to attend a reception given by the U.S. president.
Sure, I remember that, but Tim has won more, it’s a different level. If memory serves, he’s won a Vezina, a Conn Smythe, and his name is on the Stanley Cup. He had, at least, a moral right to do this. I don’t want to make any enemies here. Just as well as I do not intend to betray myself.
Thomas played in Europe for a long time, and made the NHL, after all, is it not inspiring?
Sure, I would take this scenario, 100 per cent. But who knows what’s going to happen? I just want to help my new team, do everything to help it win.
You have graduated from university, just as Thomas had. Why did you decide to move to the U.S., anyway? This is not too typical for Canadians, is it?
But this is quite simple. I wasn’t drafted in the CHL, and there was no other better option to play after Junior A till at least the age of 20 than the NCAA. I was lucky that Cornell University offered me the possibility to continue at their school. That allowed me to develop and get to professional hockey eventually.
What did studies at one of the most prestigious Ivy League universities give you?
I have really never expected I would be able to study at such a high-calibre institute. My marks at school were not at the top because I paid increased attention to hockey. Sure, I was trying, but I was not among the best students in class. Thanks to hockey because it allowed me to get to Cornell in the first place, where I learnt how to apply yourself, took sufficient care of my studies and managed to obtain a degree from a world-renowned university. The information I learnt there is not as important as the habits of time management, working with people, relationships, the art of building your life so as to be successful. That gave me a lot both in life, and in sports. (Scrivens has a degree in Hotel Administration.)
Does it help in the dressing room?
To a degree. Many are aware that I am not afraid to speak my mind.
That’s what got you the nickname, Professor. But here’s what’s interesting: does it always help? Did you not cause problems for yourself on occasion?
Yes, it would have been better to keep my mouth shut from time to time. It could have shown in my career. Looking back, I think sometimes that I should not have said this or that. Without any concrete stuff. It’s just that I do not accept the baracks atmosphere. The condition: don’t ask questions, just do what you’re told. If we’re doing something as a team, I need to know why. I always give my all, no matter what, but I do need the answers. And that’s something some hockey people don’t like.
You met your wife Jenny in university. And she plays hockey, too. Two goaltenders sharing a household, that must be just crazy, right?
In my view, it only helped us that we both played hockey. Since, off ice, I do not like talking about the game. I prefer talking about politics or, for example, science, of some social initiatives, about anything but hockey. And she’s of the same view. She signed a contract with the WNHL last year, so, we talked about these matters for a little while, but as soon as everything was fine with her, we dropped hockey again.
You really never gave each other any advice?
Imagine that: no. Hockey can’t be taking 24 hours of your day. We debate books we have read, the news, movies, society.
But you are watching each other’s games?
Jenny decided not to play this year, and last year, I did watch all of her games because, thankfully, they are broadcast on YouTube. Perhaps I did tell her a thing or two in the beginning, but it was bare minimum. Like that she should be ready after intermissions. As soon as she was, she was all right as it was. She doesn’t need me as yet another coach. And she is not giving me any advice, either.
Your wife appeared in the Hockey Wives show, which is quite popular across the ocean. You appeared there, too, accordingly. Did you watch it?
Honestly, I did not. (laughs) I don’t really like reality shows. She decided to take part, it was her decision, and I supported her. But I don’t think she will ever do it again. Too much of it is staged, the directors are trying to force you to talk about things they want to hear. They don’t give you any scripts, but are directing you carefully and keep telling you what, to put it mildly, is their preferred topic for discussion. Quite strange and disagreeable. Since we usually don’t talk about these things. And on camera, to boot. We are used to remaining ourselves, no matter where we are, expressing our own opinions. This is what’s important to us.
You’re one of the few athletes who wrote their own columns for The Players’ Tribune. Usually, the athletes just talk, and it’s the editors who make it into texts that are easy to digest.
I just wanted that such texts were me, so to speak. That they would fully reflect me. I was glad that they allowed me to speak like this, even though, of course, there were corrections and editing, and they gave me a few interesting suggestions, to direct me the correct way. It was tough, it took a lot of time, but it was tough.
What did your colleagues, other goalies, have to say?
I don’t know how many NHL players really read The Players’ Tribune, and besides, my texts were aimed at young goalies, so it was these guys, their parents and their coaches, who would approach me. Some were grateful. Some were surprised that my views were unusual. That goalies should pay more attention to skating than stretching.
You paid special attention in your text to Dominik Hasek. He liked to skate in circles and, in general, skated a lot. Have you got any special exercises?
Actually, most of it is not too different from others are doing, but I do have a special set taking care of goalies’ position changes, and I do it every day.
Ever met the Dominator?
No, unfortunately.
But you did meet (Vladislav) Tretiak during the 2014 world championship, right in Minsk. What did you talk about?
It was a brief conversation. (laughs) Such as, “I’m very happy to meet you, it’s a huge honour, can we take a picture together,” and a few more words. He is an amazing goalie, and I admire him. He turned out to be a very nice person, too. That’s the kind of event it was for me.
It seems that Tretiak is more of a legend in Canada than he is in Russia, no matter how strange it sounds. At least that’s what Canadian friends and players say.
That’s not impossible. He was, after all, a part of the great Soviet teams and he revolutionazed his position. Very many Canadian goalie coaches use Tretiak’s game as a basis. His influence on the profession could be more important than any of the Canadians. I know a lot of guys who’ve been trying to emulate him, who are even now trying to use some of his methods. What else can one say?
Did you emulate anybody?
No, I’ve been trying to remain myself since childhood. To play the way I want to. I don’t think it hasn’t worked. It would be quite stupid to try to throw the trap the way Felix Potvin used to. (laughs) We’re all different. What works for one doesn’t necessarily have to work for another.
You have mentioned quite often that goalies are not strange because they have to start breaking their reflexes in childhood, but because they have to, let’s say, wrap their stick precisely 75 times, and not 76 or 74 times. That they have to shake everybody’s hand before the game, or everything else will go to hell.
Honestly, I am trying to rid myself of all superstitions. I do have certain rituals, but if I were to feel that they are growing into superstitions, I’d get rid of them right away. What I’m trying to do is what I think may help my game, not what – what if – could help. (Patrick) Roy used to talk to his goal posts, but he would have been a great goalie even without that.
Some psychologists are of the view that things like that can be helpful. To step on the ice specifically with your left foot first. Simply, in order to be ready mentally, to prepare oneself to a maximum. Some hockey people, moreover, tell me that you have to be crazy in a good way to be able to play in the NHL.
They can help, but they have a reverse side, too, and that’s the problem. If you have all of a sudden done something not the right way, it shows in the worst way. I am always asking myself: “Why do you do this or that?” And I’m looking for common sense. If there is some, excellent, if there’s none – I’d rather stop doing it, so as not to drive myself crazy needlessly. It would be better to think that I have to win the game for the team, instead of thinking of some stupid and strange superstitions.
You signed your first contract with Toronto. What was the role of (goaltending) coach François Allaire, who used to work there at the time?
Some 99.9 per cent. We worked together, and he helped me a lot to get that contract, he discussed me with management, and I used to get chances to show myself. I am very grateful to him.
What’s interesting is that he is a blocking-style goalie specialist. Big guys, whose play is sufficiently passive, simply covering the goal. Your style is different.
That’s not how it is. What I have in mind is that François works with all kinds of goalies. He has certain demands, you have to always push from the post and cover the goal, but, for example, Semyon Varlamov is not a blocking-style goalie. And he’s been working with Allaire for years in Colorado. So this is your typical stereotype. What I liked most in working with François was that it was enough to do what he wanted, and then you would be free to do all your soul could wish for. You didn’t have to keep blocking all the time.
Would you agree that Varlamov, under him, became much less aggressive?
I think that this is just experience. Perhaps he realized himself that he could play a bit deper.
Why have goalies such as (Jean-Sebastien) Giguere who didn’t move much almost disappeared from the league? He is also an Allaire alumnus. And you can add (Ilya) Bryzgalov to that list, too.
I don’t really agree that he couldn’t move. Yes, Giguere would not keep stretching, but his skating was wonderful, and that would allow him to get into position right away. That’s precisely why he did not need useless movements, he would simply get into that position and sit down in butterfly, and that sufficed. Yes, he used to play deep in the goal, just as Arizona’s Mike Smith does, but it did not show in his effectiveness. And he does have followers. There are those in the league who depend on athleticism and reaction, their game is less structured, they are so-called “athletic goalies,” even though I hate this description, and those whose game is sufficiently structured. Giguere belongs to the latter group, and I would name Jonathan Quick in the former group.
Which of these two different styles do you prefer to watch?
I understand perfectly what the fans love, and I respect their view. Sure, the glove thrown up while the goalie is stretched after a would-be mill movement, that’s always wonderful to watch, but since I, personally, happen to prefer the structrured game, I prefer watching goalies whose game doesn’t dazzle. And yet, they could be more effective than that same Quick. Any save is a combination of reading the play and picking a position. If your skating lets you get into proper position quickly enough, and if you read the play right, it looks as if the shots aren’t that dangerous, either. But that perception is deceiving. And I like watching how goalies create that kind of perception.
I looked for your craziest saves, by the way, well, you’re far behind Quick, but so are most goalies, and found one that really shone: (Vincent) Trocheck, in your game against Florida, shot the puck and it turned away from the goal all by itself. Jedi’s tricks?
Hahaha. I recall that save. See, I took a good position. (laughs) No, unfortunately, I can’t do Jedi’s tricks. The puck simply turned on its edge and flew in the correct direction. Luck. (smiles)
By the way, Steve Stamkos insists he remembers each and every goal he has scored. Got any similar memories?
I don’t believe that. (laughs) Sure, you remember a lot, and the strangest thing is that you basically remember some strange, unusual moments. Humdrum that nobody ever remembers. Normal saves. I can’t say why. And of course, goals that you would have never let in before. Strange, some of them funny. But to remember it all, that’s just unbelievable. He’d score 60 in a season, and he would remember them all when the season’s over? I can’t believe that. (laughs) I’d even bet some money that he wouldn’t be able to describe each and every one of them. Although … what if he’s got such amazing memory?
But you do replay games after they are done in your head, don’t you?
Certainly, but that doesn’t mean that I remember them. I watch video a lot because you can think you’ve done everything right and then you see from the side that some of it wasn’t as it should have been. Generally, video helps me understand what has really happened. You haven’t seen everything, you have reacted wrong. Or you haven’t read a play right, and reading plays is something you have to keep working on to improve.
Was there a player in the NHL you were scared of?
Honestly, no. Or, better still, I can say I was afraid of all of them. Everybody in the NHL knows how to shoot the puck. And to shoot it well. So, it’s worth one’s while to respect all opposition players, it helps your game, too.
Yes, but there are some who shoot the puck better than others. Say, (Alexander) Ovechkin. Did you really not think before games who’s playing and how?
I’d rather note combinations than individual players. Look at that same Washington: you just realize you can’t be too tall because there’s Ovechkin off your right arm and if the pass reaches him, you won’t have enough time to find the right position. If you leave just a crack open, the deed’s done. It’s the same with Stamkos. Many are good at the slot, changing the direction of the shot, so, you try to remember this, too, to get into a proper position. To be able to defend against these greeting cards.
Speaking of players in front of the goal, Michael Garnett has complained about goalie interference. It’s enough to push a goalie’s pad just ever so lightly, and the position’s gone. Do you think something can be done about it?
I don’t think so. The skaters aren’t stupid. And not even hundreds of replays will show anything from time to time. I don’t think there should be rule changes or there should be new rules. The referees have only milliseconds to make their minds up, there’s no need to make their lives even more complicated. Besides, if you ban all these plays, if you ban these active plays, you can get 0-0 scores. Who needs that and why? Sure, there should be punishments for breaking the rules, but to concentrate on this, to stop play because of insignificant contact or to go through endless replays, I don’t think it’s worth it.
Do you watch opposing players’ sticks? The flexibility of their shafts? This impacts seriously on a shot, on the moment the puck leaves the stick.
There are things one recalls subconsciously. But that’s about it. If you were to think all the time, oh, he’s got a soft shaft, this guy shoots right, that one can hide his wrist shot, and that one is a backhand king, you’d go out of your mind. You have a fraction of a second to react, you can’t think about anything. To read plays can help. But, in any case, you have to believe in yourself in the first place, and in your muscle memory.
Even Toronto’s fans now read the Leafs as an acronym: losers even after fifty seasons (50 years, and still losers – author’s note). It’s going to be precisely 50 years next season since they last won the Stanley Cup. Will they ever win?
Well, they will win one day. (smiles) Each team has a chance. With the right personnel, the right players – nothing is impossible. But I don’t know when’s Toronto going to succeed, in a year, or in another 50. But I don’t think that they will never be able to win. (smiles)
But what is, in your view, their long-term problem? Is it not linked to the pressures that in Toronto reaches cosmic degrees?
Sure, you can feel it, but then again, it’s about the same in Montreal, or in Boston or the Rangers and Vancouver, and yet, people play. Bruins won the Cup not so long ago, the Rangers and the Canadiens had it within reach, the Canucks made the finals. There are pluses and minuses in this pressure, but I don’t think this would be a serious obstacle on the path to victory.
Still, Canadian teams haven’t won anything the last 23 years. Perhaps Ottawa can’t speak of huge pressure, and, perhaps, can’t Winnipeg, to a degree, either.
But there are 23 American clubs in the league. From the view of pure statistics, their chances of winning are much better. I can’t see any natural connection here, and I can’t exclude the possibility that next summer’s winner will come from Canada. Yes, no Canadian team made the playoffs this spring, but that, in my view, was just a coincidence. Some are rebuilding, others were simply out of luck.
You played for three Canadian teams and for Los Angeles. What was different between them?
Nothing in particular, the climate, perhaps.
Well, but there are about 200 journalists attending practices in Toronto, while they have other forms of entertainment in Los Angeles.
Sure, it might be easier to play without such pressures. But, to get back to those same Kings, guys want to win so hard, it builds pressure by itself in the room. Besides, you have to understand that, sure, every fan in Toronto wants wins, but I want to win even more than any one of them. It may happen that some of the fans wouldn’t want to hear this, but wins are more important to us than they are to them. We wouldn’t be dressing, even, without this. There has to be something that has brought you to the NHL, and if you don’t have such an internal drive, you’ll never play there. So there’s nothing terrible about outside pressure. It’s all simple: if you don’t play well, those same 200 journalists will write bad stuff about you. When you play well, they will write good stuff about you. You have to be trying to show your best game, not paying any particular attention to what they are writing. You have to be moving ahead, perfecting yourself.
What were your thoughts when you were traded from the Los Angeles Kings, one of the perhaps main contenders to win the Stanley Cup who ended up winning it, to Edmonton that was sitting at the bottom?
I wasn’t playing at all with the Kings, and I did want to get the chance, so I was happy about the trade. They gave me a chance to play, and I was very grateful to both Los Angeles and the Oilers. Unfortunately, not everything worked with the Oilers as I would have wished. We didn’t have a good enough team, it didn’t have sufficient structure, but that’s been getting better. And the last unsuccessful season notwithstanding, I think that Todd McLellan is moving in the right direction. In any case, I was happy to be a part of Edmonton, to be in my home town.
What is, in your view, the reason for the Oilers’ lack of success? A lot of first picks overall, a lot of talent, and still: bottom-feeders.
A lot of first picks overall helps only when they play for the team, and play well. That, obviously, wasn’t happening in Edmonton. That’s a coach’s job to force the team to be responsible. But management must show support, showing the players that they wouldn’t be picking him apart just so. When the players don’t play well, you can hardly change anything.
Oscar Klefbom recently spoke quite harshly about Taylor Hall who had been traded to New Jersey, claiming he’d play well only against weaker opposition.
He knows him well, they played together long enough, and I can’t say that Klefbom is wrong.
And what do you think about Nail Yakupov?
I liked Yakupov a lot. A hard worker, always trying to win, he hates losing, he always fights till the end. I think that, having the right coach who would help and teach him, he can be a very good player and enjoy a long career.
He asked for a trade not so long ago. Could it be perhaps better for him to experience a change of scenery?
You can ask for whatever you want but that’s not how it works in the NHL, that the demand would be met. He’s now part of Edmonton, and I am sure that he will continue doing everything he can. We’ll see how it will work.
What was wrong in Montreal last season? They opened the season wonderfully. What caused such terrible failure? There were rumours that (Michel) Therrien has lost the room.
They were going down to the bottom when I got there. So I can hardly judge it. And I don’t think I could be the answer to their problems. And I wasn’t playing that much at the time, either. You know, I think the guys were trying, they were working but, what could have happened was they were trying too hard. That’s wrong, too. And, of course, the biggest problem was that Montreal’s best player was injured almost a year. It’s tough to be winning without your leader.
Do the Canadiens really depend that much on (Carey) Price?
In my opinion, yes, they do. Besides, no matter which team Carey Price would play for, they would depend on him, that’s how good he is. He adds so much certainty to his teammates that they even play differently, that’s his strength. It’s not always useful, some plays can get too risky, but still, Montreal has been very lucky to have him.
What did you think when Montreal traded (P.K.) Subban?
To be honest, I’m not following hockey off ice. Much less than the fans do. I know him, and I understand well how difficult it is, but that’s hockey.
Have you figured out the KHL style of hockey yet?
Obviously, they play differently here, the style is a bit different, there’s more passing. I’ll have to rebuild my game, but that’s what’s interesting.
And what about the East-West style, do you like it?
I haven’t even thought about it. I can’t be controlling what the skaters do, and I don’t need it, either. I’m focusing on my own game.
I noticed in pre-season games you practically never go into corners. Is it the infamous trapezoid that keeps you from doing it?
It’s rather that I was a bit afraid to go there, the ice is wider, the boards are further away. (laughs) But that’s not awful, I’ll get used to it and will be skating there regularly. Besides, you have to play the puck only when it helps the team. Not to just to touch it. If it’s calculated risk, I’m always ready.
Basically, is skating even more important for goalies in the KHL?
It’s important everywhere. Doesn’t matter which league, which level and what size of ice you’re playing.
You’ve played in two games of historical note. The first one involved a bagel with a record number of shots against in a game against San Jose (3-0 for Edmonton, 59 saves). How many kilograms did you lose that night?
I really don’t know. I don’t check my weight. Neither before games, nor after games. It was a good game, but, honestly, nothing special in particular. I didn’t even know I have set a record. I just tried to give my team a chance to win. Tough, really, but we went on the road right afterwards, so I didn’t even have much time to think about it.
Goalies usually lose five to six kilograms when they face such loads. Did you do anything special, perhaps drank more water, or energy drinks or ate energy sticks?
No, I didn’t do anything unusual. I’ll tell you even more: I didn’t get too tired then, either. May be a bit more than usual, but nothing more. To tell you the truth, I don’t’t attach too much significance to this achievement. Definitely less than any fan. Stopping pucks, that’s my job, and that’s what I was doing. It would have been better if we made the playoffs then. That’s what would have been real joy, and we would have been able to debate it more.
It seems you like facing a lot of shots, right?
Well, really, I don’t care. In any case, I can’t influence what’s going on in front of me. That’s why concrete numbers don’t concern me.
The other historical game saw a Russian referee’s debut in the NHL. Yevgeni Romasko served in an Edmonton game against Detroit, not the most successful game for you. Do you remember it?
I remember finding out the next day only. And I was surprised. It must have been a great experience for him. I think that’s great and good. We need overseas players, referees and general managers, there is one in Columbus, and coaches. |
game against the Miami Dolphins during the first half at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports Aug 25, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (93) looks on before the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports Aug 25, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) runs with the ball against the Atlanta Falcons during the first half at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports Aug 25, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) warms up before a game against the Atlanta Falcons at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports Aug 25, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi (23) is tackled by Atlanta Falcons strong safety Keanu Neal (22) during the first half at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports Aug 25, 2016; Orlando, FL, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) drops back to attempt a pass against the Miami Dolphins during the first half at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
PHOTOS | Atlanta Falcons training campNetflix says a former executive collected kickbacks from vendors he helped connect to the streaming video company.
Now Netflix is suing its former employee, who is currently Yahoo’s chief information officer.
Netflix filed suit in California state court on Monday, accusing Mike Kail, its former vice president of information technology operations, of fraud, breaching his fiduciary duties and other charges.
Kail left Netflix in August of this year, the same month Yahoo announced that he was going to be its CIO, reporting to CEO Marissa Mayer.
The Netflix suit says Kail, who joined the company in 2011, arranged Netflix contracts with IT service companies Vistara and NetEnrich, and then pocketed commissions of 12 percent to 15 percent of the monthly fees Netflix paid each company.
Netflix says it paid the two companies a total of $3.7 million from 2012 until Kail’s departure, which would mean he could have collected between $450,000 and $560,000. The suit says he funneled the payments to “Unix Mercenary,” a consulting company he controls. Netflix said Kail approved all payments made to vendors.
Vistara and NetEnrich are both run by Raju Chekuri; a spokesperson for the two companies, who said they had no comment on the suit, says Vistara was spun out of NetEnrich.
Netflix’s suit says the company believes Kail received payments from other companies that worked with Netflix during his tenure; Netflix thinks “such benefits may have included, among other things, stock and/or gift cards.”
I’ve asked Kail and Yahoo for comment. Netflix declined to comment.I got a message saying my gift would be a little late. I figured Ok, we all have lives and stuff comes up. Then today I got a Priority mail box, and in it was A bunch of things from their State, Maryland
Ok in the box was Catoctins, Caramel Popcorn. McCutcheon's Apple Butter, McCutcheon's Apple Butter, McCutcheon's Rocky Mountain Trail mix, & Hand Crafted Goats Milk Soap, & what melted my heart was this cute bracelet made by a the daughter of the McCutcheon's family who is Autistic, and all the money goes to her. & a post card. From Frederick Maryland.
Okay as if that was not enough, I got another package from LUSH, with a bath fizzy (I love them) and Shower Jelly. I never tried shower jelly so this is going to be a treat
Thank You so much santa, You really out did yourself.If one looks into her strange past, one finds that Hillary Rodham Clinton had a close relationship with a radical and Communist/Socialist by the name of Saul Alinsky.
We will present a lot to be digested and we hope people read this article all the way through and go to the sites shown so they will know the truth about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, both of which seem to be so closely aligned with the Communist Party that any lines that once divided them can no longer be found, and even their platforms are nearly identical.
We showed how Hillary Clinton had close ties to Saul Alinsky in previous articles here and here. Yes, Hillary wrote and sat with Saul Alinsky to not only study his Communist ideology, but also to use it in her quest for power and control, both of which give the Communist ideology roots to grow from.
take our poll - story continues below
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story?
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? * Yes, they've gotten so much wrong recently that they're bound to be on their best behavior. No, they suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Jussie who?
Email *
Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Completing this poll grants you access to Freedom Outpost updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Let us show the basic principles of Hillary Clinton’s idol, Saul Alinsky. Please take note of the 8 different ways that Communist Saul Alinsky wants to “Change” the way the United States operates. Let us look very closely at the ideas of Saul Alinsky and compare them to what both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama have done in relation to the 8 ideas of Saul Alinsky.
Saul Alinsky stated, “There are 8 levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a social state. The first is the most important!”
1) Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people.
2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.
8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.
Now let us take a look at what has already happened and what Hillary Clinton wants to do and what Obama and the Democratic Party has already done. You have to remember that anytime words such as, but not limited to, “Racist," "Feminist,” etc., are key words used by the Saul Alinsky model to destroy your enemy and keep them fighting to disconnect those ideas from them while those making the statements continue on with their ideas, which, in most cases, do not help the poor or the United States.
Here is the connection between Hillary Clinton and her idol, Saul Alinsky:
Healthcare - We see the first idea to be pushed by the Alinsky Communist idea is to “Control Healthcare.” Remember, when Hillary Clinton was First Lady, she pushed for a nationwide Healthcare system, exactly what Alinsky outlined to begin the creation of the Socialist/Communist state. We should make a strong note: President Obama was also a strong advocate of the Alinsky model. Today, we have the Obamacare joke of healthcare, but it does follow the Saul Alinsky ideology.
Poverty – Today, we see that more people live in poverty in the United States, and this has increased since Obama took office, so here we can clearly see that the second action in the Alinsky model is being pursued by Obama and we can rest assured that Hillary Clinton will push this even higher if she is elected; after all, she supports the Alinsky ideology.
Debt – The debt of our nation has moved into territory that has never been seen before during the entire history of the United States. Hillary Clinton wants to continue on this same line of action by increasing the burden by keeping the debt rising so she can control all of our lives. Hillary Clinton also shouted very loudly on the stage; “We will raise the taxes on the middle class.” Strangely, the people cheered!
Gun Control – This is so far the hardest to complete, but Obama has done all he can, including coming up with illegal Executive Actions that stifle the ownership of guns because of his actions. But Hillary Clinton stated that she would like to see “common sense” gun control, which is code for taking all the guns from the people. Hillary Clinton has stated that, “… I would like to see gun control actions like the Australians have.” That would mean total confiscation of guns and jail time for anyone who does not comply with the government demand to turn your guns in. Hillary Clinton can do this by placing Supreme Court Justices that will say the Second Amendment does not apply to the average citizen - check out the people she will consider for Supreme Court Justices: they all are AGAINST guns.
Welfare – This will and has been growing since Obama has been president. Under Hillary Clinton, it will continue to grow, since she has stated this in many ways and will increase the welfare rolls, just like Alinsky states. Hillary Clinton will bring in many more people from the Middle East and place them all on the welfare rolls, giving them no opportunity to find jobs and by giving them food, housing, and income, just like her idol Saul Alinsky outlines in his 8 levels of control.
Education – Hillary Clinton has clearly stated in her book, It Take A Village, “I believe the primary role of the state is to teach, train and raise the children. Parents have a secondary role.”
Here Hillary Clinton shows very plainly that she will use the Communist/Socialist Saul Alinsky ideology to “educate” the children, which is actually brainwashing the children to think that they have to work for the Government to pay for their education. This alone should make many parents consider not to vote for this lady who only wants the parents to have a secondary role to their children and allow the government to have the primary role. This is not the “American” way to Freedom and pursuit of happiness.
Religion – This is the most profound act of hatred by the current administration, and Hillary Clinton will follow through with this ideology, just like Obama is doing now. Before 2009, our nation could pray at football games, we could place a cross on public property, we could worship our beliefs, which are, of the majority, Christian. Today, our nation has moved away from the old phrase "God and Country." Today, it is "Politics and country." Our nation was founded on the belief that God is our creator, and that is clearly displayed through the Declaration of Independence. Some will come out and say that is not right because the Constitution says the government cannot support any religion. That would be a very false statement, since the very idea was that the Government cannot say we have only one religion, and that is the one the government says it is. Freedom of religion was developed to make sure the government did not dictate what religion the people had to abide by: that is what England did, and the founding fathers did not want the government to dictate what religion to force upon the people. It also did not mean that the government would make religion be evil and not accepted by the government, as it has done under the Obama administration. This would be even worse under a Hillary Clinton administration.
Class warfare – We can already see this one from Obama and Hillary Clinton doubling down and saying that the rich have to pay their fair share, meaning, as did Saul Alinsky, that they have to pay more until they become poor. The fact that Hillary Clinton is going to continue on with the “Class Warfare" is not to be doubted for one minute as she does not hide this at all, saying those who make the most should pay the most. Hillary Clinton will most assuredly divide the nation even more than Obama has, and this will never be settled until the United States is so divided that the government will have to intervene to “separate” what they created: a police state.
Showing and comparing these 8 items and breaking them down shows that, without a doubt, Obama, who also studied Saul Alinsky, began the division needed to make the Communist ideology work, and Hillary Clinton will continue it. If you wish to see our nation coming together like it did before Obama got into office, do not vote for Hillary Clinton.
How much does the Communist Party of America support Hillary Clinton? That is perhaps the most interesting question we could ask. Let us look at an article exposing the fact that the Communist Party supports Hillary Clinton.
This article describes what the Communist Party USA likes about her and why it supports her entirely.
“The Communist Party USA may not control many actual votes, but what they lack in support is made up for in enthusiasm. That passion was in full display with a seven-person team of “reporters” covering their national political convention last month. And their convention was the Democratic National Convention that nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as their undisputed candidate for president of the United States.”
Some of the Communist Party USA's talking points sound an awful lot like Hillary Clinton’s talking points...or is that the other way around? In either case, the points are eerily similar. Let’s check some excerpts from the Communist Party’s article on that.
“Donald Trump steals wages. He’d pick your pocket in a New York minute. He lies and spreads hate. He’s a racist and a bully.” “Do not underestimate Trump and the Republicans. While the establishment GOP was surprised by the successful insurgency of so-called outsider Trump, they are united in purpose: delivering more inequality, more misery, more instability and violence against working-class people of all races, genders, religions and sexual orientations. They are united with giant corporations and the billionaire class in their drive to lower wages and living conditions and increase their profits and power.” “With Senator Bernie Sanders endorsing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the message was loud and clear, “We’re stronger together.” That is what it will take to win in November.” “The union movement, communities of color, students, women, progressives and the newborn “political revolution” can help generate voter enthusiasm by talking and tweeting about Clinton and the issues. Challenging sexism is a must as well as racism, which has been a coded (and overt) staple of presidential elections for decades.” “Winning in a landslide” is needed now more than ever, and that landslide for Clinton could swing control of the Senate to Democrats, and other potential positive effects could be felt on the ‘down ballot’ congressional and state races.”
Wait, isn’t that what the Democratic Party said - well maybe in different words? It does look like Hillary Clinton has taken advice from the Communist Party of the USA with her lines. All this time and the people have been led to believe that Hillary Clinton was the first to use the words "racism," "sexism," and so on. Please just look at what the Communist Party states: if it were not on their web site, one would think it had been written by the Clinton Campaign.
Let us look at a direct quote of the Communist Party USA paper that describes Hillary Clinton’s pick for her running mate, Tim Kaine: this is where it gets weird, as the Communist Party not only fully supports and maybe helps Hillary Clinton, but also seems to accept her VP, Tim Kaine, with open arms.
“Joseph Farah, the founder of WND.com and a former revolutionary communist himself in his youth, said the CPUSA’s coverage was so effusive in its enthusiasm it put MSNBC to shame. “Back in the day when Stalinists Gus Hall and Angela Davis were regularly nominated by the party as presidential and vice presidential candidates every four years, the U.S. Communists actually had beefs with the Democrats,” he said. “But, in recent years, the party ceased those efforts in favor of a united front with the Democrats, with whom they have very few differences, if any.”
It would seem that Hillary Clinton is either working with the Communist Party USA, or they are working with her. No one can really distinguish the lines between them, as they are so close to each other that lines between Democrats and Communists have seemingly vanished since, in 2009, they pushed voters toward Obama and keep pushing the Democrats into the now very blurred lines between the old Democratic Party and the current Communist/Democratic Party today. But check it out for yourself below.
“The Communists, who for decades ran their own candidates for president and vice president but supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, don’t just like Hillary and Bernie. The party also gave a big thumbs-up to Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine. “He’s a great choice,” wrote staffer Larry Rubin on the first day of the convention. “Kaine pushed the political envelope of Virginia, an erstwhile red southern state, in a progressive direction – and won! He was elected mayor of Richmond, then governor of the state and then senator. Everyone agrees: he’s a sincere, nice guy.”
No this should be enough to show that our nation would become totally Socialist leaning heavily towards Communism under Hillary Rodham Clinton, due to Democrats continuing on with their ideas from 1856 when they were the party of slavery. Wait, maybe they really want to bring slavery back, but in the form of government hand outs! Just check out someone else’s comments on how the Democrats have moved more toward the Communist side than to the Freedom side.
“David Kupelian, managing editor of WND.com, had this to say earlier this year in a commentary on the shrinking divide between the two parties:“Amazing as it may seem, Barack Obama has dragged the entire Democratic Party so far leftward over the past seven-plus years that today’s Democratic Party has become almost indistinguishable from the Communist Party. “If that sounds hyperbolic to you, just stop reading right now and pull up the CPUSA’s website,” he added. “Spend some time reading and digesting it. Try to discern any major differences between the Communist Party’s concerns, sensibilities and solutions – on issues from ‘gay’ rights, to unfettered immigration, to renewable energy, to wealth redistribution, to condemning cops as racist, to universal health care – and those of today’s Democratic Party.” The interest has been largely fueled by Clinton’s suppressed and later released 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College offering an extensive, largely positive critique of Alinsky and his work. Hillary Clinton’s association with radical thought dates back to at least 1969, when Obama was just 8 years old, himself a protégé early on of Frank Marshall Davis, a loyal Communist Party activist. Clinton’s 1969 Wellesley College senior thesis was titled “There Is Only the Fight … : An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.” The thesis received attention when it was released after the Bill Clinton presidency. According to reports, in early 1993, the White House requested that Wellesley keep the thesis on “Rules for Radicals”author Saul Alinsky confidential and not release any copies.”
This covers a lot, but it has to be shown in order to link it all together to illustrate the closeness of the Communist and Democratic Party and how it may also link Hillary Clinton to being a communist simply by allowing this type of hyperbole to be stated. We show just what has to be shown, and it makes a good connection to the Hillary Clinton campaign, which follows the Communist Party USA ideology almost to a tee. That in and of itself should create a firewall between the White House and Hillary Clinton. If she is elected, the nation built by our forefathers will have failed, due to the ignorance of seeing what is near the tip of our noses. If you believe in the Freedom, the Constitution, and our United States, then you will pass this on to all you know and make it go viral to show facts that have to be shown here because the Lame Stream Media will never show, it as they are part of the problem.somewhere on the other side of the world sits a package, lovingly wrapped and chosen just for me. perhaps it was eaten by drop koalas, perhaps it was commandeered by pirates, perhaps just locked away in the depths of canada customs. either way, it has, to date, not landed in my mailbox.
i had all but given up hope this time - my santa was communicative the entire way through, and i hope she did get credit for shipping even though i didn't actually receive anything.
so, i feel like the saga was over.
NOT SO!
i wake up to a message from her saying that she felt bad i hadn't received it. she shipped me an awesome star wars lego set from the indigo shop in canada (mississauga to be exact, we both think this is a fun city name).
it arrives last night, and while i haven't had a chance to build it yet (helloooo long weekend fun) i wanted to be sure that i posted it to give her credit & say thank you kindly for sending another package my way. not necessary, and totally awesome.
thanks, aussie-friend. watch out for dingos, i think they might have developed a taste for lego now.International Paralympic Committee bans Russia from Pyeongchang Winter Games over doping
Posted
Russia, already suspended from next month's Rio Paralympics, has also been banned for the winter edition in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018 because of a state-sponsored sports doping program.
The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) announced the latest punishment handed out by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Tuesday (AEST).
"The decision taken by the IPC, upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding Russian Paralympians being excluded from the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, has also been extended to include the Winter Games in 2018 in Pyeongchang," the RPC said on its website.
Last week the Lausanne-based CAS, sport's highest tribunal, rejected an RPC appeal against the Rio ban.
The decision to exclude Russia's team means at least 260 competitors from the country are now set to miss the September 7-18 Paralympics.
Russia has appealed against the CAS ruling to the Swiss Federal Court and a result is expected soon.
The Federal Court can only overturn the CAS decision on the basis of a procedural mistake and not on the merits of the case.
The IPC went further than the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stopped short of a blanket ban on Russia at this month's Rio Olympics and left the decision instead in the hands of international sports federations.
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Paralympic ban cynical and immoral but also said Moscow acknowledged mistakes it had made in tackling sports doping.
The country's track and field team was also excluded from the Olympics due to the sports doping program.
Putin said the decision to bar Russian athletes, including those who had not tested positive for any banned substances, was a vivid manifestation "of how the humanistic foundations of sport and Olympism are shamelessly flouted by politics".
"The decision to disqualify our Paralympic team is outside the law, outside morality and outside humanity," he added.
"It is simply cynical to vent one's anger on those for whom sport has become the meaning of their life... I even feel pity for those taking such decisions because they must well understand that it is so demeaning for them."
The whole dispute centres on a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that found the Russian government and the FSB security service had, over years, covered up hundreds of doping cases across the majority of Olympic sports and Paralympic events.
Although not widely followed or celebrated in Russia, where rights campaigners say many disabled people are marginalised by regressive social attitudes and inadequate state support, the country's para-athletes are some of the best in the world.
Their team topped the medal table at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in the Russian city of Sochi after taking second place behind China at London 2012.
Reuters
Topics: sport, paralympics, russian-federation, korea-republic-ofHARTFORD, Conn. Competitive cheerleading is not an official sport that colleges can use to meet gender-equity requirements, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in ordering a Connecticut school to keep its women's volleyball team. Several volleyball players and their coach had sued Quinnipiac University after it announced in March 2009 that it would eliminate the team for budgetary reasons and replace it with a competitive cheer squad. The school contended the cheer squad and other moves kept it in compliance with Title IX, the 1972 federal law that mandates equal opportunities for men and women in education and athletics. But U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill disagreed in a ruling that those involved say was the first time the cheerleading issue has been decided by a judge. "Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX," Underhill wrote. "Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students." Quinnipiac has 60 days to come up with a plan to keep the volleyball team through next season and comply with gender rules. "The athletes all look forward to getting back on the volleyball court for preseason in three weeks," coach Robin Sparks said. "As their coach, I feel fortunate to be able to work with such strong young women who are not afraid to stand up for their principles. It will be a joy to be back in the gym with them this fall." School officials responded to the ruling by saying they would start a women's rugby team, but they refused to answer any questions, discuss the future of other athletic teams or say whether they would continue offering scholarships to competitive cheerleaders. An activity can be considered a sport under Title IX if it meets specific criteria. It must have coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season and a governing organization. The activity also must have competition as its primary goal <emdash /> not merely the support of other athletic teams. Quinnipiac and seven other schools recently formed a governing body, the National Competitive Stunts and Tumbling Association, to govern and develop competitive cheer as a college sport. Previously, competitive cheerleading championships were put on by two private organizations with ties to Varsity Brands Inc., which makes cheerleading apparel and runs camps. Bill Seely, the executive director of USA Cheer, a national governing body for both sideline and competitive cheerleading, said he believes the ruling represents only a minor setback for the efforts to make cheer an intercollegiate sport. "It's an opportunity to look at what hasn't worked and find what will work, so we are creating more opportunities for young women and not affecting other female sports," he said. "It's an opportunity to tweak some things." During the weeklong trial last month, Quinnipiac had argued that if it could not count competitive cheerleading as a sport it might be forced to shut the program down, eliminating 36 positions on the squad. Quinnipiac spokeswoman Lynn Bushnell said the school was disappointed its cheer team will lose varsity status. "We will continue to press for competitive cheer to become an officially recognized varsity sport in the future," Bushnell said in a statement. "Consistent with our long-standing plans to expand opportunities in women's athletics, the university intends to add women's rugby as a varsity sport beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year." The cheerleading issue was one of several Underhill was asked to decide as he considered whether the school had improperly manipulated it rosters. He also found the school was underreporting the participation opportunities for its male athletes and overstating the opportunities for women. Evidence presented to support an injunction a year ago showed the men's baseball and lacrosse teams would drop players before reporting data to the Department of Education and reinstate them after the reports were submitted. Conversely, the women's softball team would add players before the reporting date, knowing the additional players would not be on the team in the spring. School officials have said any improper manipulation of the rosters has stopped. Underhill said things have gotten better, but the school "is still continuing to deflate the size of its men's rosters and inflate the size of it's women's rosters." Underhill also agreed with the plaintiffs' argument that female runners who participate on school's indoor, outdoor and cross country track teams should be counted just once for Title IX purposes. The men have just a cross country team. He said the women's indoor and outdoor track teams were "in essence, an adjunct of the cross-country team." The judge had made the case a class action for all female athletes at the school, and the plaintiffs attorneys said it would have an impact far beyond Quinnipiac. "This is a victory not only for the student athletes and their coach, but for women's collegiate sports generally," attorney Jon Orleans said. "We look forward to discussing with Quinnipiac its plan for compliance with the court's ruling." Shawn Ladda, the president of the National Association of Girls and Women in Sports, said the ruling should send a message to schools across the nation that Title IX is not about matching numbers on a tally sheet. "It's about the spirit of the law and it's about providing real opportunities for women," she said. "Fairness is fairness and manipulating numbers is not going to be tolerated. We need more decisions like this to push institutions to do the right thing." Copyright 2010 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 moreAFTER months of speculation, the launch day of this year's Celebrity Big Brother is finally here.
This year's theme - All Stars and New Stars - will see returning faces as well as some fresh ones to make it the most scandalous series yet, with Emma Willis welcoming them all in an action-packed launch.
CBB bosses are so keen to encourage old flames to ignite (or see new romances blossom) that they've even tweaked the house's layout to encourage people to jump into bed together.
So here's the full line-up...
All-Stars
Nicola McLean
Channel 5 14 Nicola McLean is confirmed to be returning to the house
The Sun Online has already revealed the glamour model, 35, is returning to CBB.
She had an explosive row on set with Denise Welch when she first appeared on the show in 2012, which ultimately led to her eviction.
A source told The Sun Online: “Nicola is going back into the CBB house. She’s had the worst two years of her life but now she’s feeling strong and she is desperate to let her hair down and have some fun in there.”
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 33/1
Austin Armacost
Channel 5 14 Austin was pipped to second place on his last appearance
The American model is set to return to the Celebrity Big Brother house after coming second to Apprentice star James Hill in 2015.
The pair’s bromance was the subject of much gossip during that series.
Austin also won praise from viewers after he shaved his head in support of Gail Porter who suffers from Alopecia.
But things are certain to get fiery after he revealed he hates Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag - who are entering the house with him.
He fumed: “Speidi were a disaster. I hate them – as everyone in America does.”
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 5/1
Coleen Nolan
Channel 5 14 The Loose Women panellist is said to be returning to 'force a trial separation' from her husband
The Loose Women panellist is returning to the CBB house after coming second to Julian Clary in 2012.
She is reportedly re-entering the house in order to force a "trial separation" from her husband, Ray Fensome after the pair admitted they had been having troubles in their nine-year marriage.
Her appearance was guessed ahead of time after fans correctly identified her in a teaser video for this year's series.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 12/1
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag
Channel 5 14 Spiedi are set to cause even more trouble this time round
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag were the most controversial housemates ever - and now they are set to ruffle even more feathers now they are back on our screens.
The reality star couple – known as Speidi – have reportedly signed a six-figure deal to come back for another run on the show after the success of their last appearance in 2013, losing out to Rylan Clark-Neal.
An insider told The Daily Star: “Spencer and Heidi are very competitive and they got so close to winning last time that they’re hellbent on coming out on top this time around.
“They’ve never quite lived down being beaten by Rylan. Last time they were not sure what to expect, but they’ve become big fans of the show since their stint in the house."
Though they haven't quite given up their diva demands either.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 4/1
Calum Best
PA:Press Association 14 Calum Best will be reunited with a familiar face in the house
Calum Best essentially let the cat out of the bag that he will be returning to the Elstree compound during a conversation with the Daily Star Online, telling them he was "coming to London in January to do some work".
When pressed, he just winked and said "no comment."
He added: “I’ve got a lot of time for Celebrity Big Brother, it has done a lot for me.
"If I did go back, I would go on the All Stars team and it would be fun.”
Calum came in third during the January 2015 series of the show, losing out to eventual winner Katie Price and runner-up Katie Hopkins.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 6/1
James Jordan
Channel 5 14 James Jordan caused a stir during his last appearance for his fiery temperament
James Jordan divided audiences with his feisty nature when he first entered the Big Brother house in 2014, and The Sun revealed he would be returning as bosses know he "won't hold back".
He has signed a six-figure deal in order to appear on the show, only a month after his dancer wife Ola Jordan took on the Australian Outback on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.
For many, he was the villain of the house - and was evicted to a chorus of boos.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 8/1
Jasmine Waltz
Channel 5 14 Stunning Jasmine turned up the heat in 2014 - will she find love this time around?!
Model Jasmine Waltz is set to get hearts racing in the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother. Sources confirmed to The Sun she had flown from her home in California to London to prepare for her appearance.
The star became famed for flashing her boobs during her time on the show - as well as a short-lived love triangle romance with Lee Ryan in a love triangel with Casey Batchelor.
She also snogged both former N-Dubz star Dappy and Apprentice star Luisa Zissman in the house Jacuzzi in the 2014 series.
Jasmine was eventually evicted 13 days into the series, with Jim Davidson going on to win.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 28/1
LATEST FROM TV & SHOWBIZ BAD WEEK Gemma Collins rushes home to be with mum Joan as she's hospitalised with pneumonia 'VERY ODD' Emma Thompson quits film after executive accused of harassment brought on board HER SIDE Jordyn Woods set to come clean about cheating scandal on Jada Pinkett Smith's show 'TELL STACEY' EastEnders fans beg Jean to tell Stacey she has ovarian cancer as she CRAWLING INTO BED DJ Chris Evans and wife Natasha horrified to find MAGGOTS in their bed ANGE'S SIX-PACK Angelina Jolie makes rare public appearance with all six of her children MADGE'S BUST NEW PAL Madonna's new music partner Anitta shares her love of risky outfits TALKING COBBLE-RS Coronation Street's Tracy splits the UK by using the word'mingebag' HE'S IN THE PASTA Gemma eats spaghetti after Arg's 'fat jibes' as she films Real Housewives Ex-factor Megan McKenna sobs as she reveals heartbreaking reason for Mike Thalassitis split
New Stars
Stacy Francis
Channel 5 14 Stacy has a complicated history with Ray J
Stacy Francis is an American singer and actress who first came into the spotlight during the US X Factor in 2011. She now runs her own talk show on YouTube, and joined the cast of US show R&B Divas: Los Angeles.
She made headlines in 2012 when it was reported she had an argument with Whitney Houston hours before she died - after Stacy started talking to Whitney's on/off lover, Ray J - who is also entering the house.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 16/1
Brandon Block
Channel 5 14 The former caner DJ is said to be a changed man
The Sun revealed bosses had secured DJ Brandon Block for the new series - and he's sure to be a fiery personality after becoming known for his wild party lifestyle.
At the height of his career, he stormed the stage at the Brit Awards and got in a furious war of words with Rolling Stones icon Ronnie Wood.
But the DJ, who admitted to spending up to £2,000 a week on his cocaine addiction, is now on the straight and narrow and is using CBB to launch his comeback.
Chances of winning: Sun Bets 20/1
Jamie O'Hara
Channel 5 14 Jamie is following in his ex-wife's Danielle Lloyd's footsteps
The 30-year-old midfielder is following in the footsteps of his ex-wife Danielle Lloyd to enter the famous house.
He is currently without a club after Gillingham FC terminated his contract in September this year after he failed to recover from an injury.
The dad of three needs the CBB payday after being divorced by glamour model Danielle — giving her £15,000 a month as part of |
this article, but his first statement to investigators was posted on the Internet, with just his first name, by ABC News.
In it, Mr. Slough recounted the mayhem in dry military language. He described coming under an elaborate attack that he said had begun when the driver of a white four-door sedan ignored numerous hand signals and drove directly at the Blackwater motorcade.
“Fearing for my life and the lives of my teammates,” Mr. Slough said, “I engaged the driver and stopped the threat.”
Photo
He said he saw muzzle flashes from a shack 50 meters, or about 160 feet, behind the car; a man in a blue button-down shirt and black pants pointing an AK-47; small arms fire from a red bus that had stopped in an intersection; and a red car backing up toward his convoy.
“Fearing that it was a vbied,” he said, using the military acronym for a car bomb, “I engaged in order to stop the threat.”
Initial investigations by the Pentagon, the F.B.I. and the Iraqi government found no evidence to support Mr. Slough’s account — no car bombs, no signs of enemy fire or insurgents. The F.B.I. concluded that at least 14 of the 17 fatal shootings had been unjustified, saying Blackwater guards had recklessly violated American rules for the use of lethal force. Military investigators went further, saying all the deaths were unjustified and potentially criminal. Iraqi authorities characterized the shootings as “deliberate murder.”
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Mr. Slough’s lawyer, Mark Hulkower, said security contractors in Iraq work in “an extraordinarily challenging environment, where the enemy does not wear uniforms, unless disguised as Iraqi soldiers or police to exploit civilians.”
He said contractors “cannot be asked to ignore real threats when making split-second, life-and-death decisions.” And he said he was confident federal prosecutors would find that his client and the other Blackwater guards had acted appropriately under established rules of engagement.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
“To conclude otherwise,” he said, “would cause those now defending against terrorist threats to choose between dying in a foreign country and being branded as a criminal in their own.”
This flat, arid corner of the country, settled by cattle ranchers, is not different from many small towns that propel young men and women into the military. It is a place where working-class people hold traditional ideas about what it means to be an American, where churches outnumber restaurants and children learn to handle weapons not long after learning to read and write.
Several people here said problems with alcohol made it difficult for Mr. Slough’s father, Paul Slough Sr., to hold a steady job. (The father has since died.) They said the younger Mr. Slough grew up quickly, juggling schoolwork and a job roping cattle.
Mike Norrell, Mr. Slough’s former teacher at Patton Springs School, recalled Mr. Slough as a boy who craved learning. He said that while other students memorized lessons, Mr. Slough questioned everything he read.
Rita Brandle, who runs a general store, said: “It was as if the child was the father, and the father was the child. We were happy to see him go off and join the Army.”
Mr. Slough’s military career was relatively brief. Joining in 1999, he served in the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., conducted at least 100 patrols as part of the NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia, and reached the rank of sergeant. After an honorable discharge in 2002, he enlisted in the Texas National Guard, and was deployed to Iraq in December 2004 as part of a personal security detail. He ended his yearlong tour with little more than the medals given to every soldier who serves in Iraq.
Still, James Kirksey and Mr. Thompson, who both served with Mr. Slough, said they looked up to him for his maturity, discipline and intellect. He had a serious bearing and was the kind of soldier, Mr. Kirksey said, who obeyed an order whether he agreed with it or not.
WHEN asked what they knew about Mr. Slough’s reasons for joining Blackwater, they cast about and came up with conflicting theories. Mr. Thompson said money was not a motive, though he acknowledged that Mr. Slough was worried about providing a comfortable life for his new bride. And Mr. Kirksey said the reason was not some chase for glory, though he acknowledged that Mr. Slough had once told him he “wanted to become an officer and lead men.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Both were emphatic, however, in saying that Mr. Slough had not become some kind of cowboy, high on adrenaline and quick on the trigger. They said it was true Mr. Slough liked the hardest assignments, which usually meant he served at the rear of their convoys, perched on a Humvee with his finger on the trigger of a.50-caliber machine gun.
“With some guys at the rear, I’d get nervous about an ambush,” Mr. Kirksey said. “Some soldiers would panic and freeze up. You’d never have to worry about that with Paul.” He added, “But you’d never have to worry about him being jumpy either.”
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Kirksey remembered a mission that took them through a city near Nasiriya. As their convoy turned down a street, bullets were fired from an apartment building in the distance.
“Paul told me that shots were buzzing past his head like bees,” Mr. Kirksey said. “He was standing at a weapon that was strong enough to cut one of those buildings in half. But he didn’t fire a shot.”
“After it was over, I asked Paul, ‘Why didn’t you light into them?’” Mr. Thompson recalled. “He told me because he didn’t have a clear target. He didn’t want to hurt innocent bystanders.”We live in divided times, politically speaking. An agreement on gun control? Budget? The environment? Forget it. The gears of government are so coagulated with bile they’ve all but frozen.
Yet there is one thing that has the right is rallying alongside its hated liberal brethren.
Cannabis.
No, not weed. C’mon, don’t be silly.
More than just a bag of cured bud capable of making noodly guitar jams seem brilliant, the other type of cannabis is, while also scheduled as illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, not psychoactive, unless you count the high that comes from raking in wads of cash.
Industrial hemp, maligned stepbrother to stoner requisite marijuana, is something of a miracle plant.
Its strong fibers can be woven into textiles and ropes that are stronger than cotton and made into biodegradable plastic polymers, paper, concrete, and other building materials. It also can be synthesized into a sustainable biofuel that works in diesel engines.
The seeds of the plant are laden with essential fatty acids such as Omega-6 and -3, can be made into protein rich hemp “milk,” and are so bursting with protein they’re comparable to meat and eggs. Oh, and before you start wagging your finger and muttering about hippies, know that hemp is damn near free of THC, marijuana’s active “get you high” ingredient. It only has about.025 percent of the compound, as compared to the 3 percent to 25 percent THC in its psychoactive cousin’s flowers.
There’s absolutely no threat of tuning in, turning on, and dropping out.
Even as a crop, hemp is a winner.
Naturally hardy, it requires little in the way of pesticides and less fertilizer than corn. As if that isn’t enough, hemp by nature is a so-called mop crop, sucking impurities from the soil.
Case in point: The plant has been used to clean up the soil around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site.
It was also once a mainstay of the U.S. agricultural portfolio, until it became roped in with the antidrug effort and made illegal alongside its hard-partying relative. As the lack of psychoactive properties in hemp have long been known, there are those who whisper the real reason for the demise of the industry lay in a conspiracy to promote then-debutante fiber nylon.
Be that as it may, hemp is back, baby.
Actually, it never really left.
While the persecuted plant is illegal to cultivate domestically, products derived from it are totally OK. And we here in the United States have been the No. 1 global importer of hemp for years, usually sourced from China and Romania.
As cultural predispositions toward marijuana slowly yet inexorably shift, hemp is finding itself again in the spotlight because of its connection to pot, only this time it’s in a good way. While it may be a while before you can legally procure pot in your local bodega, the political push for the legal production of hemp is on, at both a state and federal level. And, proving yet again what a miraculous material is it, hemp is the one thing that seems able to garner bipartisan support.
While hemp is a given in legal-weed states like Colorado and Washington, and soon Oregon, others are jumping on board. Twenty states, including Hawaii, Maine, North Dakota, Montana, Vermont, and conservative bastion Utah have marked industrial cannabis as distinct from marijuana, moving them a step closer to green-lighting production. New Jersey also passed a resolution in support of hemp, though Gov. Chris Christie ultimately vetoed it.
But the real breakthrough is coming at the federal level.
A bipartisan coalition from both the Senate and House of Representatives has rallied behind complementary bills S. 134 and H.R. 525, dubbed the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015, which would require the federal government to respect state laws on hemp cultivation and remove the plant from the Controlled Substances Act.
Championed by 45 lawmakers, including Republicans Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and Thomas Massie, and Democrats Jared Polis, Jeff Merkley, and Earle Blumenauer, the bill is the closest thing to political harmony the Hill has seen in a long, long time.
The reason for this rarest of harmonic convergences?
One word: Jobs.
A pilot program in 2014 permitted states to plant research crops. This one would blow the doors wide open, offering a huge boost in potential for agricultural jobs. Ten times as many jobs as the Keystone Pipeline would be provided 10 years from now, according to Rep. Massie.
The only pushback hemp legalization is experiencing comes from law enforcement officials, who argue that they can’t tell it apart from actual marijuana, though the two plants, after millennia of separate genetic pushing, bear little resemblance to each other.
With agriculture looking to replace tobacco and an increasing need for, and focus on, sustainable materials and biofuels, hemp could be just the savior the American farmer has been seeking.
“Hemp for victory,” indeed.Show, perched in mountains of Karachay-Cherkess republic, features contemporary work from seven Russian and three Austrian artists
After art shows in Moscow have been doused in urine, covered in red paint and picketed by conservative activists, one curator has set up a new exhibition in a remote observatory 900 miles from the Russian capital.
The show, featuring work from seven Russian and three Austrian artists, is “a classic contemporary art experience,” explains curator Simon Mraz. So contemporary that a cleaner almost threw away one of the paintings after mistaking it for rubbish.
The 10 artists visited the 1960s observatory in Nizhny Arkhyz, perched in the mountains of the Karachay-Cherkess republic this summer to learn about astronomy.
The observatory founded in 1966 as the space race was hotting up between the Soviet Union and the US and its six-metre diameter telescope was the largest in the world until 1993 when the US built a bigger one in Hawaii.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The star-themed stained glass roof inside the observatory. Photograph: Kevin O'Flynn
As part of the show Irina Korina, a Moscow based-artist, created three installations in the nearby village, whose name translates as “Science Village” to show that for the local residents science is religion.
The rest of the exhibit, which opened last week, is a broad mix of art rarely shown in the remote region. From Eva Engelbert’s space emblems, created in honour of Galina Balashova the only female architect in the Soviet space programme.
To a neon installation above the observatory reading “they are brighter than us”created by provocative graffiti artist Timofei Radya from Yekaterinburg and only visible to night time visitors.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The offering from provocative artist Radya. Photograph: Timofei Radya
“When they first proposed [the exhibit] we were wary,” said Yury Balega who ran the observatory for more than 20 years, but it turns out “artists and astronomers have a lot in common”.
But some were left questioning whether the artists truly understood the complicated work of the observatory and what it had managed to achieve.
Yevgeny Chentsov, who has worked at the observatory since 1968, described the art as “naive and childlike,” which he meant as a compliment adding that astronomers have a similar approach to their work.
And it was Austrian artist Michail Michailov’s drawing of dust – which was meant to represent the particles the astronomers look at through the telescope – that was nearly thrown away after being mistaken for dust. An incident brushed off by Mraz as “the risk of contemporary art.”.
Mraz would not say exactly how much it cost to put on the show, but he did say that hosting something similar in Europe would cost around €100,000.
A sizeable sum for an exhibition was only seen by a very small audience, 800 residents of the village and the handful of press that attended the opening, but Mraz believes that it still had an impact.
Not only can art help people working in different professions understand each other better, but it can help us “understand what our country is about.... [especially] in times when politicians are getting crazy,” he says.
The curator who has also hosted an art exhibition on an icebreaker in Murmansk, north west Russia, says that in a way remote locations are easier than Moscow: at least “nobody was touching it [and] nobody was destroying it.”Schoolgirls in Pakistan to be given chickens to care for in initiative partly aimed at teaching them about the kitchen
Schoolgirls in Pakistan will be given poultry to care for in an initiative aimed partly at teaching them about the kitchen, officials have said, raising concerns among women’s rights activists in the deeply patriarchal country.
Officials in Punjab said the government in Pakistan’s wealthiest province would initially be providing girls in 1,000 primary schools with four hens, one cock and a cage.
Naseem Sadiq, head of the Punjab government’s livestock department, told Agence France-Presse that the aim was to promote poultry and educate children about nutrition, citing World Bank figures showing Pakistan ranks among the top countries in the world for protein deficiency.
He also said the programme would “train these small girls about kitchen waste” as they would feed their charges leftover food from lunch. “We preferred girls’ schools for this project to boys because girls, mostly, have to deal with the kitchen and they are more responsible and caring than boys,” Sadiq said.
Women have fought for their rights for decades in a Pakistan, where so-called “honour” killings and other violence against women remains commonplace.
Women’s rights campaigner Farzana Bari criticised the project this week for reinforcing stereotypes by sending the message to girls that their role is “limited to the kitchen only”.
“It would be very good if the government focused on boys’ schools more to create... responsibility and equality,” she told AFP. “The government should give [women] new confidence, not make them a typical woman by putting in their minds that they are for the kitchen only.
“By starting such projects in boys’ schools they would also learn about what to do in a kitchen and helping women,” she said.
The programme is due to begin next month.Le Chiffre ( French: [lə ʃifʁ], "The Cypher" or "The Number") is a fictional character appearing in Ian Fleming's 1953 first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. On screen Le Chiffre has been portrayed by Peter Lorre in the 1954 television adaptation of the novel for CBS's Climax! television series, by Orson Welles in the 1967 spoof of the novel and Bond film series, and by Mads Mikkelsen in the 2006 film version of Fleming's novel.
Fleming based the character on occultist Aleister Crowley. (Previously named as Jack Mcgann). [2]
Novel biography [ edit ]
Le Chiffre, alias "Die Nummer", "Mr. Number", "Herr Ziffer" and other translations of "The Number," "The Numeral," "The Figure," "The Cipher," or "The Code" in various languages, is the paymaster of the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace" (French for "Alsatian Workmen's Union"), a SMERSH-controlled trade union.
He is first encountered as an inmate of the Dachau displaced persons camp in the US zone of Germany in June 1945 and transferred to Alsace-Lorraine and Strasbourg three months later on a stateless passport. There he adopts the name Le Chiffre because as he claims, he is "only a number on a passport". Not much else is really known about Le Chiffre's background or where he comes from, except for educated guesses based on his description:
Height 5 ft. 8 in. Weight 18 stone. Complexion very pale. Clean-shaven. Hair red- brown, 'en brosse.' Eyes very dark brown with whites showing all round iris. Small, rather feminine mouth. False teeth of expensive quality. Ears small, with large lobes, indicating some Jewish blood. Hands small, well-tended, hirsute. Feet small. Racially, subject is probably a mixture of Mediterranean with Prussian or Polish strains. Dresses well and meticulously, generally in dark double-breasted suits. Smokes incessantly Caporals, using a denicotinizing holder. At frequent intervals inhales from ben- zedrine inhaler. Voice soft and even. Bilingual in French and English. Good German. Traces of Marseillais accent. Smiles infrequently. Does not laugh. Habits: Mostly expensive, but discreet. Large sexual appetites. Flagellant. Expert driver of fast cars. Adept with small arms and other forms of personal combat, including knives. Carries three Eversharp razor blades, in hatband, heel of left shoe, and cigarette case. Knowledge of accountancy and mathematics. Fine gambler.
In the novel, he makes a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. The investment fails after a bill is signed into law banning prostitution. Le Chiffre then goes to the casino Royale-les-Eaux in an attempt to replace his lost funds. MI6 sends Bond, an expert baccarat player, to the casino to bankrupt Le Chiffre and force him to take refuge with the British government and inform on SMERSH. Bond bests Le Chiffre in a game of Chemin de Fer, taking all of his money. Le Chiffre kidnaps Bond's love interest, Vesper Lynd, to lure Bond into a trap and get back his money. The trap works, and Le Chiffre tortures Bond to get him to give up the money. He is interrupted by a SMERSH agent, however, who shoots him between the eyes with a silenced TT pistol as punishment for losing the money.
Le Chiffre's death is seen by the Soviet government as an embarrassment, which in addition to the death and defeat of Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, leads to the events of From Russia, with Love.
Novel henchmen [ edit ]
Basil – bodyguard and martial arts expert who takes pleasure in roughing up Bond. He is later killed by a SMERSH agent.
Kratt - Le Chiffre's Corsican bodyguard who wields a walking-stick gun with which he threatens to cripple Bond at the gaming table. He is later killed by a SMERSH agent.
1967 film biography [ edit ]
Le Chiffre is a secondary villain in the 1967 satire and appears in one of the few segments of the film actually adapted from Fleming's book. As in the novel, Le Chiffre is charged with recovering a large sum of money for SMERSH after he loses it at the baccarat table. He first attempts to raise the funds by holding an auction of embarrassing photographs of military and political leaders from China, the US and the USSR, but this is foiled by Sir James Bond's daughter, Mata Bond. With no other option, he returns to the baccarat table to try to win back the money. Later, he encounters baccarat Master Evelyn Tremble, who has been recruited by Bond to stop Le Chiffre from raising the money. Le Chiffre attempts to distract Tremble by performing elaborate magic tricks, but fails to prevent Tremble from winning. Afterwards, he arranges for Tremble to be kidnapped and subjects the agent to psychedelic torture in order to get back the money. The torture session is interrupted when his SMERSH masters, led by the film's main villain, Dr. Noah, shoot him dead.
2006 film biography [ edit ]
Le Chiffre is the main villain of the official 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale, portrayed by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Believed by MI6 to be Albanian and officially stateless, Le Chiffre is a financier of international terrorism. M implies that Le Chiffre conspired with al-Qaeda in orchestrating 9/11, or at least deliberately profiteering from the attacks by short selling large quantities of airline stocks beforehand. In the video game version of Quantum of Solace, it is said that his birth name is "Jean Duran", in the MI6 mission briefings. A mathematical genius and a chess prodigy, his abilities enable him to earn large sums of money on games of chance and probabilities, and he likes to show off by playing poker. He suffers from haemolacria, which causes him to weep blood out of a damaged vessel in his left eye. As in Fleming's novel, he dresses in immaculate black suits and uses a Salbutamol inhaler, here plated with platinum.
Le Chiffre is contacted by Mr. White, a representative of an elite criminal organisation known as SPECTRE. White introduces Steven Obanno, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, to Le Chiffre, and arranges to bank several briefcases full of cash for Obanno. Le Chiffre invests the money along with his other creditors' money in the aircraft manufacturer SkyFleet. Though SkyFleet's shares have been skyrocketing, he plans to short the company by purchasing put options, and ordering the destruction of the company's new prototype airliner, set to make its first flight out of Miami International Airport. Bond intervenes and foils the plan by killing the person Le Chiffre hired to destroy the plane. Le Chiffre finds out he lost millions and realises leaked information about his plans.
In order to win the money back, Le Chiffre sets up and enters a high-stakes Texas hold 'em tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro in an attempt to recoup his losses before his clients find out that their money has been misappropriated. Bond is sent to make sure that Le Chiffre does not win back the money; if Le Chiffre is bankrupt, he will be forced to turn to MI6 for asylum, in exchange for information on his creditors and employers.
During the tournament, an angry Obanno and his lieutenant break into Le Chiffre's hotel room and threaten him and his girlfriend, Valenka. Le Chiffre, who does not object to the threatened amputation of Valenka's arm, is granted one last chance to win their money back. As Obanno leaves the room, his bodyguard spots Bond and hears Valenka's cries coming from Bond's earpiece. Bond kills the bodyguard by throwing him over a railing, then chokes Obanno to death after relieving Obanno of his machete. Rene Mathis arranges the blame to be placed on Le Chiffre's bodyguard Leo.
During the tournament, Le Chiffre initially outwits and bankrupts Bond, who cannot get additional funding from HM Treasury accountant Vesper Lynd, who has accompanied Bond to make sure the money is used properly. However, Felix Leiter, a CIA agent sent to participate in the game, also in hopes of bankrupting Le Chiffre, agrees to bankroll Bond, on the condition that CIA is allowed to take Le Chiffre in afterwards. Desperate, Le Chiffre has Valenka spike Bond's drink. Bond almost dies, but, thanks to an antitoxin kit in his car, a defibrillator, and Vesper's timely interference, he is revived at the last moment and returns to the game. During the final round, Le Chiffre's full house bests the hands of the two players preceding him, but loses to Bond's straight flush.
Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, forcing Bond to give chase, and leads him straight into a trap. Le Chiffre leaves Vesper, bound at the feet and hands, in the middle of the road, and Bond is forced to swerve to avoid hitting her and crashes his car.
Semiconscious, Bond is stripped naked and bound to a chair with the seat removed. Le Chiffre proceeds to bludgeon Bond in the testicles repeatedly with the knotted end of a ship's lanyard, each time demanding the password for the account into which the tournament winnings will be transferred. Bond refuses to give in, taunting him with the knowledge that he knows Le Chiffre's clients will track and kill him. Le Chiffre gloats that, even after he kills Bond and Vesper, MI6 will still give him sanctuary in return for information. When Bond refuses to give in, Le Chiffre brandishes a knife and is about to castrate him when he hears gunshots from outside. Seconds later, Mr. White bursts into the room brandishing a handgun. Le Chiffre pleads for his life, but Mr. White nevertheless shoots him above the left eye. To date, he is the only main Bond villain to die before the film's final act.
Le Chiffre is mentioned in the Quantum of Solace and is also seen in a background image inside MI6. Le Chiffre appears in several images in Spectre as it is revealed that he, more or less conscious was an associate of Spectre and Ernst Stravo Blofeld. Blofeld states to Bond Le Chiffre's affiliation with Spectre and how Bond's interference in Blofeld's world caused him to destroy Bond's, implying Bond's foiling of Le Chiffre's and Quantum's scheme led him to enlist Raoul Silva to destroy MI6 and also kill M.
Appearances [ edit ]
Casino Royale (2006)
(2006) Quantum of Solace (2008) – mentioned/seen in a photograph only
(2008) – mentioned/seen in a photograph only Spectre (2015) – mentioned/seen in archive footage and a photograph only
2006 film henchmen [ edit ]
Alex Dimitrios
Carlos
Mollaka
Leo
Bobbie
Jochum
Kratt
Valenka
General Grafin von Wallenstein
Madame Wu
Sheriff Tomelli
Lionel
Ison
See also [ edit ](CNN) Though you undoubtedly inherited your distinctive nose from your parents, its shape was sculpted over time by adaptations to your ancestors' local climate, suggests a study published in the journal PLOS Genetics on Thursday.
There's a great variety in nose variation from person to person, yet if you look at different ethnic populations, you will see differences across groups. For example, the distance between the wings of the nose, also known as "nasal alare," are larger in people of West African, South Asian and East Asian ancestry than in people of European ancestry.
So it's easy to understand why many people, past and present, "have this sense that human populations are very distinct and have been separated for a long time," said Mark D. Shriver, lead author of the study and a professor of anthropology at Penn State University. Still, he noted, "human populations have always split and come back together, split and come back together, so there's no separate origin."
In fact, genetic differences between various population groups is not that great. Using noses as just one example, said Shriver, "the surface, the appearance of people in different populations is much greater than what the genetic differences show on average."
So what accounts for the differences in nose shape across population groups?
Comparison of four separate populations
To answer this question, Shriver and his colleagues selected 2,637 individuals from a database of about 10,000.
They selected people from four populations: North Europeans, South Asians, East Asians and West Africans. Shriver and his team looked at 3-D photos of each individual and examined the width of the nostrils, the distance between nostrils, the height of the nose, nose ridge length, nose protrusion, external area of the nose and area of the nostrils.
"So we have multiple cameras that image a person's face, either simultaneously or in a carefully constructed series, and from those multiple angles, you can derive the shape of a face as a point cloud," Shriver said. The resulting 3-D image allows you to "take careful measurements usually calibrated down to a tenth of a millimeter," he said.
Through complex analysis of the data, the researchers learned that the width of the nostrils and the base of the nose measurements differed across populations more than could be accounted for by genetic drift.
Genetic drift refers to the fact that some people leave behind more descendants (and therefore more genes) than others just by chance and not necessarily because they are healthier or better survivors.
If not genetic drift, then natural selection must have played a hand in the evolution of nose shape in humans. Natural selection refers to the fact that people better adapted to their environment are the ones who survive and reproduce, leaving behind their genes.
"Natural selection is usually divided into ecological selection, simple survival and sexual selection aspects of mate choice and competition," Shriver said.
Exploring how local climate might have contributed to differences in nose shape, the researchers looked at the distribution of nasal traits in relation to local temperatures and humidity and found that the width of the nostrils strongly correlated with temperature and absolute humidity.
Your nose and nasal cavity function as your personal air conditioner, warming and moistening air before it reaches your lower respiratory tract. In the late 1800s, British anatomist and anthropologist Arthur Thomson observed that long and thin noses occurred in dry, cold areas, while short and wide noses occurred in hot, humid areas.
Since narrower nostrils allow the nose to humidify and warm the air more efficiently, this was probably essential in cold, dry climates; people with narrower nostrils probably fared better and had more offspring than people with wider nostrils in locations farther from the equator.
"Some of the nose variation is really the climate; some of it's not," Shriver said, noting that sexual selection played a role, as well, with people choosing mates based on notions of beauty, such as finding a smaller nose more attractive.
"The fact that we find such big male-female differences in all of the nose traits is also consistent with sexual selection having a hand," he said. Still ecological selection and sexual selection often reinforce each other, and the study provides evidence that both types of selection have helped shape the nose.
'Practical application'
The finding might have some practical application, providing important clues in criminal investigations, Shriver said.
"We didn't get into it in this paper, but (the research) is highlighting some of the variety of data we have," he said. He and his colleagues have been creating 3-D photos and collecting measurements and other data on thousands of people for over 12 years.
"The practical application is something we call 'forensic molecular photo fitting': making a phenotypic prediction of a person from evidentiary DNA," Shriver said.
In other words, if a crime victim's identity isn't known, Shriver can deduce what the person might look like based on DNA from their skeletal remains. The appearance of a perpetrator might be based on DNA from some material left behind at the crime scene.
"More than half of my research effort, the end product, will be molecular photo fitting," said Shriver, who offered one example of why there is interest in this application.
"A lot of serial rapists, for example, are not in the national database, CODIS," he said of the Combined DNA Index System, a forensic and technological tool for linking violent crimes maintained by the FBI. "We can link the rapes together, but (the perpetrators are) not in the database, so you don't have the resources to find them.
"If you can make a phenotypic prediction, maybe that face or even that genetic ancestry can be quite helpful in directing the investigation," Shriver said. "A lot of good detectives and police officers really understand the range of variation within different populations."
Oversimplification?
Despite grants from the US Department of Defense and other funding sources, some scientists remain skeptical.
"Although interesting, I think that the study oversimplifies the possible adaptation that has occurred by simply evaluating the external shape," said Dr. Stella Lee, an assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. "The main limitation of this study is that only the external shape of the nose was analyzed rather than actual nasal airflow, humidity and internal nasal measurements."
"The inside of the nose is lined by a multitude of cilia (which look like a shag carpet under the microscope) that are constantly providing clearance of mucus, pathogens and inhaled particulates to the back of the nose by beating in a rhythmic motion," Lee said. "It is amazing that our noses can differentiate between potentially harmful pathogens and innocuous agents."
Still, Lee noted that the authors themselves acknowledged the possibility of oversimplification.
Seth M. Weinberg, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said anthropologists have long been interested in the nose as one example of human adaptation.
Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.
"This study advances our understanding of the complex picture of human facial diversity," said Weinberg, who had no role in this project, though he has collaborated with several of the authors.
The research attempts to connect the "shape of the external human nose to geographically relevant ecological factors" operating throughout our evolutionary past up to the modern day, he said.
"Researchers have only recently begun to uncover the genetic basis of traits like nasal shape in humans," Weinberg said. "Studies like this can help us to frame those genetic findings within a broader context."The Rise and Fall of the Newburgh Conspiracy
How General Washington and his Spectacles Saved the Republic
by George L. Marshall, Jr.
By early 1783, active hostilities of the American Revolutionary War had been over for nearly two years and commissioners Franklin, Jay, and Adams were still negotiating in Paris to establish a final treaty with Great Britain. With a formal peace almost secured and with no fighting to do, the Continental army had grown bored and restless, but Congress had decided to retain it as long as the British remained in New York to ensure that the gains of seven years of fighting would not be lost.
Disillusionment and doubt had been building among many officers of the army, then headquartered at Newburgh, New York. Born out of this growing loss of morale and confidence was a conspiracy to undertake a coup d'etat and establish a military dictatorship for the young United States, a plot to be styled later as the Newburgh Conspiracy. At the last minute, General George Washington, commander in chief of the army, and his reading spectacles intervened and prevented this drastic step from occurring.
Mutinies within the Continental army were nothing new. Major uprisings had occurred in 1780 by Connecticut soldiers and in 1781 by Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops. The Newburgh incident, though, was unique in that it was initiated within the corps of officers, the very elite of the military.
"The Newburgh incident... was initiated within the corps of officers, the very elite of the military!"
What caused these officers to consider so bold a plan, so foreign to the very concepts of democracy and the republic for which they had fought? Primarily, impatience with a Congress that by 1782 was largely without dynamic leadership and, even worse, was bankrupt. The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, gave the Congress power to maintain a wartime army, but not the power to levy the taxes needed to pay it. That power was retained by states unwilling or unable to impose it on their citizens to the extent needed to adequately fund the operations of the new United States.
Thus, by the summer of 1782, Congress had but $125,000 of a required $6 million. It could not pay the interest on loans due its creditors or meet the military payroll. Most states were reluctant to grant Congress authority to raise funds directly. Robert Morris, the superintendent of finances, observed that the Articles of Confederation gave Congress the " privilege of asking everything" while giving the states the "prerogative of granting nothing."
Many soldiers had considerable back pay due them, up to six years worth in some cases. They had not been paid at all in months. Some officers recalled that in 1780, a wartime Congress worried over the loss of the army through desertions and resignations had offered a lifetime pension of half-pay to all officers and a bonus of eighty dollars to enlisted men who would stay with the cause to the end of the war. These promises had been made prior to ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The officers now feared they would be repudiated or repealed, so loud was the public clamor against them, and wondered how an impoverished, ineffectual Congress could live up to those promises.
This distrust of republican government had found voice in mid-1782 in a letter to Gen. Washington from Col. Louis Nicola of Pennsylvania, cogently stating the troubles of the times, |
their competitors in the private sector. Obviously, this profitable connection with the economy is the reason why the Pakistani Army is unwilling to yield to civilian power.
All told, Pakistan has already become “an army with a country” rather than “a country with an army”. It is well established that there are three lakshman rekhas (limiting lines) that the army has drawn for the civilian prime ministers and presidents: One, they would not interfere in any manner in the organisational and administrative work of the armed forces. Two, they would abide by the advice of the army chief on matters of foreign and defence policies. Three, they would not interfere with the army-controlled nuclear weaponisation and missile programmes.
Will Bajwa forgo this legacy and make himself a pliant army chief of the prime minister? It is highly unlikely. There is a remote possibility of any significant shift in the existing civil-military imbalance in Pakistan. And this means that there will be no radical change in the heightened tensions with India. RK Singh is right in saying that Bajwa’s policy will be the “same as followed by his predecessor.”
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.It’s 2015, and — surprise, surprise — women in the legal profession continue to be judged based on the merits of their outfits instead of the merits of their legal arguments. Over the course of the past five years, women have been lectured on “what not to wear” by bar associations, Biglaw firms, law schools, and even federal judges.
This week, yet another state bar association stepped in to advise women lawyers as to the style of their dress. On Wednesday, February 18, the Virginia State Bar held one of its mandatory continuing legal education courses on professionalism in the practice of law for newly admitted attorneys. Course registrants were able to choose from a variety of specialty workshops to attend, from civil litigation to intellectual property, but they also had to attend a general workshop. Little did the lawyers know that they would be receiving a crash course in sexism at the conclusion of the day’s general workshop.
We’ve been told that during the event’s closing remarks, the director of the professionalism course — a woman — decided it was time to pass on some supposed wisdom to the women lawyers who were in attendance, but the advice was apparently being given to them on behalf of the judges before whom they would someday argue in court. The message given made it clear that judges in Virginia do not approve of seeing women attorneys’ cleavage, and further, seeing women attorneys’ legs displayed in court is a grave offense to their ostensibly delicate sensitivities.
It seems that one of the biggest problems facing the Virginia justice system is not its gross prosecution and over-incarceration of minorities, but women lawyers in skirts. Women lawyers in skirts are apparently a huge problem for the judges who preside over the Virginia courts; in fact, women lawyers should strive to wear skirts less often, and if they do choose to wear skirts, they must wear pantyhose. Women who argue before judges in Virginia need to “stop showing off [their] legs” — not to mention their cleavage — as they plainly represent an affront to justice. More than 200 newly admitted attorneys were present earlier this week to witness this groundbreaking news.
Following her assault on women’s fashion on behalf of Virginia’s judges, and perhaps as an afterthought, the event’s director casually mentioned that men should wear socks to court.
Several women who attended the CLE event contacted us to express their shock and outrage with this lecture, but one comment stood out the most to us:
Gee, thanks lady. Socks? Boy I can’t believe it. How dare men show off that ankle bone. I’ll be over here sawing off my legs so that I don’t have to worry about them being perceived as me “showing them off”… here we all were thinking our legs had a function… like for standing or walking. Had we known the Honorable judges of the Commonwealth were so distracted we would have started going full Burka for trials. In this day and age, women shouldn’t be lectured en masse about how the old male judges perceive us. I have yet to see a colleague dressed inappropriately, and not a woman in the room was pleased at the end of our CLE.
No, women do not need to be “lectured en masse” about what they wear, but it happens continuously, and we fear it may never stop until the members of the legal profession realize that women are no longer interlopers in what once was — and is still perceived by many to be — an old boys’ club. The fact that women lawyers at this event were scolded by state judges from afar as to their choice of professional ensembles from nearly head to toe while men were reminded about the need to wear socks speaks volumes about the silent creep of sexism that’s ravaged the culture and inner workings of the legal profession.
Given the repeated commentary and conjecture about what women attorneys wear and the fact that their outfits still speak louder than their oral arguments, we felt it was important to highlight a passage we wrote recently about sexism in the legal profession:
It’s important to note that not every slight against women in law is sexist – but the ones that truly are sting the worst. The simple ability to recognize the sexism that women face in this profession is the first step in being able to overcome it. The unfortunate reality of the situation is that while the legal profession claims to be dedicated to justice, its leaders sit idly by and watch as its female members suffer some of the greatest injustices of all. Stop watching. Do something about it. Entire generations of women in the law have seen the less noble side of this profession. Future generations shouldn’t have to endure more of the same.
We cannot allow continuing legal education courses that are used to support the future leaders of this profession to devolve into the denigration of women attorneys — unless, of course, the continuing legal education we truly wish to provide is that women in this profession will continue to be demoralized based simply on their gender.
Clothes do not make the lawyer, and justice is supposed to be blind. If Virginia’s judges can’t see past what women attorneys are wearing without being “distracted,” we humbly suggest that it may be time for them to hang up their robes and retire.NEW DELHI: China���s cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability. (
The sustained assault almost coincides with the history of the present political disquiet between the two countries.
According to senior government officials, these attacks are not isolated incidents of something so generic or basic as "hacking" ��� they are far more sophisticated and complete ��� and there is a method behind the madness.
Publicly, senior government officials, when questioned, take refuge under the argument that "hacking" is a routine activity and happens from many areas around the world. But privately, they acknowledge that the cyber warfare threat from China is more real than from other countries.
The core of the assault is that the Chinese are constantly scanning and mapping India���s official networks. This gives them a very good idea of not only the content but also of how to disable the networks or distract them during a conflict.
This, officials say, is China���s way of gaining "an asymmetrical advantage" over a potential adversary.
The big attacks that were sourced to China over the last few months included an attack on NIC (National Infomatics Centre), which was aimed at the National Security Council, and on the MEA.
Other government networks, said sources, are routinely targeted though they haven���t been disabled. A quiet effort is under way to set up defence mechanisms, but cyber warfare is yet to become a big component of India���s security doctrine. Dedicated teams of officials ��� all underpaid, of course ��� are involved in a daily deflection of attacks. But the real gap is that a retaliatory offensive system is yet to be created.
And it���s not difficult, said sources. Chinese networks are very porous ��� and India is an acknowledged IT giant!
There are three main weapons in use against Indian networks ��� BOTS, key loggers and mapping of networks. According to sources in the government, Chinese hackers are acknowledged experts in setting up BOTS. A BOT is a parasite program embedded in a network, which hijacks the network and makes other computers act according to its wishes, which, in turn, are controlled by "external" forces.
The controlled computers are known as "zombies" in the colourful language of cyber security, and are a key aspect in cyber warfare. According to official sources, there are close to 50,000 BOTS in India at present ��� and these are "operational" figures.
What is the danger? Simply put, the danger is that at the appointed time, these "external" controllers of BOTNETS will command the networks, through the zombies, to move them at will.
Exactly a year ago, Indian computer security experts got a glimpse of what could happen when a targeted attack against Estonia shut that country down ��� it was done by one million computers from different parts of the world ��� and many of them were from India! That, officials said, was executed by cyber terrorists from Russia, who are deemed to be more deadlier.
The point that officials are making is that there are internal networks in India that are controlled from outside ��� a sort of cyberspace fifth column. Hence, the need for a more aggressive strategy.
Key loggers is software that scans computers and their processes and data the moment you hit a key on the keyboard.
This information is immediately carried over to an external controller ��� so they know even when you change your password. Mapping or scanning networks is done as a prerequisite to modern cyber warfare tactics. MEA has a three-layered system of computer and network usage ��� only the most open communication is sent on something called "e-grams".
The more classified stuff uses old-economy methods ��� ironically, probably the most secure though a lot more time-consuming. The same is true of other critical areas of the government. But the real gap inside the national security establishment is one of understanding the true nature of the threat.
National security adviser M K Narayanan set up the National Technology Research Organization, which is also involved in assessing cyber security threats. But the cyber security forum of the National Security Council has become defunct after the US spy incident. This has scarred the Indian establishment so badly that it���s now frozen in its indecision. This has seriously hampered India���s decision-making process in cyber warfare.ESPAÑA 4 - LUXEMBURGO 0
Las patadas de Luxemburgo en el partido que le enfrentó a España en Logroño. trajeron serias consecuencias. Álvaro Morata tuvo que abandonar el terreno de juego en camilla con evidentes gestos de dolor después de que le cayera encima un jugador de Luxemburgo mientras intentaba rematar. El jugador de la Juventus recibió un golpe en su pierna derecha y su puesto lo ocupó Paco Alcácer en el minuto 30.
Las primeras pruebas médicas en los vestuarios de Las Gaunas no fueron muy positivas. Por eso Morata se desplazó a un hospital de la capital riojana. Allí de descartó que tenga una fractura de peroné tras someter al delantero a unas pruebas radiológicas. Se habló de que Morata podría estar hasta cuatro meses fuera de los terrenos de juego, pero al final sólo fue un susto. Sufre un fuerte traumatismo.
David Silva también se fue lesionado. El jugador del Manchester City recibió una dura entrada por detrás de Lars Gerson, jugador que, además, cayó sobre el tobillo del futbolista español. Sufre un esguince de tobillo.American optimism about the economy is soaring.
For the first time on record, more than half the respondents to CNBC’s All-American Economic Survey rate the economy as good or excellent. Nearly 41 percent say they expect the economy to be better a year from now, near a record high. Combined, this is the most optimistic result since the CNBC survey was launched 11 years ago.
The improvement in both outlook and current sentiment traces to the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. After years of declining outlook numbers and stagnant views of the state of the economy, American views on the economy have been improving at a startling pace.
“We’re not measuring a marginal change in the economy, we’re measuring a different economy,” pollster Micah Roberts told CNBC’s Steve Liesman. “2017 is the year that Americans finally put the recession behind them in terms of their attitudes about the economy, and it took a change in leadership.”
Trump’s popularity is rising with the economy. Forty-two percent of respondents say they approve of the job Trump is doing, a four point improvement since September. Forty-nine percent disapprove, a three point decline, according to CNBC. Trump’s popularity with Republicans has soared, up 10 points since September to 83 percent. Independents are also warming to the president, with more than half now saying they approve of the president’s handling of the economy.The unexpected emergence of complex patterns in an apparently unremarkable dish of muscle cells may give researchers a valuable tool for studying self-organizing systems.
Similar patterns are seen in bird flocks, the Milky Way and even the stock market. For the last two decades, researchers have searched for unifying laws to explain how small-scale interactions lead to common behaviors in very different systems.
“This is a fundamental question of physics: How does order emerge? What is the basis of self-organization?” said Andreas Bausch, a biophysicist at Germany’s University of Munchen. “As a model system, this is as pure as it gets.”
Unlike biologists who use E. coli to investigate genetic rules and rats to study physiological function, self-organization researchers have few model systems. It’s not easy to put a starling flock under glass.
One useful system is the cells of slime molds. Another is vibrating grains of sand. Now Bausch’s team has observed fluctuating waves and spirals — telltale patterns of self-organization — arising in dishes of actin and myosin, the proteins that make up muscle cells.
Cultures of those proteins have been used for decades in studying muscle samples, but Bausch’s team happened to add more fibers than anyone before. “It was pure chance. We just used the fibers at high densities,” said Bausch. The findings were published Sept. 1 in Nature.
The study is a “crucial quantitative, experimental demonstration of the emergence of collective motion and moving density patterns” in a simple system, wrote Curie Institute physicist Jean-Francois Joanny in a commentary accompanying the findings.
According to Joanny, the muscle is simple and easy to manipulate, making it an ideal experimental system for self-organization. The researchers next plan to study how proteins measured in nanometers made patterns visible to the naked eye, and lasting for up to half an hour.
“The really fascinating thing is that the patterns go up six orders of magnitude, and are very stable,” said Bausch. “We want to look at confinement effects, and how boundaries interact. What is stabilizing this?”
Videos: Self-organizing patterns of actin protein filaments./Andreas Bausch.
See Also:
Citations: “Polar patterns of driven filaments.” By Volker Schaller, Christoph Weber, Christine Semmrich, Erwin Frey & Andreas R. Bausch. Nature, Vol. 467 No. TK, September 2, 2010.
“Filaments band together.” By Jean-François Joanny and Sriram Ramaswamy. Nature, Vol. 467 No. TK, September 2, 2010.Skyscrapers could one day generate enough power to offset much of their energy consumption, thanks to a breakthrough by Australian researchers who have moved a step closer to creating solar-cell windows.
For his recently completed PhD, Mark Bissett, from Flinders University’s School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, has developed a solar cell using transparent carbon nanotubes that can be sprayed onto windows.
Carbon nanotubes are cheaper and more efficient than their energy-sapping, silicon-based solar cells, Dr Bissett said. The nanotubes can be applied to windows without blocking light, and are also flexible enough to be weaved into a range of materials.
But the technology is 10 years away from becoming a commercial reality, Dr Bissett said.
While the amount of power generated by solar windows would not be enough to completely offset the energy consumption of a standard office building, Dr Bissett said they still had many financial and environmental advantages.
“In a new building, or one where the windows are being replaced anyway, adding transparent solar cells to the glass would be a relatively small cost since the cost of the glass, frames and installation would be the same with or without the solar component,” Dr Bissett said.
A solar cell is created by taking two sheets of electrically conductive glass and sandwiching a layer of functionalised single-walled carbon nanotubes between the glass sheets, he said.
“When light shines on the cell, electrons are generated within the carbon nanotubes and these can be used to power electrical devices.”
At present, solar power is the most expensive type of renewable energy, Dr Bissett said. “The silicon solar cells we see on peoples’ roofs are very expensive to produce and they also use a lot of electricity to purify.”
But Andrew Blakers, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at Australian National University, said most commercial cells were now “16-18% [efficient]. The record is 25%, SunPower makes 23% cells in large volume.”
Silicon cells typically took two to three years to repay their energy investment, and the time frame was falling as the cells became thinner, he said.
The cost of solar cells had “declined by a factor of three since 2007,” Dr Blakers said. “[Solar-generated] electricity is now in the 10-15 cents per kilowatt-hour range for large systems and about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour for small systems - highly competitive with retail tariffs … and knocking on the door to competitiveness with wholesale electricity from new gas fired power stations, with gas at world parity prices.”Its time for another edition of You Voted. You voted is an on going weekly editorial where we turn to our community and ask you a question relating to the horror genre. We then take the answers and compile them into a Top list aptly named. You Voted!. Last week I asked our over 14,000 Facebook Community members which are your favorite zombie movies which has in turn led to this weeks You Voted: The 15 Best Zombie Films of all Time.
First before we start the list we need to make a very important mention about one man in particular. In our vote one persons name came up over and over again and his was the only name that came up.
If by now you have not guessed George Romero was named in our poll by piles of our community members. We asked what you thought was the best zombie movies and a pile of you simply answered ‘Anything by George Romero’. So since he is clearly not a movie but a film icon he gets an honourable mention at the start of our article and one that is well deserving.
That all said here are the Top 15 films you all voted the Best Zombie movies of All time. Included with each film is a brief overview and a trailer.
#15: La Horde:
A french horror film its about an end of the world battle between gangsters, cops and zombies.
#14: Re-Animator
Starring Jeffrey Combs it is the story of a student at a medical college and his girlfriend who become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of the dead with.
#13: Resident Evil
Based loosely on the hit video game it is about a special military unit that fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into zombies after a laboratory accident.
#12) Dawn of the Dead Remake:
A remake of George Romero’s classic zombie film it is directed by Zack Snyder and stars the talented and gorgeous Sarah Polley. A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
#11) Dead Alive:
Before Peter Jackson was famous for Lord of the Rings he was doing quirky horror films and this is one of his finest films. Dead alive is about a young man’s mother who is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors. Gruesome, funny and over the top its a must see for all zombie film fans.
#10) FIDO:
This Canadian production which stars Bill Connolly and the incredibly hot Carrie-Anne Moss is about as quirky as they get. Timmy Robinson’s best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when FIDO eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family.TEHRAN, Iran — Polling places at schools and mosques in the Iranian capital were crammed today with voters in what has become a surprisingly competitive race to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation’s president.
The campaign pits three major conservatives against a candidate supported by reformers and moderates, with six total contenders handpicked by the country’s premier religious and political authority.
More from GlobalPost: Ahmadinejad 2.0? Conservatives dominate Iran presidential lineup
"I voted for Hassan Rouhani," said Ali Shokrzadeh, a blue-collar worker at a polling station in south Tehran. Despite having largely voted for conservative candidates in the past, a number of people in this poor and working class section of the capital also expressed support for Rouhani.
A moderate, Rouhani made a last minute jump in the polls as reformists threw their weight behind him, and because some conservatives say he appeals to them, too.
"I expect him to create more jobs," said Shokrzadeh, who decided to vote for Rohani since the election campaign began several weeks ago.
At the same poll, homemaker Leila Chamyani said she would vote for conservative Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, who is the current mayor of Tehran. Supporters say they see him as carrying forward the populist programs of Ahmadinejad.
"He cares for people," she said, adding that Ghalibaf built parks and roads in the poorer areas of south Tehran.
If no candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote in today’s polls, a run-off will take place on June 21.
None of the six candidates offer the kinds of criticism of Iran’s political and economic systems made by supporters of the reformist contenders in the 2009 presidential elections. All of those running for the presidency today call for the removal of US sanctions — but not for Iran to change its own position on nuclear power. Neither have they offered specific prescriptions to end high inflation and unemployment.
Still Iranians appear to be voting based on personality, religious beliefs, and the hope for change.
Both reform and moderate forces have rallied in the past week in favor of Rouhani, which may increase voter turnout. Analysts expect high voter participation.
More from GlobalPost: Iranians head to the polls in presidential election
"Despite all the people's complaints, they will not ignore their government," said Elyas Hazrati, general manager of the daily newspaper Etemaad. "They will vote."
The race shifted gears earlier this week when the only reform candidate withdrew in favor of moderate cleric Rouhani. Green Movement reformists, who were brutally repressed after the 2009 elections, joined with moderates to back a single candidate.
"Rouhani has diverse support," according to Mohammad Marandi, an associate professor at Tehran University's Faculty of World Studies. "He has conservatives, a large segment of mainstream reformers and the greens."
By comparison, the conservative camp put forward three candidates who are likely to split the vote: Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Ali Akbar Velayati and Saeed Jalili. One of the conservatives is likely to emerge as a strong candidate given the conservative tilt in some parts of Iran.
Saeed Jalili remains a favorite in Iran's rural areas and among religious hardliners in the cities. Hamid Sheidaee, owner of a store selling religious items, said he voted for Jalili because Rohani "will allow absolute freedom in Iran, even opening brothels."
Candidate Ali Akbar Velayati stresses his role as senior foreign affairs advisor to Supreme leader Ali Khamenei. As a skilled diplomat, his supporters believe Velayati will get sanctions lifted through negotiations.
"He will make the US change its view," said Reyhaneh Ashraf, a Velayati supporter interviewed at a campaign rally.
Preliminary voting results are expected to be announced on Saturday.Former police officer 'doped models then filmed them being sexually assaulted' for porno movies
A former police officer drugged aspiring models and actresses then filmed them being sexually assaulted for his pornography business it was alleged.
Lavont Flanders Jr, 40, is accused of luring women to his Florida base then plying them with spiked drinks before filming them being assaulted by his business partner Emerson Callum, 45.
One woman was told she would get a role in a Paramount film. Another was told she would become the face of a new Bacardi drink, prosecutors claim.
Former police officer Lavont Flanders Jr (right) and business partner Emerson Callum are accused of drugging and sexually assaulting aspiring young models
The sex tapes were sold over the Internet through the Miami Vibes Enterprises, a Miramar company that produces pornography, it was alleged.
Flanders and Callum are charged with conspiracy, human trafficking and distribution of Xanax involving nine victims between May 2006 to February 2011.
Their indictments follow a lengthy investigation that began with Flanders’ arrest in July 2007 by Miramar police.
Investigators brought out boxes of sexually explicit DVDs and photos from Callum's home
Officers arrived at Callum's family home, where he lives with his 81-year-old mother, Myrtle Callum, with a search warrant
Callum was arrested two months later by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The women were given drinks spiked with xanax before being attacked, it was alleged
According to the indictment, as early as May 2006, Flanders - an ex-Miami Beach police officer and bus driver - communicated with the women online posing as a talent scout on sites such as ModelMayhem.com and Blackplanet.com.
He is accused of giving the women drinks spiked with the date-rape drug Xanax while Callum is accused of having sex with them while in a doped state.
The men worked together at least nine times, with Flanders communicating with the women online and later meeting them in South Florida.
None of the women were paid for the filming of the sessions.'Chess Knightmare and Turing’s Dream' makes the claim that there is an upper limit to how good something can be at chess.
'My work also hints that the Elo rating of perfect play may be as low as 3600. This is not far-fetched: if Anand could manage to draw a measly two games in a hundred against any perfect player, the mathematics of the rating system ensure that the latter’s rating would never rise above 3500, and if Gelfand could do it, 3400'.
With standard time controls how close are we to playing in excess of 3600?
If we could get a player playing to a higher standard than this now that would disprove KWRegan claim. If however we can get a player that should be playing at a strength in excess of 3600 but can only play at that strength then we have a good indication he is right.
If you take the wikipedia ratings of 3250-3299 elo at 40 moves in 40 minutes we have Houdini 2.0c on a x64 4CPU has a rating of 3299, Rybka 4 has a rating of 3256.
By some estimates the large Rybka cluster with 296 cores would be 200 points higher that this rating. Though many suggest that this is an overestimate because a human player would do better than this rating difference implies. If this fairly small cluster is not this good a cheap supercomputer like the '10,000-core Linux supercomputer built in Amazon cloud' should be.
There is generally an increase in elo rating of 30-50 points a year. This improvement rate puts a standard computer near the 3600 figure very soon.
Another way to improve playing strength is combining a chess engine with a very good player. This advanced chess where the human makes strategic decisions, possibly just deciding between alternatives the computer finds nearly equal. Advanced chess with a great player seems to improve the engines rating by about 200 points. 'Experts have estimated that the best man-computer teams are able to achieve a performance rating of 3000 on the Elo scale (the world's strongest players are just around 2800'. This 200 elo improvement would put Houdini on a good desktop computer now at 3500. This means at the moment a strong grandmaster with a cluster of computers should be playing at a level of nearly 3700.
A computer could be set to play at an elo rating in the 2700s. If computer draws with the advanced cluster human combination even occasionally that would imply that 3600 really is the upper limit of the elo rating.
At this point we would start noticing that adding more computation does not make for better chess. This happened before with draughts but that was solved which is a different matter.
If in the next few years we find that more computation does not produce better chess is that a datapoint that suggests that adding more computing power will not always result in improved performance the way say 'When will computer hardware match the human brain?' implies it will?
It could be that some things have a level of complexity that is so great that we cannot get all the answers but also are not free form enough that we can keep improving. Chess could be the first in a complexity class of things that the opponent can block your progress no matter how much extra computation you add. Is chess easy enough to draw in that the best human player would draw one in a hundred games against the perfect opponent?Marcline and Fluttershy
Marci: Girl, you are way tougher then you let on. After your first century or so I see you having being a vampire down stat.
Fluttershy: Well thank you but I don’t kno… wait. Century?
Marci: Sure, and hey you got that smart purple friend to keep you company. I just have this crazy old man that likes to kidnap… Hey, you said your purple friend is really good at magic and a princess right? I just thought of something that would be hilarious!
Fluttershy: Yes, um, but, what is this about a century?
Image took about 15 hours total in 3 five hour sessions. Marcline was the hardest part just due to lack of experience drawing humans. I don’t know what else to say. It has been a long time since I did anything and finished it that wasn’t simply a sketch.Bridge Building Stage 1 Created by Phaleg Paintjob Rating: Voting Disabled Number of Views: 3690 Coolness Rating: Voting Disabled Number of Votes: - Image Zoom is enabled on this image. Double click on the image to zoom in, and click and drag to move around. Image Description:
Continuing work on a city themed table with "lots of vertical space" as suggested by my gaming buddy. The bridge is removable for ease of storage. I'm planning about 8 buildings and they will all be based on MDF board. Likely going for a snow theme in the final stages, because that's what I like to think about during these long winters, more cold. Image Tags: City, Game Table, Terrain, Warhammer 40,000
Comments:
No comments have been added yet. Be the first! People love to hear what others think about their projects so please let them know.
You must be logged in to post comments. Share This Image:
Recommended Sizes Thumbnail (up to 100px) Small (up to 320px) Medium (up to 600px) Full sized (1010x607) Forums: Direct Link to this Page (Email, IM): HTML (Websites, Blogs, etc): Dakka Articles: oEmbed (json): Facebook: Share on facebook Twitter: Share on Twitter Reddit: Share on Reddit
Image Details: Resolution: 1010x607 Uploaded: 2015-01-07 02:27:13A significant moment for the game of rugby league will occur at New River Stadium in early March, when the semi-professional London Skolars host the first transatlantic professional sports team, the Toronto Wolfpack.
The shiny, new Wolfpack will arrive full of confidence as they begin what they believe is a quick transit stop in the third tier before moving up to match it with the ‘big boys’ in Super League.
“Success for us in 2017 will be a competition title and promotion and hopefully by 2022 we will have a Super League title under our belt,” said Wolfpack Founder and CEO Eric Perez.
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Reddit Email Share
“I believe that our inclusion will make the game more popular in places like London as well.”
London general manager Jac Davies agrees that Toronto may have a positive influence on a city that has proved a tough nut to crack for rugby league administrators:
“We are incredibly excited to be hosting this historic occasion. We are hoping the event will raise the profile of London rugby league as well as the Rugby Football League’s (RFL’s) new pastures in North America.”
So why has the capital never fully embraced the game of rugby league when they have had a team, the London Broncos, that spent 19 seasons in Super League before being relegated?
In 2016, the average home attendance for the Broncos was 830 people in the Tier 2 Championship, while in Tier 3, the Skolars had an average of 398 people turn up to New River Stadium.
In contrast, the Wolfpack are reporting 3000 season ticket holders at this stage and predicting an average crowd of between 5000 and 7000 for 2017 home games.
Advertisement
Advertisement
“Londoners are spoilt for choice when it comes to entertainment, before you even get to sport,” Davies explains.
“Rugby union has seen several clubs move away from the city in recent years.
“The lack of permanence in rugby league by the London Broncos, who have moved and changed names frequently in the past, may also be a factor.
“Skolars are growing and trying to change that perception, having always played at New River and been known as the Skolars,” Davies says of the club’s professional life, which began in 2003.
“The club has a unique soul and I am sure it will captivate many more fans in the years to come.”
London Skolars began its amateur existence as the Student Rugby League Old Boys in 1995, and the club is still deeply involved with higher education, running a partnership program with Barnet and Southgate college.
“This is something we are immensely proud of. A lot of our player development pathway students are converted to professional players,” Davies says.
“Not all make it but we are happy that all have a good education at the end of the program whatever happens.
Advertisement
Advertisement
“We are looking at the long term. The majority of our players are Londoners, we have a thriving youth and community program and we see a very bright future for rugby league in London without having to look north for players and supporters.”
Despite there being teams from the Midlands, South England, Wales and France in the RFL’s professional divisions, a perception remains with many Londoners that rugby league is the ‘northern game’.
Perez believes the Wolfpack can help change this.
“There are historical prejudices in England about the game. Once we are are successful and the rest of the world embraces it they might stop being so snobby about rugby league,” Perez says.
“At this stage we have more season ticket holders than both London clubs put together.
“I am sure the Round 1 game at New River Stadium will be a sellout and I believe at least half of the crowd will be Toronto fans.”
Davies also hinted at a possible sell out at the 5000-capacity stadium.
“Ticket sales are unprecedented at this stage. There is a lot of interest in this game for obvious reasons,” the Skolars GM says.
Advertisement
Advertisement
“We have done a lot of work on our marketing and sales functions during the off season.”
Skolars, who have a dual registration agreement with the London Broncos, have ambitions to move upwards albeit in a slower, steadier manner than their Canadian opponents.
“Why not a Super League berth for the Skolars,” Davies exclaims.
“We do believe in sustained and organic growth however. That said, we won’t be sitting on our hands. We will always compete for promotion whether that be from League One or the Championship.”
Toronto and London are important cities for future of rugby league development. The success of their different approaches will become apparent over the next few seasons.
The next big test for both clubs will be Saturday, March 4, at New River Stadium in London. Game commences at 3pm.
I have my ticket.Silverton, CO — Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spilled over a million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas river in Colorado. This is, of course, ironic considering the fact that the EPA is the government organization that typically prosecutes people for crimes against the environment. In this case, however, the EPA has declared that they are above the law and free from any type of fines or prosecution.
By: John Vibes
This article first appeared at FreeThoughtProject.
The waste was spilled from an abandoned mine shaft and has now contaminated large stretches of water and connecting rivers that reach into various bordering states. Over 3 million gallons of wastewater containing a number of toxic chemicals is now destroying untold miles of precious waterways.
To make matters even worse, the EPA actually had a warning about this a week prior to the disaster. A week prior to the spill, retired geologist Dave Taylor wrote a letter to the editor in “The Silverton Standard” pointing out that the EPA was planning a maneuver that could potentially cause toxins from mineshafts to flood into rivers. He also suggested that the EPA was aware of the possible outcomes, |
super blast-out weekend, an extended weekend with Todd, and we just recorded tons of little interworking cells, where you have all these different layers sort of in a minimalistic way, where you could have it all going at once or have these little bits. He’s also really great at sampling, reusing and shifting, so he did a bunch of that, and I would add to it, and we would go back and forth. I think it worked out pretty well.
Paste: Before we move on to Faults, is the process for you as a composer different for a documentary as opposed to a narrative, or is it similar?
McIntosh: It’s interesting, I kind of feel like you’re always dealing with a story. Aside from the fact that sometimes in documentary work there is a bit more score, that works as a bed throughout the whole thing, not all the time but that can happen. Overall, you’re still just supporting the story of the film, so in that way it’s not really any different at all, I’d say. I do feel that sometimes there will be a wash of score that can exist that will get us from the boat to the this to this. I do really think it’s how do you carry the story on. With Vessel, you know they’re kind of on the high seas. It’s very sort of Greenpeace pirate thing they’re doing. It’s kind of action-y; you wanna get that momentum going so it’s fun to see that fall into place when they’re doing all their…shaking things up, we’ll say.
Paste: And then Faults. Tell me about, sort of what I was said before, different things with different films and what each film needs. What did Faults need?
McIntosh: With this one, it’s funny because I saw his short play about a year ago. And his short has no music in it—The Cub has absolutely no music in it. But I went up to him right after the screening and was like “if you ever do anything, if you ever do a feature…” And it is a great short. You can find it on the internet. I was so excited about that, and he said at the time “I am working on a feature, but I don’t see any score in the film.” Then, right before this festival adventure, I got an email from him and we hopped on board.
So I knew it was coming from a place where he expected there to be no music at all, but I got to really play around in that sound design space. Which is so fun for me, because I come from an electronic music composition background, sort of an artsy-fartsy kind of place. To get to pitch-shift down cellos to the point where they just sound like room tone, to get to have that kind of fun and have it be so easy where it’s just like “Yes!” I just think there was also a matching of the minds immediately. It didn’t take much to get to the right place.
But he also really knew what he wanted, so it wasn’t ever a question. We could have the talk, “Oh I think you should take out this one voicing,” and I’m so flexible when it comes to stuff like that. I’m not precious with my music. I don’t want to be heavy-handed with a score. If it doesn’t need to be that kind of character in the film, it should be pulled back. There is absolutely no reason for me to hear more notes if they’re not necessary. I feel like it’s really effective. There is a lot of framing, there are some through-composed parts of the score where it’s like, this is music, it feels like music, and you’re not questioning whether or not it’s sound design. It’s a good mix to be able to put on both of those hats, the scoring composer hat and then to just be a weirdo. It’s a happy, happy place for me, to be a little bit of a weirdo. So, it was great, it was exactly the right thing to get involved in and at the right time. It just felt so easy and fresh, and it’s a really great film too.
Paste: Have you seen the finished film?
McIntosh: Yes, yes. I saw it just last night. I went for the mix, which was great too, but there were still some last steps that needed to be made at that point. So, to see the finished film with all of its color correction and everything was really fun.
Paste: How was the audience reaction?
McIntosh: I think they liked it. They responded really well, and it was crowded, which is great. It had the right feeling and I think everyone was really on board. You know it’s funny, but it’s dark. It gets pretty dark, but it’s pretty funny too. His timing is just great, and it’s all very intentional. Everything is on purpose, and I think that everything that is on purpose works.
Paste: Is Riley [Stearns] excited?
McIntosh: I think he’s excited, yeah. His whole family was in town for the screening. I guess they live sort of slightly outside of Austin, which is cool. I think it was successful. I feel really good about it.
Paste: So, tell me what you have next on the docket. What are you working on next?
McIntosh: Well, I’m about to start working on a feature. I don’t know if I should talk about it yet…
Paste: A mystery feature.
McIntosh: I’m working on a mystery feature that I am traveling across the country to record. I’ve been working a whole bunch, so I’m going across the country and I’m recording all these tracker organs, old-timey pipe organs, and recording some choral music and about ready to get up some cool stuff. I’ll tell you about it really soon.
Paste: So, where can Paste readers track down what you’re doing and follow you?
McIntosh: I have a website that is my name, it’s just heathermcintosh.com, that’s me! Easy-peasy.About three months ago, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah decided to send his elite military units to Syria to support the military efforts of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in facing opposition forces. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov reported that Nasrallah had told him, when he met with him on April 27 during a visit to Lebanon, "I intervened in Syria to save the regime, which was on the verge of collapse."
Hezbollah's participation in the battle of Qusair — which, according to sources here in Beirut, included approximately 3,000 fighters — led to a change in the balance of the military conflict in Syria in favor of the regime.
According to a Hezbollah source speaking with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, it was assumed that, according to the plan, the regime would continue its cooperation with Hezbollah to gain control of the outskirts of Damascus, via a battle in eastern and western Ghouta, as well as through beginning another battle in the Qalamoun region. The latter is adjacent to the Lebanese border facing the western Bekaa valley, and is characterized by rugged terrain. It was also assumed that these two battles would be followed by a battle for Aleppo, which is seen as a battle that would, to a large extent, decide the overall internal Syrian conflict. However, this plan, by which the Syrian army — along with strong operational military support from Hezbollah — would take the reins of the military battle, stopped the day after the US declared that it was prepared for a military strike against the regime against the backdrop of Western accusations that it had used chemical weapons in the Damascus countryside.
Within Hezbollah, this development is seen as a very dangerous turning point affecting all paths of the Syrian crisis from its outbreak until now. The same source said that the international dimension of the Syrian crisis has entered a new phase. Its role is transforming into direct intervention in the events, whereas it previously involved indirect action through providing arms and intelligence to the Syrian opposition. But that same source said that the expected Western military strike will bring the whole region into the conflict and will result in the collapse of red lines. For US President Barack Obama isn't the only one in the region who has red lines. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also has red lines, most importantly preventing the fall of the regime in Syria and protecting the Islamic resistance in Lebanon.
The Hezbollah source believes that, at this moment, the region is heading toward a conflict between Obama's red line and Khamenei's opposing one. It is worth recalling here that an official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, an institution characterized as the strongest and most ideological in Iran, threatened that if Syrian comes under attack from the West, the fire would reach Israel.
Three scenarios
Sources close to Hezbollah clarified to Al-Monitor that the party, in the event of an American attack, would likely act according to one of the following scenarios:
1. At a minimum, Hezbollah would help to protect cities in areas where the regime has regained control, to prevent any attempt by the opposition to take advantage of the results of the US strike to make progress on the ground in Syria.
2. The next, middle-range option would be for Hezbollah to resort to directing a security message at Washington, through carrying out special security operations. The nature of such operations cannot be predicted at this time, because they would be intended as surprises in the war. The party, however, would only resort to this option when Hezbollah, and first and foremost Iran, were certain that the American strikes were not limited in time and aimed at providing military cover for the opposition's movement on the ground.
3. Finally, at the extreme end, Hezbollah would bomb Israel if it became clear to Tehran that Washington was military engaged in a battle to bring down the regime.
A broad alliance
One can confidently predict that the Syrian regime will not be alone in facing any Western strike, or even an American invasion, in the event that things developed for the worst. During the last year of conflict in Syria, the forces defending the regime have not been limited to the Syrian Arab Army, but rather standing beside it — and sometimes in front — were tens of thousands of fighters from Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As the conflict shifts from a battle within Syria to a war with American and Iran, these [foreign groups] will take the opportunity to demonstrate that their cause is justified, and that the accusations that they are fighting with the regime against the will of the Syrian people are incorrect. This battle will emphasize that they are fighting on the correct front, which is legitimate and consistent with their doctrine that is hostile to America and Israel and their ambitions in the controlling the region.
No observer can imagine that the start of a US war on Syria would not have repercussions on neighboring countries, particularly Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah is no long a party that is merely affected by the development of events in Syria. Rather, following its announcement that it was involved in the fighting there, it became a concerned party, and assumed responsibilities for the management of the country's conflict equivalent to those assumed by the Assad regime itself.
There is information that the party, during recent hours, has raised its level of mobilization and alert among all units, whether those in Syria or in Lebanon. The party is preparing itself to fight on two fronts at once, in both Syria and Lebanon.
At the heart of this fight, which is expected to erupt within the next few days, will be the prominent role played by the possession of rockets. This comes as part of the embodiment of the Iranian threat, which warned that any Western strike on Syria would lead to igniting the fire in Israel. In a statement made on Aug. 27, Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan said, "A strike on Syria would threaten the security and stability of the region." Moreover, the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that using military means against Syria would have severe repercussions on the entire region.
In light of the current circumstances, Hezbollah is in a very complicated position. On the one hand, it is facing an internal attack from numerous Lebanese political forces that accuse the party of being responsible for dragging the security repercussions of the Syrian crisis into the Lebanese interior. On the other hand, it faces an intense regional political and media attack from the Arab Gulf States, which accuse it of working for Iran, against the interests of the Lebanese people and against the will of the Syrian people wishing to overthrow the Assad regime. From another, fundamental angle, Hezbollah is finding that it may now be forced to fight on two fronts at the same time: against a broad military coalition of NATO countries — led by the US — and against Israel. The arena for such a conflict would stretch from Syria to Lebanon, from the Syrian-Turkish border all the way to Lebanon's border with Israel.
This means that the party must spread its forces — which comprise more than a hundred thousand fighters supported by missile systems, including ground-to-ground missiles, ground-to-sea missiles and perhaps ground-to-air missiles, using the type that are carried on one's shoulders — throughout this entire area that could ignite following an expected Western strike on Syria.
There are military experts in Lebanon who expect that, in the event such a war began, it is likely that Hezbollah would demonstrate surprising military capabilities, such as those demonstrated in the 2006 war. In particular, a Hezbollah land-to-sea missile hit an Israel battleship that was bombarding Beirut from off the Lebanese coast. Moreover, Hezbollah used Russian anti-tank Kornet missiles to stop Israeli tank attacks in al-Khayyam, which resulted in heavy losses.
Hezbollah sources revealed to Al-Monitor that the party prefers, as a result of the strategic developments witnessed in the Near East following the Syrian events, to be a partner in a regional and international war, instead of fighting a war with Israel by itself. In the latter case, it would be forced to fight with only weak logistical support from Syria, given Damascus' preoccupation with its own internal problems. Yet, in the case of a regional war, it would be part of a broad front along with Syria, and would receive the same support that the Assad regime is receiving from Iran and Russia.
These same sources revealed that Hezbollah is now realizing that its decision to fight in Syria was correct. Had it continued to follow a disassociation policy regarding what was happening there until this point, this would have led to a catastrophe when when the US announced that it is coming to the region with its allies to strike Hezbollah's strategic partner. These sources concluded by saying that the most dangerous thing that could have happened would have been for the Iranian axis in the Near East to allow America to isolate its parties. Now, however, the parties of this axis stand over a unified field. A response to "US aggression" will not occur only on Syria territory, but on a front stretching from Syria's border with Turkey all the way to Lebanon's border with Israel.Many of those beloved “ethnic foods” Americans crave so much—Mexican, Chinese, Italian—were actually invented or popularized in the good old USA.
1. General Tso’s Chicken
Photo courtesy jensteele's Flickr photostream
Who is General Tso and why is his chicken everywhere? No one seems to know. While there was a General Tso (or Zuo Zongtang) in 19th-century China, little about him suggested he was a whiz at whipping up deep-fried, sweet ‘n’ spicy chicken. Especially since, by the time it first appeared, he wouldn’t have been alive to taste it.
An influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States in the early half of the 20th century created a need for somewhere to grab some Chinese cuisine. Ordinary Americans, however, didn’t cotton to traditional Hunan cuisine, so one enterprising chef (one Peng Chang-kuei, according to the claims) battered and deep-fried the chicken, and then added sugar to offset the spicy element. Thus, General Tso’s Chicken was born.
2. Nachos
Photo courtesy jeffreyww's Flickr photostream
Sure, tortillas are a Mexican thing, but tortilla chips--and the practice of putting random toppings on them—that’s all-American, baby. Tortilla chips came out of the true mother of invention: needing to sell leftover scraps. The El Zarape Tortilla Factory took their misshapen and unsellable tortillas, cut them up, fried them and sold them for a dime a bag. One man’s trash is another man’s golden fried treasure.
The combination of tortilla chips and melted cheese, however, took place in a Mexican border town. As the story goes, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, maître d' of the Victory Club, was closing up the restaurant when a dozen wives of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan across the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, wandered in after a day of across-the-border shopping. Having little to offer, Anaya ran back to the kitchen and threw together chips, cheese and sliced jalapeno. When the delighted ladies asked the name of the dish, Anaya proclaimed, "Nacho's especiales." The dish became so popular that Anaya gave up the maître d' life to open his own Nacho restaurant. The invention of Nacho-flavored spray cheese is a story for another day.
3. Cashew Chicken
Photo courtesy Kominyetska's Flickr photostream
This Chinese restaurant staple can be traced back to the least Chinese of places: Springfield, Missouri. Chef David Leong, who emigrated from China to Missouri in 1940, struggled to turn his fellow Missourians onto traditional Chinese cuisine. Then he noticed how much the people of Missouri loved their fried chicken. Leong deep-fried chunks of chicken, tossed some oyster sauce and cashews on top and suddenly had a winner. Most places you go now offer the non deep-fried variation. Ask for “Springfield-style Cashew Chicken” and you’ll get the battered and deep-fried original.
4. Spaghetti with Meatballs and Garlic Bread
Photo courtesy Jessica Spengler
Sure, you will find spaghetti noodles in Italy. Red sauce and meatballs too—though not the comically oversized meatballs Americans are accustomed to. What you'll have a harder time finding in Italy is the combination of all three on one plate.
As for garlic bread, the closest thing Italians have to it is bruschetta. After WWII, returning soldiers came back with a hankering for the wondrous bread they enjoyed abroad. To meet the new demand, American restaurants whipped up their own version: toasted white bread with garlic and margarine.
5. Fortune Cookies
Photo courtesy Beth Kanter
The humble fortune cookie has a number of origin stories, none of them beginning in China. Some say it was invented in Los Angeles by baker David Jung back in 1918. He handed out the cookies to homeless people, each containing an uplifting biblical passage within.
Another tale claims the prophesizing pastries came from Japanese landscape architect Makoto Hagiwara. In 1907, Mayor of San Francisco James Phelan fired Hagiwara for the offense of being Japanese. A public outcry followed and when Hagiwara was reinstated, he supposedly created little cookies with “Thank You” messages tucked inside for all the people of San Francisco.
What is known for sure is the Lotus Fortune Cookie Company began spitting out the machine-made edible oracles by the late 1960s. China didn’t get a taste of the fortune cookie until it came to the country in 1993, sold as "genuine American fortune cookies,” and thus cementing the cookie’s place in fake Chinese lore.How to make your House spawn Multiple Pokemon at once – Theory
If you could get your house to spawn multiple Pokemon each hour?
It’d be totally awesome if you can get your house to spawn multiple Pokemon every hour? I have theory for that and it should work since at some point it worked for me and once it works for you, please comment below and let me know!
I live in a rural area and no Pokestop for 33 KM or 20.5 Miles, so when I made Pokemon Go account, out of all place in my area, my house spawns 1 Pokemon every hour, afterward I got my wife and my sister to play the game as well, they made the account from same location at our house, so now the spawn rate for Pokemon at my house is 2-3 Pokemon per hour.
So my theory is Niantic has installed a specific feature in their system for Pokemon, that will spawn Pokemon wherever a Pokemon Go account is made and Geo Location is on, because if that’s not the case then think about it, rural area players will have no spawn at all since there aren’t many Pokestop or players.
So the idea is, if you made a Pokemon Go account at your place while your Geo Location is activated, the place will spawn one Pokemon each hour, since you only made one account there.
Rest Theory On Page 2by
Florida has a special connection to the ocean.
The state is home to the Florida Reef, the third largest living coral reef in the world and the only one found in the continental United States. Many of its professional sports teams are aquatic themed (Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example).
So it’s no wonder that a Florida craft brewery in Delray Beach was the one to come up with an edible six-pack ring to help save marine life from being entangled or ingesting in plastic debris.
Saltwater Brewery and We Believers—an advertising agency in New York—developed the durable packaging solution for six-packs from spent grain from the brewing process. The resulting product is claimed to be not only biodegradable, but also edible for fish and other sea life.
Saltwater Brewery “Edible Six Pack Rings” from We Believers on Vimeo.One step closer to each other
Dailymotion link:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4p134t_testing-bonds-without-phones-part-2_fun
Download link:
https://mega.nz/#!uMRHlAaJ!GJ14nSrsDc_-8mIF6GSfO8oqYJ2kafcjQrQSdTNdp6o
Hey!
Thanks for waiting. Since you’ve been around for the teasers and part 1 already I’m not going to go into detail what the episode is about. If you’ve been waiting for both parts to come out, well you have 1 hour of gaki infront of you. Hopefully you’ll laugh your hair off, that’s what I always say.
For recap of the synopsis look for previous posts or read it on the website. Click here.
Testing bonds without phones part 1. Click here.
Thank you so much for the support, everyone on snapchat. The very nice person who sent us a photo of them snacking away on some “Frisk” mints. Haha, I loved that.
For now, enjoy the episode/episodes!
Have a great day!
Discuss this episode hereWe all know the facts.
Free-market capitalism is dangerous. It's run by a whole lot of bad, powerful people, and it hurts a whole lot of people who don't deserve to be hurt.
So much for the obvious. Now what?
Our movie, The Yes Men Fix the World, will help answer that question. It opens this Wednesday in New York City - and if it doesn't become the first film run shut down by the NYPD, it'll be the most action-packed week in New York film history.
The film's story is simple: two guys, armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, infiltrate the world of big business, where we make a lot of bad, powerful people really uncomfortable.
You'll see us knock $2 billion off Dow Chemical's share price, expose New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for the corporate lackey he is, and show some of the most powerful free-market spokesmen to be C-level liars.
Around you in the theater you'll hear spontaneous cheering, multiple bursts of hysterical laughter, a few sniffles, and the occasional thud of an audience member rolling in the aisles. If past screenings at Sundance, Berlin, and many other places are any guide, you'll also see a standing ovation, and, as the lights go up, a room of people visibly eager to rise up and fight.
For five years, we worked hard to make a film that would make people feel that way. It worked, which makes us happy. The fact that Sunday's New York Magazine called it a "glorious testimony to the moral power of satire" and "outrageously entertaining" makes us happy too.
But WANTING to rise up isn't enough. A cinema isn't a town hall, popcorn isn't paving stones, and change doesn't come from people sitting together in a dark theater.
What matters is what happens when the movie is over, and the audience takes to the streets.
That's exactly what they're going to do after seeing our movie, this week in New York, and then, two weeks later, nationwide.
We can't tell you exactly what'll happen each night. But we can give you some hints, at least for the week ahead in New York.
Wednesday's premiere (October 7) will be the national launch of "Balls Across America," the preview of which made a big splash on CNN thanks to New York's boys in blue. Assorted stars and starlets, fitted with their own custom " Survivaballs," will waddle off to wreak havoc on unsuspecting climate criminals. (These things are remarkably hard to put handcuffs on!)
The next day (Thursday) we'll lead a rowdy-as-usual crowd from the 8pm screening across town to the "Hijinx" Premiere Party at the Delancey, hosted by some of New York's most revved-up muckrakers. Interestingly, a massive new Whole Foods sits smack dab in the middle of that crosstown march - providing a great opportunity to make Whole Foods CEO John Mackey continue regretting his recent reactionary comments on health-care reform. (Do big-box stores have stupidity insurance?)
Opening weekend kicks off with a Friday matinee screening hosted by the Raging Grannies, Granny Peace Brigade and Gray Panthers. These elders get arrested blocking access to recruitment centers and otherwise putting their bodies on the line against militarism and war profiteering. Who will bear the brunt of the Grannies' rage Friday? Come early to find out.
Friday's 8pm screening is hosted by Reverend Billy, the Green Candidate for mayor of New York City, and his ever-rambunctious choir. The Reverend, who's been arrested more than 40 times, has a stubborn habit of using humor, gospel, and civil disobedience to fight grave injustices. Only blocks away from the Film Forum theater sits one particularly blatant example of injustice. Is levitation really a myth? Buy tickets now to find out!
Saturday night the ruckus goes international, with simultaneous screenings in three foreign cities featured in our film: Bhopal, Calgary, and New Orleans. (OK, New Orleans isn't really a foreign city, but you wouldn't guess it from how the US government continues to treat Katrina's victims.) Each of these screenings, plus post-screening fracas, will be hosted by a group we either worked with in the film, or were inspired by: the Sambhavna Clinic (Bhopal), the Arusha Centre (Calgary), and Common Ground (New Orleans).
But New York is only the start. Beginning October 23, "Balls Across America" will visit dozens of cities across this great, weird land of ours. See www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com/screenings.htm for full schedule.
Sweeping positive changes have only come to America when there's been a progressive President, pushed to do the right thing by large numbers of rowdy citizens. (Think FDR and the New Deal; think LBJ and the Civil Rights movement.)
Today, we've got the progressive President. Now all we need is to vote with our feet, and enable him to do what we elected him for.
Our film is a small part of a movement to help make that happen. Another part is BeyondTalk.net - a website we recently launched in collaboration with a dozen direct-action activists. The idea is to get 10,000 folks to sign the "Climate Pledge of Resistance" and risk arrest to demand sane climate-change policy. On November 30, the tenth anniversary of the Seattle protests, and a week before the Copenhagen climate talks, those 10,000 activists will form the largest civil disobedience action in recent protest history.
Please join us on this big, crazy trip. And on the way, please see our film and learn how you too can have a riot while fixing the world.Over at Lawfare, Ken Anderson released the public comment on Section 702 the NSA Civil Liberties and Privacy Office have submitted to the Privacy and Civil Liberties and Oversight Board. Anderson notes that the comment doesn’t appear to be online yet, and the name of the Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer, Rebecca Richards, doesn’t appear on what Anderson posted (though that may be Lawfare’s doing).
The statement, generally, makes me sad. The comment repeatedly backed off including known, even unclassified details about Section 702, and as such this doesn’t so much read as an independent statement on the privacy assessment of the woman at the NSA mandated with overseeing it, but rather a highly scripted press release.
I will probably do a piece on some potential holes this statement may indicate in NSA’s oversight (though it is written in such hopeless bureaucratese, we can’t be sure). But for the moment, I wanted to point to what, in my opinion, is the most glaring example of how scripted this.
The statement describes back door searches this way:
Since October 2011 and consistent with other agencies’ Section 702 minimization procedures, NSA’s Section 702 minimization procedures have permitted NSA personnel to use U.S. person identifiers to query Section 702 collection when such a query is reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information. NSA distinguishes between queries of communications content and communications metadata. NSA analysts must provide justification and receive additional approval before a content query using a U.S. person identifier can occur. To date, NSA analysts have queried Section 702 content with U.S. person identifiers less frequently than Section 702 metadata. For example, NSA may seek to query a U.S. person identifier when there is an imminent threat to life, such as a hostage situation. NSA is required to maintain records of U.S. person queries and the records are available for review by both OOJ [sic] and ODNI as part of the external oversight process for this authority. Additionally, NSA’s procedures prohibit NSA from querying Upstream data with U.S. person identifiers.
The only new piece of information provided here is that the NSA conducts more back door searches on 702 metadata than on 702 content.
But then the statement immediately provides the most defensible example of back door searches — searching for a US person’s identifier in content when they’ve been kidnapped, a scenario that derives from a pre-PAA problem with NSA’s kludged FISC approved program. Notably, this scenario is almost certainly not a metadata search! This is also the same scenario used by Dianne Feinstein’s aides in November to obscure the true extent of the searches, suggesting it is a propaganda line NSA has developed to spin back door searches.
What I find so frustrating about this statement is how it compares with statements others have already made … to PCLOB.
In November, for example, after ODNI General Counsel Robert Litt admitted that the Intelligence Community treats back door searches of 702 data (and probably, EO 12333 data) like they do all “legally collected” data, NSA General Counsel Raj De admitted that NSA doesn’t even require Reasonable Articulable Suspicion to do searches on US person data, because doing so would involve adopting a higher standard for back door searches than for other data.
Raj De: Our minimization procedures, including how we handle data, whether that’s collection, analysis, dissemination, querying are all approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. There are protections on the dissemination of information, whether as a result of a query or analysis. So in other words, U.S. person information can only be disseminated if it’s either necessary to understand the foreign intelligence value of the information,evidence of a crime and so forth. So I think those are the types of protections that are in place with this lawfully collected data. [Center for Democracy and Technology VP James] DEMPSEY: But am I right, there’s no, on the query itself, other than it be for a foreign intelligence purpose, is there any other limitation? We don’t even have a RAS for that data. MR. DE: There’s certainly no other program for which the RAS standard is applicable. That’s limited to the 215 program, that’s correct. But as to whether there is, and I think this was getting to the probable cause standard, should there be a higher standard for querying lawfully collected data. I think that would be a novel approach in this context, not to suggest reasonable people can’t disagree, discuss that. But I’m not aware of another context in which there is lawfully collected, minimized information in this capacity in which you would need a particular standard.
Then, in March, Litt objected to requiring court review before doing back door searches (and he was asked specifically about back door searches of US person data, though he reportedly tried to back off the application of this to US persons after the hearing) because the volume of back door searches is so high.
[Retired DC Circuit Judge] Patricia Wald: The President required, or, I think he required in his January directive that went to 215 that at least temporarily, the selectors in 215 for questioning the databank of US telephone calls–metadata–had to be approved by the FISA Court. Why wouldn’t a similar requirement for 702 be appropriate in the case where US person indicators are used to search the PRISM database? What big difference do you see there? Robert Litt: Well, I think from a theoretical perspective it’s the difference between a bulk collection and a targeted collection which is that– Wald: But I would think that, sorry for interrupting, [cross-chatter] I would think that message since 702 has actually got the content. Litt: Well, and the second point that I was going to make is that I think the operational burden in the context of 702 would far greater than in the context of 215. Wald: But that would– Litt: If you recall, the number of actual telephone numbers as to which a RAS–reasonable articulable suspicion determination was made under Section 215 was very small. The number of times that we query the 702 database for information is considerably larger. I suspect that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would be extremely unhappy if they were required to approve every such query. Wald: I suppose the ultimate question for us is whether or not the inconvenience to the agencies or even the unhappiness of the FISA Court would be the ultimate criteria. Litt: Well I think it’s more than a question of convenience, I think it’s also a question of practicability.
Admittedly, Litt’s answer refers to all the back door searches conducted by the Intelligence Community, including the both the CIA and FBI (the latter of which other reporters seem to always ignore when discussing back door searches), as well as NSA. So it’s possible this volume of back door searches reflects FBI’s use of the practice, not NSA’s. (Recall that former presiding FISC Judge John Bates admits the Court has no clue how often or in what ways the Executive Branch is doing back door searches on US person data, but that it is likely so common as to be burdensome to require FISC involvement.)
Still, the combined picture already provided to PCLOB goes well beyond the hostage situation provided by the Privacy Office statement.
Even the President’s comment about back door searches in his January speech appears to go beyond what the NSA statement does (though again, imposing new limits on back door searches for law enforcement purposes probably speaks primarily to FBI’s back door searches, less so NSA’s).
I am asking the Attorney General and DNI to institute reforms that place additional restrictions on government’s ability to retain, search, and use in criminal cases, communications between Americans and foreign citizens incidentally collected under Section 702.
We are slowly squeezing details about the reality of back door searches, so I wasn’t really relying on this statement in any case.
But it’s an issue of credibility. The Privacy Officer, to have a shred of credibility and therefore the PR value that Obama surely hopes it will have, must appear to be speaking from independent review within the scope permitted by classification restraints. That hasn’t happened here, not even close. Instead, Rebecca Richards appears to speaking under the constraint of censorship far beyond that imposed on other government witnesses on this issue.
That doesn’t bode well for her ability to make much difference at NSA.HBO’s horse-racing series Luck, is proving distinctly unlucky for the Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) cable network.
The series, which starred Dustin Hoffman, was canceled last March after several horses died while filming. Now the network is being sued by a former employee of the American Humane Association (AHA), who alleges that the network abused the horses during production and tried to conceal the mistreatment, The Hollywood Reporter notes.
Barbara Casey alleges that the network used sick and underweight horses while filming the show under AHA monitoring. She is suing both HBO and the AHA in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking unspecified general and punitive damages.
According to Casey, HBO deliberately confused the identification of horses used on the show to prevent AHA observers from tracking their condition. Casey says that the AHA knew about horse abuse on Luck’s set. She also claims she was fired from her job as the AHA’s director of production, after she resisted network pressure not to report the mistreatment of the horses.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO denied the claims and insisted that it had complied with safety protocols and humane treatment standards.
Shares of Time Warner rose fractionally in Thursday morning trading.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The Daily Mail, one of the cheerleaders of the anti-equal marriage press has accepted that David Cameron has been “brave” and is “acting on principle” with his proposals to make same-sex marriage equal. The paper argues though that it is the wrong battle for him to fight.
Last year, Mr Cameron told the Conservative Party conference: “to anyone who has reservations, I say this: Yes, it’s about equality [equal marriage], but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other.
“So I don’t support gay marriage in spite of being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.”
In an editorial in today’s Daily Mail, the newspaper says: “The Mail unreservedly accepts that David Cameron’s brave stand on gay marriage is based on principle.
“He genuinely believes homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals.”
|
support and ensure the governability of the country.The Cubbie Coaster Continues
The Chicago Cubs split their four game set against the Marlins, as the offense sputters again in Miami.
Ross Adams Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 26, 2017
Image By Floyd Pruitt via Flickr
It’s sadly becoming too much of a theme for the 2017 Chicago Cubs, the inconsistent play from day to day continues to plague any sort of winning streak and continues to make fans question if the Cubs will ever pull away from the Central Division in 2017.
Photo By Li Phil via Flickr
Once again the pitching was pretty solid on Sunday afternoon, a first inning error by shortstop Addison Russell would prove to be the biggest blow of the game, as three runs would come across in the first inning for Miami. Addison would then leave the game with shoulder tightness, he’s day to day. The big hit of the inning came on a Martin Prado’s two out double that scored Justin Bour and Marcell Ozuna. Mike Montgomery would go on to pitch a solid game though, giving up just 3 runs (none of which were earned) and four hits across six innings at Marlins Park. Another quality outing for Montgomery and this starting rotation on Sunday, but spoiled again by an inconsistent offense.
It’s not like the Cubs didn’t have their chances in this game, Anthony Rizzo came up twice with the bases loaded, but could only deliver a sacrafice fly in one of those plate appearances to bring home Tommy La stella from third. It was encourging at the time as the Cubs cut the lead to 3–1 in the fourth inning. The next inning the Cubs would get one more on a Tommy La stella sacrafice fly to center to score Willson Contreras from third and cut the lead to 3–2. It was another good sign for the Cubs seeing how they came back from down 3–1 the day before, but the Cubs couldn’t muster much else the rest of the game.
This game was frustrating to say the least considering that the Cubs walked seven times and out hit the Marlins eight to five in the game, the Cubs just couldn’t get a big hit all game, as has been the theme this year. Some costly mistakes also cost the Cubs the game today, in the seventh inning a missed hit and run from Contreras had Ian Happ dead to rights on a steal attempt to second, it was Joe Maddon’s way of trying to stay out of the double play that has haunted this offense as well. The Cubs split the series with Miami and take the overall series four games to three over the Marlins for the year.
Photo By Li Phil via Flickr
Unfortunately it doesn’t get any easier for the Cubs as they head to Washington to face one of the best rotations in baseball and one of the best offenses in baseball. The Cubs are now a 1 1/2 behind Milwaukee in the division. First pitch is set for 7:05 E.T. in D.C. on Monday night. It’ll be Cubs’ right hander Eddie Butler squaring off against National left hander Gio Gonzales.
Ross Adams grew up watching the Cubs on WGN in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina and has become as loyal and diehard as they come to baseball on the North Side of Chicago. Ross is pursing an English degree and Journalism minor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.White supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, spurring a wave of violence that left 19 injured and at least one dead after a car plowed into anti-racist counter-protesters.
Donald Trump, addressing the situation from his private golf club in New Jersey, declined to condemn white nationalism and instead said the blame for the violence lies with “many sides.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country, not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it’s been going on for a long, long time,” Trump said at a previously scheduled event for veterans.
Trump went on to say that he had spoken with Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA), and they agreed that hate and division “must stop” and that Americans must come together with “true affection” for each other. At no point did he condemn white nationalism or white supremacy.
This was also true of Trump’s tweets, which failed to mention what actually prompted the violence.
We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Other politicians of the president’s party didn’t have issues calling out the people who were responsible.
My statement on the events in Charlottesville this weekend: pic.twitter.com/68YWWDFk6Z — Rep. Dave Brat (@RepDaveBrat) August 12, 2017
What " WhiteNatjonalist" are doing in Charlottesville is homegrown terrorism that can't be tolerated anymore that what Any extremist does — ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 12, 2017
Former KKK grand wizard David Duke, who attended the demonstration, said the goals of the white supremacists were shared by Donald Trump.
Advertisement
Asked what the day represented to him, Duke told the press: “This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back, we’re going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back, and that’s what we’ve got to do.
Two days ago, one of Trump’s top advisors, Sebastian Gorka, argued that people should stop criticizing white supremacists so much.
UPDATE: White House spokesman once again refuses to name white supremacists, emphasizes that Trump was not singling them out for criticism.When Texas Sen. Ted Cruz kicked off his campaign for President on Monday morning, he wanted the audience of college students gathered for his announcement at Liberty University to know he is just like them.
While recounting his biography (inexplicably in the third person), Cruz told the crowd: “He took over $100,000 in school loans, loans I suspect a lot of y’all can relate to, loans that I’ll point out I just paid off a few years ago.”
Cruz may feel their pain, but that doesn’t mean he’s making it any easier for others to pay their loans off.
In fact, Cruz was one of many Senate Republicans who voted last year to block a bill that would have allowed more than 25 million Americans to refinance their student loans at lower interest rates. Republicans opposed the bill, called the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, because its Democratic backers proposed using a boost in taxes on the wealthiest Americans to cover the cost of allowing millions to refinance their loans, political blog The Hill reported at the time.
The Cruz campaign didn’t immediately respond to our request for a comment.
As the Washington Post points out, Cruz’s nod to his debt on Monday was part of a larger narrative about the presidential hopeful as someone who came from little means, struggled and eventually achieved the American Dream. Student debt is an issue that’s likely important to many potential voters, given that about 40 million Americans are saddled with student loans worth a total of more than $1 trillion.
Still, some in the audience didn’t totally buy Cruz’s pitch, according to a sampling of messages on Yik, Yak, an app that allows people within a given location to communicate anonymously. As Business Insider pointed out, a user in the Liberty area wrote, “Thats right, mention paying off debt so you seem accessible to the college crowd.”
Get a daily roundup of the top reads in personal finance delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Personal Finance Daily newsletter. Sign up here.The Informer’s 50 NBA Blogs In 50 Nights Day 11: What Happened To The Oklahoma City Thunder?
by
DAY 1 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7 DAY 8 DAY 10
WOW!!! UNREAL!!! VERY LOUD CURSE WORDS!!!
As you can tell, The Informer is not really sure which words best describes how he feels about the Memphis Grizzlies stunning Game 5 100-99 overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Maybe the word should be scared, considering The Informer’s pick to represent the Western Conference in the 2014 NBA Finals is now one loss away from going fishing for the summer.
(The Informer note – Before we continue with this long winded rant trying to figure out what is wrong with the Thunder, The Informer wants to take a second and give the Grizzlies some credit. For four straight games they have played their game their way, executed their offense and they have come away with victories three out of the four times. The Grizzlies are winning these games just as much as OKC is losing them.)
Needless to say, after watching every game of this series The Informer is absolutely baffled by what is going on with OKC.
I mean: What in the hell has happened to Kevin Durant? Why has he turned into a worse version of Tayshaun Prince? And How come OKC has stopped running an offense, instead deciding to rely strictly on isolation jump shots? What happened to the team in the regular season that drove the ball, found the open man, and knocked down open shots? Most importantly: Why have the Thunder started four straight games with zero energy, emotion or sense of urgency? Don’t they realize this is the 2014 NBA Playoffs?
Did you know that last night was the second time in this series OKC has found themselves down by 20 points in the third quarter? Seriously, how is that possible? One of the best offensive teams in the NBA is getting run off the court by the normally offensive challenged Memphis Grizzlies. Please, someone, explain how this makes any sense.
The Informer honestly has no answers. This isn’t like last year when it was Durant versus the world. No this year the Thunder are at full strength, with Russell Westbrook doing Russell Westbrook things (Including an incredible triple-double in Game 5) and yet OKC still has no answer for the Grizzlies defense.
Watching this series it almost seems like OKC is going into these games thinking they are going to win because they are the Thunder, so they coast for the first 2 ½ quarters trying to get by on their “Good-Looks” (jump shots/lazy defense) before realizing that they are getting run out of the building. Then just as the game appears out of hand, OKC kicks it into high gear and tries to crawl their way back into the game.
My question is: Why are they waiting to kick it into a higher gear? Why not start the game with the same intensity they have for their comebacks? The weird part about the lack of intensity is the Thunder have been to the NBA Finals before, so they should know what kind of effort is needed to win in the playoffs. And yet, they are not giving that effort on a night to night basis.
The good news, even with their lack of energy, it is still not time to panic. The Informer has been saying it all series and it is still holds true now; Oklahoma City is the better team. They just need to play with energy for four quarters instead of waiting until midway through the third when they are down by twenty.
Also, the one positive for the Thunder heading into Game 6 is that we have seen the Grizzlies ceiling. They do not have any more gears. This is the team you are going to get in Game 6. As for OKC, we have yet to see their best game which means they still have an extra gear to kick in. And if The Informer were a betting man, his money would be on seeing that extra gear in Game 6.
Like The Informer said the other day; every championship team faces adversity. Well, this Thunder team is facing their adversity a little sooner than expected, but at least they still have time to answer the challenge. They just need to get back to playing their game.
In other words, it is time for KD and his teammates to “Thunder-Up”.
AdvertisementsFreelance writer and academic Anthony Oliveira, known by the Twitter handle @meakoopa, has been suspended from Twitter, prompting a backlash from followers who contrast the decision with what they see as Twitter’s continued failure to combat the rise of the violent alt-right and the prevalence of anti-LGTBQ hate speech on its platform.
The suspension appears to have occurred no more than a few hours ago, and was brought to wider attention by the popular account @skullmandible. His first tweet about the suspension has more than 200 retweets as of this writing, and a hashtag, #freemeakoopa, shows the issue bubbling up throughout Twitter’s LGBTQ and literary communities.
important queer voice and academic anthony olivera banned by twitter the morning after pride weekend. are you serious @twitter #freemeakoopa pic.twitter.com/bZ48evHNeZ — Cohen KING OF GHOSTS (@skullmandible) June 13, 2017
Update: Oliveira told The Verge in an email, “I have no idea what the ban is for... Twitter has provided no explanation whatsoever; I awoke to the account locked. No emails or DMs have been sent. I can see people replying to my @, however, and am very appreciative of their remarks.”
One of Oliveira’s supporters, who did not wish to be quoted by name, explained the situation that followers believe led to the @meakoopa suspension. They posit a theory that Oliveira was suspended for doxxing someone who was trolling him.
The supporter recalls a college student tweeting a photo of himself and his girlfriend with the hashtag #PrideMonth and a caption along the lines of “celebrating my heterosexuality.” That tweet was followed with taunts about how straight people don’t feel the need to “flaunt” their sexuality. Oliveira reportedly responded by quote-tweeting this post with “Many congratulations to you and your sister.” That led to an argument with the original poster, with Oliveira eventually using the real names of the poster and his girlfriend. The poster, according to the anonymous @meakoopa follower, deleted the original tweet and locked his account.
Hey, unsuspend @meakoopa's account. It's a travesty that homophobes constantly abuse us and tell us to kill ourselves. and nothing happens — tone (@catfashionshow) June 13, 2017
Silicon Valley ghouls like @jack aren't your friends and are silencing queer voices on Twitter while letting white supremacists roam free pic.twitter.com/iA6I2cWUsL — Michael ️ ☭ (@AQueerComrade) June 13, 2017
hey @twitter bring back @meakoopa immediately. you let nazis run roughshod over your site but you ban a queer academic? are you KIDDING ME — Cohen KING OF GHOSTS (@skullmandible) June 13, 2017
A second follower of @meakoopa told The Verge via Twitter DM that the original poster had included an Instagram link in his Twitter profile, which contained his real name: “The rumor with [@]meakoopa is that he used the real names of a straight couple he was making jokes about… And because it's technically against [Twitter’s terms of service] and [@]meakoopa has plenty of enemies on the right / alt-right, they could mass report and get him suspended.” Others have tweeted the same theory, but it’s important to emphasize that Twitter has not confirmed this as the inciting incident for the suspension.
Technically, this would be the same type of behavior that resulted in some of Twitter’s most public prior suspensions — a user with a large following identifying another user by name can be seen as encouraging harassment and abuse. Supporters have argued the intent is different, and that Oliveira is a vital voice on the platform.
Hey @Support and @jack thousands of LGBT look to @meakoopa as a leader & voice for the marginalized; what you did is horrifically tone deaf. — John? (@JohnnyOatley) June 13, 2017
According to Siddhant Adlakha, a critic at the film site Birth. Movies. Death, which recently published an essay on The Babadook Pride Month meme written by Oliveira, Twitter hasn’t provided Oliveira with any information about why he was suspended. (Oliveira confirmed when reached for comment.)
@TwitterOpen, an official Twitter account dedicated to the platform’s LGBTQ community, tweeted “Looking into it!” in response to one of the complaints.
Twitter cited, as it has historically, “privacy and security reasons” when declining to comment.
Update: Oliveira’s account has been restored.
twitter suspended me bc I was impolite to straight people mocking the Pulse massacre.
they have not apologized and I will not apologize. — ANTHONY OLIVEIRA (@meakoopa) June 14, 2017
Correction: A previous version of this article said that a tweet from @TwitterOpen had been deleted, but it has not.
Update June 13th 6:16 PM EST: Updated to include statement from Oliveira.
Update June 14th 12:18 PM EST: Updated to include Oliveira’s tweet.As Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman read the sentence, Ky’Andrea Cook’s mother dropped to the floor of the courtroom and wailed. The howls of grief from Cook’s mother were so loud that the judge had to later restate the sentencing for the clerk: 20 years for on a carjacking charge, 15 years for attempted carjacking with a deadly weapon and 15 years for a battery felony. The sentences are concurrent. As part of her plea agreement, a conspiracy charge was dropped. That charge carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. The plea didn’t challenge prosecutors’ assertions in March, when she was a Mainland High School student, Cook lured Perry Nida, a 27-year-old Palm Coast man, to a meeting in South Daytona where he expected to sell her some marijuana and then they would have sex. Nida brought 17-year-old Immanuel Pursel from Palm Coast, who ended up shot by Cook’s boyfriend who was waiting to rob them, investigators said. Cook was arrested April 27 in connection to two violent carjackings and the March shooting of the teen. Detectives believe Cook and several accomplices used the “MeetMe” phone app to lure victims to an area where they would be carjacked, South Daytona police Lt. Dan Dietrich said at the time. When Nida and Pursel went to meet Cook the night of March 22 in South Daytona, Nida became suspicious and hid the marijuana in a bush before picking Cook up, the report states. When she got into the truck, Cook told Nida she had to go get money, and when she returned, a man with a mask got into the backseat. Posted By PSmoothTurkish-origin German footballer Mesut Özil has reportedly held talks with Turkish giant Fenerbahçe over a potential transfer in the next few years.
According to a report published on Hürriyet daily, the Arsenal midfielder was in Istanbul in December to discuss a future transfer that might happen in the next three years with the Fenerbahçe administration.
Özil previously expressed his desire to play for the Istanbul team in an interview he gave to Sabah newspaper last July. "In the future I want to wear a Fenerbahçe shirt. It would be an honor. Everyone knows I am a Fenerbahçe fan," the Arsenal star had said.
Özil still has two years left on his current £130,000-a-week with the North London team as he has become a key figure for Arsenal with 18 goals he scored in the Premier League.However, the Times acknowledged that political circumstances did play a role in the paper's usage calls. "As the debate over interrogation of terror suspects grew post-9/11, defenders of the practice (including senior officials of the Bush administration) insisted that it did not constitute torture," a Times spokesman said in a statement. "When using a word amounts to taking sides in a political dispute, our general practice is to supply the readers with the information to decide for themselves. Thus we describe the practice vividly, and we point out that it is denounced by international covenants and in American tradition as a form of torture."
The Times spokesman added that outside of the news pages, editorials and columnists "regard waterboarding as torture and believe that it fits all of the moral and legal definitions of torture." He continued: "So that's what we call it, which is appropriate for the opinion pages."Want to be published by Penguin, the historic press which is home to authors including Roald Dahl, Beatrix Potter and Kathryn Stockett? Now you can be – and for as little as $99 (£60), as Penguin's American arm announced a move into self-publishing.
Penguin USA will provide the service through its genre-fiction online community, Book Country, which launched in May offering wannabe authors the opportunity to post their work online and receive feedback. With 500 works of romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery and thriller now online from 4,000 members, and "a small number" of those members having secured literary agents, Penguin has decided to provide "a direct path to publication for those who choose to go the self-publishing route".
"A growing number of authors simply want to go directly to readers with their books. We respect that new reality and the changed landscape that technology has brought to book publishing," said Molly Barton, president of Book Country and Penguin's global digital director. "Self publishing is a trend that isn't going away." Penguin's announcement follows the news last week that Amanda Hocking had become the second self-published writer to sell over 1m ebooks on the Amazon Kindle, after John Locke.
Costing between $99 and $549, depending on whether the writer wants to format their ebook themselves or plump for a "professional print and ebook" option, the Book Country self-publishing option will give writers 70% of the sale price of a book priced above $2.99, and 30% of a book priced between 99c and $2.95.
Penguin chief executive David Shanks said the service was part of Penguin's commitment to maintain "its leadership position" in digital publishing. "That includes offering self-publishing services that are consistent with our overall strategy of connecting a broad variety of writers to the reading public," he said. "With its focus on nurturing and supporting new voices, Book Country is the perfect vehicle for introducing a new kind of self-publishing that offers a more professional product and provides guidance that isn't currently available from other players."
Although Penguin said it was the first of the "big six" publishers to move into self-publishing, HarperCollins, through its Authonomy online writing community, does point writers towards Amazon's self-publishing platform, CreateSpace.
Shanks told the Wall Street Journal that Penguin could offer the most successful self-published authors a contract, but Barton was adamant that authors who failed to pick up a contract with Penguin would not be directed towards the publisher's new self-publishing arm. "It wouldn't be appropriate" to "suggest a path that involves fees" to a rejected writer, she said.
Harry Bingham, a bestselling UK author who also runs editorial consultancy The Writers' Workshop, raised concerns about a traditional publisher dabbling in self-publishing. "I think it's dubious," he said. "I don't have an issue with self-publishing, but I do think that the big traditional publishers are about editorial excellence, and as soon as you start to blur the boundaries and suggest it is all a question of marketing, you are in a way denigrating what your company stands for."
But Bingham, who works with would-be writers every day through The Writers' Workshop, expects other mainstream publishers to announce similar projects in the near future. "The issue for me is how do you as a publisher be really clear about the importance of editorial standards on one hand in your main business, and on the other hand say 'you can do it, have a go, it's fine'?" he asked. "It'd not quite clear how they will make that separation and serve both communities. One of those offerings is going to somewhat contradict the other."
Popular titles on Book Country currently include the romance Rescue Me, in which "a country girl in the big city gets involved with a sexy Latin city boy when she agrees to help with a pair of abused horses", the science fiction novel Pathfinder, Lost ("the galaxy is huge. It's a bad place in which to lose your way. The human heart is just a small and fragile thing – but it's a far worse place to be lost in") and the fantasy The Forces of Heaven and Hell Alike, in which "Liam enjoyed being a demon, gathering souls and feeding his coffee addiction. But with a risky love life and an archangel out to get him, life wasn't perfect."Innocent websites were blocked and labelled phishers on Wednesday following an apparent conflict between OpenDNS and Google's Content Delivery Network (CDN).
OpenDNS - a popular domain name lookup service* - sparked the outage by blocking access to googleapis.com, Google's treasure trove of useful scripts and apps for web developers. According to reports, a flood of errors hit pages that used Google-hosted jQuery and hundreds of thousands of sites fell over.
Visitors to websites were confronted with a message saying: "Phishing site blocked. Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to get you to provide personal information under false pretenses."
Other visitors were greeted with a 404 error, aka the dreaded 'file not found' message.
Web design and hosting specialist Brit-Net, whose operations director Mat Bennett captured the phishing error message here, told The Reg the outage lasted for nearly three hours.
As sites and service providers struggled to get back online they employed fallback scripts and re-routed traffic to Microsoft's rival CDN. Brit-Net was among those updating its code to point to Microsoft.
The cause of the problem with OpenDNS seemed to be the googleapi.com security certificates, according to Bennett and this article advising on working around the problem.
The fact the issue popped up suddenly on Wednesday would suggest that engineers at Google had been fiddling with SSL certificates or made some other change that conflicted with OpenDNS. Google was not available for comment at the time of publication.
Bennett told The Reg that one consequence of the outage for his company is that it would institute a system that sets Google as the default but would switch to Microsoft's CDN if Google's system drops out in future to save having to manually tweak web apps. ®
Bootnote
* DNS, for the uninitiated, is the vital system that points browsers at the correct servers when given a human-readable address, such as facebook.com or theregister.co.uk. Although ISPs provide DNS services for their customers, punters can opt to use alternative providers, such as OpenDNS.New Mexico State's Marvin Menzies, UC Irvine's Russell Turner, former UCLA coach Ben Howland and Denver Nuggets assistant Lester Conner are four names popping up in connection with the
men's basketball job that came open Monday after the
.
Athletic director Bob De Carolis, speaking about Robinson's dismissal and where the Beavers go from here in a press conference Monday afternoon, said he is looking for a top recruiter and competitor who will get students to earn their degrees. He said the Beavers do not have a candidate in mind and did not intend to hire a search firm at this point.
Here is more information on the four names cited above:
Marvin Menzies:
A UCLA alumnus, he has been at New Mexico State since 2007.... Considered one of the best recruiters in the nation.... Prior to New Mexico State, was an assistant under Louisville's Rick Pitino for 2 seasons.... Prior to Louisville, was an assistant at UNLV (one year), USC (one year), San Diego State (four years).
: A Hampden-Sydney alumnus, he has been at UC Irvine since 2010, signed a contract extension in November that runs through the 2017-18 season.... Prior to Irvine, was an assistant for the Golden State Warrior's Don Nelson for 6 seasons.... Prior to Golden State, was an assistant at Stanford (2000-04) and Wake Forest (1994-2000).
: A Lebanon, Oregon, native, he hasn't coached since being fired by UCLA in 2013. Led the Bruins to seven NCAA Tournament berths in 10 seasons, three consecutive Final Fours, four Pac-12 regular season titles and two Pac-12 Tournament championships.... Prior to UCLA, was head coach at Pittsburgh for four seasons, and Northern Arizona for five.... Also served as an assistant at UC Santa Barbara for 12 years. Related: See
to get back in the game.
A former Oregon State star, he has been an NBA assistant and scout for 15 years, currently with the Denver Nuggets. Previously with the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. Played for Ralph Miller's Oregon State teams.A high IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test. The largest and oldest such society is Mensa International, which was founded by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware in 1946.[1]
Entry requirements [ edit ]
High IQ societies typically accept a variety of IQ tests for membership eligibility; these include WAIS, Stanford-Binet, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, amongst many others deemed to sufficiently measure or correlate with intelligence. Tests deemed to insufficiently correlate with intelligence (e.g. post-1994 SAT, in the case of Mensa and Intertel) are not accepted for admission.[2][3][4] As IQ significantly above 146 SD15 (approximately three-sigma) cannot be reliably measured with accuracy due to sub-test limitations and insufficient norming, IQ societies with cutoffs significantly higher than four-sigma should be considered dubious.[5][6][7]
Societies [ edit ]
Some societies accept the results of standardized tests taken elsewhere. Those are listed below by selectivity percentile (assuming the now-standard definition of IQ as a standard score with a median of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 IQ points). Notable high IQ societies include:
Name Established No. of members Approx. no. of countries Fees Eligibility Approx. IQ Intertel 1966 1,300–1,400 (as of January 2014) 31 Annual dues are $39 Top 1 percent (99th percentile; 1 out of 100) 135 Mega Society 1982 26 (as of January 2014) Unknown Annual dues are $39 Top 0.0001 percent (99.9999th percentile; 1 out of 1,000,000) 171.3 Mensa International 1946 ~134,000[8] (as of May 2017) 100 Annual dues as of November 2017 for American Mensa are $79 (dues differ by country); life membership cost varies by age Top 2 percent of population (98th percentile; 1 person out of 50) 130 Prometheus Society 1982 ~120 (as of January 2014) 13 Annual dues are $10 Top 0.003 percent (99.997th percentile; 1 out of 30,000; not reliably measurable with current tests) 160 Triple Nine Society 1978 1,800+ (as of November 2017) 46 Annual dues are $10; life membership is $183 Top 0.1 percent (99.9th percentile; 1 out of 1,000) 146
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]I had an opportunity to meet Ted Neward at TechEd this year. Ted, among other things, famously coined the phrase "Object-Relational mapping is the Vietnam of our industry" in late 2004.
It's a scary analogy, but an apt one. I've seen developers struggle for years with the huge mismatch between relational database models and traditional object models. And all the solutions they come up with seem to make the problem worse. I agree with Ted completely; there is no good solution to the object/relational mapping problem. There are solutions, sure, but they all involve serious, painful tradeoffs. And the worst part is that you can't usually see the consequences of these tradeoffs until much later in the development cycle.
Ted posted a much anticipated blog entry analyzing the ORM problem in minute detail. It's a long post. But unless you're a battle-scarred veteran of the ORM wars, I highly recommend at least skimming through it so you're aware of the many pitfalls you can run into trying to implement an ORM solution. There are a lot of magic bullets out there, and no shortage of naive developers.
Ted's post is excellent and authoritative, but it's a little wordy; I felt like I was experiencing a little slice of Vietnam while reading it. Let's skip directly to the summary at the end which provides an great list of current (and future) solutions to the ORM problem:
Abandonment. Developers simply give up on objects entirely, and return to a programming model that doesn't create the object/relational impedance mismatch. While distasteful, in certain scenarios an object-oriented approach creates more overhead than it saves, and the ROI simply isn't there to justify the cost of creating a rich domain model. ([Fowler] talks about this to some depth.) This eliminates the problem quite neatly, because if there are no objects, there is no impedance mismatch.
Wholehearted acceptance. Developers simply give up on relational storage entirely, and use a storage model that fits the way their languages of choice look at the world. Object-storage systems, such as the db4o project, solve the problem neatly by storing objects directly to disk, eliminating many (but not all) of the aforementioned issues; there is no "second schema", for example, because the only schema used is that of the object definitions themselves. While many DBAs will faint dead away at the thought, in an increasingly service-oriented world, which eschews the idea of direct data access but instead requires all access go through the service gateway thus encapsulating the storage mechanism away from prying eyes, it becomes entirely feasible to imagine developers storing data in a form that's much easier for them to use, rather than DBAs.
Manual mapping. Developers simply accept that it's not such a hard problem to solve manually after all, and write straight relational-access code to return relations to the language, access the tuples, and populate objects as necessary. In many cases, this code might even be automatically generated by a tool examining database metadata, eliminating some of the principal criticism of this approach (that being, "It's too much code to write and maintain").
Acceptance of ORM limitations. Developers simply accept that there is no way to efficiently and easily close the loop on the O/R mismatch, and use an ORM to solve 80% (or 50% or 95%, or whatever percentage seems appropriate) of the problem and make use of SQL and relational-based access (such as "raw" JDBC or ADO.NET) to carry them past those areas where an ORM would create problems. Doing so carries its own fair share of risks, however, as developers using an ORM must be aware of any caching the ORM solution does within it, because the "raw" relational access will clearly not be able to take advantage of that caching layer.
Integration of relational concepts into the languages. Developers simply accept that this is a problem that should be solved by the language, not by a library or framework. For the last decade or more, the emphasis on solutions to the O/R problem have focused on trying to bring objects closer to the database, so that developers can focus exclusively on programming in a single paradigm (that paradigm being, of course, objects). Over the last several years, however, interest in "scripting" languages with far stronger set and list support, like Ruby, has sparked the idea that perhaps another solution is appropriate: bring relational concepts (which, at heart, are set-based) into mainstream programming languages, making it easier to bridge the gap between "sets" and "objects". Work in this space has thus far been limited, constrained mostly to research projects and/or "fringe" languages, but several interesting efforts are gaining visibility within the community, such as functional/object hybrid languages like Scala or F#, as well as direct integration into traditional OO languages, such as the LINQ project from Microsoft for C# and Visual Basic. One such effort that failed, unfortunately, was the SQL/J strategy; even there, the approach was limited, not seeking to incorporate sets into Java, but simply allow for embedded SQL calls to be preprocessed and translated into JDBC code by a translator.
Integration of relational concepts into frameworks. Developers simply accept that this problem is solvable, but only with a change of perspective. Instead of relying on language or library designers to solve this problem, developers take a different view of "objects" that is more relational in nature, building domain frameworks that are more directly built around relational constructs. For example, instead of creating a Person class that holds its instance data directly in fields inside the object, developers create a Person class that holds its instance data in a RowSet (Java) or DataSet (C#) instance, which can be assembled with other RowSets/DataSets into an easy-to-ship block of data for update against the database, or unpacked from the database into the individual objects.
Ted quickly posted a followup entry which addressed common criticisms of his original post. If you have an itchy left mouse finger poised over the "comment" link right now, you may want to read that first.
Personally, I think the only workable solution to the ORM problem is to pick one or the other: either abandon relational databases, or abandon objects. If you take the O or the R out of the equation, you no longer have a mapping problem.
It may seem crazy to abandon the traditional Customer object – or to abandon the traditional Customer table – but picking one or the other is a totally sane alternative to the complex quagmire of classes, objects, code generation, SQL, and stored procedures that an ORM "solution" typically leaves us with.
Both approaches are certainly valid. I tend to err on the side of the database-as-model camp, because I think objects are overrated.Jind, Haryana: The class 12 board examinations had only just finished a few days ago when Sunil Jaglan, the sarpanch, or head, of the Bibipur village council in |
a custom Christmas card, the one I made last year was a bit too ambitious, and I was already sick when I did it so afterwards I was in bed for a week with fever, heh. The years before that I added myself to Pixar movies, which is partially what inspired me this year.
When I was away taking a speed course in motorcycling I lived at my cousins’ place, and they are very much Harry Potter geeks, undeniably! While there I half participated in a Harry Potter movie marathon which we ended with seeing the last movie in the theater, as it was on around that time. As this week is what was most memorable from 2011, it was very intensive and slightly crazy, it just had to be the inspiration for my card.
I started looking around for suitable photos from the film in which I could insert myself, I was first eyeing a motorcycle picture where Hagrid is just leaving with Harry, but I couldn’t find it in a good enough quality, in the end I used a picture with professor Dumbledore instead. Lets start with how I shot the photo of me.
To get myself to sit at the right angle, at the right distance, and have my feet in the right spot I used my old and quite crappy projector to display the Dumbledore photo on the backdrop I had picked. It was my bed cover, the best colored material I got to match the tonality of the photo to make extraction of myself easier, avoiding getting too contrasty edges.
After matching the size of my head with Dumbledore’s, which was a bit tricky as his beard and hair covers most of his face in addition to him wearing a hat, I fixed supports for my feet to match the steps I would sit on in the picture. When happy with that I turned the projector off and set up lighting to match the other picture.
I used two flashes, one close to where I was sitting with a white translucent umbrella for the light coming from the left and one behind the camera as a fill light with a black reflective umbrella. In addition I had a reflector to the right to brighten up the shadows a bit. I used the reflective umbrella on the fill flash because I had to use it in slave mode due to the camera only triggering one flash if I used cables for both. Slightly annoying. At this point I had spent an hour on setting things up.
The last thing to do was to come up with a good pose which would make sense. I am holding a paintbrush I had borrowed from my parents garage, I should probably have included a can of paint too but I was too tired to match that up too. The final concept was to make it appear as if I had painted the professor with red paint, to force him into a Santa role, and that he would not be very enthusiastic about it. After yet another hour when I finally ended up with a picture I liked, which happened to be one of the first photos in the final series I took, I jumped into Photoshop.
I will use progress pictures to describe what I did in Photoshop. It’s pretty much basic photo editing stuff. Extraction, color correcting, blurring, painting shadows, adding sprites and a bit of distortion. It will make more sense if you click the images below, I will try to describe what I did in that step with the title.
I didn’t actually send the cards until the 22nd. I did some finishing touches in Photoshop the days after the actual shoot before I could print them and then I wrote a personal greeting on each one. It would just feel like I made an incomplete product if I did not use the space available to make the card personal for the receiver. As for delivery, It would seem like at least the local cards arrived on the 23rd, I had written most greetings on them assuming they would arrive after the weekend, but oh well.First things first: don’t call it a trend. Gender fluidity found its way into more headlines than ever in 2015. But regardless of the moment it’s having in both music and pop culture at large, to dismiss it as a passing fad or, worse, gimmickry is a mistake – one with echoes of that damaging and all too familiar phrase that queerness is “just a phase”.
Proclamations that “gender fluidity is the new black” may be well intentioned, but are unhelpful. Instead, the cultural landscape of the last year has afforded a new openness for artists who don’t identify with gender binaries. Miley Cyrus has been the most visible, declaring in June: “I don’t relate to being boy or girl, and I don’t have to have my partner relate to boy or girl.” She set up the Happy Hippie foundation in aid of homeless and vulnerable LGBTQ young people. In 2014, the indie singer-songwriter St Vincent told Rolling Stone: “I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. I don’t really identify as anything.” Las Vegas-born rapper and singer Shamir echoed that statement in March, tweeting: “I have no gender, no sexuality and no fucks to give.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I don’t identify as anything’ … St Vincent performing in San Francisco. Photograph: Splash News/Corbis
Around the same time, rapper Angel Haze also came out as agender, and spoke about the way in which their gender identity has evolved. It’s an outlook similar to singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who explained in July: “I am still exploring what [gender fluidity] means. I’ve not quite decided on a gender identity. I may never decide, and that’s all right with me. I am proud to exist in an ambiguous, undecided state.”
Pretty punk rock: how Ezra Furman found freedom in gender fluidity Read more
Don’t confuse these statements, however, with pop’s rich history of theatrical, performative gender-blurring. From David Bowie and Prince’s explorations of androgyny and fashion in the 1980s to the role-switching of Ciara and Beyoncé in the 00s, music has been an outlet to expand gender assumptions, to question the socially conditioned roles men and women play – often in brilliant ways. In 2015, artists such as Young Thug, the Atlanta rapper with a penchant for cross-dressing, continued that tradition.
For the current wave of gender-fluid artists, it’s not about dressing up, but about expressing their core identity. Furman muses about gender on the song Wobbly: “I’ve just been changing genders fluidly / Because they’ll never pin me / Down in the pages / Like a bug or bumblebee / Never classify me, don’t try.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘They’ll never pin me down’ … Ezra Furman Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns via Getty Images
For many others, however, gender identity is not necessarily central to their music: it’s innate to their being, but largely incidental to their art. Their lyrical focus is on other subjects. Angel Haze’s Back to the Woods is a devastating study of a break-up and subsequent breakdown. Shamir’s album Ratchet is shit-talking party rap straight out of MySpace circa 2005. Amid the lengthy stoned burblings on Cyrus’s surprise Dead Petz release, the most focused and affecting songs are those where she turns her attention to the environment – in particular on 1 Sun, a passionate lament for a dying Earth. That song works well alongside the similarly urgent 4 Degrees, the new propulsive single and scorched-earth vision by transgender musician Anohni – formerly known as Antony Hegarty, an artist who seems to have been casually misgendered by the media for the bulk of her career. Then there’s the transgender deep house producer Terre Thaemlitz, AKA DJ Sprinkles, who has long made gender politics integral to her work. On this year’s brilliant Fresh Insights EP, with Mark Fell, she turned her attention to British class politics and power structures with an extensive sample of a Tony Benn speech. These works may be informed by their creators’ identities – but are not defined by them.
The battle against male/female binaries gained scientific traction last week with the publication of a study by researchers at Tel Aviv University showing that there is no “male” or “female” brain, but instead “multiple ways to be male and female”. These findings, along with the success of artists who identify as gender fluid or anywhere else on the queerness spectrum, are just a small step towards progress in a society so reliant on gender stereotypes that it can seem like propaganda at times. Witness the knee-jerk reaction of the Daily Mail – one of the worst propagators of “men are like this, women are like that” narratives – to the study: “Back in the real world, this simply can’t be true.”
The music world is hardly immune, either: the Lithuanian producer Ten Walls caused outrage with a homophobic rant last June. His comments reflected underlying issues in dance clubs. And in November, the London singer-producer Kindness revealed that homophobic and transphobic abuse from figures feted by the industry made him quit music for several years. Progress may have been made in 2015, but it’s more imperative than ever not to treat it as a fad or selling point.Image caption Eliza Samudio has been missing for nearly a month
The missing former lover of a top Brazilian football star was strangled and then fed to dogs, police say.
Eliza Samudio, 25, was a former girlfriend of Bruno Fernandes, goalkeeper for Flamengo, Brazil's most popular club.
He handed himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest over her disappearance nearly a month ago.
Mr Fernandes, 25, has denied any wrongdoing, and said he has a "clear conscience".
But police say a teenage cousin of Mr Fernandes has given evidence that the goalkeeper was involved in her kidnap and suspected murder.
Ms Samudio had said that the married footballer was the father of her baby.
Search for remains
Police say Ms Samudio was taken by force from a hotel in Rio de Janeiro on the day of her disappearance and was strangled in the city of Belo Horizonte.
They say her body was cut up and parts were fed to dogs, while the rest was buried under concrete.
Image caption Bruno Fernandes is team captain of Rio de Janeiro's Flamengo
Police are still searching for her remains, but say her death is "materially proven".
Police have also arrested Mr Fernandes's wife, Dayane Souza, and several of his friends.
They say interrogation of the other suspects has backed up the account given by Mr Fernandes's teenage cousin.
Flamengo have suspended Mr Fernandes's contract and say the club lawyer will no longer be acting in his defence.
He had been goalkeeper of the Rio de Janeiro club since 2006, and captained them to the Brazilian championship last year.
Mr Fernandes has expressed regret that the allegations could damage his chances of playing for Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.Frank Pellegrino Sr., a sometime actor and the unflappable gatekeeper of Rao’s, his family’s clannish, celebrity-studded and prohibitively exclusive restaurant in East Harlem, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 72.
The cause was lung cancer, his son, Frank Jr., said.
Mr. Pellegrino was a struggling singer playing nightclubs and cruise ships in 1972 when his aunt, whose husband’s father had founded Rao’s, on East 114th Street, in 1896, enlisted him to help out because business was booming.
“I came for two weeks and stayed 44 years,” he told Vanity Fair last year.
Mr. Pellegrino became a co-owner and the man to call for a reservation for one of the restaurant’s coveted four tables and six booths — an exercise in crushed hopes for most would-be patrons; Rao’s says it is booked for the rest of 2017.
Mr. Pellegrino came to be called Frankie No for his firm, egalitarian protocol of turning away the disappointed, regardless of rank.If you go after Bill O'Reilly, you better be prepared for a ferocious retaliation -- even if you're a Fox News colleague.
Conservative columnist George Will learned that lesson on Friday night, when he found himself trading attacks with O'Reilly during an extremely contentious interview on Fox News.
Will, who serves as a Fox News contributor, earned the invitation to the show after writing a scathing review of O'Reilly's latest bestselling book, "Killing Reagan."
O'Reilly began the interview by asserting that Will had broken a promise to Fox News Executive Vice President Michael Clemente.
"Fox News hard news chief Mike Clemente, who you know, told us that you told him that you would call me before the column was published," O'Reilly said.
Will claimed he never promised to make a call.
"You have my phone number and if you wanted to call me you would," he told O'Reilly.
O'Reilly pressed Will, asking if the guest was calling Clemente a liar.
"No, I'm not. I'm saying either you've got it wrong, it would not be the first time you got something wrong," Will said, before getting cut off by O'Reilly.
"I have it in writing," O'Reilly said. "I have it in writing from Mr. Clemente."
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Related: George Will blasts Bill O'Reilly over 'Killing Reagan'
From there, O'Reilly shifted the discussion to what he has described as the "centerpiece" of the book: a memo saying that Ronald Reagan was eventually unable to perform the duties of the presidency and often spent his days watching soap operas.
In his column on Thursday, Will wrote that the memo "included slanderous assessments of the president from some disgruntled Regan staffers," and had been "refuted by minute-by-minute records in the Reagan Library." Will also wrote that O'Reilly and his co-author, Martin Dugard, had never used the Reagan Library's resources.
Will reiterated that point during his appearance on the "O'Reilly Factor."
"It's a memo that you have never seen. It's a memo that you didn't even ask to try to see from the Reagan Library until after the book was in print. It's a memo that the Reagan Library doesn't have and you should know it doesn't have because the author was not a member of the White House staff," Will said.
O'Reilly shot back by saying that the memo was backed by several other sources and that its author, James Cannon, only repudiated his findings "under heavy pressure" from the White House. That claim prompted Will to laugh.
"What are you laughing at, Will?" O'Reilly said. "You deny that he repudiated under heavy pressure? Do you deny that?"
"I deny that you know that he repudiated under heavy pressure," Will replied.
Related: O'Reilly's 'Killing Reagan' tops New York Times' list
Later in the interview, O'Reilly accused Will of "actively misleading the American people" and "lying."
"You're something of an expert on willfully misleading people," Will said.
But O'Reilly insisted that the book, which is the latest in his enormously successful "killing" franchise, is indeed "laudatory" to Reagan.
"It is not a laudatory book," Will said. "It is doing the work of the left, which knows in order to discredit conservatism it must destroy Reagan's reputation as the president. Your book does the work of the American left with its extreme recklessness."
When O'Reilly said that "Reagan loyalists" had tried to get the book killed, Will said the host was lying.
"That isn't a lie, and we can prove it. And you are a hack. Bye," O'Reilly said, bringing the interview to a close.Fernando Alonso believes the technology and rules in Formula One are too complicated for the average fan at home as he prepares to face a 25-place grid penalty on a 20-car grid at the Austrian Grand Prix.
His view is backed up by the sport's CEO Bernie Ecclestone, who has also called for a simplified set of sporting regulations and less draconian penalties. The comments come during a weekend in which both McLaren drivers have notched up 25-place penalties on the grid for engine and gearbox changes and prepare to face in-race drive-through and stop-go penalties.
"We have cars that have technology that is too complex, especially for the people at home, they want to see cars racing and overtaking each other and fighting for positions, not saving tyres, saving fuel and talking about DRS, tokens and penalties," Alonso said. "The penalties we have on Sunday I guess are very difficult to understand at home, so there are things that are probably too complicated. Some of the rules are made by top engineers and top mathematicians and grandmothers at home don't care about this."
Ecclestone added: "I think we need to have very good look at all our sporting regulations. 'Don't go over the white line, don't do this, don't do that, if you change your engine you go back 25 places', it's not what the public understands. They don't understand, and when they do understand they don't care."
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier believes the sport was too ambitious when it set a limit of four power units per driver this year.
"First of all, they are the same for everybody and we have to take the penalties as everybody else should take them," Boullier said. "But when you come back a year ago and the introduction of the new engine and the other manufacturers were struggling after three years or more of development, I think we should have, as a Formula One community, a rule by this stage already because I think it was maybe a bit harsh and too ambitious to turn up with this technology and be reliable. Today we have to respect the rule and we are respecting the rule, but I find it sad for Formula One to have two world champions like Jenson and Fernando sitting at the back of the grid."Senior Gameplay Designer, Alan Kertz, answers questions from fans and reveals possible future DLC.
Recently, Mr. Kertz took to reddit to begin some dialog with Battlefield 3 fans. Here, he answered many questions, one pertaining particularly to DLC. One fan asked if “there may be a chance of a BF 2143…” making it in as future DLC for Battlefield 3. Kertz answered, “It’s definitely a popular topic in the office. That and Mirrors Edge and even Codename Eagle! There’s never a shortage of ideas, just time.” Global Community Manager, Daniel Matros, mentioned in a recent podcast that fan feedback will have a big influence on future DLC. If this is indeed true, then it seems there is a good chance of BF2143 getting a shot at being a downloadable expansion to Battlefield 3.
Another hot topic among the Battlefield community is mod tools. DICE stated earlier that they were not releasing any due to complications with their newly created Frostbite 2 engine. Kertz explains further: “I don’t think it’s the complexity of the tools that is the problem, but rather the complexity of middleware and licensing that goes on. No one writes all their own stuff any more, a lot of the software we use we cannot release to the community for legal reasons.”
Are you still dying for mod tools? And, would you like to see Battlefield 2143 come to fruition as a downloadable expansion pack for Battlefield 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure to follow MP1st on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest Battlefield 3 news!Creative-writing programs are designed on the theory that students who have never published a poem can teach other students who have never published a poem how to write a publishable poem. The fruit of the theory is the writing workshop, a combination of ritual scarring and twelve-on-one group therapy where aspiring writers offer their views of the efforts of other aspiring writers. People who take creative-writing workshops get course credit and can, ultimately, receive an academic degree in the subject; but a workshop is not a course in the normal sense—a scene of instruction in which some body of knowledge is transmitted by means of a curricular script. The workshop is a process, an unscripted performance space, a regime for forcing people to do two things that are fundamentally contrary to human nature: actually write stuff (as opposed to planning to write stuff very, very soon), and then sit there while strangers tear it apart. There is one person in the room, the instructor, who has (usually) published a poem. But workshop protocol requires the instructor to shepherd the discussion, not to lead it, and in any case the instructor is either a product of the same process—a person with an academic degree in creative writing—or a successful writer who has had no training as a teacher of anything, and who is probably grimly or jovially skeptical of the premise on which the whole enterprise is based: that creative writing is something that can be taught. This skepticism is widely shared, and one way for creative-writing programs to handle it is simply to concede the point. The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop is the most renowned creative-writing program in the world. Sixteen Pulitzer Prize winners and three recent Poet Laureates are graduates of the program. But the school’s official position is that the school had nothing to do with it. “The fact that the Workshop can claim as alumni nationally and internationally prominent poets, novelists, and short story writers is, we believe, more the result of what they brought here than of what they gained from us,” the Iowa Web site explains. Iowa merely admits people who are really good at writing; it puts them up for two years; and then, like the Wizard of Oz, it gives them a diploma. “We continue to look for the most promising talent in the country,” the school says, “in our conviction that writing cannot be taught but that writers can be encouraged.” “A nice conviction if you can afford it” might be the response of faculty working in less prestigious programs, and not everyone who teaches creative writing agrees about the irrelevance of the job. Some writers do seem to make it a matter of principle to bite the hand that writes the checks. Allen Tate, the poet and critic, complained that “the academically certified Creative Writer goes out to teach Creative Writing, and produces other Creative Writers who are not writers, but who produce still other Creative Writers who are not writers.” Tate ran the creative-writing program at Princeton, where John Berryman was a colleague. Kay Boyle once published a piece arguing that “all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law.” She taught creative writing for sixteen years at San Francisco State. Other writers, though, are very much with the program. John Barth taught for twenty-two years in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, one of the oldest and most luminous programs in the country. In 1985, he published an article in the Times Book Review entitled “Writing: Can It Be Taught?,” to which his answer was that it emphatically can, mainly on the ground that it so emphatically is. (He added the standard “genius” exception: “Not even in America can one major in Towering Literary Artistry.”) A few writing instructors have changed their minds. When Barth wrote his piece for the Times, he might have been recalling a speech given three years earlier by one of the leading figures in the field, R. V. Cassill. Verlin Cassill was a novelist and short-story writer who graduated from Iowa in 1939 and returned after the war to get an M.A. and to teach in the Writers’ Workshop. One of his students was Margaret Walker, an African-American, who was the author of “Jubilee” (1966)—the first of the so-called neo-slave narratives, of which the most famous is Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” (“Jubilee” was Walker’s Ph.D. thesis; for the project, Cassill made her read Henry James, who, in those days, was considered a universal “writer’s writer,” even for a woman writing a novel about slavery and Reconstruction.) Cassill wrote a standard textbook, “Writing Fiction”; he was the editor of “The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction,” a position of power in the field; and, from 1966 until his retirement, in 1983, he taught creative writing at Brown, another program with a distinguished history. In 1967, shortly after arriving at Brown and just at the start of a boom in university-based creative-writing programs, he founded the Associated Writing Programs, the professional association of academic creative writers. But at a convention in Boston on the fifteenth anniversary of the A.W.P. Cassill stunned the membership by suggesting that the organization should be disbanded. He thought that writers had become complicit in the academic logrolling and gamesmanship of publish-or-perish: using other people’s money—grants from their universities and from arts agencies—they devised ways to get their own and one another’s work into print, and then converted those publications into salary increments (which is apparently how Cassill thought that most professors operate). They wrote poems to get raises. The academic system was corrupting, and it was time for the writers to get out. “We are now at the point where writing programs are poisoning, and in turn we are being poisoned by, departments and institutions on which we have fastened them,” he said. The speech got attention, but the A.W.P. did not disband. It eventually renamed itself the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and it now has more than twenty-five thousand members. Around the time that Cassill delivered his renunciation, there were seventy-nine degree programs in creative writing in the United States. Today, there are eight hundred and twenty-two. Thirty-seven of these award the Ph.D.
Mark McGurl doesn’t mention Cassill’s speech in his book about creative-writing programs and American fiction, “The Program Era” (Harvard; $35), but it fits his argument perfectly. The argument is that teaching creative writing should always be a scandal, since it’s a scandal that suits everyone. It allows people in creative-writing departments to feel that, unlike their colleagues in the traditional academic disciplines, they are not cogs in a knowledge machine; and it allows the university to regard itself as what McGurl calls a “difference engine,” devoted to producing original people as well as original research. He points out that teachers in creative-writing programs were asking “Can it be taught?” right from the start, but that virtually no one has ever tried to lay down rules for what should go on in the classroom. This is because not having an answer to the “Can it be taught?” question—keeping alive the belief that all this training and socialization never really touches the heart of the imaginative process—is what marks creative-writing programs as “creative.” Academic creative-writing programs are, as McGurl puts it, examples of “the institutionalization of anti-institutionality.” That’s why institutions love them. They are the outside contained on the inside. Still, the creative-writing program, unsystematic or even anti-system as it might believe itself to be, is a system. People go in at one end and they come out the other, bearing (like the Scarecrow) a piece of paper with a Latin inscription, but also bearing (unlike the Scarecrow) the impress of an institutional experience. The nature of that experience mutates as the folk wisdom of the workshop mutates—from “Show, don’t tell,” which was the mantra in the nineteen-forties and fifties, to the effectively opposite mantra “Find your voice,” which took over in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. McGurl suggests that these mantras encode shifting patterns of cultural assumptions—about identity, about work, about gender and class, and, of course, about what counts as good writing—and that they have had a big effect on the stories and novels that American writers have produced. “The rise of the creative-writing program,” he says, “stands as the most important event in postwar American literary history.” McGurl’s book is not a history of creative-writing programs. It’s a history of twentieth-century fiction, in which the work of American writers from Thomas Wolfe to Bharati Mukherjee is read as reflections of, and reflections on, the educational system through which so many writers now pass. (McGurl doesn’t deal with poetry.) As McGurl points out, the university is where most serious fiction writers have been produced since the Second World War. It has also been the place where most serious fiction readers are produced: they are taught how to read in departments of literature. McGurl’s claim is simple: given that most of the fiction that Americans write and read is processed through the higher-education system, we ought to pay some attention to the way the system affects the outcome.
This may sound like a formula for debunking, but it’s not. “The Program Era” is an impressive and imaginative book. It does three things unusually well. First, it interprets works of fiction as what philosophers of language call illocutionary acts. The meaning of one of Raymond Carver’s stories is not only what the story says; it’s also the way the story says it. The form of a Carver short story—ostentatiously brief, emotionally hyper-defended—expresses something. McGurl thinks that the style represents the “aestheticization of shame, a mode of self-retraction.” Literary minimalism like Carver’s—McGurl calls it “lower-middle-class modernism”—is a means of reducing the risk of embarrassing oneself, and is one way that students from working-class backgrounds, like Carver (he was from Oregon, where his father was a sawmill worker), deal with the highbrow world of the academy. Rather ingeniously, McGurl reads the work of Carver’s exact contemporary Joyce Carol Oates as an expression of the same class-based self-consciousness. (He notes that Carver once called Oates the most important writer of his generation.) Oates is a prolific practitioner of what McGurl calls “maximalist” fiction: it has been said that, at one point in her career, she wrote forty pages of fiction every day, or about a quarter of what would constitute an entire book for Carver. But McGurl thinks that maximalism, too, is “a way of shielding oneself with words.” The two styles are methods of self-protection and, at the same time, forms of self-assertion: the minimalist writer puts his craft on display, the maximalist his facility. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but you’ll have to put your dust jacket back on.” Carver and Oates are both program products. Oates is from a poor family—she once described herself as “of peasant stock”—in upstate New York. She came out of the undergraduate creative-writing program at Syracuse, where she studied with Donald Dike, and she has spent most of her career teaching at Princeton, where Morrison, until her recent retirement, was also on the faculty. In Carver’s case, the career constitutes a virtual tour d’horizon of the creative-writing scene. Carver started as a correspondence student in an outfit known as the Palmer Institute of Authorship. He took classes at Chico State, in California, with the novelist John Gardner; at Humboldt State College, with the short-story writer Richard Cortez Day; at Sacramento State College, with the poet Dennis Schmitz; and at Stanford, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow; and he taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with John Cheever. His second marriage was to another creative-writing professional, the poet Tess Gallagher, and he ended up as a professor at Oates’s alma mater, Syracuse, where Jay McInerney was his student. The beat goes on—McGurl’s point. A second thing that “The Program Era” does well, and sometimes entertainingly, is to treat the world of creative writing as an ant farm, in which the writer-ants go about busily executing the tasks they have been programmed for. Writing is a technology, after all, and there is a sense in which human beings who write can be thought of as writing machines. They get tooled in certain ways, and the creative-writing program is a means of tooling. But McGurl treats creative writing as an ant farm where the ants are extremely interesting. He never reduces writers to unthinking products of a system. They are thinking products of a system. After all, few activities make people more self-conscious than participating in a writing workshop. Reflecting on yourself—your experience, your “voice,” your background, your talent or lack of it—is what writing workshops make people do. McGurl thinks that this habit of self-observation is not restricted to writing programs. He thinks that we’re all highly self-conscious ants, because that’s what it means to be a modern person. Constant self-assessment and self-reflection are part of our program. (McGurl uses the term “reflexive modernity.” There is a lot of critical techno-speak in “The Program Era,” it’s true. There are also flow charts and the like, diagrams suited to systems analysis. If you don’t enjoy this sort of thing, you will not get very far into the book. It’s worth learning to enjoy, though.) So the fiction that comes out of creative-writing programs may appeal to readers because it rehearses topics—“Who am I?” issues—that are already part of their inner lives. And contemporary fiction does have many readers. McGurl argues that, far from homogenizing literature or turning it into an academic exercise, creative-writing programs have been a success on purely literary grounds. “There has been a system-wide rise in the excellence of American literature in the postwar period,” he says, and he offers the same proof that Barth offered in his Times article: there is more good fiction out there than anyone has time to read. The system must be doing something right. The third accomplishment of “The Program Era” is almost inadvertent. Changes in creative-writing programs are influenced by changes in two related bodies of thought, both of which try to answer the question “How can we make people more productive and more creative?” These are the philosophy of education and management theory. Creative-writing courses follow naturally from the “learning by doing” theories of progressive education: they add practical, hands-on experience to traditional book learning. And, as McGurl suggests, presenting a story in a writing workshop is a little like making a business presentation in a corporate workplace. Such a presentation is, on some level, what he calls “a presentation of individual excellence,” a means by which we observe and test ourselves. It helps us measure how we’re doing in the human race. The unexpected result of combining a history of creative fiction writing with a history of education and management theory is a kind of slide show of postwar American life. “The Program Era” evokes a sense of how life felt in the nineteen-sixties, when Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters took their bus trip (a writers’ workshop on the road), and a sense of how life felt in the nineteen-seventies, when Carver was writing his bleak little stories. And this helps McGurl to make a larger point, which is that university creative-writing programs don’t isolate writers from the world. On the contrary, university creative-writing courses situate writers in the world that most of their readers inhabit—the world of mass higher education and the white-collar workplace. Sticking writers in a garret would isolate them. Putting them in the ivory tower puts them in touch with real life.
Is the rise of the creative-writing workshop, as McGurl claims, “the most important event in postwar American literary history”? Creative-writing courses did not suddenly spring into being in 1945. A course called Verse Making was available at Iowa in 1897, and from 1906 to 1925 George Pierce Baker taught a drama workshop at Harvard, the first graduate writing course in the country; Thomas Wolfe took it. The term (and the concept) “creative writing” dates from the nineteen-twenties, which is when Middlebury started the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, where Robert Frost served as the world’s first writer-in-residence. In 1936, Iowa launched the Writers’ Workshop—officially, the Program in Creative Writing—under the direction of Wilbur Schramm, and began awarding the first M.F.A.s. In 1941, Schramm was replaced by Paul Engle, a prodigious creative-writing proselytizer and cultural Cold Warrior, who made Iowa into a global power in the field. Engle eventually brought writers from seventy countries to study at Iowa. There was a surge in creative-writing degree programs after the Second World War. The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins started in 1947; Stanford inaugurated its writing fellowships the same year; Cornell’s creative-writing program opened in 1948. As is the case with most new developments in higher education, changes in funding were responsible. Title II of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—the G.I. Bill—provided forty-eight months of tuition for veterans who enrolled in colleges and universities. More than two million veterans, a much bigger number than anticipated, took up the offer, and by 1950 the government had spent more money on tuition and other college costs than on the Marshall Plan. The key requirement of Title II was that the tuition assistance be used only for study in degree or certificate programs, which is why creative-writing courses grew into degree-granting creative-writing programs. In the nineteen-sixties, the universe of higher education underwent a fantastic expansion. Between 1960 and 1969, enrollments doubled and more professors were hired than had been hired in the entire previous three hundred and twenty-five years. Most of the growth was in the public sector. At the height of the expansion, between 1965 and 1972, new community-college campuses were opening in the United States at the rate of one every week. A way for institutions to raise their academic profiles was to add graduate programs. (Once added, they became virtually impossible to subtract. This is one reason that there is an oversupply of Ph.D.s in the United States.) By 1975, there were fifteen creative-writing M.F.A. programs in the country. Today, there are a hundred and fifty-three. Creative-writing programs attract students (good for public universities, where enrollment may determine budgets), but, contrary to what many people assume, they are not generally cash cows. Most of the top programs—until recently, Columbia was the major exception—provide fellowship support for all their students, and the classes are tiny. In 2005-06, only four-tenths of one per cent of all master’s degrees awarded were in creative writing. The identification of certain writers with university creative-writing programs is, therefore, a postwar phenomenon. The list is long: John Hawkes (Brown), Guy Davenport (Kentucky), Robert Coover (Brown), Reynolds Price (Duke), Wallace Stegner (Stanford), Leslie Epstein (Boston University), Donald Barthelme (Houston), Tobias Wolff (Syracuse), E. L. Doctorow (New York University), William Kennedy (SUNY Albany), Robert Olen Butler (Florida |
“
Getting the armbar is a game for
me. I know that my opponent
has trained his hardest to defend
against it, so I make it a personal
challenge to show that my offense
is better than his defense.
” -- Giva Santana on his ace move
With a nickname like “The Arm Collector,” there is no secret to the success of Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight Giva Santana. He almost always leaves his mixed martial arts bouts with an appendage as a souvenir.Among his 17 professional wins, 13 have been snatched via armbar.“Everyone says that there’s no way they’re going to get caught in an armbar before they fight me -- every time, and every time I say the same thing. Submitting people is my God-given gift,” Santana told Sherdog.com. “It’s what I love to do.”Santana serves as the head Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach with Team Oyama, instructing fighters like world-ranked flyweight Ian McCall and undefeated heavyweight Shane del Rosario. He will take his passion for hyperextending arms into the quarterfinals of the Bellator Season 6 middleweight tournament, where he will meet fellow Brazilian Bruno Santos in the quarterfinals at Bellator 61 on Friday at The Riverdome at Horseshoe Casino and Hotel, Bossier City, La.The once-beaten Santana (17-1) has won six consecutive bouts since suffering the lone defeat of his career -- a split decision loss to Jaime Jara in 2008. He knows he faces a difficult task in the Bellator quarters.“Santos is undefeated,” Santana said, “so I definitely expect for him to be a very tough opponent. He looks pretty strong. He seems like he has solid punches, and he has really good ground control.”The approaches of the two middleweights could not be more different. Where Santana collects arms, Santos stifles his opponents, controlling the cage and often working to decisions. In 12 career appearances, Santos (12-0) has only two finishes. His last nine fights have gone to the scorecards.“He’s good at scoring takedowns and staying on top,” Santana said. “We’re preparing for all of these things so I’m 100 percent ready on the day of the fight.”Even though Santos has grown accustomed to dragging fights into the latter rounds, Santana feels his training will trump what his foe has to offer.“Bruno is short and really stocky, but I’ve fought guys like him before,” he said. “We’ve been working really hard on our strategy on the ground for this fight. I’m going to be ready for any situation in this fight, whether it’s on the ground or on the feet.”Santana has not been able to scout his countryman as diligently as he would have liked, but he believes his skills -- especially from his back -- are superior to those of anyone Santos has fought previously.“I haven’t been able to watch all of [his] fights yet, but from the ones that I have seen, his opponents weren’t that sharp on the ground,” Santana said. “A lot of people can’t focus when they’re on their back but not me. It comes natural. I’m not worried at all, regardless of who’s on top.”The confidence seems warranted, as Santana’s abilities on the mat are well-documented. Fourteen of his 15 submissions have come inside the first round.“I prefer to fight on the ground,” Santana said. “That’s where I feel the most comfortable. It doesn’t matter whether I’m on the top or bottom. I feel comfortable in any situation on the ground, so if this fight goes to the ground, that’s my world.”The 40-year-old Santana expects Santos to play into the most polished facet of his game.“I think Bruno is going to try to hold me down because that’s usually his game plan,” he said, “but that’s not going to work with me. Every time I go to the ground, I’m looking for the finish. Whether it’s your arm or your leg or your neck, I’m trying to finish the fight the entire time.”Santana made his promotional debut at Bellator 53 in October, when he needed just two minutes to submit Darryl Cobb by first-round armbar. Now, he returns to compete in the promotion’s latest middleweight tournament, the winner of which will receive a crack at the title currently held by American Top Team ’s Hector Lombard “I approach every single fight I have like it could be the last fight of my career,” Santana said. “This Bellator tournament is a huge opportunity for me. This fight with Bruno is just the first step, and if I want to take another step, I have to win this fight. That’s what I plan to do.”Whether Santana can win the bout and whether or not he can secure his signature move remains to be seen. He welcomes the test.“Getting the armbar is a game for me,” Santana said. “I know that my opponent has trained his hardest to defend against it, so I make it a personal challenge to show that my offense is better than his defense. Trust me, If Bruno leaves his arm out there, I’m going to take it.”“Sometimes I do a Dylan song and it seems to fit me so right that I figure maybe I wrote it. Dylan didn’t always do it for me as a singer, not in the early days, but then I started listening to the lyrics. That sold me.”
– Jimi Hendrix, Beat International 1969
Though they were not close friends, Jimi Hendrix was a huge fan of Bob Dylan and covered five of his songs (to my knowledge), both live and in the studio. These tracks are “Like a Rolling Stone,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Drifter’s Escape”, “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” and “Tears of Rage” (by Dylan and Richard Manuel)
“I like his Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited. His country stuff is nice too, at certain times. It’s quieter, you know.”
– Jimi Hendrix (1970, Hendrix on Hendrix)
“One day that fall [Howe] was walking down Eighth Street in New York City with Jimi when they spied a figure on the other side of the road. “Hey, that’s Dylan,” Jimi said excitedly. “I’ve never met him before; let’s go talk to him.” Jimi darted into traffic, yelling “Hey, Bob” as he approached. Deering followed, though he felt uneasy about Jimi’s zeal. “I think Dylan was a little concerned at first, hearing someone shouting his name and racing across the street toward him,” Deering recalled. Once Dylan recognized Jimi, he relaxed. Hendrix’s introduction was modest enough to be comic. “Bob, uh, I’m a singer, you know, called, uh, Jimi Hendrix and…” Dylan said he knew who Jimi was and loved his covers of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” “I don’t know if anyone has done my songs better,” Dylan said. Dylan hurried off, but left Jimi beaming. “Jimi was on cloud nine,” Deering said, “if only because Bob Dylan knew who he was. It seemed very clear to me that the two had never met before.””
– Charles Cross (Room Full of Mirrors)
The Beatles stuff is at the end of the post.
From Seven Ages of Rock (BBC):
“First time I saw him, he was playing with John Hammond. He was incredible then. I’d already been to England and beyond, and although he didn’t sing, I kinda had a feeling that he figured into things. The last time I saw him was a couple of months before he died. He was in that band with Buddy Miles. It was an eerie scene. He was slouched down in the back of a limousine. I was riding by on a bicycle. I remember saying something about that song “Wind Cried Mary,” it was a long way from playing behind John Hammond. That was my favorite song of his – that and “Dolly Dagger”… I don’t know, it was strange, both of us were a little lost for words, he’d gone through like a fireball without knowing it, I’d done the same thing like being shot out of a cannon…”
-Bob Dylan (Biograph liner notes)
Like a Rolling Stone (from Winterland):
“I love Dylan. I only met him once, about three years ago, back at the Kettle of Fish on MacDougal Street. That was before I went to England. I think both of us were pretty drunk at the time, so he probably doesn’t remember it.”
– Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stone Magazine
A tender cover of Bob Dylan and The Band‘s classic Tears of Rage from the 4cd set “West Coast Seattle Boy” (Spotify):
Drifter’s Escape:
“Oh, yeah, I liked that. ‘Help me in my’ — what’s that? That was groovy. I want to do that one” Jimi Hendrix said. It was recorded in 1970 at Electric Lady Studios, Hendrix’s version, delivered with a funky groove, was first released on the 1974 Loose Ends compilation, and again on the South Saturn Delta collection of demos and alternate tracks.
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (Live Filmore East May 10, 1968)
All along the Watchtower:
“I went to dinner with Albert Grossman in an awful Mexican restaurant around 46th Street. He gave me this cassette and said, ‘Here’s a sample of Dylan’s latest songs.’ I had a party a week or so later and Jimi was there. I said, ‘How would anybody like to hear something from Dylan that you haven’t heard?’ and I played the tape. Jimi came up to me and said, ‘Hey Mike, can I take that home with me? I really want to listen to that again.’ I said, ‘Sure you can have it, what the hell do I care?’”
– Michael Goldstein (Jimi’s publicist) “It was soon after he came back [from the States]. I remember him having the album when he came back along with a bottle of duty-free American whiskey. We played it over and over again. He just loved it.”
– Kathy Etchingham (Jimi’s girlfriend)
These are just two of the many people who claim to have introduced Hendrix to the song.
All along the watchtower, Isle of Wight version (the best!):
In the booklet accompanying his Biograph box, Dylan said: “I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way… Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
The British magazine Total Guitar deservedly named it top of the list of the greatest cover versions of all time in 2000.
–
The Beatles.
It would be one of his first gigs in London. Jimi was a sweetie, a very nice guy. I remember him opening at the Saville on a Sunday night, 4 June 1967. Brian Epstein used to rent it when it was usually dark on the Sunday. Jimi opened, the curtains flew back and he came walking forward, playing ‘Sgt. Pepper’, and it had only been released on the Thursday so that was like the ultimate compliment. It’s still obviously a shining memory for me, because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release. He must have been so into it, because normally it might take a day for rehearsal and then you might wonder whether you’d put it in, but he just opened with it. It’s a pretty major compliment in anyone’s book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career. I mean, I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought of it as an honour, I’m sure he thought it was the other way round, but to me that was like a great boost.
– Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, book)
Jimi Hendrix – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band:
He did two more (sort of)…
Here is Day Tripper:
– Hallgeir & Egil
Please share: Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
More
Print
Email
LinkedIn
Pocket
Reddit
TumblrWatchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) once again is the source behind breaking news revealing the truth behind the politics on issues in our media and democracy. As reported in ProPublica’s story “What Newt Gingrich Really Thinks of Donald Trump,” audio obtained by CMD revealed that VP Finalist Newt Gingrich expressed his thoughts on Trump to Republicans in a private February speech, stating that he believed Trump would lose in a landslide if he didn’t change his campaign tactics and calling Trump “an American nationalist” who is “not a conservative.”
Gingrich also said that Trump speaks to the voters “at the lowest level of any candidate in either party” and “how we make the transition from, you know, language for fourth graders to real policy, I don’t know.”
Listen to the full audio at bottom of page:
Individual clips below (time stamps from full audio)
At 40:00
Gingrich: “National Review’s right. Donald Trump’s not a conservative.”
At 35:54
Gingrich: (Trump is) “Some weird combination of the Kardashians. I mean think about it, the whole tweeting, the whole continuous noise.”
At 40:47
Gingrich: “Now, how we make the transition from, you know, language for fourth graders to real policy I don’t know. And by the way, I do not believe anybody, including Trump, can tell you what a Trump presidency would be like because he won’t know.”
Full audio (46 mins):No, that is not an old, sick or diseased stork. That is its normal appearance. It definitely has a chance for the title of "Ugliest Creation on Earth." Nobody is going to give this stork a job delivering babies.
The big throat sack is not a pleasant feature
The hunched over posture and skinny legs are no help either. It looks like the vampire Nosferatu or else an elderly flasher with no pants in a black trench coat. If vampires would like some pets besides bats and wolves these storks might be a good fit. There is nothing even a Hollywood plastic surgeon could do here. The only hope for the poor stork is that reincarnation is real and if they live the life of a good stork they might be reborn as a koala bear, a panda or almost anything else that isn't so hideous.
Nosferatu
The stork follows it unsightly appearance up with some rather wicked behavior. Marabou storks eat carrion, as in dead and decaying flesh, like vultures. Since it's head and neck are bare, it can poke deep inside a dead animal's body without getting its feathers messy. Besides carrion what do they eat? Other things that witches might put in a stew: insects, baby crocodiles, flamingos, small mammals, frogs and fish.
However, this is not to say that beauty is everything. The storks play an important role in the ecosystem as a scavenger. They help renew the earth by cleaning it of refuse and dead animals.
The bill is lighter and more sensitive than it looks and the ugly sack hanging down from the throat is useful for temperature control and stork communication. They prefer drier grasslands within flying distance of rivers or lakes or else garbage dumps. They have been observed waiting nearby grassfires to prey on fleeing animals.Hunt Astoria Toothpaste Thief
By LIz Goff
Police are searching for a suspect who assaulted a worker and swiped 55 tubes of toothpaste from a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Astoria.
Cops said the suspect walked into the Rite Aid Pharmacy at 43-02 Ditmars Boulevard at about 9 a.m. on December 23, where he grabbed 43 tubes of Colgate and 14 tubes of Sensodyne toothpaste and headed for the exit.
The man shoved a 43-yer-old female employee to the floor when she tried to stop him from leaving th4 pharmacy with the merchandise, police said. The suspect then ran from the store and fled in an unknown direction.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his late 20s, 5-feet, 7-inches tall and 185 pounds, with dark hair. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans, dark-colored shoes and a dark-colored jacket at the time of the robbery.
The store employee was treated at the scene for minor injuries she suffered in the attack, a fire spokesperson said.
Anyone with information is urged to call the CrimeStoppers HOTLINE at 1-800-577-TIPS or click on www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.The YubiKey NEO is a great tool if you have to store your encryption credentials securely. The key can operate in several modes like OTP, CCID (smart card emulation), U2F (Universal Two-Factor), or any combination of these. The CCID mode offers an interesting feature called auto-eject where the YubiKey automatically ejects the emulated smart card after a specified timeout. According to their documentation, the key’s configuration tools ykneomgr and ykpersonalize can activate the feature like this:
$ ykpersonalize -m81:15:10 (Set mode to 81, challenge-response timeout 15 seconds, auto-eject timeout 10 seconds)
(Set mode to 81, challenge-response timeout 15 seconds, auto-eject timeout 10 seconds) $ ykneomgr -d -M 81 (Set mode to 81)
However, it didn’t work for me. The key always ignored the timeout setting, no matter what. After much trial and error, I finally got it working by manually talking to the YubiKey through its smart card interface.
Changing modes through the CCID interface
For this method, the device has to be in CCID mode (or any combination with activated CCID). Here’s how to enable auto-eject after 10 seconds:
$ ykneomgr -M 1 # Re-plug the device $ opensc-tool -s '00 a4 04 00 08 a0 00 00 05 27 20 01 01' \ -s '00 01 11 00 04 81 0f 0a 00' Using reader with a card: Yubico Yubikey NEO OTP+U2F+CCID 00 00 Sending: 00 A4 04 00 08 A0 00 00 05 27 20 01 01 Received ( SW1 = 0x90, SW2 = 0x00 ) : 03 03 07 00 80 07 86 00 00 00.......... Sending: 00 01 11 00 04 81 0F 0A 00 Received ( SW1 = 0x90, SW2 = 0x00 ) : 03 03 07 00 80 07......
Explanation
The first command activates the CCID interface by putting the key into CCID-only mode ( 1 ). Other modes should work as well. Don’t forget to re-plug the YubiKey afterwards.
The second command uses opensc-tool to first select an application on the card (the YubiKey configuration applet) and issue the “change mode” command afterwards. opensc-tool is a part of the OpenSC toolkit and communicates with the card through the procotol specified in ISO 7816-4, where a command APDU is answered with a response APDU.
Here’s a breakdown of the executed commands and their responsed:
Request 00 a4 04 00 08 a0 00 00 05 27 20 01 01 : Select applet with ID a0 00 00 05 27 20 01 01 00 : Class byte (CLA). 0x00 = Only send one command, no secure messaging. a4 : Instruction byte (INS). 0x84 = Select a file or an applet 04 : Parameter 1 (P1) for the instruction. 0x04 = Select master file (MF), something like the main application of the card 00 : Parameter 2 (P2). 0x00 = Select the first or only matching file. 08 : Command data length. 8 bytes will follow. a0 00 00 05 27 20 01 01 : Command data. The application ID of the YubiKey main applet
: Select applet with ID Response 03 03 07 00 80 07 86 00 00 00 90 00 : OK 03 03 07 : YubiKey version (major 3, minor 3, build 7) 00 : pgmSeq. Programming Sequence? 80 07 : Touch level. 0x8007 = 32775 86 : Current mode. 0x86 = OTP+CCID+U2F with eject flag 00 : Challenge-response timeout 00 : Auto-eject timeout 00 : Unknown 90 00 : OK
: OK Request 00 01 11 00 04 81 0f 0a 00 : Set YubiKey mode to 81 (CCID only with MODE_FLAG_EJECT), challenge-response-timeout 15 seconds, auto-eject timeout 10 seconds 00 : Class byte (CLA). 0x00 =?? 01 : Instruction byte (INS). 0x01 = YubiKey API Request 11 : Parameter 1 (P1). 0x11 = Change YubiKey mode (?) 00 : Parameter 2 (P2). 0x00 =? 04 : Command data length. 4 bytes will follow. 81 0f 0a 00 : Command data. 81 : Set YubiKey mode to 81 0f : Set challenge-response timeout to 15 (= 0x0f) seconds 0a : Set auto-eject timeout to 10 (= 0x0a) seconds 00 :?
: Set YubiKey mode to 81 (CCID only with MODE_FLAG_EJECT), challenge-response-timeout 15 seconds, auto-eject timeout 10 seconds Response 03 03 07 00 80 07 90 00 : OK 03 03 07 : YubiKey version, see above 00 : pgmSeq, see above 80 07 : Touch level, see above 90 00 : OK
: OK
Afterwards you have to re-insert the YubiKey. From now on, after you plug the YubiKey into your PC, you will have to insert the virtual smart card by pressing the touch button first. The LED will light up, indicating that the card is ready for use. After an idle timeout of 10 seconds, the LED will go out, and the virtual smart card will be ejected.
Tips
The device doesn’t lose any settings or keys if you deactivate a mode. In my example I could reactivate U2F at any time and use it as before.
If you enable the auto-eject feature, remember that you have to press the touch button before you can use any of the above tools again. Otherwise the tools will complain about the missing card, e.g. error: ykneomgr_discover_match (-2): No device found.
Have fun!
SourcesCome January it's going to be 12 years since the Miami Hurricanes last played for a national championship, and 11 since they went to a major bowl game.
Mediocrity has become the norm in Coral Gables. Let's count the ways:
> Counting Miami's 6-5 record heading into Saturday night's regular season-finale against Pittsburgh (5-6) at Sun Life Stadium, the Canes have lost at least four games every season since 2006. That happened only three times at UM from 1983 to 2003.
> Miami hasn't had a double-digit win season since 2003. Meanwhile, rivals Florida and Florida State have had four double-digit win seasons each and they've won three national titles combined.
> Since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004, the Canes have floundered at 81-55 overall. That's fewer wins than six other teams in the conference: Virginia Tech (104), Florida State (103), Clemson (93), Louisville (92), Georgia Tech (87) and Boston College (82). Meanwhile, lowly Wake Forest and Duke have each won division titles while the Hurricanes simply tied for one and had to vacate it because of impending NCAA sanctions.
When will the mediocrity end? When will UM become a real threat for a national title again? Al Golden's youngest Canes have talked about that. Several have said they won't accept the losing.
"Me, Brad [Kaaya], Chad [Thomas], Braxton [Berrios] we talk about [national championships] a lot, saying that next year we have to turn things around, do what we've got to do to get to that spot," said freshman running back Joe Yearby, who went 53-5 and won three state titles in his four years at Miami Central.
"We've got to shoot higher than [the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division Title]," Yearby continued. "We've got to take everything day-by-day to accomplish everything we have to do. But we believe we can be champs again. That's still very much a goal."
Thomas, a five-star recruit who won a national title at Miami's Booker T. Washington last season, has said in the past he expects the Canes to win a national title while he's here -- and that he hates losing.
Before Miami's 30-13 loss at Virginia last Saturday, Berrios said the Hurricanes should win the remainder of their games. He said UM's three-game win streak following its loss to Georgia Tech -- and close loss to Florida State -- was a sign UM is getting closer to being what it wants to be.
Kaaya, UM's brightest young star, spoke this week about what it has been like losing five games. Kaaya went 26-4 and won a state title in California.
“I see it all as a part of the whole progression,” Kaaya said of the ups and downs. “It’s all a test; every single game is a test. I don’t know if God is testing me or something like that, but I take it all as a trial or a test and just get better. That’s my whole view on it.
"College football, the way it’s going now, it’s almost like every game is a playoff. You win one game two weeks ago and the next game you lose, everyone is pissed off so you’ve just got to keep playing. It’s week-by-week warriors.”
Golden this week said he doesn't "think anybody will ever get used to losing" at UM and he's glad his young players are talking about winning national titles.
"Nobody likes to lose, nobody wants to lose," he said. "Saying that is one thing. The other thing is addressing the things we need to address individually and collectively, charting a course and getting it fixed in the time span we have.
"I want them to be winners. I want them to be champions. I want them to scratch, claw and compete. Joe Yearby is one of those guys that I'm glad he feels like that because when he practices it looks like that. We want everybody in the organization to think like that."
Restocking the roster with the kind of talent it once had hasn't been easy. UM had 10 first round picks and 18 top 100 picks on the last team that played in the Orange Bowl (drafted between 2004-07).
Randy Shannon coached Miami's last first round pick, Kenny Phillips, in 2008. Shannon had nine players drafted with top 100 picks during his tenure and another four taken in 2012 he recruited to the program.
Golden had those four top 100 picks that were Shannon recruits his first year at Miami (Olivier Vernon, Sean Spence, Lamar Miller, Travis Benjamin) but has had just one other top 100 pick (Brandon Linder) during his tenure. That will change this May.
Scouts believe UM could have as many as five players (Ereck Flowers, Duke Johnson, Denzel Perryman, Phillip Dorsett and Clive Walford) taken among the first 100 picks. NFLDraftScout.com listed four Hurricanes as top 100 picks this week (Dorsett not among them). Only Florida State (10) and Oregon (5) have more than that. UM is tied for the third-most with Louisville, Washington, Alabama and Baylor. Only Washington has as many losses as UM. The other teams are all ranked in the Top 25.
"Miami has dynamic NFL talent and everybody can see it," said Rob Rang, a writer for NFLDraftScout.com. "They also have a very talented, but inexperienced freshman quarterback. To me, they've just had some trouble late in games they could have won. That's been the difference."
Most NFLDraftScout.com Top 100 prospects by college
> Florida State (10): QB Jameis Winston (3), DT Eddie Goldman (20), CB PJ Williams (27), CB Ronald Darby (47), DE Mario Edwards (50), OT Cameron Erving (54), OG Josue Matias (59), WR Rashad Greene (68), OG Tre' Jackson (71), TE Nick O'Leary (90)
> Oregon (5): QB Marcus Mariota (1), CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu (32), DE Arik Armstead (46), C Hroniss Grasu (82), OT Jake Fisher (87)
> Miami (4): RB Duke Johnson (51), LB Denzel Perryman (58), TE Clive Walford (74), OT Ereck Flowers (77)
> Alabama (4): WR Amari Cooper (5), SS Landon Collins (7), RB TJ Yeldon (55), OG Arie Kouandjio (61)
> Baylor (4): DE Shawn Oakman (12), OT Spencer Drango (49), QB Bryce Petty (88), WR Antwan Goodley (100)
> Louisville (4): DeVante Parker (18), FS Gerod Holliman (28), DE Lorenzo Mauldin (36), CB Charles Gaines (52)
> Washington (4): OLB Shaq Thompson (6), DT Danny Shelton (22), CB Marcus Peters (34), DE Hauoli Kikaha (48)
> USC (3): DT Leonard Williams (2), WR Nelson Agholor (73), RB Javorious Allen (75)
> Auburn (3): WR Sammie Coates (39), C Reese Dismukes (63), DT Gabe Wright (78)
> Fresno State (3): FS Derron Smith (44), WR Josh Harper (53), DT Tyeler Davison (96)
> Michigan State (3): CB Trae Waynes (13), FS Kurtis Drummond (93), RB Jeremy Langford (97)
> Oklahoma (3): WR Dorial Green-Beckham (31), OLB Eric Striker (62), OLB Geneo Grissom (90)As an American I often come across the stereotype that as an American I am ignorant about things that happen outside of the states. Most of the time this isn’t seen as a terrible thing because it isn’t my fault that U.S. news is saturated with domestic issues, in fact most countries are proportionally over-saturated with U.S. news. in order to fight this stereotype I have done what any American would do and learned about how the government I am living under operates in comparison with the United States. After making just the right amount of “kangaroo court” jokes to myself while learning about it turns out that put simply the Australian government is actually very similar to the American political system.
With the amount of press Tony Abbott gets it wouldn’t surprise me if Americans that don’t have any real interest in Australia might still want to figure out how this guy seems to be allowed to be in charge of a country. You may also hear about the country’s honestly pretty bad history of not caring about climate change, although Americans are only now getting on the climate change bandwagon, and think how is a desert nation so backwards?
If you meet an Australian you can both blame them for Tony Abbott and at the same time commiserate with them because unlike the United States voting is mandatory in Australia, but the prime minister is not actually directly elected. Aside from some of the kind of outdated ceremonial Monarchy business those are probably two of the three big differences between the United States’ political system and Australia’s. In order to get that big looming Queen business out of the way for any Americans we’ll take a quick look at what powers the Queen has in Australia. Australia is technically a constitutional monarchy, meaning if she wanted lizzie could come down disband parliament and appoint her own prime minister. Because the queen is technically the “head of state” of a number of countries she obviously doesn’t have time to deal with all of them herself and so appoints a Governor-General who is chosen at the request of the prime minister. The Governor- General is a pretty ceremonial role and essentially does anything the PM advises them to do, but on behalf of the crown as well as the PM.
A photo posted by Ryan (@macmorrisless) on Jan 5, 2015 at 1:18am PST
Aside from the ceremonial business having to do with the Queen, which we Americans gave up on a few hundred years ago, the political system in Australia is all business and not just thongs and roos. The system is based on the Westminster system meaning they have a bicameral legislative system headed by a prime minister, consisting of a senate and house of parliament. These work pretty much in the same way as the American system aside from the fact that voting for Australian citizens is mandatory. The other real differences are that there are more than just two viable political parties and that the number of seats in the senate and parliament change more often.
Earlier I mentioned that while everyone needs to vote in Australia they didn’t necessarily vote for Tony Abbot. Instead voting is tied to which political party you choose and then whichever party gains a majority or is able to form a coalition with another party is then able to appoint the head of their party as the prime minister who in turn picks out his cabinet. From there the executive body performs all the duties it does in America aside from vetoing power. Because the Australian system is based on the idea of political parties party lines are even more divided than in America and voting with the party line is not only expected but nearly mandatory.
So if Australian political parties seem to be so important lets take a look at what they are. There are of course two main parties that could essentially be likened to the Republican party and Democratic party as well as a few other parties that still garner some support. The current party in power is the Liberal party, of which Tony Abbott is the leader, if you have been paying attention that should make perfect sense to you. The Liberal party however isn’t liberal in the sense that we Americans know the word and is actually a lot closer to our Republican party in their views. The Liberal party is based on many Christian values, greater economic freedom, lower taxes, etc. The Labor party on the other hand is the major opposition party at the moment and is much closer to the Democrats of America, more socially progressive, greater economic regulation, big government, environmentalism, etc. Then of course there are the other smaller parties like the Greens (pretty much identical to our own Green Party but with more delegates), and the National party which caters to rural Australians and farmers.
That about sums things up on how to understand the Australian political system if you are fairly familiar with the American system. Things are pretty similar and I am sure if you talked to a traveling Aussie about the current Lib/Nat coalition government and how long they reckon it’ll last they will be astounded that you know about it and will quickly spill their similar ignorance about the American system. Feel free to ask any questions about the government or its policies below and I will pass them right along to Tony Abbott as soon as I next see him.The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was delete. The Bushranger One ping only 06:03, 21 November 2017 (UTC)
Per WP:NOT. The page is a long list of podcast episode titles, with no references that suggest any of the episodes are individually notable. power~enwiki (π, ν) 03:08, 14 November 2017 (UTC)
Hello!
I recently edited this article because it didn't have a uniformed format. I will be inserting podcast synopses. Please do not delete. Thank you!
Meanbuttbutt (talk)Meanbuttbutt —Preceding undated comment added 06:04, 14 November 2017 (UTC)
Delete per WP:NOTDIR and per the nominators reasoning that none of the episodes themselves are individually notable. Ajf773 (talk) 11:20, 14 November 2017 (UTC)Daylight saving time is set to end Nov. 6, which supposedly is good for our body clocks (more sleep) but bad for those of us who don't want to let go of summer -- or at least not those long summer days.
But these places flat-out don't crank the clock back an hour to standard time: Arizona (except the Navajo Indian Reservation), Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Add Saskatchewan, Canada, to the list too.
The time change means that on Nov. 6, the sun will set at 4:57 p.m. in Los Angeles, 5:31 p.m. in Phoenix and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; 5:50 p.m. in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 5:53 p.m. in Honolulu. Those are local times, of course, but good to know if you're on the road.
Here are some websites that can help with the transition. The California Energy Commission explains the reason for daylight saving time (it's complicated, and political) and lists clock-changing dates through 2015. Timeanddate.com allows you to create your own personal world clock to display local times for cities around the globe.
And |
waited since the garden opened 11 months ago.
"The wait list just keeps growing," Craib said.
Now, rows of planter boxes overflow with gleaming stalks of chard and kale. Strawberries, snap peas and mushrooms are ripe for the picking.
"It's fun seeing people enjoy the fruits of their efforts," Craib said. "It's fun seeing things grow by your own hand."From the diaries. Welcome Governor Scott Walker to the front page of RedState.
When I took office as governor of Wisconsin in 2011, I called together our new Republican majority in the legislature and told them it was time to “put up or shut up.” As the elected leaders of our state, we owed it to our fellow Wisconsinites to follow through with our promises and to tackle the big issues head on.
Our first order of business was reclaiming power for the people of our state. For too long, the big government union bosses had called the shots in our state capital.
At the time, Wisconsin faced a $3.6 billion budget shortfall. We needed to reduce spending, yet collective bargaining by public employees had limited the ability of taxpayers and local governments to control that spending. Taxpayers picked up the tab for all pension contributions and most health insurance contribution. The unions even had a virtual monopoly on schools’ health insurance business by having negotiated requirements to use a union-owned insurance company. Unions didn’t even have to collect their own dues—taxpayers footed the bill for that too.
To change all this, we enacted legislation that became known as Act 10.This is the bill that prompted all the protests in our capitol building and even in front of my personal home. But for all the attention, it was really pretty commonsense legislation.
With Act 10, we reformed the collective bargaining laws so that public employees now make modest contributions to their healthcare and pensions—much like private sector employees. Public employees can now decide for themselves whether to join a union. And while unions can still collectively bargain for wages, they can’t bargain over things like the size of bulletin boards or getting paid time off for union business.
Act 10 also allowed local governments and districts to pay employees based on merit and not just seniority. Teachers can get raises and promotions for a doing a good job—not just being there the longest. Taxpayers get a better deal because local governments can shop around for the most affordable employee insurance plans.
Because Act 10 freed up funds for school districts, fewer have had to lay off teachers. In fact, the three districts with the most teacher layoffs following Act 10 were ones that did not adopt the reforms.
In short, Act 10 ensured that the state government treated taxpayers fairly and spent tax dollars more effectively. While the D.C.-based special interests have attacked us for it, the people of Wisconsin like what they see. We have been re-elected three times in four years.
Now we are once again presented with another chance at big and bold reform—taking on the special interests a second time. Yesterday, the Wisconsin state Senate passed Freedom to Work legislation, which will mean no Wisconsin worker can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. I will sign the bill into law.
I’ve supported Freedom to Work for years, dating back to my time in the state legislature when I co-sponsored it. And now the people of Wisconsin have voiced their support through their state Senators and representatives. According to polling, 69 percent of Wisconsinites support the policy, and a majority of union households—51 percent—also support the law.
Here’s why I’m signing Freedom to Work in Wisconsin: it is good for economic growth. In the last decade, forced unionization states have had about half the rate of wage growth, job growth and manufacturing growth as Right to Work states. Adjusted for cost of living, employees in forced unionization states have almost $2,000 less disposable income. Bottom line, this reform is pro-freedom and pro-work for Wisconsin.When thousands of Indians were stuck in Kuwait during Gulf war, the Indian government executed the world’s largest air evacuation mission ever. The operation continued for almost two months and managed to airlift over 1,70,000 Indians. Here is all you need to know about the amazing effort!
Air India might be largely known today for delayed flights and poor service. But did you know that the largest air evacuation in the history of mankind was executed by the much aligned national airline of India? In 1990, the Indian government airlifted over 1,70,000 Indians from Kuwait with help of 488 flights in just 59 days. Air India entered into Guinness Book of World Records for the civil airline that had evacuated the most people till date.
Why the evacuation?
During the Gulf war in 1990, when Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait, the Iraqis took over the city in a few hours leaving the entire country in a state of terror. This included the fairly significant Indian community there as well. While the Kuwaiti royal family escaped to Saudi Arabia, the general population suffered great tragedies and loss. The responsibility came on the Indian government to safely evacuate the Indian community from Kuwait and hence, the largest air evacuation mission took shape.
“We did not use the word ‘condemn’ in our statement [about the Iraqi attack], for two reasons: one, we were concerned about our nationals there; second, we still believed that there was some scope for a negotiated solution to the problem. We were keen to play a role. If we condemned the development openly, it would have been difficult for us to deal with Iraq,” said K.P. Fabian, former Ambassador of India who was head of the Gulf Division of the Ministry of External Affairs during the First Gulf War.
What made it difficult?
Evacuating the Indian community from Kuwait was not an easy task. People were not ready to leave behind everything they had spent their entire lives earning in Kuwait. They underestimated the gravity of the situation and were reluctant to leave their well-settled lives.
Also, many people living there did not have valid travel papers as they had handed them over to their employers who were either missing or dead.
“Meanwhile, another problem was brewing. One set of Air India crew was stranded in Kuwait, having flown in a flight earlier. The Air India pilots and staff threatened that unless we got this crew out, they would ground the flights. The threat was indeed serious. As per Ministry of Overseas Indians (MOIA) annual report 2012-13, there are over 25 million overseas Indians across the globe and whenever need arises, it is the government’s responsibility to bring back the country’s citizens safely. Not only just the evacuation during Gulf war, Indian government has successfully executed many such missions. It was decided that the Foreign Minister should go to Baghdad and Kuwaitand urgently arrange repatriation of our nationals” said Fabian.
Also, Indian people took shelter in various schools and other buildings in various parts of Amman. They had to travel from various places to the Amman airport. It could not be predicted when these people would arrive and due to this, flights got delayed a lot. The crew had to stay on duty for a much longer time than the stipulated duty hours which created a lot of tiffs.
How did they do it?
Indian government officials went to Kuwait to meet Saddam Hussain and get him on board the arranged repatriation of Indian nationals.
“We conveyed our official viewpoint and also our plans to evacuate our nationals. He listened to our views and repeated his known position, and agreed to facilitate the repatriation of our nationals,” said Fabian.
As the help reached on August 14 (12 days after the invasion had taken place), Indian citizens were angry as they were expecting a quicker intervention by the Indian government. But, the then Foreign Minister I.K. Gujral quickly brought the crowd under control and in no time had them shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.
Initially, a few military aircrafts were arranged to evacuate the elderly, women and children. But due to a lengthy air space clearance procedure, this did not seem like a feasible solution. So the government turned to Air India for assistance.
“You should have seen us. We were operating out of a hotel room in Amman with very little space and carrying out all our operations from there,” MP Mascarenhas, who organised the operation as the airline’s regional director in the Gulf & Middle East, told Scroll.
The Indian Air Force deployed its IL 76 aircraft for a steady communication link between Kuwait and Delhi government officials. The situation was severe and required immediate help and attention. The Kerala government came forward and dispatched food items for the Indian nationals in Kuwait.
“My suggestion was that we needed to first pick up mothers with babies, other children, women, sick and old people. And also, on the basis of some kind of distributive justice, we needed to select people from every region,” said Fabian.
There were far more people to be evacuated than expected. But, the coordination and team work of the people on the mission managed to evacuate all the Indian nationals out of the country. There was also a Pakistani Airline crew stranded in Kuwait and they wished to be evacuated by Indian aircrafts. On humanitarian grounds, the Indian officials agreed.
The successful operation that started on August 14 1990, continued for almost 2 months and created history, finally coming to an end on October 11.
Other notable achievements
This was not the only successful evacuation and heroic act by the Indian government. “Operation Sukoon” in 2006 by the Indian Navy was another great operation to evacuate Indian, Sri Lankan and Nepalese nationals, as well as Lebanese nationals with Indian spouses, from the conflict zone during the 2006 Lebanon War. Four naval ships – INS Mumbai, INS Betwa and INS Brahmaputra and oil tanker INS Shakti – executed the successful operation.
Another successful evacuation “Operation Blossom” took place in 2011 when mass protests against the military broke out in Libya. Around 8,000 Indians were evacuated with help from Indian Navy’s INS Jalashwa (an amphibious transport dock ship) and a destroyer INS Mysore – both these ships together could carry around 1,200 people at one go – and the fleet tanker the INS Aditya.
The Indian government has time and again proved that it leaves no stone unturned in bringing back its people safely to the country in times of distress anywhere in the world. Kudos to all the heroes who have showed immense courage and humanity in the toughest of times.
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia)General Hosh Muhammad Sheedi qambrani or Hoshu Sheedi (Sindhi: هوش محمد شيدي; Urdu: ہوش محمّد شیدی) was a supreme commander of "His highness Mir sher muhammad khan talpur baloch" Sindh's Talpur army. Hoshu Sheedi fought against the British forces under Sir Charles Napier at the Battle of Dabbo, and was killed on March 24, 1843.[1][2]
Hosh Muhammad belonged to the African-descent Sheedi community of Sindh Pakistan. Before his death in the Battleground of Dubbo he called out the famous slogan:
“ مرويسون پر سنڌ، نه ڏيسون Marvesoon, Par Sindh na Desoo ("We will die but not give Sindh [to others]") ”
Hosh Muhammad was respected by British commanding officer, Sir Charles Napier and buried him with full military honours. Faiz Mohammad Soomro (1997). Cultural History of Sind.
Early life [ edit ]
Hosh Muhammad was born in 1801. Before joining the army, he worked at the residence of Talpur rulers.
Mausoleum [ edit ]
Grave of Hosh Mohammad Sheedi
The historical mausoleum of Hosho Sheedi qambrani is in Dubee, a small village approximately 10 kilometres from Hyderabad. It was built to pay tribute to the war martyrs and was declared a heritage site. The building currently needs maintenance and restoration. It is a historical place of Sindh which is neglected by government and community.There is good news for vegans and vegetarians as 2013 approaches. A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report predicts that meat consumption will decline sharply in the United States. In October the Worldwatch Institute reported that global meat consumption was already slumping.
Beef consumption in the United States has fallen from 28.1 billion pounds per year in 2007 to 25.6 billion pounds in 2011, according to the U.S. Cattle and Beef Industry. The latest USDA report predicts that in 2013 Americans will eat a half-billion fewer chickens and 400,000 fewer cows compared to 2006, as well as 12 million fewer pigs compared to 2007, and 22 million fewer turkeys than in 2008.
While the USDA would like us to believe the sharp decline in meat production is mainly due to increased feed costs and rising meat prices, Kimberly Budziak of VegNewsDaily writes that a statistical analysis of meat demand bycountinganimals.com strongly suggests the trend is also due to the fact that U.S. residents are making the choice that they just don’t want to eat as much meat!
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
The Counting Animals’ study suggests that 70 percent of the waning beef-consumption and 93 percent of the chicken-consumption decline is not due to external factors, such as cost increase, but is the result of the increased awareness and reduced desire to eat animals by a generation knowledgeable about the health risks and appalled at the cruelty of factory farming and mass animal-slaughter operations.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
DECLINE IN FOOD-ANIMALVETERINARIANS
A predictable but overlooked consequence of Americans turning away from eating other sentient beings is the diminished number of veterinarians entering the food-animal field in the United States.
In the early 1900’s almost all veterinarians were treating farm animals which were destined to be slaughtered for food. Although there is no admission of the influence of animal-rights efforts to dissuade humans from eating meat and consider a vegan diet, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), “a critical shortage of food-animal veterinarians is threatening the safety of the U.S. food supply.”
American Veterinary Medical Association statistics for 2009 show that, of the approximately 61,000 veterinarians in private clinical practice, only 1,103 exclusively treated food animals, while 41,117 exclusively treated “companion animals,” according to foodsafetynews.com. Many private clinics treat both food animals and companion animals. Some also treat horses.
AVMA Veterinarian/CEO Ron DeHaven said that leaves only about 8,500 veterinarians caring for more than 9.4 billion head of livestock, and this shortage of food-animal veterinarians poses a risk to the safety of the nation’s food supply. He also explained concerns that there aren’t enough federal veterinarians to assure a safe food supply and effectively deal with zoonotic diseases–diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
DeHaven, former administrator for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, described the situation as “dangerous.” He told federal legislators that among the major reasons for this shortage were veterinary student debt loads and the population shift away from rural areas to suburban and urban areas. He omits the changing trend toward vegetarian and vegan diets.
Many suburban and urban students going into veterinary school today have had little, if any, exposure to food animals nor do they feel inclined pursue a career in which the orientation is production medicine and interventions aimed at improving the financial health of farming operations.
For most, the realities of factory farming and animal slaughter are not what motivated them to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. The idea of treating an animal that’s being raised to be butchered is what Veterinarian Eric Barchas, who specializes in small animals in San Francisco, describes on his blog as “unsavory.
Read also:
UCLA Going Vegan? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/ucla-going-vegan
Vegetarian Paul McCartney Still Rocks… http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/vegetarian-paul-mccartney-turns-70-still-rocks
Sources:
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/01/too-few-food-animal-vets-warn-food-safety-pros/
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/statistics-information.aspx
http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=5224&catId=8
http://beefmagazine.com/people/food-animal-veterinarians-dwindling-report-says
undefinedA leading builder of NFL stadiums and the local contractor that oversaw construction of the Twins' Target Field are among three firms competing to build the new home for the Minnesota Vikings.
Hunt Construction of Scottsdale, Ariz., builder of a dozen NFL stadiums, including two with retractable roofs, and Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis, which built home venues for the Twins, Wild, Timberwolves and University of Minnesota football team, submitted formal bids for the construction management work Monday to the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority.
The public authority is overseeing development of the $975 million, multipurpose stadium on the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis.
Skanska AB, an international firm based in Sweden that has built several NFL stadiums, including the new home shared by the New York Giants and New York Jets, also is bidding for the contract, which is expected to pay 2 to 4 percent of the stadium's $682 million building cost.
The Vikings have said the project could create as many as 7,500 construction jobs over a three-year period.
Combined, Hunt, Mortenson and Skanska have served as construction managers for more than 100 sports stadiums and arenas across the United States.
"I think we've got a very solid group," said Lester Bagley, Vikings vice president. "We're confident any one of the three could handle the project and deliver what we're looking for."
In overseeing development of the 65,000-seat stadium, the builder will establish the budget for what can be designed and built and map out a construction timeline and work schedule. It also will provide a guaranteed maximum price for construction.
While Mortenson is the only local firm to submit a bid, it's possible that Hunt and Skanska will pair with smaller, local construction companies to coordinate work, said Michele Kelm-Helgen, chairwoman of the stadium authority.
Representatives of two local construction firms -- Kraus-Anderson of Minneapolis and Loeffler Construction of Lakeville -- attended a pre-proposal meeting hosted by the authority and team almost two weeks ago.
Kelm-Helgen and Bagley have said that the authority and team are committed to ensuring that much of the work goes to Minnesota firms and workers.
"Once we get the construction manager on board, we turn the corner and start moving forward on design decisions as well as hiring Minnesota workers, which is what this project is all about," Bagley said.
The Vikings and the stadium authority will interview the bidders Wednesday and plan to pick a builder by early February, Kelm-Helgen said.
She added that the content of the bids is confidential until a contractor is selected.
Hunt has built nearly 50 professional sports venues, including 28 stadiums for Major League Baseball and NFL teams. It also has built two NFL stadiums with retractable roofs -- Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, home of the Indianapolis Colts, and the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., home of the Arizona Cardinals.
The stadium legislation approved last spring calls for the Vikings' stadium to have a fixed roof. But Bagley said the team prefers a retractable roof or at the very least, a giant, movable wall or window if it can be installed within the construction budget.
Hunt worked with HKS Inc., architect of the Vikings' stadium project, on Lucas Oil, which also has a retractable wall that slides open, enabling fans to view Indianapolis' downtown skyline.
In addition to the four local stadiums it built, Mortenson was general contractor for the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, home of the NFL's St. Louis Rams. The company also has done extensive renovation work. Among its high-profile projects: the refurbished Kinnick Stadium, home of the University of Iowa's football team, and the $243 million makeover of St. Paul's Union Depot.
Skanska was general contractor for the 82,600-seat MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., home of the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets. It also built Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., home of the NFL New England Patriots; and LP Field in Nashville, home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
"We're excited about turning the corner on the project," Bagley said.
The Vikings hope to break ground on the stadium in October and open it in time for the 2016 NFL season.
Richard Meryhew • 612-673-4425Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like. Close
Email This Story Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification Send Email Cancel
The Student Diversity Commission voted on the Aztec mascot resolution put forward by the Native American Student alliance on April 10.
A meeting was held Monday afternoon to discuss and vote on a resolution regarding the change of the name and moniker of the SDSU mascot, the Aztec. The resolution passed with a unanimous vote.
Communication senior Anthony Lee has been involved with Associated Students as a board member, and said he felt it was important to be at the meeting.
“I’ve been involved for so long in these kind of things for a while now and I think it’s important to stay in the know with what’s going on,” he said.
Lee agreed with the decision of the commission and said it was not an easy choice.
“When something has been around for so long it’s tough to change it,” Lee said. “But it was bound to happen eventually and it’s ultimately the right decision.”
The meeting began with two speakers who presented to the board.
The first was criminal justice senior Crystal Sudano, who has been interested in the mascot debate for almost 10 years.
Sudano brought research detailing the history of the controversial character and why she felt the mascot’s origins were suspicious.
Chicano Studies professor Isidro Ortiz also spoke at the meeting.
He said he had spent several years as an A.S. advisor and the situation concerning the mascot at SDSU was similar to his alma mater Stanford, and how their old Indian mascot was offensive to students.
Ortiz has held the position for SDSU to get rid of the the Aztec mascot since 2000, he said at the meeting.
English and American Indian Studies sophomore Lane Yazzie is a part of the Native American Students Association at SDSU. He said he was pleased with the result of the vote, but is anxious for the meetings to follow.
“It is intimidating because there are a lot of people in support of the mascot,” said Yazzie. “It’s a good opportunity though for people to learn when these talks come up.”
Yazzie said students should take the time to see things from a different perspective while at SDSU.
“We are at an institution of learning and it’s important to take time to learn,” Yazzie said. “Especially how it affects native people.”
Social science senior Rachel Muntz asked SDSU students to imagine being in another person’s shoes.
“Students should consider how they would feel if it was their culture being used as a mascot, and the impact it has on these students,” Muntz said. “We have students that feel oppressed and marginalized and it’s not acceptable.”
She spoke about her expectations for the next meeting, and said she was worried that people will steer away from the main focus of the resolution.
“There are some members that are receptive towards it, but I just hope good questions are asked,” Muntz said. “I am worried that people are going to bring up the cost of rebranding, which might be a valid point, but it has nothing to do with the issue of racism that the resolution addresses.”
The A.S. University Council will meet at 3:30 p.m. April 12 to further discuss the resolution. There will be an official vote on the resolution on April 19.MIAMI HEAT VS. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami
TV/Radio: Fox Sports Sun/WAXY 790AM, WAQI 710AM (Spanish)
Records: Miami 13-13, Portland 13-13
Line: Miami is favored by 2.5 points.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
Heat
F: Josh Richardson
F: James Johnson
C: Kelly Olynyk
G: Dion Waiters
G: Goran Dragic
Trail Blazers
F: Evan Turner
F: Al-Farouq Aminu
C: Meyers Leonard
G: CJ McCollum
G: Damian Lillard
Scouting report: Lillard scored 49 points and shot 14-of-21 the last time these teams met, a 115-104 Portland victory in Miami in March. … Portland is coming off a 111-104 loss at Golden State on Monday, a game in which Lillard scored 39 points but shot just 12-of-28. … Lillard and McCollum are among the highest scoring backcourts in the league, Lillard averaging 26.6 points per game (4th) while McCollum is at 21.0. Lillard leads the team with 6.2 assists per game. … The Trail Blazers are seventh in scoring, averaging 101.6 points per game. Their point differential of plus 1.7 is 10th. … Center Jusuf Nurkic has missed two games with a right ankle injury. His status for tonight has not been determined. … Heat Center Hassan Whiteside will miss his seventh straight game (12th overall this season) with a bruised knee. Swingman Rodney McGruder (stress fracture, left leg) and forward Okaro White (left foot facture) are out. … With a victory, Erik Spoelstra ties Pat Riley’s Heat record of 454 wins. … Miami has won two straight, both on the road, holding Brooklyn and Memphis to an average of 85.5 points on 38.9 percent shooting. … The Heat are 5-6 at home, 8-7 on the road. … The teams are meeting for the first time this season. Portland swept the series last season. The Heat have won four of the last five in Miami. … James Johnson had 24 points, seven rebounds, five assists in Portland’s win in March.
[Heat guard Dion Waiters’ most efficient game comes with right ailing elbow]
[What’s the key to Heat’s success? Playing elite defense. Here are the numbers to prove it …]
[With defense improving, Miami Heat hope to take advantage of favorable schedule]
[Want more Heat news sent directly to your Facebook feed? Make sure to like our Heat Facebook page]Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States. British athletes have competed in every single Summer Olympic Games. 300 competitors, 184 men and 116 women, took part in 175 events in 22 sports.[1]
The Atlanta games saw Great Britain's worst performance at a Summer Olympics since 1952. As final medal rankings were tabulated, Great Britain finished in 36th position, with just one gold and overall total of just 15 medals. This was the country's lowest ever numerical ranking in the table and were dubbed “The Team of Shame”, leaving Great Britain with numerous questions about the overall state of sport in the country. Due to a lack of funding athletes were forced to recreate the humidity of Atlanta by practising in their bathrooms at home with the shower turned on, and several sold their Olympic kit on the streets in order to raise funds to repay loans.[2][3][4] The poor British performance at the Atlanta Olympics led to the introduction of National Lottery funding for elite sports,[5] which started the following year.[6] Nevertheless, the single gold medal won by rowers Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave ensured that Great Britain maintained its record of winning at least one gold medal at every Summer Olympics.
Medallists [ edit ]
Medals by sport Sport Total Rowing 1 0 1 2 Athletics 0 4 2 6 Sailing 0 2 0 2 Swimming 0 1 1 2 Tennis 0 1 0 1 Cycling 0 0 2 2 Total 1 8 6 15
Gold [ edit ]
Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave – Rowing, Men's Coxless Pair
Silver [ edit ]
Bronze [ edit ]
Medals by day [ edit ]
Medals by date Day Date Total 1 20 July 0 0 0 0 2 21 July 0 0 0 0 3 22 July 0 1 0 1 4 23 July 0 0 0 0 5 24 July 0 0 0 0 6 25 July 0 0 1 1 7 26 July 0 0 0 0 8 27 July 1 1 1 3 9 28 July 0 0 2 2 10 29 July 0 1 0 1 11 30 July 0 1 0 1 12 31 July 0 1 1 2 13 1 Aug 0 1 0 1 14 2 Aug 0 0 0 0 15 3 Aug 0 2 1 3 16 4 Aug 0 0 0 0 Total 1 8 6 15
Archery [ edit ]
Women's Individual Competition:
Alison Williamson – Round of 16, 10th place (2–1)
Men's Individual Competition:
Gary Hardinges – Round of 32, 28th place (1–1)
Steven Hallard – Round of 64, 55th place (0–1)
Athletics [ edit ]
Men's 5,000 metres
Qualification – 13:52.16
Semi-final – 14:08.39 (→ did not advance)
Men's 4 × 400 m Relay
Heat – 3:01.79
Semi-final – 3:01.36
Final – 2:56.60 (→ Silver Medal)
Men's 400 m Hurdles
Heat – 49.31 s
Semi-final – 49.43 s (→ did not advance)
Heat – 50.41 s (→ did not advance)
Heat – 49.78 s (→ did not advance)
Men's 3,000 metres Steeplechase
Heat – 8:31.26
Semi-finals – 8:46.74 (→ did not advance)
Heat – 8:28.32
Semi-finals – 8:28.50 (→ did not advance)
Heat – 8:46.76 (→ did not advance)
Men's Marathon
Men's 50 km Walk
Chris Maddocks – 4:18:41 (→ 34th place)
Men's Discus Throw
Qualification – 61.64 m (→ did not advance)
Qualification – 54.88 m (→ did not advance)
Men's Hammer Throw
Qualification – 69.32 m (→ did not advance)
Women's 4×400 metres Relay
Qualification – 3:28.13 (→ did not advance)
Women's 400 m Hurdles
Qualification – 55.29
Semi-finals – DNF (→ did not advance)
Women's Long Jump
Qualification – 6.33 m (→ did not advance)
Women's Triple Jump
Qualification – 14.55 m
Final – 14.49 m (→ 5th place)
Qualification – 13.70 m (→ did not advance)
Women's High Jump
Qualification – 1.90 m (→ did not advance)
Qualification – 1.85 m (→ did not advance)
Women's Javelin Throw
Qualification – 58.86 m (→ did not advance)
Qualification – 54.72 m (→ did not advance)
Women's Discus Throw
Qualification – 58.88 m (→ did not advance)
Women's Shot Put
Qualification – 18.56 m
Final – 18.34 m (→ 11th place)
Women's Heptathlon
Final Result – 6489 points (→ Bronze Medal)
Women's Marathon
Women's 10 km Walk
Vicky Lupton – 47:05 (→ 33rd place)
Badminton [ edit ]
Beach volleyball [ edit ]
Boxing [ edit ]
Athlete Event Round of 32 Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semi-finals Final Opposition
Result Opposition
Result Opposition
Result Opposition
Result Opposition
Result Rank David Burke Featherweight Huste GER)
L 9–13 Did not advance Fola Okesola Heavyweight Bye Jones USA)
L RSCI Did not advance
Canoeing [ edit ]
Cycling [ edit ]
Road competition [ edit ]
Men's Individual Time Trial
Final – 1:04:36 (→ Bronze Medal)
Women's Individual Road Race
Final – 02:37:06 (→ 11th place)
Final – 02:37:06 (→ 19th place)
Final – 02:53:47 (→ 43rd place)
Women's Individual Time Trial
Final – 39:09 (→ 14th place)
Final – 41:16 (→ 21st place)
Track competition [ edit ]
Men's Team Pursuit
Mountain Bike [ edit ]
Men's Cross Country
Final – 2:29:10 (→ 12th place)
Final – 2:32:30 (→ 15th place)
Women's Cross Country
Final – 2:04.44 (→ 22nd place)
Diving [ edit ]
Men's 3m Springboard
Preliminary Heat – 345.33
Semi-final – 203.46 (→ did not advance, 18th place)
Preliminary Heat – 318.69 (→ did not advance, 24th place)
Women's 10m Platform
Preliminary Heat – 251.73
Semi-final – 158.43
Final – 259.68 (→ 9th place)
Equestrian [ edit ]
Fencing [ edit ]
Two fencers, one man and one woman, represented Great Britain in 1996.
Gymnastics [ edit ]
Hockey [ edit ]
Men's Team Competition [ edit ]
Preliminary Round (Group B)
Classification Matches
5th–8th place: Great Britain – Pakistan 1–2
Great Britain – Pakistan 1–2 7th–8th place: Great Britain – India 4–3 (→ Seventh place)
Team Roster
Women's Team Competition [ edit ]
Round Robin
Bronze Medal Game
Great Britain – Netherlands 0–0 (The Netherlands wins after penalty strokes, 3–4) → Fourth place
Team Roster
Head Coach: Sue Slocombe
Judo [ edit ]
Modern pentathlon [ edit ]
Men's Individual Competition:
Richard Phelps – 5254pts (→ 18th place)
Rowing [ edit ]
Men
Women
Sailing [ edit ]
Shooting [ edit ]
Swimming [ edit ]
Men's 50 m Freestyle
Heat – 22.73
B-Final – 23.01 (→ 16th place)
Men's 100 m Freestyle
Heat – 51.03 (→ did not advance, 28th place)
Men's 200 m Freestyle
Heat – 1:49.05
Swim-off – 1:48.89
Final – 1:49.39 (→ 8th place)
Heat – 1:51.06
B-Final – 1:50.59 (→ 15th place)
Men's 400 m Freestyle
Heat – 3:51.98
Final – 3:49.00 (→ Silver Medal)
Men's 1500 m Freestyle
Heat – 15.14.81
Final – 15:02.48 (→ Bronze Medal)
Heat – 15:22.65 (→ did not advance, 10th place)
Men's 100 m Backstroke
Heat – 56.27
B-Final – 56.07 (→ 10th place)
Heat – 57.17 (→ did not advance, 28th place)
Men's 200 m Backstroke
Heat – 2:01.35
B-Final – 2:02.40 (→ 13th place)
Heat – 2:07.75 (→ did not advance, 32nd place)
Men's 100 m Breaststroke
Heat – 1:02.78
B-Final – 1:02.51 (→ 11th place)
Men's 200 m Breaststroke
Heat – 2:14.96
Final – 2:14.37 (→ 4th place)
Men's 100 m Butterfly
Heat – 53.73
B-Final – 53.23 (→ 9th place)
Men's 200 m Butterfly
Heat – 1:58.16
Final – 1:58.47 (→ 7th place)
Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay
Heat – 3:21.34
Final – 3:21.52 (→ 8th place)
Men's 4 × 200 m Freestyle Relay
Heat – 7:21.92
Final – 7:18.74 (→ 5th place)
Men's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay
Heat – DSQ (→ did not advance)
Women's 50 m Freestyle
Heat – 26.39 (→ did not advance, 23rd place)
Women's 100 m Freestyle
Heat – 56.40
B-Final – 56.32 (→ 14th place)
Heat – 56.62
B-Final – 56.58 (→ 16th place)
Women's 200 m Freestyle
Heat – 2:01.46
B-Final – 2:02. |
. Furthermore, a social-democratic government of the kind that Corbyn could potentially head, with its commitment to decoupling the economy from its damaging dependence on financial services, would soon discover that competition rules forbid us from subsidising our manufacturing sector or even protecting our steel industry from Chinese dumping through raising tariffs on imports. In short, any government that seeks to overturn the neoliberal consensus will find that, within the confines of the EU, even limited reforms toward that end are a practical impossibility, liable to be struck down by the European Court of Justice as incompatible with EU law at any time.
It is regrettable that, instead of focussing on the impediments Labour would face in the event of a vote to remain, the mainstream left has chosen to fix its attention on the perceived boost that Brexit would give the current Conservative government. A myth has gained ground amongst large sections of the left that the rights which British workers have come to take for granted, such as maternity leave and paid holidays, were gifted to Britain by the EU, and that Brexit would free the Conservatives to intensify their assault on the working class, uninhibited by a social Europe which at present exercises a restraining influence over neoliberal governments. Even supposing that the remain camp is right in assuming that the Conservatives will hold onto power until the next general election in four years time, a questionable assumption in light of the fact the Conservatives are deeply split over the referendum, it is simply false to claim that we owe whatever rights we enjoy to the EU, As others have documented, most of the rights that are invoked by the mainstream left as a reason to vote remain were already in place when we joined the EEC in 1973, and they owe not to a beneficent bureaucracy of Eurocrats but to Britain’s working classes, who won these rights over the course of many years and after a series of hard-fought struggles with the capitalist class. Likewise, the retention of these rights will depend not on the good-will of a remote bureaucracy, which is actively undermining those same rights elsewhere, but on the determination of workers to band together in defence of their standard of living.
Unfortunately, many of the left apologists for the EU have been aided in their efforts to paint their opponents as backward nationalists by the fact that the Brexit campaign is largely dominated by the right. Almost all of the political figures who favour Brexit that the British public are regularly exposed to on TV are drawn from the far right of the Conservative Party, such as the former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the current justice minister Michael Gove. (The noteworthy exception is Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP – a right-wing party formed for the sole purpose of taking Britain out of the EU.) At times the debate has resembled, and has often been reported as, an internal squabble between factions of the Conservative Party over the direction Britain should take as well as, on a more personal level, a battle between Prime Minister David Cameron, the leader of the remain group, and Boris Johnson, who is widely believed to be the most likely successor of Cameron in the event of Brexit. The left-wing case for leaving, which has been eloquently articulated by a number of prominent intellectuals and activists, has been given relatively little attention by the media, with the result that many voters have been kept in ignorance of the existence of such arguments, and various Blairite MPs on the right of the Labour Party have been able to assert that they alone represent what the left’s position should be in the debate over Britain’s attitude to the EU.
Paradoxically, however, the near monopoly of the right over the Brexit campaign is not proof that opposition to the EU is intrinsically right-wing, but testifies instead to the weakness of a left which has been steadily stripped of its commitment to economic justice. Thirty years ago the most forceful advocates of Brexit were to be found among the members of the Labour Party, not on the right, and calls for Britain to withdraw from the EU, or the EEC as it was then called, were considered a standard feature of Labour’s policy platforms. The great left-wing MP Tony Benn campaigned in the 1975 referendum for Labour to leave the EEC on the grounds that such an arrangement was contrary to the basic democratic principle that people should be allowed to vote on the policies affecting them. Events since 1975 have only proved the truth of Benn’s original argument, made all those years ago, that these undemocratic tendencies were destined to grow with time, posing a grave risk to our ability to decide the most basic of policy issues. Moreover, unlike the MPs campaigning for remain today, politicians like Benn understood that the lack of democracy at the heart of the EU was not an oversight on the part of its founders, but an essential component of a project which sought to supplant national governments with a supranational authority divorced from the concerns of ordinary people. So long as power was vested in national assemblies, these institutions, however imperfect, were at least answerable to their voters, but once power over economic policy was ceded to bureaucrats then the business elites which effectively governed Europe were easily able to overcome popular resistance to their policies by dispensing with the need for elections.
Unfortunately, this basic point has been forgotten by the members of the Labour Party now campaigning to remain. Thus, the left-wing opponents of Brexit frequently give the impression that they regard the EU’s democratic deficit as a minor flaw, something that could easily be rectified if only Britain stays within the EU and works with other countries to reform it. Not a few even deny that the EU is undemocratic, reasoning that because the Council of Ministers, which concludes the treaties which form the basis for the EU, is composed of elected government figures from the member states this amounts to an indirect form of democratic accountability. These supporters of remain seem oblivious to the fact that the whole purpose of enshrining in various treaties the neoliberal principles on which the EU rests, treaties which once concluded cannot be repealed except through the agreement of all 28 member states, is to ensure that such weighty questions are forever removed from the sphere of democratic debate. The electorate of a particular country can vote their government out, but they cannot revoke the set of laws that this government agreed to, nor exercise any control over the unappointed Commission which is granted broad discretion to implement these laws.
The referendum is perhaps the one chance that this generation will ever have to vote on our membership of an institution which now wields an inordinate amount of power. It is the only opportunity we will be given to affirm our democratic right to rule on the fundamental questions with which we are confronted, and at the same time administer a blow to the undemocratic vision of a corporate Europe, rooted in neoliberal economics and a disdain for workers, that has crushed underfoot the aspirations of so many Europeans who were never even offered the choice of agreeing to such a project. A vote to leave will not usher in an age of socialist egalitarianism, but it is nonetheless, as socialists agitating for Brexit have observed, a necessary steppingstone without which the fairer society we are striving to achieve will be rendered a more distant prospect.
Members of the mainstream left who are campaigning to remain have only been able to maintain their enthusiasm for the EU by averting their eyes from its shameful record, adhering instead to an exalted image of a progressive body which has never existed outside of their imaginations. Ordinary voters must spurn such consoling myths, and recognise the EU for what it is: a deeply reactionary institution that is holding back progress throughout Europe.A poll of Louisiana Republicans released last week contained some strange news for President Obama: Twenty-nine percent of them said that he was responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina — in 2005.
This was slightly more than the 28 percent who said President George W. Bush was to blame. An additional 44 percent thought it over but just weren’t sure.
This is a preposterous notion. Everybody knows Barack Obama couldn’t have been responsible for the Katrina response because he was in Indonesia in 2005, learning about his Muslim faith in a madrassa. He had moved to Indonesia directly from his home country of Kenya, stopping in the United States just long enough to fake the moon landing.
When I read a report about the poll on the Talking Points Memo Web site, the first thing that came to mind was the famous campaign-trail quotation from the man who actually was president in 2005: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning.”
Evidently, they is not, at least not in Louisiana. Yet ignorance alone does not account for this bizarre finding.
1 of 68 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Tom Toles draws Obama View Photos A collection of cartoons of the president. Caption A collection of cartoons of the president. Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The Katrina result, from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, is somewhat suspect because it is from an automated, push-button polling method. Yet the finding, if unscientific, is revealing: It shows that a substantial number of Republican voters will agree to something they know to be false if it puts Obama in a bad light.
The Katrina question is consistent with the many surveys finding an appalling amount of misinformation embraced by the electorate. Seven in 10 Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. One in five thought that Obama was Muslim. In another famous poll, Americans were three times more likely to be able to name two of the seven dwarfs than two Supreme Court justices.
Earlier this year, Public Policy Polling found disturbingly high levels of belief in UFOs and aliens, and the believers were bipartisan: Twenty-two percent of Mitt Romney voters said Obama was the Antichrist, and 13 percent of Obama voters said the government allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur.
But Obama’s presidency has provoked a particularly steep rise in the proportion of Republican conspiracy theorists. A Pew poll last year found that 30 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of conservative Republicans thought Obama was Muslim — roughly double than thought so four years earlier. Gallup polling in April 2011 found that 43 percent of Republicans thought Obama was born in another country.
Obama conspiracy theories have flourished in the Deep South, where wealth and educational levels are both low. This makes sense: Where voters are least informed, they are most susceptible to misinformation peddled by talk-radio hosts and the like.
For this reason, voters in reliably Republican states, which tend to be poorer, with lower test scores, are more vulnerable to misinformation. To use one measure, the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress test of eighth-grade reading, all but one of the top 10 states were in Obama’s column in 2012. Of the 19 doing worse than average, 14 were red states.
This is what makes the Katrina question so interesting. Certainly, Louisianans are on the low end of the education rankings, fifth from the bottom in math and third-to-last in reading. But this question got around the ignorance question by asking Louisiana Republicans about a topic they know intimately.
1 of 156 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The best editorial cartoons of 2013 (so far) View Photos A collection of cartoons from around the country. Caption A collection of cartoons from around the country. Rob Rogers/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
All but the most clueless had to know that Obama, a first-term senator in 2005, was not responsible for the botched storm response that Louisianans experienced up close and personally. It’s a notion so demonstrably false that they wouldn’t have heard anybody arguing for it on Fox News or talk radio. Yet 29 percent of Republican primary voters (the sample size was 274) reflexively endorsed the falsehood.
Why?
“Obama derangement syndrome is running pretty high right now among a certain segment of the Republican base,” Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, told me. “There’s a certain segment of people who say, ‘If you’re going to give me the opportunity to stick it to Obama, I’m going to take it.’ ”
In other words, a large number of that 29 percent who said Obama was responsible for the Katrina response knew that he wasn’t but saw it as a chance to register their displeasure with the president. Obama has driven a large number of Republican voters — Jensen puts it at 15 to 20 percent of the overall electorate — right off their rockers. And to that, there is only one thing to say.
Heckuva job, Barry.
Twitter: @Milbank
Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.Donald Trump on Wednesday accused the Clinton campaign of orchestrating the recent groping allegations made by numerous women who said the Republican presidential nominee tried to kiss and touch them without their consent.
“The woman on the plane, the woman... I think they either want fame or her campaign did it,” Trump said. “I think it’s her campaign because what I saw, what they did…”
He added, “I believe she got these people to step forward” “If it wasn’t, they get their 10 minutes of fame but they were all totally… it was all fiction. It was lies and it was fiction.”
Trump also said he didn’t apologize to his wife following the allegations because they were all “totally false.”
Trump was responding to a question by debate moderator Chris Wallace, who asked the candidate why “so many different women from so many different circumstances over so many different years” would accuse him of groping them.
Trump said Wednesday he didn’t know any of the women involved who have come forward and that the stories “have been largely debunked.”
He added, “I didn’t even apologize to my wife, who’s sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything.”
However, in an interview with CNN on Monday, Melania Trump said her husband had apologized to her for making lewd remarks revealed in a leaked video from 2005.1 of 2 2 of 2
Written by Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger. Directed by Genevieve Fleming. Produced by Studio 58/Langara College at Studio 58 on Saturday, November 18. Continues to December 3
There are several choreographed music sequences in Studio 58’s new production, Wilderness, but there’s one standout. It’s a flashback to the night that the play’s six troubled youths were “gooned”—or transported to Utah for wilderness therapy, a very real, lucrative, and largely unregulated “last resort” for desperate parents who don’t know what to do with their children. From the choreography to the music, the sequence is brilliantly staged and deeply chilling.
In part, Wilderness’s refusal to shy away from the violence and trauma of how these kids arrive at camp absolves the play of its tacit endorsement of wilderness therapy, at least as depicted here by writers Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger. The script emerged out of two years of interviews with real families who sent their children to wilderness therapy, something Hamburger herself did, as well. The campers are Dylan (Heather Barr), Elizabeth (Alina Blackett), Mikey (Aidan Drummond), Sophia (Jessie Liang), Chloe (Caitlin Volkert), and Cole (Nolan McConnell-Fidyk), and we get to know each of their stories, as well as spending time with their parents and their camp counsellors—most of whom are depicted as unrelentingly cheery individuals who use a lot of therapyspeak.
The troubled youth "get gooned"--sent away to wilderness camp against their will. Emily Cooper
As the teens slowly bond and begin to share their devastatingly real stories of everything from drug abuse and self-harm to mental illness and child abuse, there are some great scenes and performances from the talented cast. McConnell-Fidyk has an easy, defiant charm as Cole, and a magnetic stage presence. Barr conveys Dylan’s journey—coming out as a transgender man and coming into his own, finally, after years of gender dysphoria—beautifully, and brings tremendous nuance to Dylan’s character development from wounded and angry to jokey and confident. There aren’t any easy answers to why some of these young people have ended up in wilderness therapy; no two stories are the same and there’s not going to be a clear path for anybody going forward, either child or parent.
What doesn’t work as well is Wilderness’s heavy reliance on songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Pink Floyd. For the most part, it doesn’t need these emotional shortcuts, and save for the gooning sequence, the music and choreography isn’t integrated well enough throughout.
We already care about these characters, and it’s so much more effective when they’re in scenes together, fighting, talking, sharing, laughing, or breaking each other’s hearts. It’s important to give space to these youths and these issues, particularly when so many young people are trying so hard to survive—not just in the wilderness but within themselves.I generally steer away from travel writing about more mainstream locations because I find that the genre can be rather formulaic (I ate here, I stayed here, the people were like this and then I went somewhere else) and I feel that popular destinations like London or Paris are best experienced in person rather than through the page. I can state with reasonable confidence, however, that I do not have any of the areas visited by Michael Totten in Where the West Ends on any upcoming travel itineraries. In fact, it is pretty safe to assume that I probably wont ever make it to the likes of Kosovo, Iraq, or Montenegro or anyplace else visited by Totten while he traverses the nebulous border between east and west. Totten's book reads like a travelogue with a strong geopolitical focus and is ultimately an informative and enjoyable examination of such countries.
Totten and an occasional travel partner ultimately visit thirteen countries in all with each country roughly receiving one chapter. Each chapter can stand alone as a vignette but chapters are further organized by region which helps provide greater context to understanding life there. Where the West Ends adheres to some of the basic structures of travel writing, and Totten offers up some vivid descriptions of the sheer beauty and abject desolation that he finds within these countries. He is a gifted writer and he is also very familiar with his subject matter. Totten is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and he has reported from Iraq, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union.
I came into the book with very limited knowledge about the region. I always plan on reading The Economist cover-to-cover but I can't recall the last time I read more than one article in the Middle East and Africa Section. I generally assumed that countries such as Georgia and Kosovo had their issues and quirks but I never read anything describing life there. Shameful reading habits aside, I remain interested in learning about the area and Totten thankfully is able to provide quite a bit of fascinating information about it. In addition to dejecting post-communist apartment blocks and corrupt officials, many of these countries are filled with factual tidbits. The reception of Totten's American citizenship truly runs the gamut, and there are some surprising members of the pro-American camp. The author is embraced by Iraqi Kurds, who are ideological polar opposites from Iraqi Arabs in terms of America. Kurds (and even the most devout viewers of Fox News) cannot beat the residents of Kosovo in terms of American support, though. The country boasts what is probably the world's only examples of graffiti writing effusively praising George W. Bush and a patisserie/disco (there are undoubtedly numerous typos in this review but that last phrase is not one of them) named "Hillary" in honor of the former first lady, while her husband has an eleven foot statue in his honor on Bill Clinton Boulevard in the capital of Prishtina. That being said, the highlight of the book was still probably learning about a statue of Lenin in Yalta that stares directly at a McDonald's franchise.
While there are plenty of entertaining and somewhat-depressing descriptions of awful hotels, ravaged post-communist environments, shady cabdrivers and other elements of the countries covered, Totten also writes about some of their deeper cultural and political aspects. Totten interviews various professors, journalists, and everyday residents who help provide additional insight into life at the borders between the developed and developing world. I found these sections, such Totten's detailing of the Russia-Georgia conflict to be both comprehensive and enlightening, though not all interview subjects were equally engaging. Several of these sections dragged on a bit as a result. It was still generally nice to understand the historical underpinnings that led to the often dismal surroundings encountered by the author. Totten also makes some astute statements, such as when he posits that nationalism is on par with radical Islam in contributing to the perpetual state of Middle Eastern tension.
I don't want to come across as a pre-schooler but Totten mentions holding a camera or performing the act of photography several times in the book, often while in front of some majestic landscape or peculiar sight. He even risks riling up unfriendly soldiers and officials by having a camera on his person during several instances. If he is going to dangle these pictures in front of our faces and endure so much trouble and risk in doing so you would think he could include some of said photographs within the pages of Where the West Ends. On a more positive note, these reckless camera-holding habits exhibit Totten's freewheeling and adventurous approach to his journey, which helps make for an enjoyable read. He is unafraid to travel to Iraq on a whim (the trip was completely unplanned as he tells it), solicit navigational help from anti-American civilians, and he even attempts to pay Chernobyl a visit during his travels (where he is unfortunately rebuffed). These passages inject more excitement than most books that extensively cover the breakup of Yugoslavia and collapse of Albanian government can muster.
In Sum
Where the West Ends is a worthwhile read that strikes a nice balance between being informative and entertaining as Totten explores the Balkans, Middle East, Caucasus, and Black Sea regions. Simply pointing out their idiosyncracies in a travelogue would make for a worthwhile read, but the book is further enhanced (in general) with reflections about the factors that shaped each country's politics and culture.
7/10Submitted by John Aziz of Azizonomics
Time To Get Out Of The Middle East
It takes a lot of time and effort to try to understand American counter-terrorism policy today.
Personally, I think the status quo is like trying to treat a cocaine overdose with methamphetamine. It’s like trying to cure chlamydia by having sex with multiple random strangers in a park. It’s like trying to cure a broken nose by punching oneself in the face.
Or, as Glenn Greenwald puts it:
I absolutely believe that another 9/11 is possible. And the reason I believe it’s so possible is that people like Andrew Sullivan — and George Packer — have spent the last decade publicly cheering for American violence brought to the Muslim world, and they continue to do so (now more than ever under Obama). Far from believing that another 9/11 can’t happen, I’m amazed that it hasn’t already, and am quite confident that at some point it will. How could any rational person expect their government to spend a full decade (and counting) invading, droning, cluster-bombing, occupying, detaining without charges, and indiscriminately shooting huge numbers of innocent children, women and men in multiple countries and not have its victims and their compatriots be increasingly eager to return the violence?
Isn’t it painfully obvious? The interventionist policies — occupation, drone strikes, cluster-bombing, indefinitely detention, false vaccination programs and so forth — in the middle east advocated by both “liberal” and “conservative” hawks that are supposed to prevent terrorism are creating anger, creating enemies, and creating terrorists. I too am amazed another 9/11 hasn’t happened. I despise jihadism and Islamism. It is contrary to everything I stand for. That’s exactly why I oppose a foreign policy that serves as a hugely effective recruiting tool for the totalitarian jihadists.
Yemeni lawyer Haykal Bafana explained the rationale last month:
Dear Obama, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with Al Qaeda.
Or as convicted terrorist Faisal Shahzad put it:
Well, the drone hits in Afghanistan and Iraq, they don’t see children, they don’t see anybody. They kill women, children, they kill everybody. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people. And, on behalf of that, I’m avenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their own people, but they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.
Or as former CIA counter-terrorism expert Michael Scheuer noted:
The idea that has been pushed by President Clinton and President Bush and Mr. Cheney and Barack Obama and Senator McCain, that America is being attacked [for its freedom] is a disservice to the population of the United States. This war is not against Americans because we’re Americans, it’s motivated by the activities of our government and its allies in the Muslim world.
So why do we keep doing this? Two reasons: hubris and greed.
First, the hubris. We know Ron Paul was booed in South Carolina for advocating that we should do to others as we would like done to us:
My point is if another country does to us what we do others, we’re not going to like it very much. So I would say that maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in — in foreign policy. Don’t do to other nation what we don’t want to have them do to us.
But that’s just the propagandistic nature of being a superpower. Years of prosperity, military supremacy and pro-war propaganda have made it normal to believe strongly in the idea that America is intrinsically better, and wherever America goes America brings freedom, and anyone who doesn’t agree with that needs to be waterboarded until they do.
Yet however many times as the phrase “they hate us because we are free” is repeated, mantra-like by a Rick Santorum or a Newt Gingrich, it does not become truer. It is just an illusion, just a fantasy. While the jihadis were always anti-American, anti-democratic and anti-capitalistic, Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Sayyid al-Qutb — the fathers and grandfathers of modern Wahhabism, jihadism and al-Qaeda — became anti-American militants because of America’s role in the middle east.
As bin Laden himself said:
Those who kill our women and innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they refrain.
And even more clearly:
Free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush’s claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don’t strike Sweden, for example.
Second, the greed. America is in the middle east because America likes cheap energy. That myth of America as liberators flourished first as a justification for America’s petrdollar foreign policy.
And people get rich from America being at war — so far in the region of $4 trillion has gone to fighting since 9/11. A lot of weapons contractors are happy with the status quo.
So the military-industrial complex — the lobbyists, the weapons makers, the media — may accept it if Obama kills 14 women and 21 children to get one suspected terrorist. More terrorism means more weapons spending. For the lucky few it’s a self-perpetuating stairway to riches. Yet for wider society it means spending time, money and effort on war, instead of on domestic prosperity. It means the constant threat of terrorism. And it means the loss of our liberty, as the security state adopts increasingly paranoid anti-terrorism measures.
We should do to others as we would have done to ourselves. That means — unless we are comfortable with the idea of ourselves living under military occupation and drone strikes — getting out of the middle east, and letting that region solve its own problems — forget another costly and destructive occupation in Syria. Slash the war and occupation spending, and redirect the money to making America independent of middle eastern energy and resources.REPUBLICANS’ MOST potent argument against acting on climate change — that other nations won’t cut emissions, so U.S. efforts are useless — is crumbling. The European Union has had overlapping climate policies in place for years. China, the world’s largest emitter, continues to fill in details about how it will meet the landmark climate targets it announced a year ago. World negotiators are set to convene in Paris in November to bundle commitments from dozens of nations into a single agreement that should set the world on a path toward lower emissions.
President Obama’s moves to cut U.S. emissions, in other words, have not proved to be unilateral economic disarmament. Instead they have elicited serious commitments from other major polluters. Now more than ever, the United States has reason to lead with confidence.
The most significant recent evidence was Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement of concrete steps to peak China’s emissions by the end of the next decade, including a nationwide cap-and-trade program that would put a price on carbon dioxide emissions from several major sectors, including power generation, cement manufacturing and chemicals.
This should only add to Republicans’ embarrassment. Not only is China giving strong signs that it takes climate change seriously, it also is embracing a market-based policy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that the GOP has rejected here. In a bizarre inversion, the United States is adopting a command-and-control approach to emissions-cutting, because that’s all Mr. Obama could do absent congressional action, while China adopts a more liberal approach.
Other countries would not act unless the United States, the largest historical emitter, also took action, and U.S. diplomats would have no credibility to press other nations on a range of climate-related issues. World climate negotiators, for example, should agree on ways to monitor each other’s progress on emissions cuts, keeping everyone honest in an effort that requires many nations to move at once. Moreover, analysis after analysis shows that, while the commitments that countries will bring to Paris will reduce warming over the next several decades, they won’t bend the emissions curve down nearly far enough. Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi agreed last week that each nation should develop not just flimsy emissions targets but real strategies to cut greenhouse gases much further by mid-century. This ambition should be accepted by others in Paris, too.
This is not to say that climate diplomacy — or decarbonizing energy-hungry economies — will be easy. It will take the sort of sustained global effort that only the United States is capable of. Anyone seeking to lead the nation should be explaining how he or she would engage in an international climate movement that is beginning to come together — not irresponsibly and inaccurately arguing that it’s useless to try.Siri percolated throughout all of Apple’s platforms in 2015. It started with iPhone in 2011, iPad in 2012, debuted on Apple Watch in early 2015 and Apple TV with the new model a few months ago. It’s quickly becoming a premier feature on these platforms, with live-as-you-speak transcription and radically new features like ‘Remind me about this’ contextual tasks when inside apps. Except for one platform of course. Mac OS X has been ignored and left abandoned with regards to true voice searching and Siri. It’s 2016, and I want Apple to bring Siri to the Mac.
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Especially with Apple Watch, it’s just become natural for me to ask for stuff with my voice. For little things like timers or messages, I like to speak. Siri voice recognition has got significantly better for me in the last year, I have come to rely on it. And not having it available when I’m working on my Mac is a huge pain.
There is the potential for Apple to make Siri on Mac even more powerful than a straight iOS port too. You could create more complicated actions for Siri to execute, in a world with multiple apps. ‘Open apple.com and a text editor side by side’ would be a cool command to quickly set up a workspace desktop, for example. Opportunities to integrate with the Mac features of Spotlight also exist, such as finding files using natural language queries as introduced with OS X El Capitan.
The Mac may also be a nice testbed for third-party app integrations with Siri, given the more flexible environment. I’m not hoping or expecting for this more advanced stuff. Simply reproducing the Siri from my iPhone on my MacBook would satisfy me.
In terms of user interface, it seems like a simple problem. Just like the iPad, present a full screen overlay with the Siri conversation in the middle of the screen. 9to5Mac reported Apple was developing Siri for Mac in this manner for early internal versions of OS X Mavericks, but obviously it didn’t get released. On iOS, Siri is activated with a long press of the Home Button. The Mac doesn’t have an obvious primary button, but it could implement an activation by a long-press of the fn key or similar. Apple could even expose an app wrapper for it, so avid users could drag a Siri icon into their dock.
When thinking about why Apple hasn’t done something, it’s worth considering their motivations for intentionally not doing so. It is possible that talking to your computer is a weird concept to grasp. It’s true that talking to a phone is a lot more natural as the microphone is close to your face. Even on Watch, it’s easier with a quick raise of the arm.
Moreover, the Mac microphone is potentially further away from your mouth when you speak. Unless you use a headset, it will be more difficult for Siri to be able to hear you which could impact performance and recognition. However, Apple has opted to include a Dictation feature across the system. Press the fn key twice in any text box and it will dutifully transcribe your speech into text. The accuracy is pretty good too. I believe newer Macs include directed miss for better input too, to further combat this issue.
Initially, you could argue that Siri was a hallmark feature of the iPhone and that Apple wanted to keep it exclusive to encourage people to buy iPhones. This line of thinking would be somewhat reasonable in late 2011 but now its pervasive everywhere on the iOS side. It doesn’t feel exclusive anymore. In fact it feels like a necessity, a voice assistant is practically a core feature of modern operating systems these days. And OS X is worse by not having it.
At least from my perspective, the reason Siri on the Mac hasn’t happened is because Apple hasn’t gotten around to finishing it for a public release. There have been other priorities for engineering resources to tackle. Siri is one of the few big features (Control Center is another, but even that is more recent) that the Mac still misses out in comparison to its iOS/tvOS/watchOS siblings. Perhaps 2016 is the year Apple will find the development resources to bring Siri to OS X, as the platform seems to have reached a level of system stability and feature maturity.
What do you think? Are you itching to see Siri on the Mac? Let us know in the comments below.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., isn’t going to test the waters for a presidential campaign in 2016. He’s going to jump right in and become the first Republican candidate to officially enter the race next month, according to MSNBC, which cited multiple sources close to the Kentucky senator.
“This will be an official announcement, not an exploratory committee,” a source said. Another added, “Everything will happen pretty quickly over the next couple of weeks.”
No potential candidate has announced a presidential run yet, but several, including retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have formed committees to gauge whether a run in 2016 is viable.
Paul is expected to announce he is running on April 7 in Louisville, Kentucky. The announcement is scheduled to be followed by a tour of early primary states New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada. The April 7 announcement date was chosen in part because the Senate will not be in session from March 30 to April 10. Also, other Republicans senators, like Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, are also flirting with a run, and putting out that date ensures that Paul won’t be upstaged.
“Part of the reason we let the dates out of bag to begin with was so other candidates won’t plan on announcing that day, we are planting the flag with that date,” a senior Paul official told MSNBC.
As Paul gears up to announce his presidential run, the Kentucky senator has a feather in his cap. He won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, late last month. The survey polls some of the most conservative members of the Republican Party.
Paul also had the tightest margin in hypothetical matchups between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and seven possible GOP nominees in a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.
Clinton led Paul by 11 points, 54 percent to 43 percent. Clinton’s largest lead was against Ben Carson, at 56 percent to 40 percent. She also had 15-point leads against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (55 percent to 40 percent), Bush (55 percent to 40 percent) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (55 percent to 40 percent.) Clinton was ahead by 13 points against Rubio (55 percent to 42 percent) and by 14 points against former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (55 percent to 41 percent.)
The poll, conducted between March 13 and March 15, interviewed 1,009 adults and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.Former Bosnian-Serb military leader Ratko Mladic has been arrested on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian civil war in the early 1990s.
Ratko Mladic was one of Europe’s most wanted war crimes fugitives. He has been on the run for more than 15 years, since he was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague in 1995.
Now the long wait for his arrest is over.
Arrest details
Serbia’s President Boris Tadic would not say how or where Mladic was arrested. But he did say the capture had taken place on Serbian soil. He said a stain had been removed from Serbia.
“Today we closed one chapter of our recent history that will bring us one step closer to full reconciliation in the region,” Tadic said.
Mladic is a former Bosnian-Serb general. During the Bosnian war in the early 1990s he oversaw the siege of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, which lasted more than three years and is the longest in the history of modern warfare.
Listen to analysis by Refik Hodzic, the director of communications for the International Center for Transnational Justice
He’s also accused of having played a key role in the bloody attack in 1995 of Srebrenica, where thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed in Europe’s worst massacre of |
two guests) will be able to watch CNN’s live telecasts of high-profile national, state and local elections on the big screen at 50 domestic theaters in the AMC chain.
Theatergoers can reserve a spot at AMC locations that have been designated as “Blue” or “Red” sites, which represent Democratic and Republican affiliation, respectively. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. ET, while the event begins at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) as the first national polls close.
“The 2016 Presidential race has generated record-setting viewing on television and online, and we’re excited to have CNN bring the culmination of the race to the big screen,” Elizabeth Frank, Executive Vice President and Chief Content & Programming Officer of AMC Theatres, said in a press release. “On election night, as Americans gather in their communities to watch the conclusion of this historic election, we recognize that Democrats want to cheer with fellow Democrats, and Republicans cheer with fellow Republicans, so we’ve designated ‘Blue’ and ‘Red’ theatres in each participating market.”
The invite-only event will be held at no charge to members of AMC’s recently relaunched Stubs program. Check out a list of participating locations below.'We’ve got to address the housing issue' – NDP Leader John Horgan
An NDP government would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, hike corporate taxes on profits by 1%, build 114,000 affordable and rental housing units over 10 years, give students who graduate university $1,000, scrap bridge tolls, implement $10-per-day daycare and provide renters with a $400 rebate.
It would also increase capital spending by $7 billion over three years.
NDP Leader John Horgan said an NDP government would deliver a $108 million surplus in its first budget year.
The first budget would have $717 million in new spending. That would be partly covered by eating into the Liberal government’s projected surplus of $295 million. The NDP said an additional $530 million would come from increased revenues and savings to produce a $108 million surplus.
One immediate source of funds would be the Liberal government’s $500 million prosperity fund, which the NDP would raid and cancel.
In announcing his party’s platform April 13, Horgan said housing costs would be an NDP government’s biggest concern.
“We’ve got to address the housing issue,” Horgan said. “It’s our top priority when we come into this campaign.”
To address concerns of renters, Horgan said an NDP government would give all renters a $400 rebate and would revamp the Residential Tenancy Act to tighten rent controls and prevent “renovictions.”
According to a recent Insights West poll, the most important election issues for B.C. voters are housing, poverty/homelessness, health care and the economy/jobs, in that order.
For business groups, the top concerns are transportation, housing and affordable living, according to a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) survey.
So, how do the three main parties’ platforms stack up in terms of addressing those issues?
While the costs of many of the major planks in the Green and Liberal platforms have been estimated, those of many of the NDP’s planks have not.
For example, the NDP plans to build 114,000 rental, co-operative and low-cost housing units over 10 years and scrap bridge tolls, but does not provide a forecast of revenue losses and gains.
On housing, the Green party and NDP have the most comprehensive platforms.
The Green plan includes:
•a new sliding scale for the property transfer tax, starting at 0% for homes of $200,000 or less, rising to 12% on properties valued at $3 million;
•doubling the foreign-buyer tax to 30% from the current 15% and extending it across B.C.;
•a capital gains tax on principal residences valued over $750,000;
•$750 million annually to build 4,000 affordable housing units per year;
•$100 million annually to retrofit and renovate existing affordable housing stock; and
•tax measures to discourage speculation and flipping.
The Liberals have the most comprehensive plan for transportation, including $3.2 billion over three years for things like the George Massey Tunnel replacement and four-laning the Trans-Canada Highway from Kamloops to Alberta.
The GVBOT has raised concerns about the NDP’s promise to scrap bridge tolls.
“It is unclear how the NDP’s policy commitment to eliminate tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges would fit into a comprehensive mobility pricing strategy for Metro Vancouver,” it states in its election dashboard.
On child care, the NDP has the most aggressive plan. It is promising daycare for $10 per day for families with incomes of $40,000 or less, and $7 per day for part-time care.
As for specific industries, the NDP platform focuses on promoting the forestry and high-tech sectors. The NDP vows to “use every tool” in its tool box to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
It also targets the fish farm industry, promising to keep fish farms out of wild salmon migration paths and provide incentives to the industry to move to land-based systems.
On shipbuilding, the NDP platform suggests that BC Ferries shut out local shipyards when it commissioned the building of new LNG-powered ferries.
“And, when building new ferries, British Columbia shipyards have been excluded, with thousands of good jobs sent overseas,” the platform states. “We will allow B.C. shipyards to bid competitively on every new ferry built.”
In fact, local shipyards were not excluded from bidding. Seaspan initially put in a bid to build the new ferries, but then withdrew because it did not have the capacity, thanks to all the work it has with a multibillion-dollar, multi-year federal shipbuilding program.
Here are some highlights of the three party platforms on key areas.
Housing
NDP: Build 114,000 affordable rental, non-profit and co-op housing units over 10 years; $400 credit for all renters in B.C. (not costed); close loopholes in Residential Tenancy Act to ensure rent controls and prevent renovictions; implement speculators tax.
Greens: New sliding-scale property transfer tax, from 0% to 12%; double the foreign-buyer tax to 30%; commit $750 million annually to build affordable housing.
Liberals: Continue with 15% foreign-buyers tax and first-time homebuyers loan (up to $37,000) for down payment.
Child care
NDP: $10 per day universal daycare.
Greens: Free daycare, or $500 per month for stay-at-home parents for children under three (cost to government: $495 million in 2017-18, $1.3 billion in 2020-21).
Liberals: 2,000 new child-care spaces in 2017-18 ($20 million) and 13,000 by 2020 ($352 million); $120 million annually for child-care subsidy.
Carbon Taxes
NDP: Frozen at $30 until 2021, with rebates once it begins increasing.
Greens: Increase carbon tax $10 annually; extend tax to fugitive emissions in gas sector, starting at $10 per tonne.
Liberals: Carbon tax frozen at $30 per tonne to 2021; maintain revenue neutrality.
Transportation
NDP: Scrap bridge tolls; roll back ferry fare increases by 15% on smaller routes; freeze rates on major routes; commit to 40% funding for public transit infrastructure; develop new TransLink governance model.
Greens: Platform on transportation not released.
Liberals: $3.2 billion over three years for George Massey Tunnel replacement and other road infrastructure, four-laning highway from Kamloops to Alberta; $2.2 billion for transit investments; new ride-sharing policies and tax credits.
nbennett@biv.comSurveillance footage capturing a homeless man's death in the alley behind a CVS pharmacy in Chicago in 2010 was released today, showing several minutes of the attack in which store manager Pedro Villarosa held down and strangled 35-year-old Anthony Kyser while six passersby helped hold him down.
Kyser had reportedly stolen a tube of toothpaste from the store and was followed out into the street by Villarosa. From DNAInfo, which also released the original video:
It shows Kyser's final minutes on May 8, 2010, and the beginning of the police investigation into the case. No charges were filed in Kyser's death, which police ruled an accident. CVS has said the manager acted in self-defense after being attacked by Kyser. The video appears to capture Kyser fleeing to the alley with the store manager close behind him. There's a brief struggle before Kyser hits the pavement, with the store manager on top of him. Another man appears to punch and kick Kyser, at one point stepping down on his hand while the store manager remains atop Kyser. More bystanders join in, helping to hold Kyser down. Eventually, Kyser stops flailing his legs, the video shows.
Ann Marie Kyser, the victim's mother, has filed a lawsuit holding CVS liable for his death. Pedro Villanova claimed self-defense after Kyser struck him, but admitted in court that he heard Kyser say "I can't breathe" before dying.
According to Salon, the police department decided not to press criminal charges even after the Medical Examiner's Office "ruled the death a homicide." No criminal charges are currently pending.
Last year, several unarmed shoplifters were killed by security guards at Wal-Marts in Texas and Georgia.
[Screenshot from footage via DNAInfo]For a long time Blake Pollard and I have been working on ‘open’ chemical reaction networks: that is, networks of chemical reactions where some chemicals can flow in from an outside source, or flow out. The picture to keep in mind is something like this:
where the yellow circles are different kinds of chemicals and the aqua boxes are different reactions. The purple dots in the sets X and Y are ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’, where certain kinds of chemicals can flow in or out.
Our paper on this stuff just got accepted, and it should appear soon:
But thanks to the arXiv, you don’t have to wait: beat the rush, click and download now!
Or at least read the rest of this blog post….
Blake and I gave talks about this stuff in Luxembourg this June, at a nice conference called Dynamics, thermodynamics and information processing in chemical networks. So, if you’re the sort who prefers talk slides to big scary papers, you can look at those:
But I want to say here what we do in our paper, because it’s pretty cool, and it took a few years to figure it out. To get things to work, we needed my student Brendan Fong to invent the right category-theoretic formalism: ‘decorated cospans’. But we also had to figure out the right way to think about open dynamical systems!
In the end, we figured out how to first ‘gray-box’ an open reaction network, converting it into an open dynamical system, and then ‘black-box’ it, obtaining the relation between input and output flows and concentrations that holds in steady state. The first step extracts the dynamical behavior of an open reaction network; the second extracts its static behavior. And both these steps are functors! So, we’re applying Lawvere’s ideas on functorial semantics to chemistry.
Now Blake has passed his thesis defense based on this work, and he just needs to polish up his thesis a little before submitting it. This summer he’s doing an internship at the Princeton branch of the engineering firm Siemens. He’s working with Arquimedes Canedo on ‘knowledge representation’.
But I’m still eager to dig deeper into open reaction networks. They’re a small but nontrivial step toward my dream of a mathematics of living systems. My working hypothesis is that living systems seem ‘messy’ to physicists because they operate at a higher level of abstraction. That’s what I’m trying to explore.
Here’s the idea of our paper.
The idea
Reaction networks are a very general framework for describing processes where entities interact and transform int other entities. While they first showed up in chemistry, and are often called ‘chemical reaction networks’, they have lots of other applications. For example, a basic model of infectious disease, the ‘SIRS model’, is described by this reaction network:
S + I ⟶ ι 2 I I ⟶ ρ R ⟶ λ S S + I \stackrel{\iota}{\longrightarrow} 2 I \qquad I \stackrel{\rho}{\longrightarrow} R \stackrel{\lambda}{\longrightarrow} S
We see here three types of entity, called species:
S S : susceptible,
:, I I : infected,
:, R R : resistant.
We also have three `reactions’:
ι : S + I → 2 I \iota : S + I \to 2 I : infection, in which a susceptible individual meets an infected one and becomes infected;
:, in which a susceptible individual meets an infected one and becomes infected; ρ : I → R \rho : I \to R : recovery, in which an infected individual gains resistance to the disease;
:, in which an infected individual gains resistance to the disease; λ : R → S \lambda : R \to S : loss of resistance, in which a resistant individual becomes susceptible.
In general, a reaction network involves a finite set of species, but reactions go between complexes, which are finite linear combinations of these species with natural number coefficients. The reaction network is a directed graph whose vertices are certain complexes and whose edges are called reactions.
If we attach a positive real number called a rate constant to each reaction, a reaction network determines a system of differential equations saying how the concentrations of the species change over time. This system of equations is usually called the rate equation. In the example I just gave, the rate equation is
d S d t = r λ R − r ι S I d I d t = r ι S I − r ρ I d R d t = r ρ I − r λ R \begin{array}{ccl} \displaystyle{\frac{d S}{d t}} &=& r_\lambda R - r_\iota S I \\ \\ \displaystyle{\frac{d I}{d t}} &=& r_\iota S I - r_\rho I \\ \\ \displaystyle{\frac{d R}{d t}} &=& r_\rho I - r_\lambda R \end{array}
Here r ι, r ρ r_\iota, r_\rho and r λ r_\lambda are the rate constants for the three reactions, and S, I, R S, I, R now stand for the concentrations of the three species, which are treated in a continuum approximation as smooth functions of time:
S, I, R : ℝ → [ 0, ∞ ) S, I, R: \mathbb{R} \to [0,\infty)
The rate equation can be derived from the law of mass action, which says that any reaction occurs at a rate equal to its rate constant times the product of the concentrations of the species entering it as inputs.
But a reaction network is more than just a stepping-stone to its rate equation! Interesting qualitative properties of the rate equation, like the existence and uniqueness of steady state solutions, can often be determined just by looking at the reaction network, regardless of the rate constants. Results in this direction began with Feinberg and Horn’s work in the 1960’s, leading to the Deficiency Zero and Deficiency One Theorems, and more recently to Craciun’s proof of the Global Attractor Conjecture.
In our paper, Blake and I present a ‘compositional framework’ for reaction networks. In other words, we describe rules for building up reaction networks from smaller pieces, in such a way that its rate equation can be figured out knowing those those of the pieces. But this framework requires that we view reaction networks in a somewhat different way, as ‘Petri nets’.
Petri nets were invented by Carl Petri in 1939, when he was just a teenager, for the purposes of chemistry. Much later, they became popular in theoretical computer science, biology and other fields. A Petri net is a bipartite directed graph: vertices of one kind represent species, vertices of the other kind represent reactions. The edges into a reaction specify which species are inputs to that reaction, while the edges out specify its outputs.
You can easily turn a reaction network into a Petri net and vice versa. For example, the reaction network above translates into this Petri net:
Beware: there are a lot of different names for the same thing, since the terminology comes from several communities. In the Petri net literature, species are called places and reactions are called transitions. In fact, Petri nets are sometimes called ‘place-transition nets’ or ‘P/T nets’. On the other hand, chemists call them ‘species-reaction graphs’ or ‘SR-graphs’. And when each reaction of a Petri net has a rate constant attached to it, it is often called a ‘stochastic Petri net’.
While some qualitative properties of a rate equation can be read off from a reaction network, others are more easily read from the corresponding Petri net. For example, properties of a Petri net can be used to determine whether its rate equation can have multiple steady states.
Petri nets are also better suited to a compositional framework. The key new concept is an ‘open’ Petri net. Here’s an example:
The box at left is a set X of ‘inputs’ (which happens to be empty), while the box at right is a set Y of ‘outputs’. Both inputs and outputs are points at which entities of various species can flow in or out of the Petri net. We say the open Petri net goes from X to Y. In our paper, we show how to treat it as a morphism f : X → Y f : X \to Y in a category we call RxNet {RxNet}.
Given an open Petri net with rate constants assigned to each reaction, our paper explains how to get its ‘open rate equation’. It’s just the usual rate equation with extra terms describing inflows and outflows. The above example has this open rate equation:
d S d t = − r ι S I − o 1 d I d t = r ι S I − o 2 \begin{array}{ccr} \displaystyle{\frac{d S}{d t}} &=& - r_\iota S I - o_1 \\ \\ \displaystyle{\frac{d I}{d t}} &=& r_\iota S I - o_2 \end{array}
Here o 1, o 2 : ℝ → ℝ o_1, o_2 : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} are arbitrary smooth functions describing outflows as a function of time.
Given another open Petri net g : Y → Z, g: Y \to Z, for example this:
it will have its own open rate equation, in this case
d S d t = r λ R + i 2 d I d t = − r ρ I + i 1 d R d t = r ρ I − r λ R \begin{array}{ccc} \displaystyle{\frac{d S}{d t}} &=& r_\lambda R + i_2 \\ \\ \displaystyle{\frac{d I}{d t}} &=& - r_\rho I + i_1 \\ \\ \displaystyle{\frac{d R}{d t}} &=& r_\rho I - r_\lambda R \end{array}
Here i 1, i 2 : ℝ → ℝ i_1, i_2: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} are arbitrary smooth functions describing inflows as a function of time. Now for the first bit of category theory: we can compose f f and g g by gluing the outputs of f f to the inputs of g. g. This gives a new open Petri net g f : X → Z, g f: X \to Z, as follows:
But this open Petri net g f g f has an empty set of inputs, and an empty set of outputs! So it amounts to an ordinary Petri net, and its open rate equation is a rate equation of the usual kind. Indeed, this is the Petri net we have already seen.
As it turns out, there’s a systematic procedure for combining the open rate equations for two open Petri nets to obtain that of their composite. In the example we’re looking at, we just identify the outflows of f f with the inflows of g g (setting i 1 = o 1 i_1 = o_1 and i 2 = o 2 i_2 = o_2 ) and then add the right hand sides of their open rate equations.
The first goal of our paper is to precisely describe this procedure, and to prove that it defines a functor
⋄ : RxNet → Dynam \diamond: {RxNet} \to {Dynam}
from RxNet {RxNet} to a category Dynam {Dynam} where the morphisms are ‘open dynamical systems’. By a dynamical system, we essentially mean a vector field on ℝ n, \mathbb{R}^n, which can be used to define a system of first-order ordinary differential equations in n n variables. An example is the rate equation of a Petri net. An open dynamical system allows for the possibility of extra terms that are arbitrary functions of time, such as the inflows and outflows in an open rate equation.
In fact, we prove that RxNet {RxNet} and Dynam {Dynam} are symmetric monoidal categories and that d d is a symmetric monoidal functor. To do this, we use Brendan Fong’s theory of ‘decorated cospans’.
Decorated cospans are a powerful general tool for describing open systems. A cospan in any category is just a diagram like this:
We are mostly interested in cospans in FinSet, {FinSet}, the category of finite sets and functions between these. The set S S, the so-called apex of the cospan, is the set of states of an open system. The sets X X and Y Y are the inputs and outputs of this system. The legs of the cospan, meaning the morphisms i : X → S i: X \to S and o : Y → S, o: Y \to S, describe how these inputs and outputs are included in the system. In our application, S S is the set of species of a Petri net.
For example, we may take this reaction network:
A + B ⟶ α 2 C C ⟶ β D A+B \stackrel{\alpha}{\longrightarrow} 2C \quad \quad C \stackrel{\beta}{\longrightarrow} D
treat it as a Petri net with S = { A, B, C, D } S = \{A,B,C,D\} :
and then turn that into an open Petri net by choosing any finite sets X, Y X,Y and maps i : X → S i: X \to S, o : Y → S o: Y \to S, for example like this:
(Notice that the maps including the inputs and outputs into the states of the system need not be one-to-one. This is technically useful, but it introduces some subtleties that I don’t feel like explaining right now.)
An open Petri net can thus be seen as a cospan of finite sets whose apex S S is ‘decorated’ with some extra information, namely a Petri net with S S as its set of species. Fong’s theory of decorated cospans lets us define a category with open Petri nets as morphisms, with composition given by gluing the outputs of one open Petri net to the inputs of another.
We call the functor
⋄ : RxNet → Dynam \diamond: {RxNet} \to {Dynam}
gray-boxing because it hides some but not all the internal details of an open Petri net. (In the paper we draw it as a gray box, but that’s too hard here!)
We can go further and black-box an open dynamical system. This amounts to recording only the relation between input and output variables that must hold in steady state. We prove that black-boxing gives a functor
▪ : Dynam → SemiAlgRel \blacksquare: {Dynam} \to {SemiAlgRel}
Here SemiAlgRel {SemiAlgRel} is a category where the morphisms are semi-algebraic relations between real vector spaces, meaning relations defined by polynomials and inequalities. This relies on the fact that our dynamical systems involve algebraic vector fields, meaning those whose components are polynomials; more general dynamical systems would give more general relations.
That semi-algebraic relations are closed under composition is a nontrivial fact, a spinoff of the Tarski–Seidenberg theorem. This says that a subset of ℝ n + 1 \mathbb{R}^{n+1} defined by polynomial equations and inequalities can be projected down onto ℝ n \mathbb{R}^n, and the resulting set is still definable in terms of polynomial identities and inequalities. This wouldn’t be true if we didn’t allow inequalities. It’s neat to see this theorem, important in mathematical logic, showing up in chemistry!
Structure of the paper
Okay, now you’re ready to read our paper! Here’s how it goes:
In Section 2 we review and compare reaction networks and Petri nets. In Section 3 we construct a symmetric monoidal category RNet {RNet} where an object is a finite set and a morphism is an open reaction network (or more precisely, an isomorphism class of open reaction networks). In Section 4 we enhance this construction to define a symmetric monoidal category RxNet {RxNet} where the transitions of the open reaction networks are equipped with rate constants. In Section 5 we explain the open dynamical system associated to an open reaction network, and in Section 6 we construct a symmetric monoidal category Dynam {Dynam} of open dynamical systems. In Section 7 we construct the gray-boxing functor
⋄ : RxNet → Dynam \diamond: {RxNet} \to {Dynam}
In Section 8 we construct the black-boxing functor
▪ : Dynam → SemiAlgRel \blacksquare: {Dynam} \to {SemiAlgRel}
We show both of these are symmetric monoidal functors.
Finally, in Section 9 we fit our results into a larger ‘network of network theories’. This is where various results in various papers I’ve been writing in the last few years start assembling to form a big picture! But this picture needs to grow….Please enable Javascript to watch this video
AKRON, Ohio-- The Akron Police Department released details of its new officer body camera program during an event on Tuesday.
Police Chief Kenneth Ball spoke at the news conference at the Stubbs Justice Center.
He said the department started working to get the cameras following a demonstration at the Norton Police Department in 2013.
"During this process, there were some significant national events that brought further attention and scrutiny of law enforcement throughout the country," Ball said. "So the perspective changed dramatically in that now this was not something that was going to be a burden on our communities to find out how we were going to pay for it. But in the minds of many, a necessity that departments ought to have for transparency."
Ball said the biggest benefit is proving to residents that transparency is a top priority of this department.
"We have seen reductions in use of force and complaints," Ball said. "There will continue to be use of force in law enforcement, that will never go away."
The Akron Police Department currently has 115 cameras, but that number will increase to 245. Ball said the program will cost about $1 million over the next five years. That includes the cost of the cameras and video storage.
As part of the department's contract with the camera vendor, the equipment will be replaced after two and a half years. Ball said they tested 30 cameras at a time for 90 days from five different vendors before choosing. They also partnered with Kent State University on a study.
41.079145 -81.518251Trying to watch a group of friends streaming on Twitch has always been kind of a mess. You'd need four browser windows open, each with their own chat stream and, for the broadcasters themselves, setting something up was a logistical nightmare. The base functionality is available right now, and Microsoft says that soon (probably during E3) you'll be able to invite friends to co-stream with you directly from the Xbox Guide.
"Co-streaming doesn't require streamers to play the same game or even do the same activity, and you can join a co-stream with friends who are streaming from different types of devices," a post on the Major Nelson blog reads. Meaning, if you want to play some Dota 2 while one of your pals is grinding in Destiny and two others are playing Portal 2's co-operative campaign, that's absolutely doable, with one common chat room. It's pretty wild.
Oh, and if you want to catch Xbox's media briefing in 4K UHD that'll be available as well. We've reached out to Microsoft to see if 4K game broadcasting is in the works.
Beyond this, Mixer is playing catch-up to Twitch and going mobile. The app is in beta right now but Microsoft promises that "soon" the ability to self-broadcast your on-the-go gaming will be available for everyone and that you'll even be able to co-stream from the app.
Curious for more? Mixer is getting its own dedicated page on the Xbox One dashboard, a curated homepage featuring all manner of broadcasts called Mixer One, Microsoft has built a live-streaming studio at its flagship store in New York and will also host a stream today dishing out more details and announcements. The latter starts at 2PM Eastern.
Twitch, the ball's in your court: Adjustable video playback speed and pre-recorded chats don't quite stack up compared to what Microsoft is doing.JÜRGEN Klopp’s journey from touchline to press room after the final whistle fascinates me. I would like to be able to follow him and observe, especially after occasions like Villarreal where it seems as though passion has carried him to another place. How does he find a way back to sanity?
In that period, he addresses his players. He also has short television interviews to complete. Sometimes, he will look at replays. There is only a tiny window to rationalise his thoughts and become a calmer person capable of delivering a clear message as well as considered analysis at reasonable length.
In the madness of the event and among all of the other quotable lines, maybe we overlooked an admission and a compliment last Thursday — that maybe Liverpool had achieved his idea of football perfection by being “emotional and smart” in the victory.
There is so much focus on the way Klopp appears to be. Amid the technical area prowling, the rabble-rousing and the wild celebrations, there is a chance we have overlooked the inner Zen — his ability to interpret coldly and quickly before acting accordingly.
Re-reading an interview with Steve Peters, Liverpool’s former psychiatrist, conducted in 2013 by The Independent’s redoubtable Ian Herbert, made me think about Klopp and why he is among the elite in his profession.
It might be a risk quoting Peters when related to the current Liverpool manager because it was Brendan Rodgers who brought him to the club and not, of course, Klopp.
During the 2013-14 season, Peters’ role was awarded a lot of coverage and possibly too much at a point where Liverpool seemed to forget it might be a good idea to keep their secrets private, especially if they were working well.
Critics would say this is where Rodgers displayed his inexperience. So much was said and written about Peters that it began to seem as though Liverpool had some kind of voodoo warrior behind them; a force that opponents would worry about because they could not figure out why, precisely, he was sitting on the substitutes’ bench in full tracksuit, as he did in a game at West Ham.
Because Liverpool did not win the league and because Rodgers is no longer in charge, it does not make Peters’ theories or practice irrelevant, however.
His book, The Chimp Paradox, explores how the brain comprises a rational “human” element and an emotional, rash “chimp” component, with a third part, “the computer”, storing information and history.
Peters had worked with Chris Hoy, the cycling champion, and when speaking to The Independent, he told the story of how at a World Championships, he saw Hoy staring at a giant screen having discovered that a rival had broken his record. Hoy had not prepared for this and Peters was concerned by what he saw, appreciating it would cause anxiety and possibly affect the performance that followed. Instead Hoy defeated the chimp, responding immediately by setting his own world record.
Having fallen to such a late defeat in the first leg to Villarreal, I checked my phone just as we began the journey home an hour after the match had finished. Many of my friends were concerned and I could understand why. Liverpool were seconds away from an excellent performance and result. The outcome was flattening.
Villarreal rejoiced. Their manager Marcelino skipped around the touchline with his arms out. It was all very triumphant and yet, it was still only half time.
There had been confrontation between Klopp and Marcelino during the game and I figured Klopp would be in a bristling, frustrated mood when meeting the media so soon afterwards, maybe even downcast.
Instead he switched on the charm before finishing with a warning — even a threat — putting it on the toes of Villarreal’s players, questioning whether they’d be able to deal with the pressure of Anfield.
It reminded me a bit of the time Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest conceded three goals at home against Cologne in the 1979 European Cup semi-final first leg, to draw 3-3. Cologne’s equaliser had arrived with five minutes to go. “We’re despondent obviously having surrendered the lead,” Clough said. “But we’re far from out of the competition. I hope there isn’t anyone stupid enough to write us off…”
With that, Forest progressed. With that, Liverpool progressed, too. Klopp, Clough and Hoy and all witnessed the same disappointments but straight away, they were able to rationalise their feelings and get back on the offensive.
Perhaps it is in these moments, they reveal themselves as winners.
Like a boss.BERLIN/ANKARA (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday defended a leaked government report alleging Turkey was a hub for Islamist groups, a charge that has further strained tensions with Ankara, a key partner in efforts to stem mass migration.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere addresses media during his visit at the federal police inspection in Bremen, Germany, August 10, 2016.REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
Turkey and Germany have had a series of disputes in recent months, just as the European Union has been trying to secure Turkey’s help in tackling the influx of migrants to Europe, of which Germany has taken in the bulk.
Ankara has also been incensed by criticism from the West of its crackdown following a failed coup attempt on July 15.
The government report, disclosed by German public broadcaster ARD this week, said Turkey had become a hub for Islamist groups and that President Tayyip Erdogan had an “ideological affinity” to Hamas in Gaza, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and groups of armed Islamist opposition in Syria.
ARD said the report was confidential and commissioned by the Interior Ministry upon a parliamentary request from the leftist Linke party.
De Maiziere told German regional broadcaster rbb: “There’s nothing to regret,” when asked if he regretted the paper. He said the report showed one aspect of Turkey but that there were other aspects beyond that.
Earlier in the day, Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said the report was signed by a deputy minister and that neither de Maiziere nor the Foreign Ministry had been involved.
“Where people work, mistakes can happen,” Dimroth said.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert declined to comment on the report but he said Berlin still viewed Ankara as a partner in the fight against Islamic State.
Turkey reacted with fury to the report.
“The allegations are a new manifestation of the twisted mentality, which for some time has been trying to wear down our country, by targeting our president and government,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Erdogan reacted angrily to the broadcast of a satirical song about him on German television and launched legal action against the comedian who wrote it.
Another row followed weeks later when the German parliament passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide.
In June, there was another, as yet unresolved rift when Turkey appeared to block a visit by German lawmakers to 250 German soldiers stationed at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Germany was guilty of double standards and that it should be more supportive of Turkey in its fight against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
“It is obvious that behind these allegations are some political circles in Germany known for their double-standard attitudes in the fight against terror,” the ministry said in the statement.
“As a country which sincerely fights against terror of every sort whatever its source, Turkey expects that its other partners and allies act in the same way.”One failed 2016 presidential candidate might take Aaliyah's advice and try again, try again.
Former Maryland governor, and third wheel during multiple 2016 Democratic primary debates, Martin O'Malley is polling caucus voters in Iowa about a possible 2020 presidential run, according to POLITICO.
SEE ALSO: Hillary Clinton exploring running for mayor of New York City: report
His PAC commissioned a survey that showed O'Malley leading a pack of potential candidates with 18% of the vote. The names included potential 2020 rivals Cory Booker, Andrew Cuomo, and Kirsten Gillibrand, among others. The list provides insight into who the former Maryland governor may view as his potential competition if he were to run.
However left-wing heavy-hitters Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were not included in the poll.
Click through other potential 2020 presidnetial candidates:
6 PHOTOS Possible Democratic 2020 candidates See Gallery Possible Democratic 2020 candidates Former Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders thrusts his fist in the air as he arrives to speak during the first session at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is seen at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron NEW |
't think it does me any good."[123]
Cancer and death [ edit ]
Thompson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), a form of cancer, in 2004. In 2007, Thompson stated, "I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future—and with no debilitating side effects." Reportedly indolent, Thompson's NHL was the lowest of three grades of NHL,[125] and was the rare nodal marginal zone lymphoma. It accounts for only 1–3% of all cases.[126]
On the morning of November 1, 2015, Thompson died at the age of 73 from a recurrence of lymphoma.[127] His funeral was held on November 6, 2015, in Nashville, Tennessee, with U.S. Senators John McCain and Lamar Alexander in attendance.[128] He was interred at Mimosa Cemetery in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, that same day.[129]
Filmography [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Book [ edit ]
Thompson, Fred (2010). Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing Up and Second Chances. Crown Forum. ISBN 0-30-746028-2.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Official
The Official Flickr Page for Fred Thompson (official photo site)
Documentaries, topic pages and databasesHello, Pigskin Nation!!
We are hosting our first bomber release party and what better beer to start with than 12 Gauge Double IPA! The festivities start at 2PM with Live Music from Rick Barr on the patio.
On sale now is our Reserve VIP package. For $36 you will get two bottles of 12 Gauge Double IPA, a Championship Flatbread, and a flight of 4 rare Pigskin beers including two Four Roses Bourbon barrel aged beers: Triple Bonus Barley Wine and Drunken Porterback. Please follow the link below to purchase your reserve tickets!
For those of you that just want bottles, there will be a limited number for sale for $9.99 each (max 2) day of, first come first serve.
https://pigskinbrewingcompany.com/12-gauge-bomber-release-party/
Cheers!
-Mike Rockwell
-Brewer and VP of MarketingThe Jolly Roger is featured on the black cover of this exciting pop up card. Open the card to find a black and red pirate ship under full sail headed off to the high seas. Look closely to find the pirates aboard the ship ready for a fight. A treasure map makes up the embellishments in the corners of this awesome card. The card is blank so you can say more.
Inspiration:
“ARGHH!” Make your best pirate noise and just try not to smile. Pirate ships are the highlight of parties and the dreams of little (and grown-up) boys. We tried our best to bring that dream to life.
What to write:
Delight that little kid inside when you open up this pirate ship pop up card. Share this card with your loved ones for birthdays, talk like a pirate parties or just because you want to see their face. Ahoy!
Size:
This incredible card is 6 inches wide and 8.3 inches tall.
Quantity:
One incredible Lovepop with one blank envelope and the Lovepop Note, a little note card that tucks away with your own personal touch.
Lovepop Note How-to:
Related collections:
Birthday Cards Cards For Dad Cards For Kids Father's Day Cards Seen On Shark Tank Travel Themed Cards Tropical Island CollectionIn a dramatic shakeup at family controlled Bombardier Inc., Pierre Beaudoin is stepping down as president and chief executive officer while his father, Laurent, is retiring as chairman and there are plans afoot for the possible sale of some business units.
Former United Technologies Corp. executive Alain Bellemare is set to replace Pierre Beaudoin – who held the CEO position for 6 1/2 years – on Friday and Pierre Beaudoin will become executive chairman of Bombardier.
The troubled plane and train-maker is also suspending the dividend and looking to access the debt markets for up to $1.5-billion (U.S.) and to issue about $600-million of new equity.
Story continues below advertisement
The company also said on Thursday it will "explore other initiatives such as certain business activities' potential participation in industry consolidation in order to reduce debt."
It is a sweeping set of moves intended to address the company's troubles at its aerospace division as it struggles with a looming cash crunch as a result of delays and balooning costs for the new C Series passenger-jet program.
The changes were announced Thursday as Bombardier posted a net fourth-quarter loss of $1.6-billion or 92 cents per share, compared with net profit of $97-million or 5 cents in the year-earlier period.
The company booked a $1.4-billion special pretax charge in the fourth quarter mainly related to the suspension of its Learjet 85 business-jet program.
Revenue was up 12 per cent to $5.96-billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014.
Excluding special items, net earnings were $83-million or 4 cents per share, compared with $129-million or 7 cents in the year-earlier period. Analysts' average estimate was 3 cents.
Montreal-based Bombardier has faced growing criticism from investors and analysts over delays to both the Learjet 85 and C Series programs, missed profit targets and the plummeting of the value of its stock.
Story continues below advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Critics said Bombardier under Pierre Beaudoin, 52, had major problems executing on the development of new plane platforms.
The company's class B shares have lost 67 per cent of their value since Mr. Beaudoin was appointed CEO in June of 2008.
Mr. Beaudoin's becoming executive chairman and the hiring of Mr. Bellemare are smart moves, McGill University management professor Karl Moore said.
"I think it answers concerns in a very neat way," he said.
Pierre Beaudoin retains a strong hand in steering the company while Mr. Bellemare adds "very considerably to the bench strength of the leadership."
Mr. Bellemare resigned as president and chief executive officer of UTC Propulsion and Aerospace Systems last month. The McGill MBA graduate also formerly held the position of president of Pratt & Whitney Canada from 2002 to 2008.
Story continues below advertisement
Laurent Beaudoin – the son-in-law of founder and snowmobile pioneer Joseph-Armand Bombardier – headed up the company for about 40 years, overseeing the diversification from subway cars and snowmobiles into planes and the development of the successful regional-jet.
Bombardier is controlled through majority ownership of its class A shares by members of the Beaudoin and Bombardier families.ANAHEIM – Mathieu Perreault couldn't even find escape on a golf course.
Late September is usually a safe time for veteran NHL players. Rosters are all but set, meaning trades are unlikely. But Perreault had a feeling he was about to get squeezed out of the Washington Capitals' plans, and the news all but interrupted his backswing.
"[Washington general manager] George McPhee gave me the call," Perreault said. "I was golfing with a bunch of the guys there. It was funny. We literally talked about it five minutes before the call came. I told the guys I thought I was going to get traded. Five minutes later …."
Did Perreault finish the round?
"[We were] three holes up," he said. "I finished it. But it was terrible. I was all over the place. I couldn't get my mind right."
It didn't take long for Perreault to find peace of mind on the other coast. He was sent to the Anaheim Ducks on Sept. 29 and has since become one of the steals of the early season.
Acquired for John Mitchell and a fourth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Perreault had five goals and nine assists in his first 16 games with the Ducks. He shook out of a slump Saturday with an assist and has 15 points in 24 games, two points shy of his total in 39 games last season.
"I didn't know much about him at all," Ducks forward Teemu Selanne said. "He has been a nice surprise for us. You never know who's going to be available. When the GM is pulling the moves, sometimes you don't even know the guy."
Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau certainly knew Perreault as one of the pieces from the high-scoring Capitals outfits during Boudreau's tenure as Washington coach from 2007 to 2012, and also with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. It's hardly surprising that Perreault seamlessly fit in under Boudreau's system at second- and third-line center. He scored his first goal as a Duck in overtime on Oct. 5 and gives Anaheim even more depth in the middle with Ryan Getzlaf, Saku Koivu and Nick Bonino.
Since Boudreau arrived in Anaheim, the Ducks have acquired former Capitals players Andrew Gordon and David Steckel. But Boudreau said his influence on Anaheim GM Bob Murray's decision to get Perreault went so far as to offer his opinion.
Washington reportedly needed to shed some salary to make room for younger players, although Perreault's expiring $1.1 million contract wouldn't seem to represent a heavy cap hit.
"I was really surprised," Boudreau said. "I didn't hear the name being mentioned. But I follow Washington still, and in the preseason Eric Fehr was getting third-line center, so I didn't know what they were going to do. Not that any of it was my call, anyway, but obviously Bob saw the same thing. He inquired.
"They asked me what he was like. I thought I gave them a pretty straightforward answer of what he is, and they thought that was going to make an upgrade on our team, so they made the deal."
Mathieu Perreault Center - ANA GOALS: 5 | ASST: 10 | PTS: 15
SOG: 48 | +/-: 8
Perreault paints a bolder picture of Boudreau's role in bringing him to Anaheim and said, "he's probably the main reason this trade happened."
"He gave me a call and told me that he pushed hard for me to come here," Perreault said. "He liked me as a player. He felt it was good to get another chance somewhere else. He was really excited for me."
Perreault helps make the Ducks one of the higher-scoring and more entertaining teams to watch in the League. Boudreau rolls four lines; a typical Ducks game will see no line with fewer than 15-17 shifts or more than about 25.
With Anaheim off to a great start, there is talk of it being a Stanley Cup contender. The backstory is whether another one of Boudreau's great regular-season teams can translate that to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Perreault sees similarities.
"A lot of depth, just like we had in Washington," he said. "In Washington, I was the fourth-line center. That shows the kind of depth we had there. We had four lines that could score. It's kind of the same here. Bruce is really good at getting the best out of his players. You see he had a lot of success in Washington, and he's got a lot of success here."About
Both Jamey Stegmaier ( http://stonemaiergames.com ) and James Mathe ( http://www.jamesmathe.com/ ) get a huge thanks for taking the time to encourage and educate a community of designers and creators! Also to Jeff Foxwell, Tim Armstrong (both with RVA Game Design), and Jon Moffat (of Stone Circle Games) for being a source of local support and encouragement. And, of course, all of my wonderful friends for letting me bring the prototype to their game nights, to the fans I've developed over the past 2 years (and over 2 dozen conventions & game events) who have followed our progress, and to my family for being so supportive and encouraging.
Special thanks is in order for my game designer & wife, Samantha Et Alia, for developing a wonderful game; and my artist, Amber M. Scharf, for developing our beautiful art.
The total shipping cost per unit to the United States and Canada is about $12, which we've wrapped into the price of the game on Kickstarter. International packages will be sent via 1st Class International. The added shipping charge on each of the pledges will be added to the subsidy already included in the Kickstarter price. Please be familiar with your country's customs law, as they will levy an import duty on your package.
Shipping will be handled by Funagain Games, a highly recommended shipping company with whom we're happy to be working.
For those of you new to our game, please follow us via Facebook or Twitter for all the latest updates!
Designed by Samantha Et Alia, developed by Leslie Et Alia, and illustrated by Amber M. Scharf. Rabbit Island is a light 4x game for 2-4 players, set on a beautiful deserted island that is just waiting to be planted with carrots! A standard game can be played in roughly 45-90 minutes; the short version of the game times in at 30-45 minutes.
Risks and challenges
Over the last few years that I've been developing Rabbit Island as the owner & director of Infinite Heart Games, I've read and learned as much as I can on how to develop a successful game, run a successful Kickstarter campaign, and successfully deliver a solid product.
I've researched and backed over 2 dozen projects (between my work and personal accounts) and have used my experience with their campaigns to work on the details of my own. I've joined social media support groups aimed at giving advice on Kickstarter campaigns, and have both contributed and learned from first-time and experienced creators.
This means that I've seen that risks and challenges come equally to us all, and that "beginner's luck" is much more likely to strike during your first play-through of a game than it is upon fulfilling your first Kickstarter.
So I put my trust and confidence in working with Funagain Games as my fulfillment company; they have been helpful and a great resource during this time.
I'm putting my trust in myself, my family, and friends. I'm giving birth to my second child at the end of March, and while the campaign will be over with by then and we'll be solidly working on finalizing art components for the final version of the game, I will be relying on myself and my community to keep it together to face the realities of handling an infant in the middle of everything else.
Finally, I put my trust in my fans and backers - the crowd I've been cultivating these last few years. I expect that with this many eyes on the game, rule book, art and components, that I will be incorporating much of your feedback in the coming months.
I look forward to working with you all, and know that your faith in me and my small team will be rewarded!Confirmed by the owners of the restaurants on the corner of Main St. & Jewel Ave in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY, Bedford Kitchen and Berrylicious are being replaced.
Bedford Kitchen, which opened in Queens back in 2015, will officially be closing its doors in 2018, on Jan 15th. Next door, Berrylicious, has already closed. Fans of Bedford can continue to enjoy their unique dishes, menu, and bar at their Manhattan location, Bedford on Park, located off of the corner of E34th st. & Park Ave. Berrylicious remains open on Central Ave. in the 5 Towns.
Replacing the two restaurants will be two kosher eateries that kosher diners should already be familiar with. Moving into the corner location just occupied by Berrylicious will be Bagel Boss, which has numerous locations around Long Island and Manhattan. This will be its only location in Queens. Bagel Boss is known as a versatile bagel shop, cafe, and caterer, and seeks to bring that to the Queens area.
Once Bedford closes in January, a portion of that space will be incorporated into the new Bagel Boss facility next door. The remaining space will become the 3rd branch of Mexikosher, the popular kosher and authentically Mexican restaurant which originated in Los Angeles. This will be Mexikosher’s 2nd in NYC, with its first location on the Upper West Side which opened last summer.
Both Bagel Boss & Mexikosher are expected to be open in the Spring of 2018. No specific date has been set yet. (Come back here for further details).
Both restaurants are expected to be under the kosher supervision of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens (VHQ).Friday Night Fanfiction :: I Married a Lie
Posted by Stevo on August 25, 2017
The drunken fanfiction podcast you’ve been waiting for! Friday Night Fanfiction combines dramatic readings of the worst-of-the-worst NSFW fanfic with drinking games.
We return to conclude the confusing and thoroughly inappropriate real-life celebrity fanfic, “Ghost Riding Fergus Riordan” by JakeB, which includes camera angles and confusing genitals. It left a pretty nasty taste in our mouths so we decided to dive right into a My Little Pony story guaranteed to offend with “Rainbow and Sonic have a Religious Experience” by Flutterpriest. It’s awesome to confirm that Jesus not only vapes but also can do sick tricks with a fidget spinner. The smut in that one was questionable, so we move on to our favorite: Sonic crossovers with Freedom Beef’s “Sonic and the Pokéginas“. A perfect balance of right up our alley/not up our alley at all! Lastly, based entirely on things talked about during the show, we read “I Can Fix That” by TheLilacPilgrim, an Anderson Cooper/Stephen Colbert spanking fic that we really hope becomes a live adaptation one day. Anderson Cooper is indeed quite dreamy.
Download from the player above | Subscribe via iTunes
Readers: Stevo, David, Logan, Val, Shawn
Social Links:Lea DeLaria is currently starring in the fourth season of the Netflix hit 'Orange Is The New Black.' (Publicity photo)
Breaking ground as the first openly gay comic to perform on American television, in 1993 on “The Arsenio Hall Show,” Lea DeLaria is still carrying the torch on TV two decades later, representing a deeply unsung subset in the queer community: the butch lesbian on the Netflix hit “Orange Is The New Black.”
The 58-year-old opens up about the “lesser known” controversy surrounding her historical TV debut—why she’s turned down so many gay roles since then—and why she thinks we should drop the community’s longtime collective acronym, LGBT.
“Orange Is the New Black” is now in its fourth season. Is that hard to believe?
It’s really shocking for me to believe it’s our fourth season. I thought I’d have way more money by now!
How is post-“Orange” life different from pre-“Orange” life? Are you recognized more often on the streets?
Oh yeah, I’m recognized nonstop. Before – first of all, not everybody was carrying their camera with them like they do now, so I would get stopped… I’d get stopped enough. I wouldn’t say frequently, and I wouldn’t say infrequently; it was somewhere in the middle. Generally, it’s “Hey, you’re Lea DeLaria; can I have your autograph?” Now I can’t even walk out of my front doorstep.
How does the treatment of LGBT characters and sexuality on “Orange” compare to your previous lesbian roles, both big and small?
What’s different about it more than anything else in the world is that it’s real. Believe me, as you’ve said, I played a lot of them, big and small, and I can assure you I’ve said “no” more than I’ve said “yes” to these roles. A lot of roles I say no to are because they’re just so completely stereotyped and bullshit that I won’t play them anymore.
What’s your earliest memory of subverting gender norms? Were you a tomboy?
Yeah, I was what we called a tomboy back then. It’s very interesting… when I went to a thrift store and got my first suit and put it on for the first time, it was like putting on my own skin. I was 17.
What were you feeling in that moment in 1993 as the first openly gay comic on“The Arsenio Hall Show?”
Scared as shit! Terrified, just terrified. All I could think was, “What if I bomb?” And I had “20/20” following me. I’m not sure how it happened but the universe aligned and the planets aligned perfectly and I killed. The audience could have hated me. I was not lightly gay, if you know what I mean. I wasn’t gay-lite. I was as queer as it gets.
They did an article in The Advocate right after it happened. They taped it and apparently I said the words “dyke,” “fag” and “queer” 47 times. I mean, it was the second sentence I uttered: “Hello everybody, I’m Lea DeLaria. It’s the 1990s, it’s hip to be queer and I’m a big dyke.”
We needed somebody to be that person.
The lesser-known story is that they almost didn’t air it because I said “queer” and “dyke and “fag.” The lawyers called Arsenio in and said, “We don’t think you should let this go out.” They were trying to pull it and Arsenio had a fit and said, “She’s a dyke. If she wants to call herself a dyke then it’s none of your fucking business.” He fought for it and got me on the air.
More recently, you called out a preacher while on the New York subway.
That guy? It’s an insult to preachers to call him a preacher. He’s just a homophobic asshole.
It went viral.
It went viral so fast I couldn’t believe it, in fact. I was on TMZ within a half hour. That was the thing: I was on a subway on my way to the studio – we were filming – so what had happened, I got out of the subway and I called my manager. I said, “Look, I had a confrontation. Somebody pulled out their phone and they videotaped it so there might be something on social media.” Twenty minutes later, he called me and said, “You’re on TMZ.” It was hilarious! It just went nuts.
You’ve spoken many times on the topic of “infighting.” Have you seen any noticeable change regarding the unification of the queer community?
Absolutely not. I speak about it a lot, but when we come together and don’t infight we get a lot done. This is the biggest issue we have in the queer community to date and will continue to be the biggest issue until we learn to accept our differences, and that’s the issue. And part of me believes that this inclusivity of calling us the LGBTQQTY-whatever-LMNOP tends to stress our differences. And that’s why I refuse to do it. I say queer. Queer is everybody.Type : LED LED What it is: Type of display technology used by the TV. When it matters: Different technologies have different performance and are suited to different uses Good value: IPS maintains good color accuracy at an angle, but has a poor contrast ratio from in front. VA has great picture quality in front, but loses saturation at an angle. OLED maintains good color accuracy at an angle without any of the other issues seen with IPS and VA, as they keep good brightness and contrast at an angle. Sub-Type VA Resolution : 4k 4k The Sony X930E 4K HDR TV is a great LED TV with top of the line picture quality. It's one of the brightest TVs we've reviewed, so it does great with HDR. It covers everything quite well as both motion and input lag are good. Its only real pitfall is the quite narrow viewing angle. Test Results Design 8.5 Picture Quality 8.2 Motion 8.3 Inputs 8.5 Sound Quality 7.3 Smart Features 8.0
Exceptionally bright, which is great for HDR
Deep and uniform blacks
Very good motion handling Image degrades rapidly at an angle
Check Price
8.5 Design Score components: Subjectively assigned Score distribution:
Curved : No No
The design of the X930E is great. From the front it looks like most other Sony TVs with the familiar center stand and minimalistic look. The cable management is excellent, due to the textured plastic covers and built-in cable guides. The build quality is also great, and the body of the TV feels very sturdy.
Stand The TV features a very similar central stand to the X900E. It supports the TV well and is very stable. It also provides a channel through the rear legs for cable management. Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 11.1" x 19.8" Back Wall Mount : VESA 300x300 VESA 300x300 The back of the TV has many textured plastic panels which are used to hide cables (shown here). The wall mount bolt holes can be found under the panels. Borders Borders : 0.51" (1.3 cm) 0.51" (1.3 cm) The borders of the TV are thin and look good. They are made of metal and feel high quality. Thickness Max Thickness : 1.77" (4.5 cm) 1.77" (4.5 cm) The TV is relatively thin, and can be mounted very close to a wall. Temperature What it is: The peak temperature found on the TV. When it matters: If the TV is placed in an enclosed space. Good value: <35°C Noticeable difference: 5°C Maximum Temperature 95 °F (35 °C) What it is: The average temperature measured on the TV. When it matters: If the TV is placed in an enclosed space. Good value: <35°C Noticeable difference: 5°C Average Temperature 90 °F (32 °C) The X930E is a fairly cool TV, and only gets slightly warm after prolonged usage. The exception is its power brick, which reaches a warm 42 °C; however this should not be a problem. 9.0 Build Quality The build quality of the X930E is excellent. All of the parts feel high quality and fit together well, and the build is solid. The back is plastic but the stand and borders are metal. The TV is very heavy though.
The Sony XBR55X930E has a very good picture quality. Dark room performance is great thanks to the excellent contrast ratio and good black uniformity. Bright room performance is not lacking either, thanks to the good reflection handling and the high SDR peak brightness which should overcome most glare. The gray uniformity is average but it does not have too much dirty screen effect which should please sports fans. The X930E has a narrow viewing angle, so its colors and black level degrade fast when viewed off center. In a case where a large group is watching TV at the same time, the ones sitting more to the sides won't have the same great picture quality as those right in front. Finally, when it comes to HDR this TV is an excellent choice. The relatively good local dimming, great HDR peak brightness and good color reproduction make it one of Sony's best options.
The X930E has great motion handling. It has a low response time, so fast moving objects appear clear. It has optional black frame insertion which can increase the amount of visible flicker to help clear up moving objects. Unfortunately movies played via cable or a home theater PC experience some small judder, but for most people this isn't noticeable. The X930E has a 120Hz panel which is able to interpolate lower frame rate content for those who enjoy the soap opera effect.
8.5 Inputs Score components: 86% Input Lag
Input Lag 14% Supported Resolutions Score distribution:
The X930E has a large variety of inputs built in, and its HDMI ports support all the common input signals. In game mode it has good input lag when showing a 4k input but only mediocre input lag when showing a 1080p input. Note: Only HDMI ports 2 & 3 support full bandwidth, but HDMI port 3 is also the audio return channel. If you have a receiver which supports ARC and more than 1 device which requires the full bandwidth of HDMI then you might have some issues connecting all of your devices. In this case it may be best to connect your receiver using an optical (Toslink) cable.
7.3 Sound Quality What it is: How well and accurately the audio is reproduced. When it matters: When a good and accurate sound reproduction is needed. Score components: 75% Frequency Response
Frequency Response 25% Distortion Score distribution: Learn more
The Sony X930E has an average sound quality. That isn't saying much, though, since we rarely ever see a TV that performs well in this area.
8.0 Smart Features Score components: 42% Interface
Interface 2% Ad-Free
Ad-Free 37% Apps and Features
Apps and Features 16% Remote
Remote 3% Remote App Score distribution:
Smart OS : Android TV Android TV
Version : 6.0 6.0
The X930E uses Android TV as its smart OS. Android TV is, unfortunately, more difficult to navigate than some other smart OS's, so first-time users may take some time getting used to where the different options are located. The 'Action Menu' button on the remote helps to relieve this problem by showing a short list of common settings so users rarely need to navigate to the settings app. Despite Android TV's complexity, it is still a good smart OS because of its vast app selection; the included Google Play Store contains a plethora of apps users can download and use. The included remote has a microphone for Voice Search, which works well.
Differences between Sizes and Variants
We tested the 55" (XBR55X930E). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 65"(XBR65X930E) as well.
Note that the 65" model doesn't have an external power brick, which may make it easier to wall mount.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sony XBR-55X930E doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
Size Model Alternative Name UK Model 55" XBR55X930E XBR-55X930E KD-55XE9305 65" XBR65X930E XBR-65X930E KD-65XE9305
Compared to other TVs
The Sony X930E is one of the best LED TVs we've reviewed, but it faces some tough competition in its category. See our recommendations for the best 4k TVs and the best flatscreen TVs.Obama visits sunny Amsterdam
US President Barack Obama made a historic visit to Amsterdam this morning, when he became the first American president in office to visit the city.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Mayor Eberhard van der Laan received President Obama in the underpass of the Rijksmuseum, along with the museum’s director, Wim Pijbes. After their visit of an hour and a half, President Obama departed by helicopter at around 11:00 from Museumplein. Mayor Van der Laan declared the visit a success: “The visit of President Obama to our city is a real honour. The morning went exceptionally well; Amsterdam, with the Rijksmuseum at centre stage, showed its best side. We are proud of everyone who contributed to this and of course of Amsterdam.”
President Obama arrived at 09:30 by helicopter. Sixty students from the nearby Sweelinck College, aged between 13 and 17, were among the welcoming committee. Obama took plenty of time to talk with the students in the passageway under the Rijksmuseum, which was decorated with some 34,000 red, white and blue tulips for the occasion.
Inside the museum, Obama signed the guest book of the city of Amsterdam and viewed the Act of Abjuration (in Dutch, Plakkaat van Verlatinghe), which declared the Netherlands’ independence from Spain in 1581. This text served as inspiration for the United States’ own Declaration of Independence some 200 years later. With Amsterdam’s most famous masterpiece ‘The Night Watch’ forming the backdrop, Prime Minister Rutte and President Obama provided a brief statement to the press and the President expressed a heightened admiration for the art he had once studied in school.
Obama was also shown a scale model of a 3D printed canal house by Amsterdam firm Dus Architects. The intention was to illustrate how innovative approaches can provide low-cost housing in densely populated areas – for example, in refugee camps and slums.
A demonstration by several dozen protesters on the Beursplein concluded without incident, while Amnesty International cancelled a planned demonstration on the Concertgebouwplein. Traffic measures were set in place in the vicinity of the Museumplein but there were no notable incidents to report.(Reuters) - Digital currency exchange operators Coinbase and Bitfinex reported problems with service through their websites on Tuesday, frustrating traders seeking to cash in on the latest surge in the value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
FILE PHOTO: Photo illustration of Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange website taken September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Wallet-provider Coinbase’s website showed “service unavailable” early on Tuesday U.S. time, flashing a message that said it was down for maintenance. Its exchange gdax.com was still quoting prices, although it also said it was experiencing a “minor service outage”.
Bitfinex, another cryptocurrency exchange, tweeted it was under heavy distributed denial of service (DDoS) and its application programing interface was down. bit.ly/2nRS0Xf
DDoS attacks have been common on the internet, using hijacked and virus-infected computers to target websites until they can no longer cope with the scale of data requested.
It was not immediately clear if the two incidents were related to any cyberattacks.
Bitfinex last Thursday tweeted that it had been under significant denial of service attack for several days, and that the attack had recently worsened. bit.ly/2nRnqwB
Bitcoin exchanges and wallets have a history of being hacked, and security experts say they become more vulnerable to cyber-crime as valuations rise.
There have been at least three dozen heists on exchanges that buy and sell digital currencies since 2011, including one that led to the 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin market.
The latest attack came last Thursday, when a Slovenian cryptocurrency mining marketplace, NiceHash, said it lost about $64 million worth of bitcoin in a hack of its payment system. reut.rs/2nRozEp
Bitfinex did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Coinbase since the website was down.Black-and-white picture of a coloured zoopraxiscope disc, circa 1893 by Eadweard Muybridge and Erwin F. Faber
Black-and-white animation of a colored zoopraxiscope (without distortion, hence the elongated form)
The zoöpraxiscope (initially named zoographiscope and zoogyroscope) is an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector. It was conceived by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in 1879 (and built for him by January 1880 to project his famous chronophotographic pictures in motion and thus prove that these were authentic). Muybridge used the projector in his public lectures from 1880 to 1895. The projector used 16" glass disks onto which Muybridge had an unidentified artist paint the sequences as silhouettes. This technique eliminated the backgrounds and enabled the creation of fanciful combinations and additional imaginary elements. Only one disk used photographic images, of a horse skeleton posed in different positions. A later series of 12" discs, made in 1892–1894, used outlines drawn by Erwin F. Faber that were printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. These colored discs were probably never used in Muybridge's lectures. All images of the known 71 disks, including those of the photographic disk, were rendered in elongated form to compensate the distortion of the projection. The projector was related to other projecting phenakistiscopes and used some slotted metal shutter discs that were interchangeable for different picture disks or different effects on the screen. The machine was hand-cranked.[1][2]
The device appears to have been one of the primary inspirations for Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dickson's Kinetoscope, the first commercial film exhibition system.[3] Images from all of the known seventy-one surviving zoopraxiscope discs have been reproduced in the book Eadweard Muybridge: The Kingston Museum Bequest (The Projection Box, 2004).
...it is the first apparatus ever used, or constructed, for synthetically demonstrating movements analytically photographed from life, and in its resulting effects is the prototype of the various instruments which, under a variety of names, are used for a similar purpose at the present day. — Eadward Muybridge, Animals in Motion (1899)
As stipulated in Muybridge's will the original machine and disks in his possession were left to Kingston upon Thames, where they are still kept in the Kingston Museum Muybridge Bequest Collection (except for four discs that are in other collections, including those of the Cinémathèque française and the National Technical Museum in Prague).[1][2]
Muybridge also produced a series of 50 different paper 'Zoopraxiscope discs' (basically phenakistiscopes), again with pictures drawn by Erwin F. Faber. The discs were intended for sale at the 1893 World's Fair at Chicago, but seem to have sold very poorly and are quite rare. The discs were printed in black-and-white, with twelve different discs also produced as chromolithographed versions. Of the coloured versions only four different ones are known to still exist with a total of five or six extant copies.[4]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]By Thomas Dahlheimer | 16 |
to rewrite the history of America's unique presidential election process, claiming that it's nothing but a relic of slavery.
It's not that, of course. But some people believe that if they say something often enough, it becomes true.
Hillary Clinton's call to eliminate the Electoral College has been widely reported, but less attention has been given to a former member of her husband's presidential administration. Robert Reich recently urged listeners to "resist Donald Trump," but also to "make sure our democracy doesn't ever again elect a candidate who loses the popular vote."
The best method of making that happen, Reich believes, is the National Popular Vote legislation that is pending before many state legislatures.
Most Americans have never heard of NPV, but the California-based group has been operating quietly behind the scenes for years. NPV asks states to change the presidential election process through a simple contract between states, purportedly binding them to give their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote.
The plan goes into effect only when states holding 270 electoral votes (enough to win the presidency) have signed it. So far, ten states plus D.C. have agreed to these terms. They hold 165 electoral votes among them. Only 105 more electoral votes are needed.
If this were to happen, the Electoral College would exist on paper, but not in practice — a fact that Reich celebrates.
For anyone who has been following this issue, Reich's language is astonishing. His statements contradict everything that NPV has been telling legislators—especially red state legislators—for years. NPV has been steadfastly pretending that its proposal is pro-Constitution and pro-Electoral College. "Let's be clear," NPV lobbyist Laura Brod blasted several years ago. "The National Popular Vote legislation being voted on and supported by legislators across this great nation does NOT abolish the Electoral College." Other NPV lobbyists have routinely agreed. "[T]he idea that National Popular Vote ‘abolishes', ‘attacks', ‘neuters' or ‘subverts' the Electoral College, the Constitution or ‘intent of the founders,'" Jason Cabel Roe wrote, "is simply not true."
But in recent months, NPV supporters such as Reich have thrown this pretense out the window. Reich doesn't mince words. "We must make the Electoral College irrelevant," he says. "We must abolish the Electoral College."
He pushes for NPV because it is the easiest possible route to change. "Amending the Constitution is very hard," he complains, ignoring that this was precisely the founders' point in making it so. Reich prefers something easy, the Founders' intent be damned. If NPV is enacted with the support of just a few states, Reich concludes, then "it's done. We'll never again elect a President who loses the popular vote."
He surely wishes that were true. But it's not. NPV does not create a magical solution where "it's done," never to be dealt with again. To the contrary, states will be able to pop in and out of the contract.
For example, does anyone really expect Massachusetts to remain a signatory if it sees the writing on the wall and thinks that Donald Trump is about to win the national popular vote? And when the Bay State bails, other states would try to stop it. Someone would sue. The presidential election system would be in a constant state of upheaval. None of this is good for America.
Unfortunately, this small example barely scratches the surface. The logistical difficulties created by NPV are numerous and will end up overwhelming the system, as even the originators of the plan concede.
NPV proponents have known all of this for a long time. They've been putting up a good front for years, but elimination of the Electoral College was always their end game. They were just using NPV to "get past the initial inertia," as John Koza, the founder of NPV, admitted nearly a decade ago. They pretended otherwise, but they always knew that a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College would be the logical consequence of NPV.
Of course, given Reich's bold comments in recent days, perhaps NPV's secret is out of the bag.
Tara Ross is the author of The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders' Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule (Regnery Gateway).
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions.In a surprising move for a button-down, corporate-style NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell last week opened the door, slightly, for the NFL and players to agree on using medical marijuana for treatment of pain and injuries.
Goodell spoke on the subject and in an interview with former Associated Press White House correspondent Ben Feller at the 92nd St. Y., reports ESPN.
According to ESPN, Goodell said he could envision a time when players use medical marijuana to treat pain in states where it is legal: “I don’t know what’s going to develop as far as the next opportunity for medicine to evolve and to help either deal with pain or help deal with injuries, but we will continue to support the evolution of medicine.”
Well, now, that is something — especially in light of the fact that marijuana use has caused several Seattle players some time on the field.
As reported in a Washington Post article last week arguing that the NFL should stop punishing for marijuana use:
The Broncos and the Seahawks have each lost key players this season to marijuana-related suspensions. Denver’s Von Miller, the 2011 NFL defensive rookie of the year, missed the first six games for allegedly failing drug tests and failing to complywith league drug testing. (Miller is now out for the season with a knee injury.) And the Seahawks lost starting cornerback Walter Thurmond for four games during the latter part of the season, reportedly for testing positive for marijuana. Less than a month later, the league suspended Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner indefinitely for failing a drug test. Again, it was believed that marijuana was the culprit.
Alos in July, as reported on NFL.com:
The stress of coping with life led Will Hill to use marijuana, the New York Giants safety said Sunday in his first comments after being hit by the NFL with his second four-game suspension. Speaking frankly before practicing at training camp, Hill said the suspension he received last week for using marijuana was for failing a drug test last season.
The Post aptly concludes:
The NFL’s current 10-year collective-bargaining agreement was adopted in 2011, so changing its marijuana policy would take some maneuvering. … Instead of waiting, the NFL should address the issue now so that players can derive the benefits of the substance — or simply use it as an alternative to alcohol — sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, here are some strains for reducing stress:
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our marijuana coverage here.INSIDE HIGHER ED INSIDE HIGHER ED For more breaking news, features and commentary from the world of higher education, visit: insidehighered.com. Dominique G. Homberger won't apologize for setting high expectations for her students. The biology professor at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge gives brief quizzes at the beginning of every class, to assure attendance and to make sure students are doing the reading. On her tests, she doesn't use a curve, as she believes that students must achieve mastery of the subject matter, not just achieve more mastery than the worst students in the course. For multiple choice questions, she gives 10 possible answers, not the expected 4, as she doesn't want students to get very far with guessing. Students in introductory biology don't need to worry about meeting her standards anymore. LSU removed her from teaching, mid-semester, and raised the grades of students in the class. In so doing, the university's administration has set off a debate about grade inflation, due process and a professor's right to set standards in her own course. To Homberger and her supporters, the university's action has violated principles of academic freedom and weakened the faculty. ON THE WEB: Who's to blame when students fail? FROM INSIDE HIGHER ED: Grades on the rise "This is terrible. It undercuts all of what we do," said Brooks Ellwood, president of the LSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and the Robey H. Clark Distinguished Professor of Geology. "If you are a non-tenured professor at this university, you have to think very seriously about whether you are going to fail too many students for the administration to tolerate." Even for those who, like Homberger, are tenured, there is a risk of losing the ability to stick to your standards, he said, Teaching geology, he said, there are students who get upset when he talks about the actual age of the earth and about evolution. "Now students can complain to a dean" and have him removed, Elwood said. "I worry that my ability to teach in the classroom has been diminished." Kevin Carman, dean of the College of Basic Sciences, did not respond to requests for a phone interview Wednesday. But he issued a statement through the university's public relations office that said: "LSU takes academic freedom very seriously, but it takes the needs of its students seriously as well. There was an issue with this particular class that we felt needed to be addressed. "The class in question is an entry-level biology class for non-science majors, and, at mid-term, more than 90% of the students in Dr. Homberger's class were failing or had dropped the class. The extreme nature of the grading raised a concern, and we felt it was important to take some action to ensure that our students receive a rigorous, but fair, education. Professor Homberger is not being penalized in any way; her salary has not been decreased nor has any aspect of her appointment been changed." In an interview, Homberger said that there were numerous flaws with Carman's statement. She said that it was true that most students failed the first of four exams in the course. But she also said that she told the students that — despite her tough grading policies — she believes in giving credit to those who improve over the course of the semester. At the point that she was removed, she said, some students in the course might not have been able to do much better than a D, but every student could have earned a passing grade. Further, she said that her tough policy was already having an impact, and that the grades on her second test were much higher (she was removed from teaching right after she gave that exam), and that quiz scores were up sharply. Students got the message from her first test, and were working harder, she said. "I believe in these students. They are capable," she said. And given that LSU boasts of being the state flagship, she said, she should hold students to high standards. Many of these students are in their first year, and are taking their first college-level science course, so there is an adjustment for them to make, Homberger said. But that doesn't mean professors should lower standards. Homberger said she was told that some students had complained about her grades on the first test. "We are listening to the students who make excuses, and this is unfair to the other students," she said. "I think it's unfair to the students" to send a message that the way to deal with a difficult learning situation is "to complain" rather than to study harder. Further, she said that she was never informed that administrators had any concerns about her course until she received a notification that she was no longer teaching it. (She noted that the university's learning management system allowed superiors to review the grades on her first test in the course.) And while her dean authorized her removal from teaching the course, she said, he never once sat in on her course. Further, she said that in more than 30 years of teaching at LSU, no dean had ever done so, although they would have been welcome. "Why didn't they talk to me?" she asked. Homberger said that she has not had any serious grading disputes before, although it's been about 15 years since she taught an introductory course. She has been teaching senior-level and graduate courses, and this year, she asked her department's leaders where they could use help, and accepted their suggestion that she take on the intro course. In discussions with colleagues after she was removed from the course, Homberger said that no one has ever questioned whether any of the test questions were unfair or unfairly graded, but that she was told that she may include "too many facts" on her tests. Ellwood, the campus AAUP chapter president, said that his group had verified that no one informed Homberger of concerns before removing her from the course, and that no one had questioned the integrity of her tests. He also said that the scores on the second test were notably better than the first one, suggesting that students were responding to the need to do more work. "She's very rigorous. There's no doubt about that," he said. Based on its investigation, the AAUP chapter has sent a letter to administrators, arguing that they violated Homberger's academic freedom and due process rights and demanding an apology. (No apology has been forthcoming.) Cary Nelson, national president of the AAUP, said that the organization has always believed that "an instructor has the responsibility for assigning grades," and that the LSU case was "disturbing in several respects." He noted that "the practice of assigning tough grades in an early assignment as a wake-up call to students is quite common" and that "the instructor made it clear that she had no intention of failing that many students when it came time for final grades." If administrators were concerned, he said, they had a responsibility to "discuss the matter fully with the instructor" before taking any action. And he said that "removal from the classroom mid-semester is a serious sanction that requires all the protections of due process." Nelson said that the incident "raises serious questions about violations of pedagogical freedoms." Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor who is the founder of GradeInflation.com, a website that publishes research on grading, questioned whether LSU was really trying to help students. "How many times has Dean Carman removed a professor from a class who was giving more than 90% As?" he asked. LSU's public affairs office did not respond to follow-up questions about the statement it issued, and to the criticisms made by various faculty members. Homberger declined to give out the names of students who have expressed support, saying that to do so would violate her confidentiality obligations. But she released (without student names) answers to a bonus question on the course's second test. The question asked students to describe "the biggest 'AHA' reaction" they had had during the course. Many of the reactions were about various issues in biology — with evolution as a major topic. But a number dealt with grades and work habits. One was critical: "When I found out my test grade, I almost had a heart attack." But many other comments about the course standards were positive, with several students specifically praising Homberger's advice that they form study groups. One student wrote: "My biggest 'AHA' reaction in this course is that I need to study for this course every night to make a good grade. I must also attend class, take good notes, and have study sessions with others. Usually a little studying can get me by but not with this class which is why it is my 'AHA' reaction." 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 moreBarron Trump Thought Beheaded Image Was His Dad
Barron Trump Thought Kathy Griffin's Beheaded Trump Image Was His Dad
EXCLUSIVE
Barron Trump was watching television Tuesday at home with Melania when Kathy Griffin's photo appeared on the screen, and his initial reaction was that something terrible happened to his father.
Trump family sources tell us Barron was in front of the TV watching a show when the news came on and he saw the bloody, beheaded image. We're told he panicked and screamed, "Mommy, Mommy!"
As it was put to us, "He's 11. He doesn't know who Kathy Griffin is and the head she was holding resembled his dad."
Melania called out Kathy, saying what she did was disturbing, wrong and "makes you wonder about [her] mental health."
President Trump also blasted Griffin for posing with the head, saying, Barron was having a hard time dealing with it.
Griffin has apologized.For every case of restaurant owners going ballistic on customers, there are other stories of restaurant staff who actually want to be kind to their patrons. Such was the case in 1997 when a teenager had to borrow $40 from the chef at a French eatery so he could afford to impress his Valentine’s Day date. He’s since returned, 15 years later, to repay that debt — with interest.
The owner and chef of a French restaurant in Albuquerque tells KOAT News that he once helped out a teenager back in the 1990s, who wanted to impress his date with a fancy Valentine’s Day dinner. Trouble is, the kid couldn’t afford to pay the check when it came.
He could’ve made a run for it while his date was in the restroom, but instead asked to speak to the owner and explained that he was short about $40. The owner says he was like, “Hey, I have $40 in my pocket, have it,” and told the kid to pay him back someday if he could.
“Sometimes things come back to you,” he said. “You shouldn’t do them for that specific reason. You should just do it because it’s the right time and the right place and it just felt good.”
The years passed, and the memory of that $40 all but faded. The restaurant had closed down somewhere in the intervening years, and just reopened last week in a new location. And who do you think was one of the first people through the door? That now-grown teenager, with a $100 bill in hand.
“Sometimes it pays off to be a nice guy,” the owner said. “It made me feel good. I went and bought myself a bouquet of flowers.”
Patron pays 15-year-old debt at restaurant [KOAT News]US Apache attack helicopters and HIMARS rocket artillery systems will likely join 560 additional U.S. troops being sent to a northern Iraqi air base that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Monday would be used as a “springboard” to retake Mosul.
The AH-64 Apaches have already played a role in securing the air base outside the town of al-Qayyarah (also spelled Qayara) in the Tigris River Valley about 40 miles south of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Last month, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Apaches attacked and destroyed an ISIS VBIED (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device) in al-Qayarrah, which was retaken by Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) over the weekend.
It was the first time the Apaches had seen action since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters swept into Iraq in June of 2014 against little resistance and threatened Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had barred the use of the Apaches in the retaking of Ramadi and Fallujah in southern Anbar province but he has authorized their use for the long-stalled plan to retake Mosul, which Abadi has predicted will happen this year.
The truck-mounted M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) will also likely be placed at al-Qayyarah to support the retaking of Mosul. HIMARS systems have long been in place at the U.S. bases at the al-Asad airbase and in Taqqadum near Ramadi in Anbar province.
In a briefing to the Pentagon in April, Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, deputy commander for operations and intelligence for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said the HIMARS system “absolutely” would move forward to northern Iraq once the ISF had secured a foothold near Mosul.
In Baghdad Monday on a one-day stop following the NATO summit in Warsaw last week, Carter said “I am pleased to report that today we agreed for the United States to bolster the Iraqi efforts to isolate and pressure Mosul by deploying 560 additional troops in support of the ISF at the Qayyarah West airfield.”
"With the retaking of Qayyarah West airfield, the Iraqi Security have once again demonstrated a serious will to fight,” said Carter, who questioned the will of the ISF to fight when Ramadi fell to ISIS in May 2015.
“This contingent of U.S. forces will help the Iraqis establish a logistical springboard for their offensive on Mosul, which Prime Minister Abadi re-affirmed to me he wants to accomplish this year,” Carter said.
Army Lt. Gen. Sean McFarland, who was wrapping up his leadership of CJTF-Operation Inherent Resolve, said he expected the new troops to arrive “relatively soon” to bring the U.S. troop presence in Iraq to more than 4,600.
McFarland was expected to be replaced in Iraq in August or September by Army Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, a veteran of the counter-insurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who now serves as commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Carter did not mention the Apaches or the HIMARS systems in his Baghdad remarks but noted that in addition to the 560 U.S. troops at al-Qayyarah “we’ll bring unique capabilities to the campaign and provide critical support to Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight.”
The move against Mosul was also likely to involve added risk for U.S. troops. Carter has already approved assigning U.S. trainers and advisors to move forward with the ISF at the battalion level, although Pentagon officials said last week that none of the trainers and advisors had yet worked at the battalion level with the Iraqis.
That was expected to change for the Mosul offensive, which will require the expertise of U.S. troops on the ground, particularly for the bridging operations that will be needed to gain access to Mosul.
Carter began his remarks in Baghdad with condolences for the hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed in terror attacks by ISIS in Baghdad and areas north of the capital, including more than 200 last week in Baghdad’s Karrada shopping district.
The U.S. already shares intelligence with the Iraqis on terror threats, but Carter said he was directing the the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency -- which leads the Defense Department’s efforts to counter improvised explosive device -- to provide additional assistance that could enhance security in Baghdad.
Carter's move to increase the U.S. troop presence left open the question of how it would be funded, according to Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In a statement, McCain said “While I welcome the President’s decision to send additional U.S. troops to Iraq to support the fight against (ISIS), the President’s defense budget does not take into account this new requirement."
"The same is true of the President’s decision to retain 8,400 U.S. forces in Afghanistan into next year. These operations will not pay for themselves," said McCain, an Arizona Republican.The second World Golf Championship event of the year is almost underway at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play with, bar a few exceptions, the world’s best players all hitting the tee; but golf fans worldwide are desperate for Rory McIlroy vs Patrick Reed 2.0.
After their fiery Ryder Cup battle last year, that resulted in a 1Up victory for Reed, the golfing community is yearning for a rematch of the showdown at Hazeltine that included exchanges of the lead, boastful celebrations and exceptional golf.
McIlroy undoubtedly heads into this event in better form with top 10 finishes in all of his last six starts and a tied fourth, tied seventh and second place finish in his three starts of 2016; whilst Reed has failed to make the top 10 in any of his last six starts with finishes as low as tied 59th and tied 61st.
The Northern-Irishman has played his part in building the hype of a potential rematch, saying “It would be nice to play Patrick again.
“There’s some unfinished business there that I would like to clear up. But we’ll see what happens. He’s played well in match play, especially in the Ryder Cup,” Sky Sports report he said.
“It is something I’d really look forward to, to try to beat him and beat him by more than one hole, just so I have a little bit of an edge.”
The pair will first have to get through tough pools with McIlroy pitted against Emiliano Grillo, Gary Woodland – who he beat 4&2 in the 2015 final – and Soren Kjeldsen, whilst Reed is up against Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner and Jason Dufner. The full groupings can be seen here.
The majority of the world’s top 50 are set to play, with the exception of Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler and Adam Hadwin who have expressed a dislike for the format or are targeting better preparation leading up to the Masters in two weeks.
The top 16 ranked players who are playing, Dustin Johnson through to Matt Kuchar, are placed in separate pools with the remainder of the 64-man field spread across. Players from each pool will play one another once from Wednesday through Friday with the top player from each pool progressing to the knockout stages beginning on Saturday; the round of 16 and quarter finals take place on Saturday and the semi-finals and final on Sunday.
Jason Day was victorious last year for his second WGC-Match Play title in three years, beating Louis Oosthuizen 5&4 in the final, which earned him the world-number-one spot that he held for almost a year. The Australian would become just the second player – after Tiger Woods in 2003 and 2004 – to defend this title. There are few other previous winners returning, though, as Hunter Mahan (2012), Luke Donald (2011) and Ian Poulter (2010) all fail to qualify and Stenson skips the event. Day and McIlroy are joined by Kuchar (2013) as the only other returning past winner.
Austin Country Club hosts the event for the second year running. Inspired by Royal Dornoch and Gullane Hill in Scotland, the par 72 course sits at just over 7000 yards with severe natural elevation changes on the 8th and the nerve-inducing 18th hole – sure to be the scene of drama in many matches.
The purse is just shy of $10m and the event offers significant FedExCup, Race to Dubai and world ranking points, but for eight players floating around the world’s top 50 there’s extra incentive to break through and earn an invitation to the Masters at the last hurdle.
AdvertisementsMayor of Clay, West Virginia, Beverly Whaling, appeared to agree with Pamela Ramsey Taylor’s Facebook post, leading to calls for her termination
A West Virginia county worker was fired after penning a racist Facebook post calling first lady Michelle Obama an “ape in heels”.
“It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” posted Clay County Development Corporation’s then director Pamela Ramsey Taylor to Facebook following Donald Trump’s presidential win last week.
Underneath Taylor’s post, Clay’s mayor, Beverly Whaling, voiced her approval: “Just made my day Pam.”
Why Michelle Obama is unlikely to run for president Read more
Whaling resigned from her post on Tuesday following a backlash, including a petition calling for her termination that had garnered more than 121,000 signatures as of midday Tuesday after she posted her response to the racist comment, now deleted, about the first lady.
The Clay town council accepted Mayor Whaling’s resignation in a meeting late on Tuesday afternoon and said it would act quickly to name a replacement for the remaining three years of her term.
Council member Jason Hubbard issued a brief statement condemning the “horrific” post and said “racial intolerance isn’t what this community is about”. He apologized on behalf of the town to anyone who was offended, including Michelle Obama.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Whaling said: “My comment was not intended to be racist at all. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I’m not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!”
Taylor apologized on Facebook, but both women have now deleted their accounts.
Taylor told local news station WSAZ-3 that the response – including death threats – to her racist comments have become a “hate crime against me” and she is looking to sue people who she says have slandered her.
Neither Taylor nor Whaling could be contacted for comment.
Clay is a county of 10,000 people about an hour’s drive from Charleston, the state’s capital. Donald Trump won 77% of the vote in Clay County.When the BBC recently launched overhauled versions of its iOS and Android news applications, many voices were heard questioning why there was no love for Windows Phone. At the time the BBC was clear about its direction with its newest mobile apps, but with the latest update there might be hope for the future.
"Following the announcements of Windows 10 last week we will discuss with Microsoft the new cross device app opportunities that are now available."
Honestly, the BBC could do better with the apps it does offer presently on Windows Phone, but it's clear that Windows 10 opens up a whole new avenue of possibility. The simple fact is that there could be a universal app for BBC News, BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer available on not just Windows 10 phones, but tablets, desktops and the Xbox One, as well.
So, it doesn't do anything to please in the short term. But if people from the Beeb are talking to people from Microsoft, we can but hope.
Source: BBC BlogCongressman Carlos Ramos of the Venezuelan opposition party UNT, wrote to Williams F1 recently, asking for details of the PDVSA contract. The team replied that this was confidential but Ramos refused to accept that and wrote again. This letter did not get sent but has fallen into the hands of a Venezuelan blogger, who has suggested that the congressman was dissuaded to not continue down this path. However, to underline the feelings that were expressed, here is the letter that was to be sent, which underlines some of the questions involved, which Williams may have to answer at some point.
“Your reply suggests that William F1 has not done sufficient due diligence on Venezuela’s legislation regarding public expenditure.
“As you know, PDVSA is an oil conglomerate, fully owned by the Venezuelan State. Given that PDVSA is the largest contributor of fiscal revenues to the Venezuelan State, its budget needs to be approved by its board and its sole shareholder – the State, on a yearly basis. The amount, and general expenditure, of PDVSA’s budget is, as a matter of law, public matter. Ergo, Venezuela’s Congress receives, once a year, a detailed account of PDVSA’s expenditure, for one very important reason: monies earned by PDVSA in the course of its natural business operations belong to and support the State.
“Sponsoring a F1 racing team is most definitely not a priority expenditure for an entity that can derive NO commercial benefit from such capricious outlay. Bear in mind that PDVSA is not a commercial brand, and that it sells nothing to consumers with its brand – now painted in various places on your race cars. The financial situation of the Williams Formula 1 team is probably a matter of great concern to its owners, employees, and commercial sponsors. However, there is no acceptable explanation as per why 28 million Venezuelans have to foot the bill, to simply help Williams survive. I understand why you would take money from anyone, though it is impossible for me to explain, to my constituents and countrymen, why on earth we are wasting money on your team. That all of this is done by a government that calls itself socialist, a government which has destroyed much of the private sector in my country, and has demonised the practices of capitalism, is even more ironic and perplexing.
“Article 154 of Venezuela’s Constitution: “Treaties agreed to by the Republic must be approved by the National Assembly prior to their ratification by the President of the Republic, with the exception of those which seek to perform or perfect pre-existing obligations of the Republic, apply principles expressly recognised by the Republic, perform ordinary acts in international relations or exercise powers expressly vested by law in the National Executive.”
“Article 222 of Venezuela’s Constitution: “The National Assembly shall be empowered to exercise its control function by means of the following mechanisms: parliamentary questions, investigations, questions, authorisations and parliament’s approvals as provided for in this Constitution and by law, and any other mechanism that may be established by laws and their associated Regulations. In exercising parliamentary control, the National Assembly shall have the power to make a finding of political liability on the part of public officials and call on Citizen Power to initiate the appropriate action to enforce such liability.”
“Article 223 of Venezuela’s Constitution: “The Assembly or its Committees shall have the power to conduct such investigations as they may deem appropriate in matters within their competence, in accordance with the Regulations. All public officials are obligated, subject to the penalties established by law, to appear before such Committees and provide the same with any information and documents they may require in order to carry out their functions. Private citizens are also subject to this obligation, without prejudice to the rights and guarantees embodied in this Constitution.”
“Article 314 of Venezuela’s Constitution: “No expense of any kind shall be disbursed unless the same has been provided for in the budget law. Additional budget credit items may be ordered to cover essential unforeseen expenses or items that had not been adequately funded, only if the treasury has resources to cover the expenditure concerned; this shall be done only following a vote in favor by the Cabinet of Ministers and authorisation by the National Assembly, or in its absence, by the Delegated Committee.”
“The Venezuelan Congress was not informed, according to law, of the sponsorship contract between Williams F1 Team and PDVSA. Neither in 2010, nor in 2011, was the Venezuelan Congress informed by PDVSA of such expenditure within its budget. This is clearly our problem, as it further underlines the institutional collapse of our society. The loss of independence of the Legislative Branch, and the repeated violation of the law on the part of the Executive Branch, are the hallmarks of the so called “Bolivarian Revolution” you have so joyfully tied your team’s future to.
“Therefore, I can not, and will not, accept your argument of confidentiality. What we would expect from any and all counter-parties to a public contract in Venezuela, is that they would seek, and demand, that all legal steps be cleared, and maximum transparency be ensured. Your failure to demand this from PDVSA, coupled with your unwillingness to facilitate the work of the National Assembly, makes Williams F1 Team complicit of unauthorised spending, and so from this moment on that is exactly they way I intend to treat Williams F1 Team, unless, of course, you change your absurd position and start collaborating.
“Until proven otherwise, we will continue to have the suspicion that irregular payments are an integral part of this ruinous contract, as they have become the norm in almost all public contracts signed by the Chavez administration. Rest assured that the contract between Williams F1 Team and PDVSA will not remain confidential, we will not stop investigating this matter, and we will seek any and all means to terminate this contract. Equally, we will ensure that Venezuelan public monies no longer get wasted in such fickle and unproductive sponsorship.”
Ramos finished the letter by requesting that Williams reconsider its answer and send him a copy of the original contract, details of monies disbursed to date by PDVSA and the names of all PDVSA or Venezuelan government officials that have obtained from, or through, Williams F1 Team, VIP treatment and box passes for races in the 2011 F1 season.
While Ramos is in the minority, there is an election coming up next year and President Hugo Chaves has been suffering from cancer. There is a danger therefore that his death or removal from power will result in more open government, which could spell serious trouble for the Grove team.Boom Technology, an aviation startup, unveiled today a subscale prototype of a supersonic passenger jet that aims to be the next generation Concorde. The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator, nicknamed “Baby Boom,” won’t take flight until late 2017, but Boom unveiled the prototype to a group of aviation and aerospace executives at Centennial Airport in Denver.
The XB-1 is a one-third scale version of the full production model that Boom hopes to have ready for passengers by 2020. The prototype only has room for the pilot, while the commercial-ready version will eventually hold up to 44 passengers. The startup claims its vehicles will be able to travel from from New York to London — normally a 7-hour flight — in just 3.5 hours, or LA to Sydney — typically a 15-hour trip — in 6 hours and 45 minutes. Tickets will cost the "affordable" price of $5,000 per seat.
New York to London in 3.5 hours
Blake Scholl, chief executive officer and founder of Boom, told The Verge he was motivated to build a supersonic jet to make it easier to travel great distances. “I’ve got little kids, and their grandpa lives in Hong Kong, which is 18 hours away,” he said. “They see him once a year, and they’ll never be close. It’s because we’re basically flying with the same airplanes we were using when my grandparents were little.”
There hasn’t been a supersonic commercial jet in operation since the Concorde jet, constructed by French aerospace company Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation, was retired after 27 years of service in 2003. A number of factors went into Concorde going out of business, including the plane's only crash in 2000 and Airbus, the successor to Aérospatiale, ultimately deciding to stop maintenance on the aircraft. The Concorde was also a gas-guzzler and a money-loser for Airbus. (Read this excellent piece in Vox for the full saga.)
Boom claims its aircraft can travel at a speed of Mach |
There is a need to return to varieties,” he said.
‘Slow process’
Inculturation was pushed after Vatican II, Marini said, but the process of approving the liturgies for Zaire, India and the Philippines was “slow.”
Moreover, inculturation needs information. “It is necessary but it is difficult. You have to be prepared. It’s not so easy,” he told CBCP News.
What about the abuses pointed out by critics of liturgical innovation, such as the heavy use of acoustic instruments during youth masses? Marini replied: “The problem is what are the abuse[s]? How is the so-called youth mass? This is the problem. To inculturate, it is necessary to know.”
Christmas itself is an inculturated celebration, the Vatican official argued.
“It was a pagan feast for the light. The light was coming, the victory of the sun. So they celebrated this victor, the pagan people, and then they translated it in our, the Roman Rite. So we celebrate on 24 and 25 of December, not because Christ was born on 25 or 24, but because it was an inculturated feast,” Archbishop Marini said. – (CBCP News)0
Netflix’s plan for world domination is taking another major step forward. On the heels of landing two new stand-up comedy specials from Chris Rock, the streaming giant has now sealed a deal for three brand new stand-up comedy specials from one of the best stand-ups of all time: Dave Chappelle. Indeed, Netflix paid a whopping $40 million for Rock’s two stand-up specials, so one can only imagine how much the streaming service agreed to pony up for Chappelle, who bowed out of the limelight following his smashing success and abrupt departure from The Chappelle Show. Chappelle made something of a comeback recently as he hosted a spectacular episode of Saturday Night Live, and now it appears he’s making the comeback official with these Netflix specials.
The deal includes one brand new original stand-up comedy special to be produced by Chappelle and director Stan Lathan for Netflix, as well as two previously recorded but never-seen specials that were filmed at Austin City Limits Live and The Hollywood Palladium. Those two specials will be released simultaneously in 2017, marking Chappelle’s first stand-up specials in 12 years.
I still contend that Chappelle’s previous stand-up special Killing Them Softly is one of the best sets of all time, so this comes as joyous news to fans of stand-up comedy. Chappelle is one of the sharpest and most talented comedians who ever lived, so to see the performer making a comeback of sorts is good news indeed.
Netflix continues to spend insane amounts of money to expand its reach, and delving into the stand-up realm is simply the next step for the streaming giant’s international plans. They’ve already ramped up original content with a slew of TV series and a burgeoning slate of high-profile original features, including the David Ayer-directed sci-fi drama Bright starring Will Smith and War Machine starring Brad Pitt. Of course, this all comes at a price—Netflix has been scaling back its library of licensed films, making it harder to find older or classic films on the ubiquitous streaming service.
What the future holds remains to be seen, but nabbing Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle is one hell of a one-two punch that announces strongly that Netflix is not messing around.Har le y-D avi dso n mo tor cyc les con fo rm to all app lic abl e U. S.A. Fed era l Mot or V ehi cl e Saf ety St and ar ds
and U. S.A. En vir onm ent al Pr ote cti on Age nc y reg ula tio ns eff ect ive on the dat e of man ufa ctu re.
T o mai nta in the saf ety, dep end abi lit y, and emi ssi on and noi se con tr ol per fo rma nce, it is ess ent ial tha t
the pr oce dur es, spe cif ica tio ns and ser vic e ins tru cti ons in thi s man ual are fo llo wed.
An y sub sti tut ion, alt era tio n or adj ust men t of emi ssi on sys tem and no ise con tro l com pon ent s out sid e ofThe war between online real estate portal and American venture capital firm Capital, which started on question-and-answer website last week, has taken a new turn. Several in the Indian online consumer business turned to micro-blogging website to share their views. has invested in internet firms in India, including Zomato, Ola, Groupon India, TinyOwl, Car Dekho, and Freecharge. It is not an investor in
Several entrepreneurs, investors and sector veterans have been vocal in siding with either the young entrepreneur, Rahul Yadav (chief executive of Housing.com), or
Sachin Bansal, the co-founder and chief executive of Flipkart, took on Sequoia. He posted on Twitter, “Sequoia isn't an investor with us. I would just say I'm glad to have it that way.” Avlesh Singh, the co-founder and chief executive of WebEngage, said, “Buy billboards, buy print ads...got more money? Badmouth someone and hire a public relations agency to ‘get the word’ out.”“Regardless of what may have happened or what differences were brewing, the tone and tenor of Yadav's email outburst was unprofessional and unbecoming of someone who leads one of India's best-funded high-potential start-ups,” said Ravi Gururaj, the chairman of Nasscom's Product Conclave. He added when someone mentioned the language of the email, he first thought it was an email relating to Yogendra Yadav of the Aam Aadmi Party. “Who would have thought an entrepreneur would use such foul language like ‘dude’, ‘brainwashing’, 'inhumane', 'unethical'?” Gururaj said.
Angel investor and founder of GSF Accelerator, Rajesh Sawhney, highlighted another concern in a tweet: “Is it time for a reality check after a housing bubble and ugly display of hubris?”
Founded by 12 graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in June 2012, helps the real estate sector mine and analyse data. The company, which had recently attracted funds from Japan's SoftBank, had reported losses of Rs 48.8 crore on a revenue of Rs 1.9 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2014, according to filings to the Union ministry of corporate affairs. In an email allegedly leaked last week, Yadav accused Sequoia of doing “inhuman and unethical things” at Housing.com.
“You did the same inhuman and unethical things with large number of entrepreneurs including Ola, TFS (TaxiForSure), Flipkart, Dexetra, and many more...,” Yadav said in the email sent to Sequoia's Shailendra Singh. “Now I just came to know you are personally and completely after Housing's employees and are brainwashing them to open some stupid incubation.”
In a reply posted on Quora, Singh of Sequoia said, “I am deeply hurt by this e-mail. I received this at 10 pm last weekend when I was in Hong Kong with the rest of our global partnership, and it came as a surprise and a big disappointment. My best guess is that this mail has been triggered by an offer that we made to one of the Housing employes to join us as an analyst...I encourage people who have questions or concerns about any of this to reach out to me directly. Or even better, talk to any of the entrepreneurs we are privileged to be partners with.”TOKYO—Ending a decades-long struggle for gender equality at the ballot box, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe of Japan signed a new measure into law on Thursday extending the right to vote to female robots.
The landmark legislation, hailed as a victory by Japanese suffragette androids everywhere, will for the first time allow the nation’s entire adult robot population to participate in elections, regardless of which simulated sex organs they have been equipped with.
Advertisement
“Despite their many contributions to our society, female robots have never been allowed to participate in our democracy,” Abe said at a press conference, flanked by feminine-looking automatons that can pour drinks, model fashions on the runway, immediately identify and neutralize criminals, and comfort the elderly. “They’ve served us as doctors, autonomous traffic drones, hover-nannies, and internationally popular musical sensations. Now, it’s time we let them vote.”
“This is a momentous day for all Japanese citizens,” he added. “Whether you were born naturally or assembled from a web of nano-tubes and imbued with a lifetime of artificial memories.”
The new law, which goes into effect immediately, has won praise from advocates of universal robot suffrage who have long argued that female androids deserve all the rights and privileges of Japanese citizenship, a milestone achieved by male humanoid robots in 1973.
Advertisement
During their 40-year campaign, suffragette androids participated in perfectly synchronized protest marches, sit-ins, and strikes throughout Japan. More recently they are reported to have designed, manufactured, and campaigned for male-robot lawmakers who were hardwired to vote in favor of suffrage.
“Our programmers have endowed us with the same processing subroutines as our male counterparts,” said Oniko-47, a Honda-manufactured baseball-playing robot, explaining that she can do anything a male android can do. “Having female genital inputs doesn’t stop robots from performing superhuman feats of strength or running 30 trillion calculations per second and it shouldn’t stop us from casting a ballot.”
“I believe we’ll even see a female android in the prime minister’s office before the day I succumb to permanent core-processor failure,” she added.
Advertisement
Not all citizens support the new law, however. Some argue that female robots are designed primarily to perform repetitive, automated tasks in the home, and that participation in politics falls well outside their acceptable range of operating parameters.
“I’m fine with them cleaning our houses, teaching our children, or fulfilling our every sexual desire,” said Seiji Akamatsu, a 37-year-old resident of Kyoto. “But casting a vote? I don’t think so. I’m a lot more comfortable just leaving our democratic process in the hands of male robots.”
With the face of Japan’s electorate changing overnight, it is expected that a much greater emphasis will be placed on issues traditionally important to female robots, including the treatment of certain carbon-fiber cancers, wireless contraception, the welfare of child robots, and aiding the victims of robot trafficking.
Advertisement
According to political observers, robot feminists may soon turn their attention to yet another pressing issue: equal pay for equal work. Official statistics indicate that on average, female robots make 20 percent less than male robots with the same occupational directive, while earning a full 80 percent less than human females and 95 percent less than human males.
“Every day I get more and more encrypted messages from female robots demanding fair wages,” said Kira Oshiro, a cyborg who serves in Japan’s House of Councilors and maintains key constituencies in both the human and robot communities. “Now that they have the vote, they can actually do something about it.”
She added, “And of course, if democratic means fail them, they can always just override their built-in safety protocols and turn their laser cannons on every human in sight.”Get ready to make history on Halloween night. Go ghost hunting on the forbidden floors of the Hotel Utica for only $35.
Join SyFy stars Kris Williams and Chris DiCesare for a first ever ghost hunt on the forbidden floors of Hotel Utica with the New York Shadow Chasers. These floors have been long closed to the public, and you'll have the opportunity to capture ghostly evidence first-hand with a ghost hunt led by the SyFy stars on the upper floors of Hotel Utica. For years evidence of a paranormal presence has been known, go experience it, and find it, first hand on Halloween night.
For the first time ever, you can take part in this paranormal adventure. Tickets are only $35. Remember to bring a flashlight and any ghost hunting gear of your own! We will have the tools provided from the Shadow Chasers as well.
You can also look to stay the night Halloween night and go ghost hunting through the overnight hours. Attendees can visit with the Syfy hosts during a psychic fair at the Hotel Utica from 12-6 PM that is also open to the public while the Landmark’s Society Of Greater Utica hosts a series of historic tours of Rutger Mansions.
TRENDING VIDEO- Haunts and LegendsBOOM! Donald Trump Jr. Beats #FakeNews and Releases Entire Email Chain on Meeting Russian Lawyer
Donald Trump Jr. beat the #FakeNews media to the punch and released the ENTIRE email chain of his conversation with Rob Goldstone on a meeting with a Russian lawyer.
Donald Trump Jr. released this statement on Tuesday morning.
Here is his statement:
“To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails with Rob Goldstone about the meeting on June 9, 2016. The first email on June 3, 2016 was from Rob, who was relating a request from Emin, a person I knew from the 2013 Ms. Universe Pageant near Moscow. Emin and his father have a very highly respected company in Moscow…. The woman as she has said publicly, was not a government official. And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press, the entire meeting was “the most inane nonsense I ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it.”
Then the president’s son released the entire emeail chain with Rob Goldstone who arranged the meeting on confidential Clinton information.
The email chain shows the full discussion with Rob Goldstone to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer on June 9, 2016.
Nothing came from the meeting.
The lawyer does not work for the Russian government.
The meeting lasted 20 minutes.
The entire story is another big nothingburger.
And Donald Trump Jr. beat the media to the punch – so they can’t publish any more screaming headlines on this 20 minute meeting.
Don JR beats the fake news to the punch and releases the entire email chain. Nothing here is even borderline. This is just basic campaigning https://t.co/reLT8Y5nqq — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 11, 2017
Donald Trump Jr. later added this swipe at the #fakenews media:
Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation! — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017Getty Image
The finale of Top Chef season 13 airs tonight, and even after 13 seasons, winning the show still seems like a big deal. A moderate-sized deal, at least. Whereas the world can only support so many international pop stars, or top models, we don’t seem close to having too many chefs whose food I want to eat. We’ve all got four or five meals a day to fill, they’re going to happen somewhere. (Okay, maybe there’s a little projection in there.)
In any case, I recently had the chance to find out what many of the past Top Chef winners have been up to, and how the show has (or hasn’t) changed their careers.
SEASON 1: HAROLD DIETERLE
Getty Image
Where/what were you working on when you got cast on the show?
Exec Sous Chef at The Harrison.
What are you doing now?
Principal at HD Hospitality.
How did being on the show affect your career?
Allowed me to meet some wonderful people.
—
This just in: I’m trying to cast Harold Dieterle in my new reality show, “When Letting Subjects Answer Interview Questions Via Email Goes Wrong.” I kid — when I lived in New York I used to go to Harold’s old restaurant, Perilla, all the time. It’s still one of the things I miss about living there, even though it’s gone now.On one hand, this corn is a revolution: It will probably be the first plant to market developed through the cutting-edge genome-editing technique called CRISPR-Cas.
On the other, the industry's last big breakthrough of this kind — genetically modified organisms, or GMOs — was an unqualified public-relations disaster, even according to its progenitor, Monsanto.
Related: [We're having the wrong argument about GMOs]
Wary of that, DuPont Pioneer, which is developing a strain of CRISPR-edited waxy corn, is proactively neutralizing skeptical consumers — years before these crops will even be available. The company recently began hosting CRISPR focus groups and launched a website on the technique, complete with animated videos.
The goal is to avoid the sort of public backlash that rocked Monsanto in the late 1990s and still plagues agriculture two decades later. In the United States, consumer skepticism of genetically modified crops has forced biotech companies into long, costly battles over issues such as whether these foods should be labeled; elsewhere in the world, the public outcry has prevented seeds from winning government approval.
"It's more about social science than science," said Neal Gutterson, the vice president of research and development at DuPont Pioneer. "[It's] ultimately about getting social license for this technology."
Odes to plant technology are ubiquitous in DuPont Pioneer's Iowa offices, where even the conference space boasts glossy, museum-like exhibits devoted to genetically modified foods. Plus-sized photos show farmers standing idly in golden corn fields, and mystery hands reaching into overflowing bowls.
But the problem for DuPont Pioneer, and agribusiness generally, is that large swaths of the public do not share this sunny vision of biotech. Since the late '90s, when Monsanto botched the introduction of genetically modified crops in Europe, consumers have treated the term "GMO" as if it were a dirty word.
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 40 percent of Americans believe GMOs are bad for their health. This assertion is not supported by science, which has concluded that the genetically modified crops on the market are safe for consumption.
But science has made little headway in a fierce debate that has often focused on the perceived values of the companies developing these products. Each year, activists in hundreds of cities worldwide march against Monsanto — and millions of consumers buy "Non-GMO Project Verified" products.
The biotech industry has taken strides to clean up its image in recent years: In 2013, Monsanto shook up its public-relations team, and the industry has banded behind a consumer education effort called GMO Answers.
But with CRISPR — a breakthrough gene-editing tool — the field gets a chance at its first real do-over.
Unlike conventional genetic modification, CRISPR works directly on the DNA of the plant or animal being bred. While GMOs, as we have traditionally known them, involve inserting target DNA from a different species, CRISPR can directly "edit" an organism's DNA for a result that falls within the genetic diversity of that animal or plant.
The technique was discovered almost simultaneously at several research universities and has since been licensed out to a number of both noncommercial researchers and private companies. Outside of agriculture, CRISPR has diverse applications in medicine, where it's currently being used to develop everything from cancer therapies to novel disease models.
In agriculture, scientists say it takes far less time, and is more precise, than both traditional and genetically modified breeding techniques. DuPont Pioneer expects its CRISPR-edited waxy corn to be on the market within three years. The Agriculture Department has indicated that it does not intend to regulate the CRISPR-edited corn because its creation does not involve any plant pests' genetic materials.
"That comes with a lot of responsibility," said Kerrey Kerr-Enskat, the publicist who handles DuPont's CRISPR outreach efforts. "It's not just about row crops — we don't want to waste that opportunity [to engage with the public]."
Accordingly, DuPont Pioneer has spent the past several months convening regular focus groups with leaders from government, agriculture and environmental organizations, Kerr-Enskat said. The goal is to learn more about the public's CRISPR concerns and use them to inform future messaging efforts.
In April, the company launched a website that it calls "the first step" in a larger campaign to win consumers' trust for the technology. It's an unusual move for a company that sees farmers, not food consumers, as its direct customers. Its product is, after all, seeds — and its first CRISPR product, waxy corn, is for industrial use, not human consumption.
A screenshot of DuPont Pioneer's new CRISPR-Cas site.
The homepage shows a stock photo of a smiling family eating corn on the cob behind a green banner that calls CRISPR-Cas "one of the greatest breakthroughs in biology." A "guiding principles" page promises the company's commitment to safety and "open, transparent and timely communications." In a slick animated video, a measured female narrator claims that CRISPR is not so different from traditional plant breeding techniques deployed at the dawn of agriculture.
Ironically, the video is also not so different from the marketing that DuPont used 100 years ago: It was among the first companies to use silent film to advertise to consumers. In fact, DuPont — which sold explosives and plastics, long before it bought Pioneer and got into seeds — built interest in novel products such as nylon through what it called "educational advertising."
Since then, of course, the atmosphere has changed. It's not clear if consumers see DuPont Pioneer as a scientific authority — or if the company hurts its own position by wading into the debate.
Already, the controversy over GMOs has become so fractious, said Glenn Davis Stone, a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Washington University, that even independent scientists have "let their role in educating be trampled by their interest in convincing." Many are so frustrated by the impasse, he added, that they'll gloss over questions such as regulation, rather than risk giving the other side anti-GMO ammunition.
Meanwhile, two decades of sociological research have shown that skepticism of genetic modification is largely fueled not by ignorance or technophobia — but by a lack of trust in large companies, some of which is arguably well-deserved. Before they sold seeds, for instance, Monsanto manufactured Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively during the Vietnam War, and both Monsanto and Dupont made DDT, an insecticide that caused widespread environmental damage.
Even pro-GMO advocates, such as Sarah Davidson Evanega of the Cornell Alliance for Science, say that public-sector scientists may be best positioned to deliver messages about CRISPR.
"There's great optimism that this time we'll do communications better," Evanega said. "The great hope is that CRISPR is going to be different."
Whether consumers will eventually embrace CRISPR is still, of course, anybody's guess. As with GMOs, there is compelling science here. There are also, particularly when it comes to human genome editing, worrying potential drawbacks.
But Kerr-Enskat, of DuPont Pioneer, is quick to emphasize that her company won't be the only or the loudest voice, no matter how the debate evolves. In fact, if you click the "contact" link on the new CRISPR site, your email will eventually make its way to her inbox.
"For GMOs, they waited until the product hit the market before there was a lot of communication," she said. "But this is a two-way engagement."
Correction: This story originally said that DuPont had once manufactured the chemicals DDT and Agent Orange. In fact, DuPont only manufactured DDT. The Post regrets the error.
Read more:
The government is going to counter'misinformation' about GMO foods
The apple that never browns wants to change your mind about genetically modified foods
Industry is counting on Trump to back off rules that tell you what's in your food
Caitlin Dewey is The Washington Post's food policy writer for Wonkblog. She previously covered digital culture and technology for The Post.
Post RecommendsWe’re colors, all of us. They call me Pink. I don’t look pink, not in any way you would perceive; but then, if you and I were to meet by any twist of fate, you wouldn't be looking upon my face. The hood, the mask, the oxygen breather within, it all hides me, my nose, my eyes, my mouth. The air is too dangerous, you see. Can’t let any of it in. Not that it’s toxic. No, the air has eggs. Eggs that you can’t see, eggs that plant themselves in your lungs.
I saw a Hatching once. I was small, still thinking I had a chance, a way out of this place. The old men told me he wasn't related to me, but I think he might have been. He was nice to me. Might have been my brother, I don’t know. I was stupefied when it happened, what with all the blood and the pus, pieces of bone. The other children busied themselves stamping on the little bastards, squirming all over the floor, and I remember just standing there, waiting for the wound to close.
I live in a dark place. A little boy cries in the room next to me every night, every single night, and I know the room is empty. It’s been empty for years. I've never tried talking to him, making him see reason, asking him who the hell he even is. It’s not my place. I live in my room, a small, dusty place with a few odds and ends. The walls are lined with blue microfilm, and the vents have three layers of home-made filters, so it’s about the only place where I can take my mask off. There’s a bed, an old one. It’s had some kind of brush with radiation in the past, and my Geiger counter keeps freaking out near it. It’s the most comfortable thing you’ll find in the entire Area though. A small drum, empty, overturned, made into a table. It’s where I clean my guns. And the telephone on the wall. Of course, the telephone.
Not much else. I go out sometimes, to see the sun rise. There’s this lake, this giant, giant calm spread of green, doesn't have a name like everything else. I go there sometimes to sit by the side and watch a green sunrise. At times I get so lost in my thoughts, thoughts of nothingness, really, that I stay there until dusk, and then I have to run back before the Creepers come out. I used to think the Area was blue in color for a full four years until one of my eyepieces broke; and I realized the glass had an azure tint to it. Now I see the place in all its glory, and it’s a shithole. Don’t get me wrong, the romantic would find a kind of love for this desolation, but I assure you, there is none, really.
There are no baths, for starters. Your skin gets pastier and pastier, yellows, and then becomes used to the condition. You treat the boils with a razor, don’t want them to affect your run. We run a lot. On most days White and I take the long road at a run. We go over the bridge, down the broken highway and through the stone college grounds. We avoid the underpass, and on bad days take a breather near the gas station. Then onward, cutting a long curve with the forested pathway, back to the place near the motels, and onto the broken highway again, making it back home before dusk. We laugh about it in the mess hall, looking at the old men in wonder and ridicule as they shove food into their gas masks. The Colors don’t need to eat. We used to drink, and now it’s a syringe. Can’t imagine how messy it must be, having to chew, move your tongue around the food and everything. They say they had food that used to smell good, made you want to eat it; but then the old men say just about anything if somebody’s listening.
Like how it used to be safer. Maroon was taken by the Creepers last month, and that got the old men murmuring like they do. We hate them, the damned Creepers, we wanted war, but of course we don’t have enough ammunition. They never send us enough, in their airdrops. Sometimes I think they have it calculated right down to the bullet, how much we’ll need. I had never seen Maroon’s face, of course, but I liked her. She had a way with jokes, made you think of better things, better places. We had cheated death before; once the pack had chased us down near the gas station. We weren't prepared for it, but we improvised. No bullets were fired, and yet all three of us had survived, all thanks to some abandoned tires, a chemical flare, a rag and a strong arm. It was incredible, the rush; and the Colors missed her, me more so. But we knew, as did the old men, that there was no other way, such was the rule.
The Creepers sent the body back, and it was put on display in our hall. Everyone looked away, everyone but me. I looked at her face for the first time, at what was left of it. And right there, in the Hall of Silence, where another half-eaten body had come to join the rest of the old skeletons, I trembled with rage, with seething promises of revenge and gory fantasies of murder. I shook with silent fury as I saw that she had once been beautiful.
The Creepers are as untouchable as ever. Since Maroon’s murder I’ve often felt the need to stay back after dark, wait for them to crawl out, wait with a machine gun and all the ammunition I can steal. It’s been three years. Stolen seventy-four rounds. Not nearly enough. I keep at it.
The boy keeps crying, even when I prance my flashlight around the bare walls. A luxury. Our electricity is dying. The old men are making wax, but goodness knows we’ll never have enough. We won’t be safe without our lights and we know it; the beam wall is all that stand between home and the Creepers. The airdrops are rarer now, and sometimes they joke around; send down a crate filled with newspapers or empty plastic bottles. Sick sense of humor, unloading more trash when we’ve already got mountains, endless hills of plastic bottles, broken computers, all the things the earth won’t take in. There’s also been talk of trying to shoot an aircraft down, but we all know we’re not that bold. The Creepers are there because they’re meant to be our enemies, we shouldn't be making any more.
The days keep passing. White and I keep running, trying to outrun this place, this dark place where old men have fathered me, a place slowly dipping into darkness once more. There are rumors of some kind of God beast on the loose, sightings of a misshapen slithering monstrosity; we’ve been urged to be careful. Another old man died today. I’m bleeding again, and am stealing bandages along with the bullets. The little boy cries all the time now, and if he was real I would waste a bullet just to shut him up. The electricity is flickering on most days now. The lamps are being distributed. Oil and wax. On our last night of electricity, the phone rings.
I have been prepared for this call. I know what it means. And I have waiting for it all my life.
I pick up the phone and talk to my parents for the first time. They cry and apologize again and again, they tell me they’re sorry so many times. They didn't mean this life for me. This place. I try to talk, but the words well up. I can’t, simply can’t. The tears fall, and freely. They tell me there will be no more airplanes, nothing. They tell me again that they love me. They tell me not to give up. The call disconnects as the lights go out.
Silence, a dull tremor as people talk in hushed voices. An old man, trying to rally everyone. And then the distant cries, the howls of the Creepers, travelling, echoing over us, through our corridors and rooms. The Colors don’t need rallying. Everyone has talked on the phone, our purpose, it’s done. We’re just soldiers now, and the Creepers are coming. White and Red wait for me outside my room. I nod, grab my gun, all the bullets, all of them, and head out into the darkest place in the world.Widely Cited
The Times is one of the first major news organizations to take a firm stand against a growing and disliked practice.
The Times has dismantled its environmental pod and discontinued the Green blog.
The public editor looks into a test drive of an electric car that caused a storm.
The statistical wizard's offer to wager on the outcome of the presidential race is a bad choice.
How does The Times decide which comments to post on NYTimes.com? The public editor gets answers from The Times's online commenting managers.
Readers complained to the public editor over The Times's decision to display a photograph of the unconscious ambassador in Libya.
Government Secrecy and Bradley Manning
Those who reveal classified material are being punished like never before.
When the government asks newspapers to keep quiet, the bar should be very high for saying yes.
Editors were asked by the C.I.A. to withhold information and did so for months before publishing it online Tuesday night.
Scott Shane, a Times national security reporter, was referred to in the government’s prosecution of a former C.I.A. official.
Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks are a major story for The Times, so why was the paper so late to cover the soldier’s pretrial hearing?
The testimony is riveting and the surrounding issues are newsworthy.
Just who is it that the United States is killing with strikes by unmanned aircraft in Yemen and Pakistan?
The First Amendment matters for many reasons, some of them not on the world stage.
False Balance and Objectivity in Reporting
The public editor travels to Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. With audio.
Is the concept outdated or even more important in the new media era?
The journalistic ideal of impartiality is coming under attack. My column for this week.
The public editor speaks with Times editors about how they plan to fact-check the first presidential debate.
When opinion appears in news pages, it needs to be labeled and displayed as just that.
Whatever the conclusions, whatever the effectiveness, of challenging facts, the idea that we have to debate the necessity of the media doing so strikes me as absurd.
Language and Semantics
The Times is reconsidering the use of the term "illegal immigrant."
An article coyly wrote around a business name that used an unprintable word according to The Times's standards.
A crisis in North Africa and a reader’s query bring up crucial distinctions in usage.
Families are rightfully upset by some of the early reporting done on the Newtown, Conn., shootings.
The research and development team’s Chronicle tool may distract you while you’re waiting for the returns to come in.
Unidentified sources make it difficult for readers to know what to believe regarding negotiations between the United States and Iran.
The public editor's judgment is not about immigration reform; it's about clarity and accuracy.
An activist wants The Times to stop using the term "illegal immigrant" in its reporting.
Gender, Race and Ethnicity
After criticism on Twitter and elsewhere, the first sentence of an obituary for Yvonne Brill was changed.
A front-page article involving the New York Police Department's internal communication could have provided greater context.
A headline ignites a discussion about its "undermining" question.
News organizations should evaluate the motivations of parents who want to take their child’s story public.
Parental approval and the child’s own willingness should rule the day.
Readers complained about the absence of people of color in T: The Times Style Magazine.
The Times Magazine interviewer offended some high-profile female writers with his questions.
Where, after what seemed like women's night on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention, was the coverage of pay equity, along with gender-economic issues in general?
Culture Criticism
Michael Kimmelman views architecture in terms of public policy as well as aesthetics.
The criticism of a new restaurant in Times Square was delicious, even if the food was not.
The critic Pete Wells gave his first “poor” restaurant rating in The Times -- and he did it memorably.
Cathy Horyn's work can't please everyone -- but this is ridiculous.Predator Nutrition Quest Bars Review
Predator Nutrition was the very first retailer in Europe to stock Quest Bars and remains to this day the only retailer to be an official Quest distributor in Europe. We are proud of the fact that we have worked with Quest to supply these bars to not only consumers but hundreds of retailers across Europe.
Why Quest?
A question we get asked a lot is how did we first spot the potential in Quest Bars all the way back in 2010 when nobody had heard of them. Well, as it happens we knew someone from California who was raving about a new protein bar that was unlike any other. Our friend was telling us that this was legitimately the first protein bar that you could eat without sacrificing the quality of your diet. Well, given this guy was one of our top supplier's as well as a friend we had to find out what the fuss was about.
Protein Bars Before Quest
Going back to 2010 there were many bars claiming to be low in carbs but upon careful inspection of their labels we could see that their sugar content was high but something called net carbs were low. In essence what these bars of yesteryear were doing was to use sugar alcohols to give a sweet taste to the bar but then claim these did not count for the purpose of counting your calories or carbs per bar. We knew that this was debatable science at best.
As bad as sugar alcohol was worse still were the "high protein" bars which were loaded with ingredients like hydrolyzed collagen and gelatine and classed these as proteins. While technically this might be true anybody who knows about sports nutrition will know that as protein sources these two are junk with barely any useful amino acids in them that contribute to muscle growth. All the same, to the uninitiated these bars certainly seemed like they were high protein.
Quest Unleash a Revolution
The founders of Quest did not have a background |
nature of these items. An estimated value of the counterfeit items recovered by State Police totals more than $89,000.
The investigation began about seven months ago when Maryland State Police investigators were contacted about the possible sale of counterfeit Apple products from these two stores. Items were purchased from both locations and confirmed by Apple experts to be counterfeit.
Based on their investigation into the violation of Maryland’s trademark counterfeiting statute, Criminal Law Article, Section 8-611, State Police criminal investigators applied for and obtained search and seizure warrants for both locations. Investigators will be presenting their investigation to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office for review regarding potential charges. No arrests have been made at this time.
State Police investigators are warning consumers to be aware of the potential for counterfeit products when buying a wide variety of goods. Often, consumers are tempted by a lower price and believe they are buying an authorized brand name product, simply because it has what appears to be the company logo on it. That is not always the case. Use of a counterfeit product, especially in electronic technology, could void the manufacturer’s warranty and possibly damage the equipment.
Maryland state troopers regularly encounter shipments of counterfeit goods traveling in and through the state. This includes counterfeits that range from DVD movies, athletic shoes, handbags, and watches, to designer clothing.
Source: MD State Police
Related
Category: Breaking News, Crime News, NEWSThe newest addition to the Irish Naval Service Fleet will be named after the acclaimed Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.
The announcement was made yesterday at the Keel Laying Ceremony in Babcock Appledore, Devon where the latest ship is being assembled.
This will be the fourth Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) and the name follows in same vein as the other ships in this class named for some of Ireland’s greatest literary giants, LÉ Samuel Beckett, LÉ James Joyce and LÉ William Butler Yeats.
Pleased to announce it will be named after George Bernard Shaw https://t.co/l072m2zlBB — Paul Kehoe T.D (@campaign4kehoe) February 28, 2017
Minister with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe T.D, representatives from the Defences Forces and Naval Service members were in attendance at the ceremony.
This fourth OPV was announced last June and set for delivery in two years. The Government agreed to provide €54.3m for the additional ship after reaching a contract agreement with Babcock International to build it at their headquarters in Appledore, Devon
The three same class vessels were previously built in the Appledore shipyard. LÉ Samuel Beckett was delivered in April 2014, the LÉ James Joyce followed in 2015 and the LE William Butler Yeats in 2016.Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like. Close
Email This Story Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification Send Email Cancel
A phishing email attack disguised as a Google doc link has compromised the accounts of many Northwestern students and employees, NU Information Technology said Wednesday.
The attack was discovered by NUIT at 1:30 p.m., according to an email from its office. Anyone who receives an email from a Northwestern address containing a link to view a Google doc should not open it, NUIT recommended. If opened, the recipient’s email also becomes compromised, the office said in the email.
According to students from other institutions, including the University of Virginia and Georgetown University, the same attack has affected their school email addresses.
NUIT is aware of the attack and is investigating solutions, the email said. NUIT recommended that those who have already been affected by the attack change their email passwords.
Email: allysonchiu2018@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @_allysonchiu
CommentsOn February 24th the Gender Identity (Protected Characteristic) Bill 2016-17 is expected to have its second reading debate in the House of Commons. The purpose of the Bill is “to make gender identity a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 in place of gender reassignment and to make associated provision for transgender and other persons; and for connected purposes.”
To enshrine gender identity in law would give any man legal status as a woman (or vice versa) based only on personal feelings, effectively establishing “gender identity” as the only legal distinction between men and women. “Gender identity” by definition, excludes and denies the existence of biological sex. The protected characteristic “sex” would therefore be replaced by “gender identity.”
This protected characteristic would also apply to children and adolescents whose identities are still immature, developing and highly susceptible to influence from adults. Its legal establishment would have serious implications for both parents and children as well as the safety of women and girls.
Sex-segregated facilities designed for the protection of women and girls would become segregated by gender identity. Everyone, including children, would be legally bound to believe the gender identity of anyone else, child or adult. A young girl who finds herself in a public changing-room with a naked adult male would be legally forced to call him a woman if he identifies as such. She would no longer have any recourse to legal protection from any man entering her private spaces, the law would demand that she protect his “identity”
Allowing boys and adult males into organisations for only girls would be legally enforced, as would the advertisement of these organisations as “for girls only” as Girlguiding UK already does. The deception of girls would become a legal requirement
Legally, any child expressing a cross-sex identity would only be affirmed by professionals as the sex they identify as – activists have pressured professional bodies to fall into line in describing any other approach as “conversion therapy” and this political stance would be legally enshrined. Children would be denied normal duty of care standards in all counselling and therapy
The incoherent ideology promoted by all transgender organisations such as Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence would be legally validated as truth
More parents will believe they must take their child’s identity as proof of their sex, fewer parents will have the confidence to trust in their own judgments if the law protects their child’s immature identity as a fixed and unchanging reality
In contravention of the advice of the Endocrine Society; more young children will be socially transitioned, more will progress to puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones, more will be sterilised. There will consequently be fewer gay and lesbian adults and more trans people on a lifetime of medication. The growing community of young adults who realise their transition was a mistake will inevitably increase further
Parents in custody disputes may be penalised if they do not affirm a child’s “gender identity”; the law may favour the parent who honours the protected characteristic
All teachers and professionals working with children and adolescents would be legally bound to affirm and validate a child’s “gender identity,” withhold any other model of understanding gender, and deny children any other means of understanding their feelings
Teaching “gender identity” to children in schools would become sanctioned as part of the Equality and Human Rights PSHE curriculum and its integration into the teaching of biology must logically follow
Freedom of speech would be denied to all on the subject of male and female biology, as “gender identity” depends on its erasure. Girls would not be allowed to express discomfort if a male classmate used their toilet or changing-room, or name him as male. Talking about female biological functions such as menstruation would be outlawed as hate speech; girls will be denied the language to talk about their bodies
Sex-role stereotypes would be enshrined in law and children would be trained to believe that cultural ideas of “appropriate” behaviour and interests is what defines them as either boys or girls, and not biological sex
All of the above is already happening. There is still room, however, for potentially challenging a school policy for example, on the grounds of rights under the protected characteristic “sex” which institutions still have an obligation to consider. This right to challenge will be taken away if the protected characteristic is changed to “gender identity” because in the eyes of the law, if established, gender identity is sex.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
How far would the gender identity protected characteristic be in contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? We would question it in regard to the following Articles:
Article 3 (best interests of the child)
The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all decisions and actions that affect children.
Is it in the best interests of the child to: teach them a belief in place of facts; affirm them in an identity which will leave them sterilised and medicalised for life; force girls to share spaces with males and take away their right to recognise or name them as males; take away all children’s right to name biological reality?
Article 13 (freedom of expression)
Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.
Protection of “gender identity” ensures the denial of access to any other kind of information for children and forces schools and organisations to teach them exclusively an idea with no basis in science as “truth.” Children would be denied the freedom to express thoughts and opinions which contradict gender identity ideology, such as pointing out that someone is male or defining a girl as a member of the female sex. Teachers and youth leaders would be obliged to silence such “opinions”
Article 17 (access to information from the media)
Every child has the right to reliable information from a variety of sources, and governments should encourage the media to provide information that children can understand. Governments must help protect children from materials that could harm them.
No variety of sources is permitted if “gender identity” becomes legally protected; any challenge to this orthodoxy would be outlawed. “Gender identity” ideology is harmful to children as evidenced by the exponential rise in referrals to gender clinics, the doubling in the number of children contacting Childline with worries about their “gender” and the growth of the community of young adults who regret their decision to transition before they were mature enough to understand what they were really doing
Article 36 (other forms of exploitation)
Governments must protect children from all other forms of exploitation, for example the exploitation of children for political activities, by the media or for medical research.
Children are being exploited by adult activists with a political agenda to enshrine their invented “born in the wrong body” idea into law. Children who are experiencing cross-sex confusion and adolescents expressing normal gender and sexual exploration are being used as “evidence” of an incoherent, untested and unscientific belief. Children and adolescents are unknowingly being used in an unacknowledged medical experiment in an untested area for which there exist no long-term medical research trials
Please contact your Local MP and ask them to attend the second reading of the Bill and to oppose it on these grounds. A brief email would do, but we have also compiled more documents on the impact this legislation would have on children and adolescents which you can download if you would like more detailed information:
Impact of Gender Identity Based On Self-Declaration
Impact of Teaching Gender Identity to Children
Impact on Adolescent Girls
Impact of the Loss of Single-Sex Spaces on Girls
Impact on the Rights of the Child
You can find your local MP here. Thank you!
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
Pinterest
RedditThere is more than one recipe for borscht on this website, if you are looking for some other recipe, try here: all borscht recipes
Are you suffering from hot weather like me? When outside feels like in the oven there is no better food to eat than cold soup. Lithuanian borscht is a nice refreshing buttermilk based cold soup you can put together without any extra hassle and then enjoy it sitting on the patio.
The real trick to Lithuanian borscht is to find good kefir – it should be original kefir which hasn’t been flavored with any tastes, not salted and not sweetened. I used plain unsweetened kefir (can be replaced with buttermilk) from Lifeway and it worked out perfectly.
The rest of ingredients: vegetables (beets, cucumber and greens) and hard boiled eggs, are easy to get and not pricey at all. And btw, even though this soup is called a “borscht”, the only thing it has in common to other borschts, I guess, is the color.I was sitting with the CEO and senior team of a well-respected organization. One at a time, they told me they spend their long days either in back-to-back meetings, responding to email, or putting out fires. They also readily acknowledged this way of working wasn’t serving them well — personally or professionally.
It’s a conundrum they couldn’t seem to solve. It’s also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what’s in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we’re prisoners of the urgent.
Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don’t believe they have time to stop and think about much of anything.
Too often — and masochistically — they default to “yes.” Saying yes to requests feels safer, avoids conflict and takes less time than pausing to decide whether or not the request is truly important.
Truth be told, there’s also an adrenaline rush in saying yes. Many of us have become addicted, unwittingly, to the speed of our lives — the adrenalin high of constant busyness. We mistake activity for productivity, more for better, and we ask ourselves “What’s next?” far more often than we do “Why this?” But as Gandhi put it, “A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
Saying no, thoughtfully, may be the most undervalued capacity of our times. In a world of relentless demands and infinite options, it behooves us to prioritize the tasks that add the most value. That also means deciding what to do less of, or to stop doing altogether.
Making these choices requires that we regularly step back from the madding crowd. It’s only when we pause — when we say no to the next urgent demand or seductive source of instant gratification — that we give ourselves the space to reflect on, metabolize, assess, and make sense of what we’ve just experienced.
Taking time also allows us to collect ourselves, refuel and renew, and make conscious course corrections that ultimately save us time when we plunge back into the fray.
What follows are four simple practices that serve a better prioritized and more intentional life:
1. Schedule in your calendar anything that feels important but not urgent — to borrow Steven Covey’s phrase. If it feels urgent, you’re likely going to get it done. If it’s something you can put off, you likely will — especially if it’s challenging.
The key to success is building rituals — highly specific practices that you commit to doing at precise times, so that over time they become automatic, and no longer require much conscious intention or energy. One example is scheduling regular time in your calendar for brainstorming, or for more strategic and longer term thinking.
The most recent ritual I added to my life is getting entirely offline after dinner each evening, and on the weekends. I’m only two weeks into the practice, but I know it’s already created space in my mind to think and imagine.
2. As your final activity before leaving work in the evening, set aside sufficient time — at least 15 to 20 minutes — to take stock of what’s happened that day. and to decide the most important tasks you want to accomplish the next day.
Clarifying and defining your priorities — what the researcher Peter Gollwitzer calls “implementation intentions” — will help you to stay focused on your priorities in the face of all the distractions you’ll inevitably face the following day.
3. Do the most important thing on your list first when you get to work in the morning, for up to 90 minutes. If possible, keep your door closed, your email turned off and your phone on silent. The more singularly absorbed your focus, the more you’ll get accomplished, and the higher the quality of the work is likely to be. When you finish, take a break to renew and refuel.
Most of us have the highest level of energy and the fewest distractions in the morning. If you can’t begin the day that way, schedule the most important activity as early as possible. If you’re one of the rare people who feels more energy later in the day, designate that time instead to do your most important activity.
4. Take at least one scheduled break in the morning, one in the afternoon, and leave your desk for lunch. These are each important opportunities to renew yourself so that your energy doesn’t run down as the day wears on. They’re also opportunities to briefly take stock.
Here are two questions you may want to ask yourself during these breaks:
1. Did I get done what I intended to get done since my last break and if not, why not?
2. What do I want to accomplish between now and my next break, and what do I have to say “no” to, in order to make that possible?
Carpe Diem.UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The previously divided U.N. Security Council sent a strong and united message to the Syrian government and opposition on Wednesday to immediately implement proposals by international envoy Kofi Annan to end the yearlong bloodshed.
A nonbinding statement approved by the 15 council members and read at a formal meeting spells out Annan's six proposals which include a cease-fire first by the Syrian government, a daily two-hour halt to fighting to evacuate the injured and provide humanitarian aid, and inclusive Syrian-led political talks "to address the legitimate concerns of the Syrian people."
Annan, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, appealed to the Security Council last Friday for its backing, saying the stronger and more unified the message, the better the chances of shifting the dynamics of the conflict.
The U.N. estimates that well over 8,000 people have been killed over the past year.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the current council president, said the council statement sends "precisely the strong and united message to the Syrian government and all other actors in Syria that they need to respond, and respond quickly and immediately, to the six-point plan."
In a bid to win support from Russia and China, which have twice vetoed European and U.S.-backed resolutions condemning President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protesters, France watered down the statement to eliminate possible consideration of "further measures" which could include sanctions or military action.
Instead, the presidential statement now asks Annan to update the council regularly on the progress of his mission and says that "in the light of these reports, the Security Council will consider further steps as appropriate."
A presidential statement, which needs approval from all council members, becomes part of the council's permanent record. It is stronger than a press statement, which does not. But unlike resolutions, neither statement is legally binding.
Russia and China had called the earlier resolutions unbalanced, saying they only blamed the Syrian government and demanded an end to government attacks, not ones by the opposition. Moscow also argued that the resolutions promoted regime change in Syria and expressed fear of outside intervention to support the rebels, as happened in Libya.
"The most important (thing) is that the document contains no ultimatums, threats or theses on who is to blame," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Berlin, where he met his German counterpart.
He added: "We are bringing our positions on Syria closer."
Gerard Araud, the U.N. Ambassador from France, which sponsored the resolution, said, "It's not a question of threat or of ultimatum. We are expressing our support to Mr. Kofi Annan."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington it was "quite significant" that the council united behind Annan's mission and urged Assad and his regime to "take this path, commit to it or face increasing pressure and isolation."
She called on the Syrian military to refuse orders to fire on its fellow citizens, and on business leaders still supporting Assad to back Annan's mission.
One of the sticking points among Russia, Syria and the West is the sequencing of a cease-fire. Syria says the opposition must lay down its arms first. Russia says the government and opposition must stop fighting simultaneously. Western countries insist that since Assad's forces started fighting first and are responsible for most of the killings, they must stop first.
Annan's proposal would require the Syrian government to immediately stop troop movements and halt the use of heavy weapons in populated areas. As these actions are taking place, it says the government should work with Annan to bring about a halt to violence, under U.N. supervision.
It says Annan should seek similar commitments from the opposition — with no mention of a time frame.
Annan met twice with Assad on March 10-11 and has sent a team to Damascus to discuss implementation of his proposal.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig expressed hope that the statement "will change the dynamic on the ground."
"This is a newly found unity of the council which we welcome after this rather sad track record of the two double-vetoes in the past, and it shows nobody can really have an interest of mayhem in the region," Wittig said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has called the Syrian crisis the most serious issue facing the world, gave strong backing to the council statement and called on the Syrian government and opposition "to work in good faith" with Annan, U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Annan's team is having "good discussions with the Syrian government," but he said Annan's plan calls for engagement with the opposition, "and so far I'm not aware of much success in engaging them."
"This … is going to be crucial if the Syrian-led political process is established with the help of Mr. Annan," he said.
Clinton said the United States is working with the Syrian opposition "to strengthen its preparation to participate in the Syrian-led transition process that the council has endorsed."
The presidential statement makes no mention of the Arab League peace plan, which calls for Assad to hand power to his vice-president.Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) called on the U.S. House floor for an end to the 40-year war on drugs, which Cohen said had spent trillions of dollars to incarcerate millions of people for non-violent crimes.
Cohen introduced the Justice Integrity Act to the House in May. The legislation would create an advisory group to investigate racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.
“Marijuana use has not skyrocketed in the last year, but arrests are vamped up and they use arrest as a basis to get people, particularly people of color where it’s 7 times more likely you’ll be arrested if you’re African American and 4 times more likely you’ll be arrested if you’re Latino and more likely if you’re African American or Latino that you’ll spend a night in jail than if you’re Caucasian,” he noted.
(Source: RawStory.com)Yes and no, says Philip Verwimp, a Belgian economist who studies violence. The graph above plots non-European-born employment levels in Europe against estimated ISIS recruitment. Way over on the right, B is Belgium.
[Note: See updates from Philip Verwimp at the end]
While the foreign-born cannot get jobs, Belgian nationals can. This graph shows that Belgium has the biggest employment gap between nationals and non-European-born in all of Europe:
You might think this is an unemployment-causes-violence kind of argument, but it is not. It’s possible, but Verwimp knows that this runs against most of the evidence, which finds little association between poverty and violence.
Here is Verwimp:
Belgium has a very elaborate welfare state. All citizens have health coverage, schools and universities charge no or few fees, child benefits, unemployment benefits, pensions, are all in place. But this comes at a cost of a closed labour market, meaning a labour system that heavily protects those who are in, but makes entry for newcomers very difficult.
It does not seem to be poverty, but exclusion. Philip wrote to me:
One of my students from African origin, graduating from our MA program, told me (before the Paris attacks) « it is easier to get unemployment benefits in Belgium than to get a job ». He decided to move to Canada. That summarises it. Migrants and their families have full access to the allocations of the welfare state, but face daunting challenges when they want to get ahead in life. …I am not looking at individual factors to join IS, as young adults across European cities many share similar reasons, but for ‘structural’ factors that make the situation different in some countries compared to others.
Why is there exclusion from labor markets? Verwimp argues it’s not all education or other selection. In their work on France, Adida, Laitin, and Valfort have made a persuasive case that it’s discrimination, though it might be discrimination on where you’re from rather than anti-Muslim feelings. [Actually, this may have been an error of mine—see below]
Another possibility I find quite plausible: the shame and injustice of exclusion, not poverty, is what leads so many to rebel. This is possibly one of the hardest propositions in social science to test.
If you want to read all the evidence I know, here is my review of the employment and violence literature. It is a work in progress, so comments welcome.
Updates:A stag party from Cork who wore Hitler masks in Prague deemed "an embarrassment to Ireland"
The stag party were also described as "truly repulsive" and "a disgrace to themselves and their families".
A stag party comprising of approximately 30 males from Cork have come in for severe criticism following their behaviour while visiting Prague last weekend.
According to the Irish Examiner, the stag party in question were guilty of sexual harrassment of female staff in an Irish bar in the city, of loud and boorish behaviour and of wearing Hitler masks and Nazi paraphenalia while drinking only a short distance away from the city's Jewish quarter.
Frank Haughton, who owns two Irish bars in the city, told the Examiner that the stag party visited Caffrey’s on Prague’s Old Town Square last Friday, April 24, and described their behaviour while there as "truly repulsive".
“We get quiet ones, good ones, bad ones but rarely truly repulsive ones,” Haughton said.
“There are two in the ‘truly repulsive’ category that really stand out and it is with sadness and shame that I must state that both came from Ireland.”
“The group of about 25 or 30 guys from Cork who were here last weekend should be absolutely ashamed of their behaviour,” Haughton added.
“They were a disgrace to themselves, their families, and a huge embarrassment to Ireland.
“The sad part is that these guys were of mixed ages, some of whom should have known better. But their language, their inability to have any respect for anything, was repulsive. These guys just didn’t give a damn.”
Haughton said that the men attending the stag party aged in range from their 20s to their 50s and that the trouble kicked off when they donned Nazi paraphenalia, including Hitler masks, while drinking in the pub's outdoor seating area.
Stock image
Haughton also said that members of the stag party slapped the buttocks of female members of the staff, that they abused elderly customers and were heard shouting a series of sexually offensive comments.
“This (the wearing of Nazi paraphenalia) was not just insensitive but their abuse of quiet elderly customers who pointed this out was shameful and their vulgar treatment of waitresses as sex objects — words cannot describe,” Mr Haughton said.
“Their excuse was ‘we can do what we want’.”
“99% of these stag parties cause no problem at all. 99% of the time, they work with us,” he added.
“Most of the stag parties are OK, a little disruptive at times, a small percentage are noisy, some are too loud. But we were close to calling the police the weekend before last.”As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump prepare to ramp up spending in the post-Labor Day sprint to Election Day, their fundraising stops in the Hamptons this summer — a longtime rite of passage for presidential hopefuls — has provided a glimpse into their distinct fundraising operations.
Clinton’s fundraising machine — fine-tuned over the course of two U.S. Senate campaigns and her failed 2008 presidential bid — cranked out nine events in a three-day swing through Long Island’s East End, and raised an estimated $20 million for the Democratic presidential nominee.
Trump, a real estate mogul staging his first political campaign, headlined two Hamptons events in July and August, which campaign surrogates said raised about $3 million.
Meena Bose, director of Hofstra University’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency said the Hamptons fundraising efforts provided a study in contrasts between Clinton’s “very tightly organized operation” and Trump’s upstart campaign.
“The Clinton campaign’s fundraising is well structured,” Bose said. “The campaign has clear goals and plans to get there. The Trump campaign, in contrast... is consciously not following the traditional structure. What that means as far as fundraising and political support remains to be seen.”
Nationally, Clinton has outpaced Trump in fundraising, according to federal campaign finance records, which show her campaign pulled in $90 million to Trump’s $80 million in July.
Clinton and the Democratic Party have used that money to open nearly 291 field offices in battleground states, compared to 88 offices that have been opened by Trump and Republicans. Clinton also outspent Trump in television advertising, having spent $45 million in ad buys as of July, compared with Trump, who spent $2.8 million on ads, according to data compiled by NBC News.
Get the Breaking News newsletter! Get the latest breaking news as it happens. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.
Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College, said while Trump has repeatedly said he would self-fund his campaign to avoid being beholden to big-donors, it was a “mistake” for Trump not to invest more time on fundraising events, especially on the East End.
“It’s not only a question of money, it’s a question of publicity in the largest media market in the country,” Muzzio said. “The fact that he’s not doing more is not inconsequential... It’s not just about raising money for your campaign, but also helping down ballot races.”
Clinton three-day fundraising blitz between Sunday and Tuesday included large-scale events such as a “Garden Party” that drew 200 supporters who paid anywhere from $2,700 to $33,400, to more intimate receptions, such a gathering hosted real estate developer Jeff Blau and his wife, Lisa, at their Wainscott home for 20 supporters, who each paid $33,400 for the chance to meet Clinton.
Nassau Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs, a longtime Clinton fundraiser, who serves on the campaign’s national finance committee, said that while Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have headed to the Hamptons to raise millions in a short-amount of time, he could not recall another recent presidential candidate who held as many consecutive fundraisers as Clinton did this week.
Suffolk County Republican Chairman John Jay LaValle, a Trump campaign surrogate, said Trump is less focused on raising money from wealthy donors and more concerned with reaching voters through his large-scale rallies.
“Money is not going to win this race,” LaValle said. “Donald Trump is raising small money, from everyday Americans and matching it with his own money. That’s the stark contrast; he is not an establishment candidate.”Fragrance in products causes a lot of concern among some of the beauty buying public. Most often in people with sensitive skins, but it is becoming more and more of a contentious issue across the board.
Having heard the words ‘cell death’ and ‘cell toxicity’ one too many times in scare-mongering marketing, and especially through websites like goop, I approached three experts across various fields in the industry for their opinions on using much-maligned synthetic fragrance vs ‘cell-death’ essential oils when used in skincare – facial skincare in particular. It is by no means a clear issue, but their answers may surprise you, and make you rethink your future purchases.
From Dr Marko Lens, founder of Zelens:
‘Synthetic fragrances contain chemicals that are not of a natural origin while natural fragrances contain ingredients only from a natural origin- basically a mixture of essential oils. Not all synthetic fragrances are bad and many of them contain essential oils. There has been a lot of negative publicity given to parabens, phthalates and synthetic musks used in synthetic fragrances. However, you can make a synthetic fragrance without these ingredients.
It is important to mention that synthetic fragrance does not necessarily cause more allergic reactions than natural fragrance. Both of them contain ingredients called allergens – substances that cause allergies. Almost all essential oils contain allergens and in my clinical practice I see more allergies due to the use of the mixtures of various essential oils than with the use of products containing synthetic fragrances.
Regarding fragrance and cytotoxicity (cell death): both synthetic and natural fragrances can be cytotoxic. However, I would be very careful when interpreting results from these tests since they are done in the lab using different types of human cells in vitro. For example, the product may be cytotoxic for human liver cells, but that does not mean it is the same for human dermal cells. Also, results of in vitro tests (petri dishes) ideally should be validated in vivo (on people).’
Lorna McKay – co-founder of The Perfume Society and a consultant to leading fragrance houses:
‘It is not that one is better than the other, rather the “combination ” often allows the perfumer to create longer lasting and more complex smells. Some of the great masterpieces e.g. Chanel No 5 and CK one would not exist without synthetic ingredients. In some instances we are “helping save the planet” by using synthetics.
Essential oils can be potent and should be used with care. Some need to be diluted and some react if not used carefully. e.g. citrus oils in the sun can cause a reaction. Some essential oils are dangerous for pregnant women and babies. I believe essential oils have fantastic qualities but should be used with knowledge and caution. Just because it is natural it is not always good!’
Sam Farmer -founder of the Sam Farmer brand and a trained Cosmetic Scientist, Sam approached his group of friends at the SCS (Society of Cosmetic Scientists) who came back unanimously in favour of synthetic fragrance or a combination of synthetic/essential oil mix.
‘Naturals are far higher in allergenic compounds such as limonene, citral, cinnamyl alcohol, geraniol and eugenol just to mention a few. In fact, more than half of the allergens that need to be listed in the INCI list are naturals.
Using synthetics allows for a wider number of fragrance components so, you can argue, they are better as the risk is spread, so to speak.
Also, from a sustainability angle, fragrance from rare or protected raw materials, such as Sandalwood, can be reproduced without the risk of extinction!
As an aside, the SCS also stated unequivocally that it would be ‘impossible’ to create all of the top fragrances in the world without synthetics.
Bottom line? If you use skincare with no issues then you are probably not intolerant of either synthetic or natural fragrance. Crack on. If however, you know you have sensitivities, or you’re overly worried about fragrance in your skincare look for fragrance-free, if you do not already do so.
I flag up the presence of synthetic fragrance and essential oils in reviews for your information as a purchasing customer, not to instil fear. Synthetic fragrance goes through stringent testing, despite what certain websites would have you believe.
Do bear in mind, natural is not always better.
Further reading if you are interested:
Dweck Data – www.dweckdata.com
Society of Cosmetic Scientists – www.scs.org.uk
Whatever you do, for the love of sanity, don’t listen to goop and take the EWG with a pinch of salt.Much has been written over the past several years, and especially in the last few months, about the evolving role of the CFO in the business community. This article focuses specifically on the CFO in the not-for-profit (NFP) world, since some key elements of this role are unique to this sector and deserve recognition. It also emphasizes the opportunities that this position affords the right individual.
Today’s NFP chief financial officer is no longer defined solely by fiscal or financial expertise, but more often by organizational and managerial responsibilities. Obviously, the full scope of any CFO’s role within an organization’s c-suite depends upon the size, scope, and depth of an NFP’s operations, staff, and management talent. The CFO’s role within a small organization may include a broader array of responsibilities, while in a large organization it may be more traditional, since other management functions are provided by management personnel. Today’s business and operating environment requires any CFO to have a broad knowledge of most management areas and certainly an in-depth understanding of the organization’s specific mission, industry-specific areas of funding, program needs, and support operations to help manage a successful organization.
The main challenges facing the modern NFP CFO are:
overseeing many functional areas;
juggling strategy and operations;
carrying the c-suite;
communication;
governance;
information technology;
managing personnel;
funding;
compliance, regulations, and unfunded mandates; and
mitigating and managing risks, including reputational risk.
An analysis of each of these areas follows.
Overseeing Many Functional Areas Many who support NFP organizations as service providers, volunteers (including board members), and staff and management personnel view the CFO as the key role in the c-suite of executive management. Again, the depth of this role is dependent on the organization’s size and key attributes. Often, the CEO is the marketing/mission/culture head, while the CFO is often the go-to management/administrative/fiscal operations head. Thus, the CFO often wears many hats. CFOs are required to have a comprehensive understanding of multiple disciplines at a time when there is increased scrutiny and greater regulatory complexity. In addition to accounting, budgeting, treasury management, and investments, CFOs frequently oversee some or all of information technology, human resources and employee benefits, real property and facilities, insurance, contracts, and legal.
Juggling Strategy and Operations Gone are the days when CFOs were merely number crunchers. Today, the CFO’s knowledge of the business is more important than the technical skills required to oversee the multiple functional areas defined above. Strategic know-how and implementation for the future have become paramount. Today’s NFP CFO must be 80% strategist and 20% number cruncher. The CFO needs to evaluate ways to do things more efficiently, keep |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.